Adaptive Environments

There is an interesting organization that is dedicated to universal design called Adaptive Environments. Their website is a great resource for articles, documents, and links on human centered design.

Last week in conjunction with Build Boston, Adaptive Environments sponsored a Universal Design Symposium. John Zeisel, PhD and John Eberhard both gave presentations on neuroscience and architecture. Here is the description of their talks from the program:

B05 Neuroscience and Design
Designing for the Healthy Brain – The neurosciences now tell us that our environments do, in fact, affect our brains; how they develop and function over time – knowledge that architects can mine. Zeisel will explore some of these opportunities and discuss the role neuroscience can play in design process and practice.
John Zeisel, Ph.D., Board of Directors, AIA Academy on Neuroscience and Architecture

Consciousness and Experiences with Architecture – Every waking moment we form, remember, recall and respond to conscious experiences, ninety percent of which take place in buildings. Neuroscience research is on the verge of a new knowledge base about such experiences that will provide the architectural profession with evidence to examine, and in many cases, support their intuitive process.
John Eberhard, FAIA, AIA Director of Research

Moderator: Barbara E. Knecht, RA, Director of Design, Adaptive Environments

How We Choose to Live

There is a lecture series at the La Jolla Athenaeum Music & Arts Library in California titled "Dialogues in Art & Architecture 2007-08: How We Choose To Live." There are several interesting lectures slated for next spring. So if you happen to be in the San Diego area, you should check it out. You can find more information here:

http://www.ljathenaeum.org/lectures.html

And here is a description of the lecture series:

The theme for this year’s series is: How We Choose to Live. In our daily lives, with awareness or not, we experience the consequences of a changing natural environment and of public policies and economic and bureaucratic decisions about art, architecture and land use in the public realm. Our daily lives are also shaped by discoveries in science and technological innovations across disciplines. Our panelists will address our potential to be effective participants in shaping our social and cultural realm. The series is coordinated by the Athenaeum with artist and environmental sculptor Joyce Cutler-Shaw. The programs will be co-sponsored by the San Diego New School of Architecture (affiliated to the Academy of Neuroscience for Architecture, promoting links between Neuroscience research and human responses to the built environment), as well as the San Diego Council of Design Professionals, and the San Diego Architectural Foundation.

"The Rise of Neuro-Architecture"

The concept of neuro-architecture is really taking flight. If you search goggle for "neuroscience and architecture" you will find pages upon pages of relevant links.

I found this article in d|visible magazine to be particularly well written, even though this perpetuates the recurring references to neurogenesis and the ceiling height study, and frames neuro-architecture as a way to manipulate people.

d|visible - The Rise of Neuro-Architecture

"Smart" Environments

If we combine our knowledge on how people behave, why they behave and how they perceive their environments with artificial intelligence which can detect when people deviate from their normal behaviors in their customary environments, we can create "smart" environments... in this instance, potentially capable of alerting us to early stages of dementia:

"Tiny motion sensors are attached to the walls, doorways and even the refrigerator of Elaine Bloomquist’s home, tracking the seemingly healthy 86-year-old’s daily activity.

It’s like spying in the name of science — with her permission — to see if round-the-clock tracking of elderly people’s movements can provide early clues of impending Alzheimer's disease." - Associated Press, June 18, 2007.

Sensors could help catch first signs of dementia

The Alzheimer House

Ceiling Height and Information Processing

This past spring, there was a widely circulated article on research by marketing professor Joan Meyers-Levy at the University of Minnesota and Rui (Juliet) Zhu at the University of British Columbia. Meyers-Levy and Zhu studied the effect of ceiling height on how people think and act. Their argument is that ceiling height influences how people process information using a priming task. They associated high ceilings (10') with the concept of "freedom" and low ceilings (8') with the concept of "confinement."

“When a person is in a space with a 10-foot ceiling, they will tend to think more freely, more abstractly,” said Meyers-Levy. “They might process more abstract connections between objects in a room, whereas a person in a room with an 8-foot ceiling will be more likely to focus on specifics.”

Press Release: U of M Researchers Find that Ceiling Height can Affect How a Person Thinks, Feels, and Acts

Science Daily - Ceiling Height Can Affect How A Person Thinks, Feels And Acts

The Influence of Ceiling Height: The Effect of Priming on the Type of Processing That People Use - Article PDF

Making money by tapping into the unconscious

fathom is a company that was established as an offshoot of the architecture practice Astorino in partnership with the research and consulting firm, Olson Zaltman Associates. Based on the idea that people can only consciously articulate 5% of their thoughts and feelings, fathom uses a menu of "psychology, neuroscience, anthropology, and architecture" methodologies to illicit the subconscious thoughts and feelings of their clients. One method that they utilize is visual metaphor. They then interpret and translate these subconscious expressions into design principles to produce "more meaningful design."

US News and World Report - Mysteries of the Mind

Powerful New Architectural Design Method Debutes

All in the Mind?

There was a semi-recent article in the Financial Times in what they dub as "emotionally intelligent design." It pieced together several streams of thought and work. The mind and brain blog, MindHacks had an interesting and valid critique of this article. MindHacks also recommended what they considered a better article on the link of psychology and architecture.

Relevant Links:

Financial Times - All in the Mind

MindHacks - Building on Brain Cliches

The Psychologist - Is there a psychologist in the building?

The Purpose

I wanted to start a blog that was a repository for everything that I thought, directly or indirectly, had to do with understanding how architecture affects human experience. It could manifest as articles that inspire new thought about the relationship, or images that make people rethink their own perceptions.

It is NOT intended to "prove" the connection of neuroscience and architecture, but promote that there is something worth pursuing in this possible relationship.