Name: Designing for the Body: Wellness, Memory & Adaptive Reuse in Architecture
Start: 2026-01-30T15:00:00-08:00
End: 2026-01-30T17:00:00-08:00
Location: 615 Sacramento St

Designing for the Body: Wellness, Memory & Adaptive Reuse in Architecture

Design Bay Area x Backen & Backen series, this conversation explores how architecture supports human well-being
About this Event

As the last installment in the Design Bay Area x Backen & Backen series, this conversation explores the BODY pillar of the firm—how architecture supports human well-being at physical, emotional, and psychological levels.

This event is hosted at Jacks SF. Full event description at Design Bay Area.

Moving beyond traditional “wellness design,” the panel examines how sensory experience, ritual, material health, adaptive reuse, and regenerative architecture create spaces that restore, ground, and inspire. Set at historic Jack’s—an adaptive reuse story itself—the conversation bridges personal well-being, environmental stewardship, and community resilience.

Panelists:

Carson Howell, Regenerative Practices Department, Backen & Backen
Reed Finlay, Set and Setting Design
Stephanie Blake, CEO, Skylight
Page Finlay, Page Finlay Design

Moderated by:

Heather Sandy Hebert – Author & Founder, True North Creative Studio

We'll explore:

We’ll bring together leaders across architecture, wellness, hospitality, and design to discuss:

Wellness as a Design Framework: How the built environment influences the nervous system, shaping stress, clarity, rest, and creativity.
Adaptive Reuse as Emotional & Ecological Wellness: Buildings carry memory. When we reuse them, we preserve cultural continuity, reduce embodied carbon, and create spaces that feel grounded and human.
Architecture for Connection: Design deeply shapes how people relate to one another—and to themselves.
Resilience & Recovery: Design as a tool for emotional restoration and climate adaptation.

Why this conversation matters now:

Designers are being called to create spaces that not only function beautifully—but that help people feel better: calmer, clearer, more connected. In a moment when burnout, climate anxiety, and disconnection shape modern life, this panel offers a forward-looking examination of how architecture can actively support human well-being. This is a rare gathering of leaders shaping the next era of wellness-driven design—spanning architecture, culture, psychology, and hospitality.