A view of the urban rooftop farm at Bangkok's Thammasat University's Rangsit campus, said to be Asia's biggest. December 4, 2019. Thomson Reuters Foundation\Rina Chandran
Architecture design can be closely connected to how our brains respond to particular features of our fabricated environment.
Often times you'd hear a friend or someone give comments on the things they see in their surroundings. They would say something about its aesthetic value, or how it attracted them to explore the place further, or that they feel a certain kind of vibe that makes them comfortable and want to stay there. These are pieces of evidence that prove that our environment influences our brains.
For many years, architects have recognized the buildings that we live, work, learn and worship affects the way we feel and act, setting the stage for invigorating interaction, quiet reflection, or inspiration. Architects are now exploring the neuroscientific application to its craft which is mostly described as neuroscience and architecture.
Neuroscientists are prepared to apply their tools and knowledge to planning spaces that will help unleash the potential in people who use them. Architects as well acknowledge the design has a maximum effect when it reflects our understanding of how our brain reacts to different environments.
In a recent study, 800 people online were asked to participate wherein they will rate their experience of seeing the picture of 200 interiors along with 16 psychological factors. The goal is to know whether the 16 psychological factors can be reduced to a few key dimensions. In doing so, the researchers used the principal component analyses (PCA) and the Psychometric Network Analyses (PNA).
With 90% variance, the PCA proved that the factors could be grouped into three key dimensions- coherence, fascination, and hominess. Coherence is defined as to which a scene is organized; it means that appreciation is based on its beauty. On the other hand, the richness to a scene or the urge to want to explore it refers to fascination. Lastly, hominess is the feeling of being comfortable and a feeling of being personal to space. PNA confirmed that the responses by the participants can be classified among these three factors.
Collaboration Between Neuroscience and Architecture
An example of the applicability of neuroscience to architecture is the work of a professor of pediatrics Stanley Graven, M.D. about the effects of the environmental conditions among premature infants in neonatal intensive care units. He stressed that the lighting, noise levels, and staff activities that interfere with an infant's sleep cycles could have long-term effects on their developments.
Another example is the study on group homes of people with Alzheimer's disease conducted by John Zeisel, Ph. D., whose background is both in sociology and architecture. He emphasized the relationship between the particular environmental designs and the changes in symptoms in patients such as becoming agitated or displaying aggressive behavior, psychological problems, social withdrawal, depression, hallucination, and misidentification.
Zeisel wrote in his report in Gerontologist in 2003, that it "demonstrates the great opportunity systematic attention to environmental factors open for improving Alzheimer's." He also noted that environments specifically designed to an able person might be a stressor to a person with Alzheimer's thus explaining the changes in symptoms.
Meanwhile, architects have also designed classrooms for more than a century, paving the way to innovations that could give students a conducive learning space. Social and behavioral scientists have studied the effects of lighting on children in classrooms and almost universally report that learning improves when there is more daylight than artificial light.
Lastly, Lindsay Jones, Ph.D. described in his two-volume series The Hermeneutics of Sacred Architecture his proposal in studying sacred spaces as not merely an architectural object but as setting for ritual occasions, so as to understand how it should be experienced.
Whatever type of architecture it may be, it is important to know that there are several ways space can impact its users and understanding them can help architects and urban planners to design efficient and healthy spaces.
