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Understanding principles about environmental psychology will help architects to design with greater awareness. The following are ten important questions inspired by some of the major themes that make up the study of environmental psychology.

Although some may look simple at first glance, the questions are really quite complex as you delve into the inner-workings of human perception, cognition and behavior. The more you understand about how occupants interact with their environments, the better your designs will be.

You should keep these questions in your “mental toolbox” as you design: Read more

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Architectural design requires that acoustics be well thought out and coordinated. The sound spectrum must remain clear without portions distorted or missing. The paper, Acoustics and Sound Systems in Architectural Design, emphasizes how acousticians should be part of the design team early on. The author describes how it is important to avoid overlapping sound waves that project into a common space – this interference is what can distort the sound spectrum.(1)

The following are 7 additional design tips to achieve the best architectural acoustics within a space. These principles highlight some of the most informative ideas found within Acoustics and Sound Systems in Architectural Design for best aural experience.

1) Watch out for SOUND REFLECTIONS. Straight surfaces reflect sounds back into the central space making sound clarity muddy.

2) Select ACOUSTICAL TREATMENT carefully. Different materials absorb sound frequencies differently. Make sure your acoustical treatments are absorbing the right sound frequencies.

3) Diminish ECHOES when necessary. Be aware that sounds traveling within 30 milliseconds of each other are perceived without echo. Sounds traveling after the 30 millisecond threshold become echoes of the original sound.

4) Don’t let other building systems get in the way. NOISE CONTROL is important to keep in check as other building systems (like HVAC systems) operate. Keep such clashing noises to a minimum.

5) Keep objects or other OBSTRUCTIONS out of the way. Objects that obstruct a sound path can block high frequency sounds. (Low frequency sounds can bend around objects.)

6) Get good PATTERN CONTROL. Make sure sound systems for a room get good sound coverage. This will prevent feed-back and other sound distortions.

7) For out-of-the-way listening areas get DISTRIBUTED SOUND SYSTEMS. Such “delay-fill” speakers operate with an electronic delay so the sound matches and is synchronized.

In the end, it is important to make sure that the architectural acoustics match the architectural function and aesthetic value of a particular project. I remember visiting a hospital where the TV sound was obstructed by an HVAC vent. That simple sound collision can make for quite an uncomfortable hospital stay. Similarly, you should make certain that sound travels only when you want it to. Office conversations that needlessly travel to employee office spaces can be quite a distraction.

Involve your acoustician early and coordinate design efforts to avoid uncomfortable and sometimes painful aural sensations. Architectural acoustics are important beyond auditoriums, theaters and religious spaces.

(1) Kamlet, Rick. Acoustics and Sound Systems in Architectural Design. Archi-Tech. April 2005.

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All too often, architectural designs rely more heavily on just one primary sense – the visual one. The other senses are unfortunately frequently neglected. This is unfortunate since it is through the senses that architecture can have profound effect. For instance, architectural building can more truly relate to the surrounding culture through all of the senses. Addressing historic, traditional or present-day cultural patterns can make a work of architecture a success when the senses are not ignored.

The architect must act as a composer that orchestrates space into a synchronization for function and beauty through the senses – and how the human body engages space is of prime importance. As the human body moves, sees, smells, touches, hears and even tastes within a space – the architecture comes to life.

The rhythm of an architecture can be felt by occupants as a result of the architect’s composition – or arrangement of all the sensorial qualities of space. By arranging spatial sensorial features, an architect can lead occupants through the functional and aesthetic rhythms of a created place. Architectural building for all the senses can serve to move occupants – elevating their experience.

Architectural space is about layering for all of the senses. Like a musical composition, spatial features come together into a symphony for occupants to experience. Bringing a space to life means that architectural function and form is not just primarily for the visual sense. By engaging all of the senses, form and function may be more fully expressed so occupants can have deeper, more meaningful moments – feeling the bouquet of their surroundings in all of its dimensions.

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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.

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Museums are great places for learning. In a museum children and adults alike can immerse themselves in distant places or learn how scientific discoveries are made. Museums can also reveal a cultural past, present or future. All in all, museums are great places to learn – especially as new technology helps designers to improve museum exhibit design.

Museum exhibits are getting evermore technologically advanced and virtual reality is one of the latest trends. Of course, virtual reality can be immersive, interactive or both. In the paper Immersive Interactive Virtual Reality in the Museum by Maria Roussou, “computer generated interactive experiences” are said to be able to “transcend physical locations”.(1) Museum visitors are able to make choices during their virtual travel enabling them to feel a sense of exploration – triggering curiosity and the desire to learn.

Most virtual reality exhibits cater to both the visual and aural senses. Such exhibits can be quite awe inspiring as visualizations are getting increasingly detailed. By using both head-worn and hand-held devices, visitors are able to interact with the simulation in a variety of new ways. However, the problem arises when designers try to meet the varied needs of a multitude of visitors.

Unfortunately, because museums attract a large number of diverse visitors, the technological components are not “one-size-fits-all”. Thus, stereoglasses are often clunky – especially for children to use. Another common issue with virtual reality exhibits is that many visitors tend to develop motion sickness. To prevent this, “good sight lines, ample seating, comfortable viewing for extended periods, good field of view and ergonomics” all contribute to positive immersive learning experiences.(1)

Museum exhibits that incorporate virtual reality really can better a visitor’s experience. The ability to simulate experiences opens exhibit design up to so many creative solutions – it remains up to designers to comfortably and innovatively apply virtual reality.

(1) Roussou, Maria. Interactive Virtual Reality in the Museum. Foundation of the Hellenic World. Greece.

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Human awareness is not as perfect as you might think. We humans are easily distracted and our attention can be fleeting. So, this notion of an “extended mind” seems to make sense. The idea as described in the Discover article entitled The Brain: How Google Is Making Us Smarter explains that the human mind is really a system made up by the human brain extending into “parts of the environment”. Ultimately, the mind comes to depend on its environment for cues and information.(1)

With the computer revolution, humans are relying more and more on machines to make up a piece of their “extended mind”. As such tools permeate human environments; I can’t help but think of how the notion of an “extended mind” may influence architecture. 

Architectural design, due to its incorporation of aesthetic and function, can almost immediately be considered as part of this “extended mind”. Buildings surround their occupants and provide for many of their needs. Such needs include sensorial stimulation, community relationship building and functional processes. Architecture may also be said to help the human mind by helping it to adapt as, it too, evolves.

First, we cannot deny that computers and other tools are continuously finding their way into architectural environments. Buildings are becoming smarter and more interactive. As architects learn new ways to cater to their building’s occupants, architectural features will become more meaningful as they strive to help occupants live better lives.

With ongoing innovations, architecture will be able to tailor its interactions to occupant styles, tastes and needs in real-time. Architecture itself may become “hub-like” in that it provides a new kind of place for idea-sharing and experience enhancement. As interactive design installations gain popularity, occupants will be able to experience themselves and others in new ways. Information will take on different interactive qualities and architecture will relate more personably to its occupants.

The notion of an “extended mind” will continue to evolve as interactive architecture becomes increasingly main-stream. In addition, these advanced environments may help our minds to evolve as well. Consequently, more interaction with our environments may mean that greater resources will be readily available to us in real-time. Just as Google has placed an abundance of information at our fingertips (literally)(1), interactive architecture will have the power to improve our experiences via augmented realities. Thus, our “extended minds” may connect to architectural design in whole new ways.

(1) Zimmer, Carl. The Brain: How Google Is Making Us Smarter. Discover. January 15, 2009.

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Have you ever toyed with the notion of designing a space strictly based on sound quality? Perhaps acoustics have played a major role in certain projects where sound formulas served to construct space. But — what about “aural architecture”? It becomes interesting to understand what happens to architecture beyond physics. When experienced via our auditory senses, architecture gains another dimension that significantly influences occupants. In the book Spaces Speak, Are You Listening, the authors describe how aural spaces evoke feelings and emotions as occupants listen.

Interestingly, the authors describe how sound serves to connect or even isolate humans dependant upon there proximity to noise levels, a specific sound source or other people. Humans use their sense of hearing to understand space. Sound works together with the other senses to help people navigate and construct understanding of forms, objects and distances.(1) Thus, the auditory quality of an architectural space is quite important.

There is no doubt that when architecture tailors itself to the human senses its effects have great impact. The interplay between aural and visual architecture, for instance, can create powerful spatial experiences. In an interview with the authors of Spaces Speak, it was said that “extensive observations of ancient sites support the notion that wall art and acoustics were deliberately related rather than accidents.” Thus, the caves of Lascaux are prime examples of how bison images reflect the strong echoes found in the chambers. It is thought that the echoes were reminiscent of the “hoof beats” made by bison when passing.(1)

Yes, aural characteristics found within architecture often stir emotions. Accordingly, we use our sense of hearing to bond with other people as well as to enjoy space. Just imagine religious buildings, office buildings, music halls, restaurants or even residential spaces. For occupants to share a space they, frequently, must share their experiences – and sound is often a primary feature which unites them. Simply stated, if an event is out of earshot, then an occupant may not even be aware that they need to pay attention.

As architecture evolves, auditory designs will likely become more elaborate. Beyond music halls and religious institutions, sound design should do more than help occupants reconstruct space; sound design should help occupants truly interact with their surroundings. Designing with sound can bring about just as many spatial arrangements as designing with visual ques. The trick is to know how to synthesize such stimuli into a composition for multiple senses. Occupants will then have the richest of architectural experiences.

(1) Blesser, Barry & Salter, Linda-Ruth. Spaces Speak, Are you Listening? Experiencing Aural Architecture. MIT Press. 2006.

The following images are presented in Scientific American Mind. The article entitled Sculpting the Impossible: Solid Renditions of Visual Illusions portrays both illusion and solution to this eye trickery. I find it amazing that these artists have gone to such detail to reveal illusions that still seem virtually unfeasible. I could stare at these sculptures for quite some time – and still would have trouble “believing my eyes.”

“Lunch with a Helmet On” is composed of 848 forks, knives and spoons. The lighting here is precisely placed to accomplish the motorcycle shadow illusion.

“Encore,” is by Japanese artist Shigeo Fukuda. Here, this sculpture portrays both a pianist and a violinist within the same piece. The center view shows how this artist accomplished this illusion.

Artists Tim Noble and Sue Webster created this sculpture from regular objects found in the trash.

These sculptures truly reveal the importance of a vantage point. As you can see, these sculptures utilize visual vantage points – where understanding can only be accomplished visually. Such works of art make evident how orientation and position can work together to produce amazing results.

The latter photographs illustrate, in tangible form, the many faces a 3-dimensional work of art may have. Visit great architecture and, there too, you may experience a type of sculpture coming to life. As the sun, other occupants and designed features all come together to reveal beautiful moments – the architect’s intent is understood and cherished.

These sculptures make the most of the human visual system, making the surreal exist before our very eyes. Architecture, also, may push the same envelope that seems incorrectly limited by the human senses. This just shows how knowing more about how humans experience space will only push designers toward even greater creation.

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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.

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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.