A significant proportion of people today live in towns and cities that have developed around commerce, industry and the automobile. Think the docks of Liverpool, the factories of Osaka, Robert Moses' automobile obsession in New York, or the sparsely populated enclave of modern Riyadh. Very few of these places were created with human health in mind. Meanwhile, as humanity shifts its focus to cities, diseases such as depression, cancer and diabetes have increased alarmingly.
The mismatch between humans and our environment is not surprising. From the second half of the 20th century, pioneering thinkers such as American author and activist Jane Jacobs and Danish architect Jan Gehl began to highlight the inhumane ways in which our cities We are being formed, with boring buildings, barren spaces and brutal highways.
Their work is widely read by the construction industry but is also marginalized. It's an inconvenient truth, seemingly at odds with mainstream architectural thinking, with its austere and often unfriendly aesthetic style. The challenge is that, although Jacobs and Gehl are highlighting very real problems faced by specific communities, due to a lack of solid evidence, they can only rely on isolated case studies and word of mouth. their own rhetoric to make a point. But the recent availability of sophisticated new brain mapping and behavioral research techniques, such as using wearable devices to measure our body's responses to our surroundings, means the chamber The feedback from the construction industry is increasingly difficult to ignore the reactions of millions of people. to the places it has created.
Once confined to the laboratory, these “neuroarchitecture” and neuroscience research methods have taken to the streets. Colin Ellard's Urban Reality Lab at the University of Waterloo in Canada has led pioneering research in this area. funded by the EU emotional city The project is currently underway in Lisbon, London, Copenhagen and Michigan. Frank Suurenbroek and Gideon Spanjar's Streetscape sensor conducted testing in Amsterdam and Institute of Human Architecture and Planning followed suit in New York and Washington, DC.
Just this year, the Humanize Campaign teamed up with Ellard to conduct a new international study investigating people's psychological reactions to different building facades. This was carried out alongside a study by Cleo Valentine at the University of Cambridge, which examined whether certain building facades could lead to neuroinflammation – drawing a direct link between the Building appearance and health outcomes can be inspected.
Their findings have informed the work of my studio and many others, such as Denmark's NORD Architects, which draw on the latest research around cognitive decline as they design Alzheimer's Village in DaxFrance. This is a large-scale care home that simulates the layout of a medieval fortified town in the “bastide” style. The idea was to create a familiar, comfortable design for many residents whose wayfinding abilities have weakened with age.
While these may be isolated cases, there are encouraging signs that the construction and building design industry – which has been particularly resistant to research – is starting to change. Innovative AI has changed the way architecture works. Once a novelty, it is now an essential tool. If we incorporate findings about neural architecture into these AI models, the change could be even more dramatic.
Meanwhile, progressive city leaders are beginning to link their obsession with economic growth with human well-being. In the UK, Rokhsana Fiaz, mayor of Newham in East London, has made happiness and health one of the key performance indicators for his economic strategy. And now that we can measure health in more complex ways, I believe there will be even more. People will recognize the direct contribution of building facades to public health and human prosperity and begin to spread the word.
I believe that very soon, real estate developers may have to consider neuroscience findings as important information that needs to be considered alongside structural load calculations, energy efficiency, lighting lighting and acoustics. And passersby will welcome this change. Not just because it will improve our health but simply because it will make our world much more fun and attractive.