Image: JoshuaDavisPhotography. COM | Flickr

The notion of having dispositions, or records, that your brain keeps as it experiences architecture is quite an interesting thought. If every time your occupant has an architecture experience that can later be rewritten, then your role as an architect is to design for more than a real-time experience. You must also design for your occupants by incorporating what your architecture will say to them — what they will store in their memory, and how that memory will influence their future experiences.

Here is a quote discussing such dispositions from an article entitled, Science Studies How Architecture Affects the Brain:

“Architectural experience is recorded in what Antonio Damasio calls “dispositions” — records in our brain of a combination of sensory inputs, memories, emotions and any related muscle memories. Just below the surface of consciousness these dispositions wait for the next experience with which they can be paired. For example, each time we enter the office in which we work we are recalling a dispositional record of our last visit — including any emotional experiences we may have had. When we leave our office at the end of the day, our brain creates a new dispositional record that updates the one we came with that morning.”

The key word here is “update”. Previous architecture experiences impact the current, and the current will influence those which have not yet happened. Does this mean that you should design spaces that are less predictable? Or spaces where repetition and routine abound?

As an architect, it might be difficult to make a blanket statement about such questions. For example, I cannot say that a classroom in an elementary school needs to be predictable, while a meeting room in an office building needs to be unpredictable. So much is linked to occupant and architectural context, objectives and need for evolution and change.

Do Your Occupants Judge Your Buildings Before Ever Going In?

Wouldn’t it be nice to know what your occupant “dispositions” say? How can you, as an architect, design for such occupant brain records?

The ultimate goal for you as an architect should be to design spaces that ultimately foster the experiences your occupant wants and needs. Sounds simple, right? Well, complexity enters the picture when you consider that key word “update”.

Your occupants collect experiences involving your design (sometimes many of your designs) into their perception. Their records get modified with each visit — whether it be physical, virtual or by simply hearing about another’s experience within your building. In some ways, yes, your occupant does “judge” what their experience will be like, but “judge” is such a strong word. It might be better to say that they form a perception (which can often lead to an opinion).

Of course, you may have the opportunity to prove false impressions wrong, even erasing what they once thought they experienced. You may ask yourself…”What tone should my architecture have?” Should it be an unexpected surprise? Comfortingly predictable? Inconspicuously silent? Well, you get the idea.

I challenge you to think about what message your building conveys, not only when occupants are within it, but also before they ever come in and long after they have left. Your building forms more than a real-time experience. It stamps an impression. Use that to your advantage.

Please Tell Me What You Think

I would really like to get your feedback on my post today, so please leave me a comment in the form below. And if you enjoyed it, make sure you share it with your Twitter followers by “tweeting” it using the re-tweet button on this page.

© 2008-2011 Sensing Architecture by Maria Lorena Lehman

Designs are increasingly inspired by nature in novel and unique ways — inspiring not only architectural buildings, but also the objects within them. “Science inspired designs” are sparking some very innovative and practical solutions. Mathieu Lehanneur is just such a designer who, in the video at the bottom of this post, discusses some of his intriguing design ideas and projects.

Deeply inspired by science and investigations about human beings, including both the way they work and feel, Mathieu Lehanneur looks at issues like noise, living objects for medical treatments, air quality and healthy living.

Lehanneur’s Take on “Living Objects”

For example, in his “living objects” project, Lehanneur uses inspiration from an onion, utilizing its layer structure to help patients visualize their treatment, its duration, and what motivates them. Such “living object” projects are great for individuals, and especially children because they increase the relationship and dependency between the patient and their treatment. Thus, ensuring that they will complete their treatment and have longer-term healing and health benefits.

A “Brain-Stimulating” Office

The brain stimulating office is an interesting approach to the mind-body problem. This common “problem” is a place where architects and designers strive to create balanced environments that are good for occupants by tapping into many of their senses. Although not everything in his design may be the most obvious now, it is still nice to see the innovative integration between a significant amount of nature, new body (physical) activities within the space and new ways of working to ensure efficiency and healthy productivity.

It is important to keep dreaming up such future visions.

You Can Do The Same With Your Work

Again, it is refreshing to see a designer such as Lehanneur, going beyond oversimplifications regarding how users experience design. This is where science excels, in helping us to understand better why human beings are the way they are. Designers stand in prime position to really take advantage of this type of information.

Simply watch the video below to watch Mathieu Lehanneur’s presentation where you will see more prototypes, inspirations and theories as relating to this designer’s projects.

Please Tell Me What You Think

I would really like to get your feedback on my post today, so please leave me a comment in the form below. And if you enjoyed it, make sure you share it with your Twitter followers by “tweeting” it using the re-tweet button on this page.

© 2008-2011 Sensing Architecture by Maria Lorena Lehman

Piet Mondrian, Broadway Boogie Woogie
Image: wallyg | Flickr

An amazing artist is Piet Mondrian, who is known for painting Broadway Boogie Woogie. This painting is quite remarkable and one of its defining qualities is its ability to convey motion to its viewers. As if to deconstruct music, this painting makes use of color, pattern, geometry and sizing.

Consequently, Piet Mondrian has made an excellent and tangible example for us to better understand why we perceive motion when looking at his work. Much can be explained by delving into neuroscience.

Why We Perceive Motion in the Painting

In her book, Vision and Art (affiliate link), Harvard neurobiologist Margaret Livingstone explains why this painting appears to “move or jitter”. She explains that the yellow and gray squares are “close to equiluminant” and they are set against an off-white background.” (1)

You see, the luminance in color plays a special role in human perception. As Livingstone notes, the part of our visual process responsible for determining the location and motion of an object cannot perceive objects where their colors have “the same luminance” — they are equiluminant. (1)

Color present showing that you can see yellow and gray squares

Image: profzucker | Flickr

Color removed in photoshop, showing that you cannot see yellow and gray squares

Image: profzucker | Flickr

Since the gray and yellow squares in Broadway Boogie Woogie have the same luminance, our visual system cannot distinguish their location or motion. Hence, they seem to move about. This concept was first illustrated in the book Vision and Art, but I have manipulated some photographs to convey this concept to you. (1)

As you can see, great artists’ paintings often “work” because they tap into certain aspects of the way we interpret information. By understanding such explanations, we can better interpret what works in existing masterpieces. In turn, we can learn a lot about how to design better for our future.

As architects we should be concerned with how and why occupants perceive as they move through our spaces. Delving deeper, and scientifically into what guides them and stops them, what they remember and later forget and what they want to see again.

Such probing questions will help you to understand how to design better because you will get to the root of why an architecture “works” — functionally and aesthetically.

Big questions with focused answers impact our understanding of how a culture and an individual uses space. Ultimately, we will also better comprehend why and how our architecture will be explained to others.

These are all keys to building for function and beauty.

Just for Fun

Just for fun, you can see a more modern interpretation of the impact Mondrian has with this painting. Take a look at the following video and see how someone just had to create an animation to bring what they perceive as motion into another form.

Please Tell Me What You Think

I would really like to get your feedback on my post today, so please leave me a comment in the form below. And if you enjoyed it, make sure you share it with your Twitter followers by “tweeting” it using the re-tweet button on this page.

(1) Livingstone, Margaret.Vision and Art: The Biology of Seeing. New York: Harry N. Abrahams, Inc. 2002

© 2008-2011 Sensing Architecture by Maria Lorena Lehman

Name: Sensory Design by Joy Monice Malnar and Frank Vodvarka

URL: Sensory Design (affiliate link)

Purpose: to explain in-depth and clearly how humans interact and perceive architectural design

THIS BOOK IS MUCH NEEDED IN OUR DISCIPLINE

Sensory Design is a book to really make you, as an architect, more aware of how your designs impact people. Taking and in-depth look at how humans perceive space and built form, Sensory Design is really quite a remarkable publication.

Written by Joy Monice Malnar and Frank Vodvarka, every page is filled with insight that will help you to become a better designer. Their unique way of presenting diagrams, illustrations and photographs really help to make an otherwise complex topic easy to understand.

Many of you, my readers, email me looking for a good resource on the topic of human perception and architectural design. Very often, I find myself recommending this book. In fact, there are very few books that seriously delve into the topic of sensory perception and design in such a detailed fashion. It brings modern day practice together with historical trends and then it ties theories together with findings about the brain to really help designers understand why certain design decision might work and why some might not.

Again, Sensory Design is a great find as it is much needed in the architectural discipline.

WRITTEN FOR A DESIGNER — ABOUT THE HUMAN PERCEPTUAL PROCESS

As you’ve probably heard me say before, the topic which this book covers is very important for architects and other designers to understand. Plus, I like that the authors go an extra step further by explaining human perception from a designer’s stand-point.

I think it best to show you what I’m talking about. Here is an excerpt that I particularly like:

“He maintains that a connection exists between individual distance (the normal spacing of humans) and personal space, which may be thought of “as a portable territory, since the individual carries it with him wherever he goes, although it disappears unders certain conditions, such as crowding. It is the sort of space that W.H. Auden refers to in his “Prologue: The Birth of Architecture”:

Some thirty inches from my nose
The frontier of my Person goes…

This raises the question of just how far our ”frontiers” actually do go, and the degree to which each sense is responsible for understanding distance. Golledge and Stimson point out that because the real world is complex, sending out millions of information signals, we can only be aware of a small portion of them. This information is experienced and recorded as differentials of color, heat, motion, sound, pressure, direction, and whatever else is present and within the range of the senses. Because we record only those stimuli that have a bearing on our particular needs, perceptions may differ.” (Sensory Design, pages 150-152)

As you can see, this book makes it easy for you because the authors have collected very significant and relevant information about what qualities make a space and how those qualities may be interpreted by your occupants. Additionally, Sensory Design includes both broad and detailed explanations which are extremely useful as you work making numerous design decisions at a time.

BECOME A BETTER ARCHITECTURAL DESIGNER

Sensory Design is filled with many different formats to help you learn. The authors have really done their research and will provide you with concrete examples of the different theories about the intersection between the human senses and architectural design compositions.

Plus, history is a part of it too. Not only do Malnar and Vodvarka incorporate the latest findings about the human senses, but they also make links and connections so you can understand how and why certain architectural design techniques stick and others don’t.

There are many nuggets of wisdom in this book — true gems.

I have seen other books that claim to link architectural design to how humans perceive and none that I have seen so far come close to this one. If I had to recommend one comprehensive book on this subject to get you started and that I think would help to make you a better designer, then this is it.

I am sure that you will pick this 356 page book up again and again. I know I do.

Here is the book link: Sensory Design (affiliate link)

© 2008-2011 Sensing Architecture by Maria Lorena Lehman

Image: Borya | Flickr

We all have similar urban spaces that we don’t like to hang around. Train stations, bus stations and just outside retail stores after hours. I’m sure when you have to pass through these places, you like to move quickly. And why is this? This is probably because it isn’t so safe.

So, what does this have to do with architectural design?

THE AFTER-HOURS BUILDING “PULSE”

The next time you are involved in a design for these types of places, you really should consider what goes on there after hours. You should design for what you would like to encourage during those off peak times. Your lighting, acoustics, material selection, window placements and site design all play a part.

As you design, don’t forget that your building occupant’s needs may be different at night compared to the day. Often, built environments need a pulse after hours and you, as the architect, play a role in making sure that whatever that “pulse” is yields an architecture that is pleasant and safe.

AN EXAMPLE: CLASSICAL MUSIC WARDS OFF CRIME

In many subway stations and bus stations there are often loiterers that disrupt the public, bring down the social climate of a place, vandalize the built structures or even engage in crime. In one project, decision-makers came up with a win-win solution that drove away delinquent behavior and improved passenger comfort and mood. This is what they did…

• Through a sound system authorities played classical music for all to hear.

It seems that Mozart does not go hand-in-hand with delinquent behavior and unwanted loitering activities. Additionally, hearing this type of music often helps passengers feel safe and even serves to put them in a good mood.

TAPPING INTO THE BRAIN

In the article entitled Businesses Using Music to Deter Crime and Loitering, neurologists explain why certain types of music can have these effects. You see, for those that like classical music, dopamine is released in the brain and that creates a happier and more pleasurable mood – as if your body is being rewarded. On the other hand, for those that don’t like classical music, dopamine is inhibited and that dampens a person’s mood – causing them to get away from the music.

7 KEY QUESTIONS TO HELP YOU DESIGN CONSCIOUSLY

As you design, try asking yourself the following 7 questions. It is important to think of each question in terms of “off-peak hours”. The key is to think of answers that will help you design consciously for your building’s off-peak times.

1. What design ideas might give my building an appropriate “pulse” during off-peak times?
2. What occupant behaviors should my design foster to promote safety?
3. How can my building help the community, even while it is not in use?
4. Within my design, what human senses can I tap into during off-peak hours?
5. What community problems and social needs can my design help with?
6. Do I need to deter people or bring them closer during off-peak times?
7. What human activities, both intended and unintended, will my design invite?

For instance, buildings that completely shut down during the night often have to enforce security. Similarly, buildings that are completely open during the night often attract some unwanted people that engage in unwanted behaviors.

As an architect, you should find the right balance so your design is pleasant, safe and positively adds to its surrounding environment.

PLEASE TELL ME WHAT YOU THINK

I would really like to get your feedback on my post today, so please leave me a comment in the form below. And if you enjoyed it, make sure you share it with your Twitter followers by “tweeting” it using the re-tweet button on this page.

© 2008-2011 Sensing Architecture by Maria Lorena Lehman

Image: © Dianka | Dreamstime.com

You walk into a room. You notice a certain aroma. You smell fresh cookies baking in the kitchen. Immediately, you remember your childhood days when your mother brought you fresh chocolate chip cookies.

Ok, this may seem a bit idealistic but smell and memory are linked. The article entitled Smell and Memory explains that of all the human senses, the process of smelling takes the longest to reach the brain, and once you do smell, the smell lasts longer than other senses. This leads to the assumption that smell and memory are linked in different ways as compared to the other senses; and yes, this is an important differentiation.

If the latter is true, then when you design, you instantly trigger memory the moment someone walks into your building. You see, memory is intrinsically linked with learning. So, the minute someone actually smells within your space, they begin to learn, and the olfactory process can play a meaningful role.

So, how can you design better now that you know this knowledge?

SENSE OF SMELL CAN OPTIMIZE YOUR DESIGNS

Perhaps you can be more proactive as you design. Instead of letting the scent within your space just sort of happen as a by-product of all your other design decisions, you can instead think about what effect you want to have with your space.

This doesn’t mean that you need to go ahead and inject strange aromas with hopes that suddenly your design will be more pleasing without proof that this will work. However, did you know that some hospitals are beginning to design for the olfactory sense? Patients in some facilities are already benefiting from aromas (circulated through the air systems) that are more soothing, anxiety reducing and calming.

Think of what you want your occupants to experience within your architectural space, how you want them to navigate though it and where you may want them to stop and engage in activity. As a designer, think about ways to tap into the olfactory sense — use it to spark occupant behavior, thought, emotion and intellect. There are so many opportunities to capitalize on this sense: think hotel, restaurant, stores or even an airport.

I WOULD LOVE YOUR FEEDBACK…

I would love to hear your feedback on this post today, so leave me a comment down below. And if you enjoyed it, make sure you share it with your Twitter followers by “tweeting” it using the re-tweet button! Thanks so much!

© 2008-2011 Sensing Architecture by Maria Lorena Lehman

Image: Dom Dada | Flickr

HUMAN LEARNING IS MORE THAN YOU “THINK”

When inside your building, how do occupants actually make choices? They are continuously making decisions, and the orchestration of your design elements has a lot to do with the decisions they make.

To make decisions, your occupant must learn; and to learn, your occupants engage in “conscious reasoning”. (1)

But — did you know that “subconscious learning” also plays a role? Hence, their “gut reaction”…

In an article written by Alexis Madrigal entitled Humans Can Learn from Subliminal Cues Alone, the author explains how humans can have an intuition-based learning. In the study, participants were shown a visual cue for less than five hundredths of a second — so fast that these participants didn’t have time to consciously “see” these cues. (1)

Using money as a reward, the participants used their “intuition” to respond to a question. The participants were right about two-thirds of the time. Of course, conscious reasoning still plays a very important role in decision making, (1) but isn’t it amazing to understand that there is a role for intuition as well?

OCCUPANT INTUITION

As occupants travel into, through and out of your building design, a great deal of learning takes place. Both through reasoning and intuition, your design intention manifests.

In fact, there are so many elements within a building, that occupants cannot possibly absorb (or learn) everything; yet, you’d be surprised by how much gets processed to form “intuitions” about a place and what goes on there.

EMBED SUBLIMINAL CUES — THINK STORYTELLING

As you design, keep in mind that your design elements are cues and should play with the notion of “scale” in new ways. Architectural scale is so much more than the mere size of an element. You see, scale can also refer to the amount and type of attention that an occupant gives to a feature.

Think about hierarchy in terms of language. Within stories you can experience techniques like foreshadowing, flashbacks, sequence, character development, conflict and climax (to name a few).

Use all of your elements to their fullest, but “play” them like music. Some will be loud. Some will be soft. Some will be played together. Some will support the others. Some will be played all at once. Some will develop over time. It is this interconnectivity that will spark occupant gut reactions.

In the end, your design is an orchestration of fluid parts.

(1) Madrigal, Alexis. Humans Can Learn from Subliminal Cues Alone. Wired Science. August 27, 2008.

© 2008-2011 Sensing Architecture by Maria Lorena Lehman

Image: bonacheladas | Flickr

YES, IT CAN…

As we travel around all different kinds of spaces within cities and buildings, we come to rely on how our senses perceive. But what if our senses could be expanded or enhanced?

The human senses basically collect data from stimuli (like light and sound) and feed it into our brain for assembly and interpretation. But did you know that it is possible to “feel” more so we can develop a heightened awareness to certain things?

We humans get just the five. But why? Can our senses be modified? Expanded? Given the right prosthetics, could we feel electromagnetic fields or hear ultrasound? The answers to these questions, according to researchers at a handful of labs around the world, appear to be yes. (1)

THE “FeelSPACE BELT”

The inventor of the FeelSpace Belt is Peter Konig, and the purpose of this belt is to send vibrations to your waist on whatever side of your body is facing north. This may sound simple, but the results are quite amazing. (1)

You see, when a person wears this belt for a prolonged period of time (say a few days), your brain gets remapped and you begin to actually “feel” direction as you travel around a city or a building. You can sense direction, something you wouldn’t naturally sense on your own.(1)

It turns out that the tricky bit isn’t the sensing. The world is full of gadgets that detect things humans cannot. The hard part is processing the input. Neuroscientists don’t know enough about how the brain interprets data. The science of plugging things directly into the brain — artificial retinas or cochlear implants — remains primitive. (1)

WHY HAVE YOUR BUILDING AUGMENT PERCEPTION?

As the science of brain plasticity develops, architecture can make use of new findings and gadgets. Imagine if you could design a building that could “play” upon a sense. Of course, I immediately get an image of a “fun house” where mirrors and rotating floors mess with a visitor’s sense of balance or proportion — but why not seriously try to expand upon the human senses in your own designs?

Perhaps your design could redefine how buildings communicate with the visually impaired.

(1) Bains, Sunny. Mixed Feelings. Wired.

© 2008-2011 Sensing Architecture by Maria Lorena Lehman

Image: Darrenw | Dreamstime

HOW ARCHITECTURE INFLUENCES YOUR BEHAVIOR

The architecture which surrounds you influences your thought, and subsequently your behavior. Understanding this relationship between the environment and your mind is important – particularly if you are a designer of such environments. Your brain is not only hard-wired to interpret certain spatial characteristics in certain ways, but your mind also plays a role in how you make decisions based on those interpretations. All in all, architecture is a type of “food for thought” where your designed surroundings impact not only how you perceive that world, but also how you interact within it.

In Scientific American Mind’s most recent issue, an article by Emily Athens called “Building Around the Mind” highlights various architectural factors that influence the human mind. As described in the article – through the brain, architecture can impact our creativity, focus, health, attention, mood and social ability. (1) Of course, this is just the tip of the iceberg … Architecture plays a major role for our brains, not just as we perceive space; but also as we engage in interactions, behaviors and thoughts.

PROCESSING ARCHITECTURE WITH YOUR BRAIN

“Building Around the Mind” describes a particular 2007 study by Joan Meyers-Levey where the ceiling of a room was determined to have an affect on how subjects process information. As was determined, a lower ceiling within a room promotes greater attention to detail by occupants. Higher ceilings promoted greater abstract and creative thinking by occupants. As Athens’ article points out, different situations call for varying ceiling heights. (1) The latter study is just one example of how architectural spatial qualities can affect how humans operate within an architectural space. Just think what might happen if architects truly considered such influences while they design.

By designing with greater insight into how the human mind processes architecture, design professionals might really be able to influence occupants to live healthier, more meaningful and happier lives as architectural qualities of an environment really do trigger a wide variety of human response.

FEEDING YOUR THOUGHTS VIA YOUR SENSES

The beauty of architectural design is that, it too, can be designed as interactive – embedded with sensors and actuators that allow it to respond as well. For example, occupants within a space that may need to have great focus and attention at one moment may later need to relax and meditate. As architecture gains greater and greater flexibility, it will get better at providing for such variations in occupant needs. In addition, architecture’s ability to coordinate with other surrounding elements, like nature, also makes architecture a wonderful way to feed your thoughts via your senses.

The main idea is that your brain interprets architecture through your mind and plays a role in influencing your thoughts and subsequent behavior. As architects, we should try to harness this understanding. Great architecture is always sensitive to making spaces humane – by truly factoring for human response.

(1) Anthes, Emily. Building Around the Mind. American Mind. April/May 2009.

© 2008-2011 Sensing Architecture by Maria Lorena Lehman

Image: Icefields | Dreamstime

When traveling through space you use certain cues to help you navigate. Your senses help determine things like orientation, distance and direction. During navigation, many moments arise for decision-making and your brain is a key player during this process. Within a building, architectural features send signals during the navigation process. The brain uses sensorial cues to help you travel within an environment – providing you with enough information to find your way.

In the interesting article entitled Getting Lost for Better Architecture, occupants are said to navigate, interact and then form “cognitive maps” in order to understand location within space. This article describes how researchers tested human subjects by having them travel through a virtual building while recording their brain function. Ties were made between what the subject saw and their brain response to those signals.(1)

Such research is fascinating because findings reveal how humans experience space. For instance, this research uncovered that humans use the “angle of incoming sunlight” as a primary cue for navigation. Of course, within architecture this cue is often eliminated.(1)

You might wonder how occupants interact within their environment to find such navigational cues. For this, it is important to understand what goes into the mental mapping of an architectural space – forming a mental image of that space as it is experienced. Of course, a mental map is also a consequence of occupant decision-making during that experience. For this, we can also use virtual reality – to uncover how the decision-making process works within architecture in real-time.

Although the applications may seem endless, such research will definitely give architects greater understanding into how the human perceives architectural features. Findings are sure to be quite enlightening.

(1) Nelson, Bryn. Getting Lost for Better Architecture. MSNBC Dec. 15. 2008.

© 2008-2011 Sensing Architecture by Maria Lorena Lehman