Andrea McIntosh

Andrea McIntosh is a Frost Nations Intern Architect and researcher exploring the intersection of architecture, neuroscience, psychology, and health. Her work investigates how built environments shape emotional experience, cognition, wellbeing, and human behavior.

Her current focus is the emerging field of psychedelic therapy facility design. Through an interdisciplinary design research project, Andrea examines how architecture can support therapeutic care, emotional regulation, introspection, and transformative experiences within psychedelic-assisted treatment environments. Her work draws from neuroscience, environmental psychology, salutogenic design, and healthcare architecture to explore how spatial and material qualities influence healing and lived experience.

Andrea is particularly interested in the idea of architecture as part of the therapeutic infrastructure itself: environments that actively participate in care rather than simply containing it. Alongside design practice, she develops research-driven frameworks that bridge scientific thinking with emotionally resonant and human-centered architecture, contributing to new conversations around the future of health, healing, and spatial experience.