Fieldwork announced last week the appointment of Dr. Cleo Valentine as Advisor, strengthening its commitment to research at the intersection of design, neuroscience, and human health.

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Every design decision is a signal the body reads. Contrast, rhythm, pacing, density, motion, and sound are never neutral: the nervous system begins processing an experience before a person consciously evaluates it.

Dr. Valentine is a design researcher exploring how the designed environment shapes human health. She is an Affiliate Lecturer at Cambridge, a Department Associate at Harvard’s T.H. Chan School of Public Health, and Senior Research and Innovation Lead at RISE Research Institutes of Sweden, whose work is helping establish the field of architectural neuroimmunology.

As Advisor, she will work with Fieldwork to investigate the neurophysiological implications of design, exploring how scientific insight can inform brands, products, and spaces that better support human health.

“Design has always influenced how people feel,” said James Harrill, Co-Founder and Managing Partner of Fieldwork. “What we’re beginning to understand is that its effects extend into measurable biological responses. Cleo brings a depth of research that will help us bridge science and creative practice.”

“Design is one of the most underutilized tools we have for public health. We spend our lives inside the environments and interfaces that others have designed, and each one is quietly shaping our physiology,” said Dr. Valentine. “Designing with measurable biological outcomes in mind isn’t a constraint on creative practice, it’s the next expansion of it.”

The appointment reflects Fieldwork’s belief that design’s future will be shaped by science as much as by creativity, and its aim to establish new frameworks for designing with measurable biological outcomes in mind.

About Fieldwork

Fieldwork is a creative studio based in Atlanta & London that helps organizations build brands and experiences for a changing world, combining strategy, design, technology, and research to create culturally meaningful, commercially effective work.

About Dr. Cleo Valentine

Dr. Cleo Valentine is a design researcher exploring how the built environment shapes human health. She is an Affiliate Lecturer in Architecture at Cambridge, a Department Associate at Harvard’s T.H. Chan School of Public Health, and Senior Research and Innovation Lead at RISE Research Institutes of Sweden.

Her research has been exhibited at the Venice and Seoul architecture biennales and published in The BMJ and Brain Sciences, with coverage in WIRED, the Financial Times, and Dezeen. She has advised the UK Ministry of Housing, Communities & Local Government and the US National Council of Architectural Registration Boards, and is an Associate Editor for Intelligent Buildings International and a Guest Editor for Buildings. She holds a PhD and MPhil from Cambridge, an MSc from Oxford, and a BA from McGill and Copenhagen, and has held positions as a Research Fellow at Harvard’s T.H. Chan School of Public Health and a Research Affiliate at MIT.

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