Enhancing Retail Spaces for Health and Well-Being Through a Novel AI-Based Design Framework

Architecture and interior design are key determinants of users’ health and well-being, influencing cognitive perceptions and physical responses through the integration of natural light, green spaces, materials, textures, and spatial layout. Studies highlight the importance of integrating nature, providing access to day-light, ensuring privacy, and fostering social connections in architectural design to support psychological well-being. Green spaces have been shown to reduce mental distress and enhance well-being. Similarly, natural lighting is a significant factor in supporting human health, productivity, and satisfaction, while reducing energy consumption and carbon emissions. In retail settings, consumer well-being is increasingly prioritised. Daylighting improves customer experience and boosts business performance. Stores with sky-lights report higher sales, and natural light is often ranked by customers as the most valued factor in shopping environments, especially when paired with external views. This paper presents and evaluates a novel AI pipeline aimed at optimising retail design for health and well-being, focusing on four environmental factors: spatial layout, natural lighting, integration of greenery, and materials and textures. The pipeline leverages Vision Language Models (VLMs) to provide feed-back on human-led designs, and Stable Diffusion (SD) models to generate enhanced visual concepts. Results indicate that the AI pipeline consistently pro-duces improved design concepts, validated by indu