The Architect's Brain

Mallgrave, Harry Francis

doi:10.1002/9781444317275

Cited by 63 publications

(31 citation statements)

References 72 publications

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“…Taken together, the results of these initial efforts suggest that there is a possibility of developing a new neuroscientifically informed stance toward the human being as an architectural subject that can be endorsed in user-centered design. Most importantly, such results directly support the recent “experiential turn” among architects (i.e., the idea of human-centered design), proposed as a way to address some of the crucial contemporary architectural problems—such as the dominance of vision and intellectualization of designs manifested in the phenomenon of a disembodied architectural observer (Pallasmaa, 2005 ; Mallgrave, 2011 ). For this reason, it is important to note that although understanding of complex phenomenon such as architectural experience necessarily requires a well-thought fragmenting of research questions, any research perspective which is to yield results applicable to user-centered design should be formulated in accordance with the broader architectural discourse on experience (Jelić, 2015 ).…”

Section: Introductionsupporting

confidence: 63%

“…Therefore, as elucidated by Mallgrave in the Architect's Brain (Mallgrave, 2011 ), it can be proposed that one of the advantages of neuroscientific investigations of architectural experience is the possibility to verify a link between architect's intuitive understanding of phenomenal body and articulation of built spaces. In fact, by identifying hypotheses already present in architectural literature and in the form of designer's knowledge, it is possible to construct a strong frame of reference for comparing neuroscientific results with examples of well-designed spaces, like in the case of documented experiential quality of architectural masterpieces.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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The Enactive Approach to Architectural Experience: A Neurophysiological Perspective on Embodiment, Motivation, and Affordances

et al. 2016

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Over the last few years, the efforts to reveal through neuroscientific lens the relations between the mind, body, and built environment have set a promising direction of using neuroscience for architecture. However, little has been achieved thus far in developing a systematic account that could be employed for interpreting current results and providing a consistent framework for subsequent scientific experimentation. In this context, the enactive perspective is proposed as a guide to studying architectural experience for two key reasons. Firstly, the enactive approach is specifically selected for its capacity to account for the profound connectedness of the organism and the world in an active and dynamic relationship, which is primarily shaped by the features of the body. Thus, particular emphasis is placed on the issues of embodiment and motivational factors as underlying constituents of the body-architecture interactions. Moreover, enactive understanding of the relational coupling between body schema and affordances of architectural spaces singles out the two-way bodily communication between architecture and its inhabitants, which can be also explored in immersive virtual reality settings. Secondly, enactivism has a strong foothold in phenomenological thinking that corresponds to the existing phenomenological discourse in architectural theory and qualitative design approaches. In this way, the enactive approach acknowledges the available common ground between neuroscience and architecture and thus allows a more accurate definition of investigative goals. Accordingly, the outlined model of architectural subject in enactive terms—that is, a model of a human being as embodied, enactive, and situated agent, is proposed as a basis of neuroscientific and phenomenological interpretation of architectural experience.

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Section: Introductionsupporting

confidence: 63%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Enactive Approach to Architectural Experience: A Neurophysiological Perspective on Embodiment, Motivation, and Affordances

et al. 2016

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“…With their book The Embodied Mind , Varela et al (1991) proposed a phenomenological study of cognition considering physical characteristics and abilities of the body in determining how and what sensorimotor knowledge people are able to construct through interactions in their environments. Influences of phenomenology and embodiment are found today in architectural designs by Zumthor ( Mallgrave, 2013 ), Holl, and Pallasmaa ( Holl et al, 2006 ), with Pallasmaa largely responsible for bringing awareness of embodied cognition to architectural design ( Mallgrave, 2011 ) by advocating for multi-sensory environments engaging hearing, smell, and touch as antidote to the visual bias in architecture, which he believes yields “impoverished environments” causing feelings of detachment and alienation in users ( Pallasmaa, 2005 ).…”

Section: Physically Situating Creativity With the 3e’smentioning

confidence: 99%

Creative Practices Embodied, Embedded, and Enacted in Architectural Settings: Toward an Ecological Model of Creativity

Malinin

2016

Front. Psychol.

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Memoires by eminently creative people often describe architectural spaces and qualities they believe instrumental for their creativity. However, places designed to encourage creativity have had mixed results, with some found to decrease creative productivity for users. This may be due, in part, to lack of suitable empirical theory or model to guide design strategies. Relationships between creative cognition and features of the physical environment remain largely uninvestigated in the scientific literature, despite general agreement among researchers that human cognition is physically and socially situated. This paper investigates what role architectural settings may play in creative processes by examining documented first person and biographical accounts of creativity with respect to three central theories of situated cognition. First, the embodied thesis argues that cognition encompasses both the mind and the body. Second, the embedded thesis maintains that people exploit features of the physical and social environment to increase their cognitive capabilities. Third, the enaction thesis describes cognition as dependent upon a person’s interactions with the world. Common themes inform three propositions, illustrated in a new theoretical framework describing relationships between people and their architectural settings with respect to different cognitive processes of creativity. The framework is intended as a starting point toward an ecological model of creativity, which may be used to guide future creative process research and architectural design strategies to support user creative productivity.

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“…Such interest also led to the foundation of the Academy of Neuroscience for Architecture (ANFA) in 2003 in San Diego. Since then, various important contributions have emerged from both fields ( Eberhard, 2008 ; Mallgrave, 2011 ; Robinson and Pallasmaa, 2015 ).…”

Section: Neuroscience and Architecturementioning

confidence: 99%

“…In recent years, novel methodologies to explore the neurobiological bases of mind and behavior have inspired the fields of architecture (e.g., Mallgrave, 2011 ), planning and urban studies ( Portugali, 2004 , 2011 ; van der Veen, 2012 ; de Lange, 2013 ), geography ( Anderson and Smith, 2001 ), social sciences and the humanities ( Leys, 2002 ) to open toward cognitive neuroscience and, more specifically, to brain imaging. Novel interdisciplinary fields with the ‘neuro-’ prefix have thus recently emerged, such as neuro -economy, neuro -law, neuro -marketing, and even neuro -architecture.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

When Neuroscience ‘Touches’ Architecture: From Hapticity to a Supramodal Functioning of the Human Brain

et al. 2016

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In the last decades, the rapid growth of functional brain imaging methodologies allowed cognitive neuroscience to address open questions in philosophy and social sciences. At the same time, novel insights from cognitive neuroscience research have begun to influence various disciplines, leading to a turn to cognition and emotion in the fields of planning and architectural design. Since 2003, the Academy of Neuroscience for Architecture has been supporting ‘neuro-architecture’ as a way to connect neuroscience and the study of behavioral responses to the built environment. Among the many topics related to multisensory perceptual integration and embodiment, the concept of hapticity was recently introduced, suggesting a pivotal role of tactile perception and haptic imagery in architectural appraisal. Arguments have thus risen in favor of the existence of shared cognitive foundations between hapticity and the supramodal functional architecture of the human brain. Precisely, supramodality refers to the functional feature of defined brain regions to process and represent specific information content in a more abstract way, independently of the sensory modality conveying such information to the brain. Here, we highlight some commonalities and differences between the concepts of hapticity and supramodality according to the distinctive perspectives of architecture and cognitive neuroscience. This comparison and connection between these two different approaches may lead to novel observations in regard to people–environment relationships, and even provide empirical foundations for a renewed evidence-based design theory.

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The Architect's Brain

Cited by 63 publications

References 72 publications

The Enactive Approach to Architectural Experience: A Neurophysiological Perspective on Embodiment, Motivation, and Affordances

The Enactive Approach to Architectural Experience: A Neurophysiological Perspective on Embodiment, Motivation, and Affordances

Creative Practices Embodied, Embedded, and Enacted in Architectural Settings: Toward an Ecological Model of Creativity

When Neuroscience ‘Touches’ Architecture: From Hapticity to a Supramodal Functioning of the Human Brain

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