Contemplative Spaces and Nature-Based Design: Built and Natural Environments for Meditation, Mindfulness and Public Mental Health

Growing evidence points to the mental-health benefits of contact with natural and well-designed environments, with nature-based interventions (NBIs) and mindful architectural design showing positive effects on stress, depression, cognitive performance, and overall well-being. In parallel, the Contemplative Landscape Model, contemplative architecture, and biophilic design have provided crucial frameworks for designing outdoor, indoor, and transitional spaces that actively support meditative states, attention restoration, and contemplative experience. Despite this convergence, the specific spatial, architectural, and design conditions that maximize contemplative engagement remain insufficiently characterized, particularly within urban contexts where public mental health is increasingly recognized as a planning priority.This Research Topic gathers evidence at the intersection of landscape and built architecture, interior design, environmental neuroscience, and contemplative science.This Research Topic aims to deepen our understanding of how built, natural, and transitional environments — including urban green and blue spaces, public parks, contemplative gardens, biophilic and therapeutic interiors, and dedicated meditation spaces — support meditative states, mindfulness, attention restoration, and broader contemplative experience. We seek contributions that bridge spatial design features and architectural characteristics with phenomenological, psychophysiological, and clinical evidence, and that articulate design guidelines for integrating contemplative and nature-based principles into architecture, urban planning, public health, and clinical practice. Particular attention will be given to the integration of contemplative design principles into mental-health-promoting urban policies.We welcome Original Research, Brief Research Reports, Reviews, Systematic Reviews, Conceptual Analyses, and Perspectives addressing, but not limited to, the following themes:• Contemplative space and landscape design and its effects on meditative and mindful states.• Biophilic and contemplative architecture as facilitators of contemplative experience in indoor, outdoor, and transitional environments.• Urban green and blue spaces, therapeutic gardens, and healing landscapes as settings for mindfulness and contemplative practice.• Nature-based interventions (NBIs) and built environment interventions, and their mechanisms of action on contemplative states.• Neural, physiological, and phenomenological correlates of contemplative engagement with built and natural surroundings.• Design guidelines for contemplative public spaces in architecture and urban planning.• Sacred outdoor spaces, therapeutic interiors, and dedicated environments for meditation.• Integration of built environments with natural surroundings and transitional spatial design.• Cross-cultural perspectives on contemplative spaces and nature-based contemplative practices.• Integration of contemplative design principles into public mental-health and urban planning policies. Topic editors: Maíra Longhinotti Felippe, Nicole Porter, Rachel Zuanon Source: https://www.frontiersin.org/research-topics/81876/contemplative-spaces-and-nature-based-design-built-and-natural-environments-for-meditation-mindfulness-and-public-mental-health