Immersive Physical Environment: Office Interiors and Preparedness

Lifestyle Medicine Centers can implement cost-effective and inclusive options to conventional processes of interior design. The integration of virtual elements of the interior architecture enables decision-makers to interact with a constructed reality, known as immersive physical environments (IPE). This process blends a digital environment with the necessary elements of the specific facility, replacing the physical (real) environment in order to measure cost, volume, impact, and potential failures. The preparation and development of effective design at the end of an informed and structured sequence of subtopics leads to understanding the process of incorporating virtual reality in decision-making. This process saves not only money but also precious time for patient healing. Inappropriately designed facilities may not be serving this imperative function. Immersive physical environments also contribute to the design of a therapeutic environment for motivation, as well as optimizing necessary equipment and patient workflows for structured lifestyle interventions and other relevant modalities of care. An extensive literature review as well as the author’s own experience and expertise is discussed in this chapter. Users’ and stakeholders’ feedback and experiences of IPE are also included in the discussion. Overall, this chapter presents an overview of interior architecture, spatial layouts, and furnishings for those designing and building a Lifestyle Medicine Center in order to create a therapeutic environment for healing. This chapter argues that creating a virtual reality environment first can optimize the design of the Lifestyle Medicine Center IPE in the real world.