NEUROARCHITECTURE THE FUTURE OF DESIGNING HOLLISTIC SPACES

 NEUROARCHITECTURE

THE FUTURE OF DESIGNING HOLLISTIC SPACES

Have you ever felt uneasy or, worse, trapped within a room or building? Perhaps it was a long, narrow corridor with no discernible exit, or maybe it was a dimly lit room with a low ceiling or an oppressive feel. Better yet, have you ever felt a surge of awe and wonder when looking at or walking through a building? If you’ve visited any ancient architecture, from Rome’s Pantheon to Cambodia’s Angkor Wat, chances are you know the feeling well.

What is neuroarchitecture?

This movement stands at the crossroads of two very different disciplines: neuroscience and architecture. Using our growing knowledge of how our brains work, it aims to account for our responses to the built environment.

What’s distinct about neuroarchitecture is that we’re now approaching a time when our understanding of brain function has progressed to the point where we can start to say sensible things about its relationship with architecture and design.

The human response to architecture is usually based on subjective emotions: I like that building, I hate this space; this room is so open, this office is oppressive. But something more nuanced is happening to elicit these responses. Neuroscientists have found that distinctive processes occur in our brains—consciously and subconsciously, cognitively and physiologically—from the moment we step into a space. These processes affect our emotions, our health, and even the development of memory.

Neuroarchitecture is a discipline that seeks to explore the relationship between neuroscience and the modern architecture design of buildings and other man-made structures that make up the artificially created environment that most human beings live within. Neuroarchitecture addresses the level of human response to the components that make up this sort of built environment. Is based on the premise that artificial element added by human have a significant impact on the function of the brain and nervous system. Considering this we elaborate all of our modern house plans.

How do our brains and bodies react?
Special cells found in the hippocampal region of our brains are tuned in to geometry and how our spaces are organised. Whenever you enter a room, home or any environment, these cells are busy navigating and storing spatial information in the form of cognitive ‘maps’.

As an experiment, tune into a memory of how it felt to be in a space where you were uncomfortable and wanted to leave. Did your heart pump faster, your breathing quicken? That’s the hypothalamus in your brain telling your adrenals to release adrenaline and cortisol, the ‘stress’ hormones.

Were you edgy, alert? You can thank these stress hormones for enriching your blood with oxygen due to your fast breathing. Did you feel skittish or ready to burst into action? That’s your blood vessels constricting to divert this oxygen-rich blood to your muscles, which would have tensed in preparation to ward off the perceived threat (in this case, propel you out of that room or building as quickly as possible).

But people respond to design individually, right?

Correct. There is no universal reaction to a singular space, and neuroscientists take this into account.

To complicate matters, our initial reaction to a space is often different to our subsequent reactions after that space becomes familiar. Add to this our experiences within these spaces and our reactions are affected even more – for example, your brain will respond very differently to the same room if you were hired in it versus fired in it.

A point that architects, neuroscientists and psychologists all seem to agree on is that a successful design is not so much about how our buildings can shape us, but about making people feel they have some control over their environment.t we’re “creatures of the place we’re in”. Welcome to the new era of neuro-architecture.