The Happy Healthy Home Show recently invited Gibbs College alumnus Don Ruggles as an inaugural guest. Don joined the show’s host Odile Smith in their shared passion for making wellness in the home (and all built surroundings) a priority.
A practicing architect and founder of Ruggles Mabe Studio, Don has spent his 50-plus year career trying to answer the question, “What is beauty?” Since the early 2000s, he’s spoken with and read the works of fellow architects, scientists, neurologists, and other experts, and participated in symposiums and conferences around the globe to discuss the impact of beauty on humankind.
Don has also published the book, Beauty, Neuroscience & Architecture: Timeless Patterns & Their Impact on Our Well-Being, which investigates how timeless forms and patterns in design affect our health and well-being. The book was made into a full-length documentary in 2020 titled, Built Beautiful, An Architecture & Neuroscience Love Story with Narration by Martha Stewart. It suggests a new, urgent effort is needed to refocus the direction of design to include the quality of beauty as a fundamental, overarching theme in two of humankind’s most important fields — the built and artistic environments.
The Happy Healthy Home Show’s premier was held on May 14 and featured conversations with twenty-one different specialists including academics, bestselling authors, and design experts. The interviews are focused on the following topics that, together, lead to creating a space of wellness in our homes:
• Scientific – neuroscience & design psychology
• Nature – biomimicry & biophilic design
• Interior Design – light/applied color psychology
• Energy – fengshui & crystals
• Sustainability – trail blazer manufacturers
• Communication/Storytelling
Connecting the dots between these areas of focus, Happy Healthy Home Show viewers will see that to create a place of wellness for the user, several aspects must be taken into consideration as must the individuality of the final user.
During Don’s conversation with Odile Smith on the Happy Health Home Show, he shared his thoughts on the responsibility of architects and other designers to create spaces with health and well-being in mind. To watch the interview, visit the show's webpage.
The Gibbs Design in Action Awards (GDAA) program, led by Dr. Wanda Liebermann, has announced its 2026–2027 funded student projects. The initiative supports design and research work that addresses social, cultural, and economic issues in the built environment through collaboration with faculty and community partners.
The OU Institute for Quality Communities (IQC) 2024 collaboration with the Historic Threatt Filling Station has been recognized in the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City's newly released Byways Report: The Scenic Route to Rural Prosperity – a story-driven publication exploring how road trip culture and place-based tourism can fuel economic growth in rural communities.
The Gibbs College of Architecture is pleased to announce that Camille Germany, Chief of Staff, has been named the 2026 recipient of the university-wide Jennifer L. Wise Good Stewardship Award.
