Image: Jchambers | Dreamstime

Have you ever felt time speed up or slow down? Estimating the passage of time is not exactly a precise endeavor for us humans. Sitting through a long and boring film, for instance, can seem to take an eternity, while having fun at a party could make time fly. In the Discover article entitled How Your Brain Can Control Time, our brains are thought to manage time like a tool. Even down to split milliseconds, the brain utilizes time to understand things like distance. Timing is important for such functions as determining how far away someone is when speaking.(1)

The interesting factor explained in the Discover article is that humans become less precise in their estimate of time, the longer the time period. Thus, timing how to say the word “banana” is far more precise than estimating how long a lecture lasted — without using a watch, of course. Also, timing is something a human can, to some extent, be trained to do. A person can become quite good at determining how long 10 minutes actually is, if they repeatedly do the same thing in 10 minute intervals.(1)

Given all of this, it is fair to say that timing can be relative. Architecturally, timing within a space can be stretched or shortened. How is it that waiting for the doctor in the waiting room makes time go by slowly while sitting in you favorite café ambience makes time move quickly? Of course, a journey through architectural space can expand or contract time dependent upon the experiences encountered. Still, architects can and should use time as a tool to communicate and guide occupant journeys. Mental timing is an important factor to how architecture is perceived.

Certain focal points, alignments, materials and other features can all contribute to how occupants experience, and subsequently remember a built environment. Architecture can utilize time in many instances. Such instances are reverberation time, travel time, textural rhythm and visual timing. Buildings are largely experienced through mental time – and the senses are key.

Thinking of architecture as a timed composition may help to unleash its aesthetic and function. The architectural narrative weaves events toward more meaningful experiences and mental time can be said to be at its heart.

(1) How Your Brain Can Control Time.Discover Magazine. 2009.

Image: Anton9 | Dreamstime

Can we define what makes a beautiful space? Well, the study of neuroaesthetics is trying to uncover qualities that come together to yield beauty. In the magazine SEED, the article entitled Beauty and the Brain explains that “An object’s beauty may not be universal, but the neural basis for appreciating beauty probably is.” The article goes on to describe how neuroscience findings regarding direction, location and dimensions of space will have profound implications for architecture.(1)

As architects engage in their design process, will the discoveries of neuroaesthetics impact their project outcomes? In other words, will knowing what triggers more neurons to fire rapidly impact design decisions at the drawing board? Yes, beauty is dependent to some extent on culture and experience; but can beauty be universally understood at some level?

Aesthetic, in architecture, is often linked with order and balance. Rhythm, for instance, is frequently desired within striking architectural compositions. So, is architecture nothing more than the manipulation of space to follow certain rules of beauty? Can architecture break or challenge such rules that are directly connected to the human senses?

When the human nervous system experiences beauty, certain parts of the brain consistently light up. It seems that, to some extent, humans can be taught what beauty means. Again, culture and experience may have a significant role. Yet, there are thought to be certain qualities that are constantly found regardless of culture or experience. These qualities, according to Beauty and Brain are grids, zigzags, spirals and curves. Such findings indicate that on some level, beauty may be universal.(1)

As architects, we strive to create beautiful forms and spaces that inspire humans within. It is often said that “beauty is in the eye of the beholder”; however, there are a collection of architectural spaces that never fail to stir occupants deeply. Like many designers, architects must follow rules and consciously bend them. To advance as a profession, it is important to learn from the discoveries of neuroaesthetics; but it is equally important to challenge them. Architects should not feel limited by such findings, but rather they should feel freed to learn why occupants respond the way they do — to certain arrangements of space.

Currently, we are increasing understanding of how the human brain works. Isn’t it appealing to unleash what makes good architecture according to our senses? Yes, it may be difficult to conclusively define “beauty” once and for all. For instance, as architects don’t we usually link function to aesthetic? I wonder…Is function inherent to beauty?

It seems to me that the experience of beauty is fundamental to what makes us all human. We may find beauty in different things at different times; however, the joy found in surrounding architectural space and form is universal. As spatial compositions continue to evolve, so too will our understanding of the meaning behind beauty.

(1) Costandi, Motheb. Beauty and the Brain. SEED Magazine. September 16, 2008.

Image: A Perspective of 3-D Visual Illusions | Scientific American Mind

The way humans perceive the world is through their senses that use certain rules by which they navigate. For instance, the use of perspective, stereopsis, occlusion, shading and sfumato are all listed in Scientific American Mind’s article A Perspective on 3-D Visual Illusions as rules that “create a 3D formation about our world”. The human brain and nervous system sees this 3-dimensional world on 2-dimensional eye retinas. Thus, rules are used to constantly interpret between the 2-D world and the 3-D world.(1)

One example proving this inference between the 3-dimensional and the 2-dimensional is the visual illusion of the Leaning Tower of Pisa. When two images of the receding tower are placed next to one another, the tower to the right seems to lean at a greater angle than the image to the left. This is because the human eyes want to see the tower image to the right as parallel to the tower image to the left. This cannot happen because both images are receding; the brain reconfigures the images to diverge. In other words, the brain reconstructs a third dimension.(1)

Illusions like the Tower of Pisa illusion give us proof that our brains use rules to navigate the world. When 3-D is placed on 2-D this often tricks the mind into “seeing” differently. So, what does this mean for architecture? How is the 2-D within architectural design evolving? Why is the use of surface so important? What new illusions might we uncover in the future as the use of surface in architecture continues to advance?

Since early times, 2-D surface has been used to create illusions and representations of our 3-D world. At times, our eyes navigate 2-D surface using 3-D navigation rules. This is most evident when we see perspective drawings on a canvas or building surface. Artists and architects alike make the most of our visual sensory system to use surface to create space. Within architecture, for example, the use of perspective on actual building surface can greatly modify spatial character.

Now, with the digital revolution, architectural space can be manipulated evermore by using surface. Architects are going beyond merely painting or applying a surface coating or facing. Architectural surface can literally become space that our eyes move through. With digital media, motion can also be applied to such surfaces, giving space more depths and varying dynamic movements. On very thin screens, humans are now able to navigate 3-D virtual space. At the same time, since this is virtual space – designers may challenge the rules that we humans have come to understand in the real world. (Rules of physics like gravity, friction and inertia can be altered to create certain environmental constructs.)

Nanotechnology is also changing the way architects and designers think of surface. As materials are constructed at the atomic and molecular level, nanotechnology has the power to alter material behavior. Such materials may be used to construct architecture and may transform the way occupants expect materials to perform. As materials become stronger, lighter and cleaner, surface applications will fundamentally change. Just imagine a surface that is perceived as strong and durable as opposed to vulnerable and delicate. The possibilities are immense.

Surfaces are becoming increasingly transient. As we advance further into the future, smart materials will continue to advance and alter the way building materials function. Now, we have glass that can change transparencies and sensors that can actuate LED surface lighting. In effect, the notion of “surface” is changing, and our perception of what we think 2-D space can do is expanding. We have come a long way from discovering the rules of perspective; yet, we are just beginning to understand the brain, its systems and the illusions that define them. Still, it is with the advancement of “surface” that 3-dimensional space continues to evolve – a direct influence from the human sensory system and how it navigates the world.

(1) Macknik, Stephen L. & Martinez-Conde, Susana. A Perspective on 3-D Visual Illusions. Scientific American Mind Magazine. October/November 2008.