Perceiving Architecture

Perceiving Architecture: How can we use neuroscientific study to manipulate design factors for desired cognitive and behavioural responses upon architectural encounter? Emily Foster The University of Sheffield Figure 1. Drawing and Monument House, Joshua Tree National Park. Emily Foster 200331810 ARC322 Special Study February 2024 Word Count: 4344 CONTENTS 1. Overture 2. Aims & Methodology 3. Perceiving Architecture 3.1. Empathy and the Built Environment 3.2. Mirror Neurons 3.3. Bettering Design Through Neuroscientific Research 4. Design Factors that Influence Perception 4.1. Dimensions, Proportions & Rhythm 4.2. Positive and Negative Forms 4.3. Interior and Exterior 4.4. Materiality, Tactiles & Ornament 4.5. Hearing, Smelling & Tasting 4.6. The Narrative of Inhabiting a Space 5. Conclusion Bibliography List of Figures Figure 2. Le Corbusier’s Villa Stein in Garches, France. 3 1. OVERTURE The topic of my Special Study is the convergence of architecture and neuroscience, in which I feel the written and taught discourse for – especially within architectural education – is scarce. The cognitive response to architecture, specifically, is something that has captured my interest within the last few years. I believe analysis of the human emotional experiences of architectural spaces, through study of evolutionary factors as well as situational physical influences, is beneficial in aiding the future of architectural design to become more relatable, intentional, and meaningful to a function or inhabitant. Cognitive response to an architectural space is something that can be experienced by everybody. Even if a person is limited in sight, hearing, movement or brain function, an emotional and existential experience will be had upon encounter with a building – whether this is internally acknowledged or happens unnoticed. Our built environment influences our mood and behaviour constantly, often without our conscious awareness. Factors of our human genetics, developed over millennia of evolution, affect our experiences of physical forms around us, and I believe that attempts to understand how they do so can encourage more meaningful architectural design. ‘Why do we all sense profound pleasure when sitting by an open fire if not because fire has offered our predecessors safety, pleasure and a heightened sense of togetherness for some seven hundred thousand years [?]’ - 1 Harry Juhani Pallasmaa, Architecture and Neuroscience1 Mallgrave, Juhani Pallasmaa and Michael A Airbib, Architecture and Neuroscience (Finland: Tapio Wirkkala-Rut Bryk Foundation, 2013) p.13 Figure 3. Michaelangelo’s The Atlas Slave in Galleria dell’Accademia, Florence. 4 2. AIMS & METHODOLOGY Within this essay I aim to analyse the human cognitive response to architecture through narrative and illustrated descriptions of architectural spaces, chosen based on the design features they possess and the subsequent sensory and emotional experience of an observer. I would like to represent each space as a collation of 6 different but interlinking factors of perception: dimension and proportion; positive and negative forms; interior and exterior interaction; materiality, tactiles and ornament; hearing, smelling and tasting; and finally spatial narrative. I will discuss the evolutionary biological reasons for our cognitive response to the built environment, and their importance for informing future design. I will deliberate how the use of recent discoveries within neuroscience could (and should) be used within the architectural field and deliver my tenet for why there should be far more involvement than there currently is with this topic amongst architects. What I hope my studies will achieve is a wider awareness and recognition that it is crucial for us to incorporate neuroscientific research into the architectural field if we want to properly understand ‘human as generic client’2. Architecture is a multidisciplinary profession, but we are lacking in the implementation of cognitive studies as insight into the users of our buildings3. With regards to research methodology, I have widened my knowledge using resources such as lectures, blogs, articles, and books, following the works of architectural researchers such as Ann Sussman and Harry Mallgrave, neuroscientists Semir Zeki and Vittorio Gallese and phenomenologist Juhani Pallasmaa. I have been diligent in my research, finding resources from diverse backgrounds in order to uncover differing opinions on the matter, and avoid inaccuracies or bias. Spatial encounters of my own have also influenced my writing, as I am able to recall and relate to experiential cognitive and behavioural responses discussed within this discourse. 2 Ann Sussman and Justin B Hollander, Cognitive Architecture: Designing for How We Respond to The Built Environment, Second Edition (New York: Routledge, 2021) p.28 3 Juhani Pallasmaa, Harry Mallgrave, Sarah Robinson and Vittorio Gallese, Architecture and Empathy (Finland: Tapio WirkkalaRut Bryk Foundation, 2015) p.16 Figure 4. Andrew Kudless’ P_Wall. 5 3. PERCEIVING ARCHITECTURE The built environment serves not just as a collection of spaces in which private, commercial, or leisurely functions can occur, but also as the backdrop against which people live their lives – where children grow, and memories are created. French philosopher Gaston Bachelard states that ‘the house shelters daydreaming’4, something in which he regarded as highly important, allowing one to relive memories of past experiences, contributing to unique emotional identity, and influencing perceptions of future happenings. To him, the significance of the safety of house was that it granted the freedom for ‘dwelling places’5. Another form of daydreaming, ‘decoupling’ or ‘imagining scenarios (…) and not actually acting on them’6 is considered highly advantageous by biologists, permitting the ‘creation of imaginative work’7. We are capable of perceiving architecture almost spontaneously upon entering a space – whether we feel an overwhelming sense of awe, comfort, or disgust. Our perceptions vary depending on how the places we have individually experienced have influenced us. Steen Eiler Rasmussen, Danish architect, remarks that ‘we are generally not aware of what it is that we perceive, but only the conception created in our mind when we perceive it’.8 Our perception develops when we are young, through sensory exploration of our immediate environment, and constant reflexive interpersonal exchanges; ‘…the baby begins by tasting things, touching them, handling them (…) to find out what they are like’9. As we grow in age and experience, we learn to instinctively evaluate objects’ physical qualities such as weight, solidity, texture, and coldness, through sight and subconsciously combine these evaluations to produce our perception. There has been an ongoing effort to try and understand how architecture can provoke emotion. Aristotle theorised that works of art predominantly embodied mimesis as a method of enabling human connection.10 Heinrich Wolfflin, Swiss art historian, conducted his dissertation in 1886 4 Mallgrave, Pallasmaa and Airbib, Architecture and Neuroscience, p.20 Bachelard, The Poetics of Space, 1994 Edition (Boston: Beacon Press, 1994) p.6 6 Ann Sussman, Justin B Hollander, Cognitive Architecture: Designing for How We Respond to The Built Environment, Second Edition (New York: Routledge, 2021) p.194 7 ibid 8 Steen Eiler Rasmussen, Experiencing Architecture, First United States Edition (Massachusetts: The MIT Press, 1964) p.32 9 Ibid, p.15 10 Pallasmaa, Mallgrave, Robinson and Gallese, Architecture and Empathy, p.16 5 Gaston titled, ‘How is it possible that architectural forms are able to invoke an emotion or mood[?]’ 11. A general awareness came about that one’s emotional connection to physical forms must have been through subconscious projection of oneself into the work. Robert Vischer, German philosopher who invented the term Einfuhlung (aesthetic sympathy, later empathy), expressed that when observing art or architecture he would ‘transpose [himself] into the inner being of the object and then explore its formal character from within as it were’.12 3. 1 EMPATHY AND THE BUILT ENVIRONMENT The human brain is essentially oriented towards vision as the most important of the five senses; ‘1o million of the 11 million bits of information going into the brain every second are visual’ 13, stated by American theoretical physicist, Leonard Mlodinow. Phenomena in human vision have come about through evolution and the criticality of survival, like pareidolia: the tendency for humans to perceive faces in places that they are not – stemming from the need to see predators’ faces in poor visual conditions14. An unexpected consequence of pareidolia is the innate fondness people display towards architecture seeming to resemble facial features; we engage emotionally with face-like objects, without conscious effort15. Already exploited by car manufacturers – with Wall Street Journal reporting in 2006 article ‘Why Cars Got Angry’ that cars which headlights and grille ostensibly have bad tempers sell well16 - this notion could be used to create more emotionally-stimulating architectural works. We consider that bilaterally symmetrical windows resemble eyes, while centrally placed doors appear to be a nose or mouth. It could be argued that we as human desire to be emotionally stimulated by our built environment. The poet Phaedrus, stated in Eupalinos (The Architect) that architecture, ‘must move men as they are moved by their beloved’17, and millennia later, during his lecture about atmospheres, Peter Zumthor made similar supporting comments about the desired emotional impact of a building. Neuroscientific research shows that our surrounding environment can emotionally stimulate us to the extent of ‘modulating the function of genes and, ultimately, the structure of our brain’18, meaning that depending on how we design architectural forms, we can not only create spatial experiences, but also influence changes in people’s emotions and subsequent behaviour. 11 ibid 12 Ibid, p.69 13 Sussman and Hollander, Cognitive Architecture: Designing for How We Respond to The Built Environment, p.36 14 Ibid, p.110 15 Ibid, pg.113 16 Ibid, pg.115 17 Pallasmaa, 18 Mallgrave, Mallgrave, Robinson and allese, Architecture and Empathy) p.12 Pallasmaa and Airbib, Architecture and Neuroscience p.5 6 3.2 MIRROR NEURONS Joseph Brodsky, American poet, proposed that the underlying implication of every poem was, ‘Be like me’19, anticipating the huge role empathy has in our being as social and emotional animals. Within the act of perceiving, we experience an object or space through our bodies – we project ourselves into art or architecture to analyse it as creative process; how it came to be rather than what it stands as finished. Sculptor, Henry Moore, told that his works became ‘an extension of his body’20, and this captures quite simplistically the way in which we all perceive our surrounding environments as ‘the flesh of the world’. As Vittorio Gallese suggests, ‘physical forms possess a character only because we ourselves possess a body’21. Advances within neuroscience focussed on empathy led to the discovery of the mirror neuron – something that has long been anticipated to exist and can be used to understand why works of art or architecture can have such profound emotional influence on an observer. Demonstrated firstly within monkeys, but now confirmed to be the same in humans, the existence of mirror neurons allows the body neural activation through empathy of sorts22. Essentially, the region of the brain (anterior insula23) which is activated upon experiencing an emotion, or performing an action, is also activated upon viewing that emotion in, or action by, somebody else. As a result of this discovery, many psychoanalytic theories have arisen attempting to explain how observing a physical form can translate into an emotional experience occurring, through this notion of unconscious self-projection. 3.3 BETTERING DESIGN THROUGH NEUROSCIENTIFIC RESEARCH Mid-Century architectural feats we admire, for instance works of Frank Lloyd Wright, Louis Kahn, and Alvar Aalto, all embody a deep understanding of human nature. With the increase of technology in design, discourse of biology, neuroscience, and phenomenology in architectural education is diminishing – the involvement of human experience is limited to figures scattered around computer renderings ‘as mere decorations’24. Vernacular typologies are being replaced by global fashions or ‘isms’, leading to a worldwide loss of place as all buildings head towards the same aesthetic fate, concurrently defacing the architectural profession by demonstrating a lack of 19 Pallasmaa, Mallgrave, Robinson and Gallese, Architecture and Empathy p.18 Ibid, p.8 21 Ibid, p.69 22 Ibid, p.16 23 Ibid, p.74 24 Pallasmaa, Mallgrave, Robinson and Gallese, Architecture and Empathy p.15 20 Figure 5. Author Analysis of a Pareidolia Facade. 7 situational consideration within the design process, and ignorance towards local cultural traditions or needs. Native peoples around the world preach interconnectedness and empathy25, principles that are being forgotten with the onslaught of industrialisation, individualism, and technological progress. Utilising neuroscientific research within architectural theory can permit its reconciliation with broader humanistic phenomenology. Architecture is a multidisciplinary profession, relying on knowledge of politics, economy, art, biology, mechanics, and technology – so why are we only just beginning to implement research of human cognitive studies? Emerging data from neuroscientific studies promises a deeper understanding of the mental implications of building, fertilising architectural thinking and providing insight into not only the visual experience of the built environment but also the emotional and existential encounters. The integration of neuroscience can improve architectural design through insight of how people form relationships with their built environment, allowing us to build specific spatial experiences for specific functions and/or persons. For example, we can discern what sort of lighting conditions encourage productivity, and what lighting conditions hinder production, in order to design a functional workspace. With guidance from cognitive response studies, we can create meaningful and appropriate spaces for young children or the elderly to inhabit safely and with enjoyment. Through documentation and exploration of a person’s neural reactions to architectural spaces, we can begin to develop a library of biological phenomena and physical forms that cause us as human to experience resultant pleasure or displeasure. Today, there are two architecture schools of which programme’s include neuroscience: The NewSchool of Architecture + Design (NSAD), in San Diego, California; and the University of Arizona in Tucson, Arizona26. The neurological research of meaningful architectural experiences must revolve around a dialogue between architects and scientists, and in the words of Harry Mallgrave, ‘knowing ourselves, as Socrates would undoubtedly agree, will help us better understand the people for whom we build’27. 25 Ibid, p.49 26 Harry Mallgrave, Pallasmaa and Airbib, Architecture and Neuroscience p.20 27 Ibid, p.41 Figure 6. Author Analysis of Indian Institute of Management by Louis Kahn. 8 5. DESIGN FACTORS THAT INFLUENCE PERCEPTION In this chapter, I will discuss the factors affecting cognitive perception, through illustrated analysis of photographs depicting spaces that display these factors well. The purpose of visualising how each of these factors come together is to demonstrate how our most favoured and meaningful spaces incorporate a plethora of ideas from different features of design, from geometry and form to textural encounters and sensory interaction. 5.1 DIMENSIONS, PROPORTIONS & RHYTHM Humans are bilaterally symmetrical, and hence much of what we make is, too. This innate preference for symmetry is the reason we favour facades seemingly resembling faces, as already mentioned. We find faces everywhere, from billboards to corporate logos – Amazon’s smiley logo is recognisable to almost everybody in modern society28. Eight out of the ten most expensive paintings ever sold portray faces29. Figure 7. Drawing of Ambulation Man. Designing architecture to be relatable to the human body involves the study of anthropometrics and biology - for instance, Ambulation Man depicts the natural stance in which a person walks; with their head at a downwards tilt of 10 degrees30, and comes into great influence within the design of commercial spaces - an example being the large window displays lining a high-street, positioned just above ground level, so that pedestrians will view them whilst walking. According to Ancient Greek philosopher Parmenides, we were all ‘created in the image of God’31, inspiring the notion of egocentricity and the proportions of the ideal man – prevalent in works throughout history; like Leonardo Dan Vinci’s Vitruvian Man and Le Corbusier’s Modulor Man. Our field of vision is rectangular, with 3/2 proportion32, meaning that the shape and scale of an object determines the speed that it is perceived – we take in horizontal information faster than vertical in order to construct our view as a whole33. Objects reflecting this proportion, or that of the golden ratio, can be easily perceived and are considered pleasant to view34. Common distances 28 Sussman and Hollander, Cognitive Architecture: Designing for How We Respond to The Built Environment, p.120 29 Ibid, p.116 30 Ibid, p.45 31 Christian Norburg-Schulz, Architecture, Presence, Language and Place/Existence, Space and Architecture (Milan: Skira Editore, 2000) p.101 32 Sussman and Hollander, Cognitive Architecture: Designing for How We Respond to The Built Environment, p.148 33 Ibid. 34 Ibid, p.146 Figure 8. Drawing of 35 meters and the emotional field of vision. 9 notable for their comfort and functionality within human environments consist of: 100 meters the limit of the field of vision in which we can make out another human’s movement (important in stadium design); 35 meters – considered the limit for reading emotion (important in theatre design); 7 meters - where a person can easily hear another person; and 3 meters - where visual processing is richest and conversation can occur35. Each of these dimensions is tremendously crucial for successfully functional streetscape design. Not only do proportions and dimensions influence the visual of functional experience of a space, but the emotional and behavioural response, too. Levels of intimacy are often composed as a balanced series of contrasts and encompass something more bodily and experiential than scale alone. For instance, when encountering a narrow corridor with a low ceiling, we become aware of our confinement; often reflected subconsciously by a slight crouch or slump in our walk and an increased breathing rate36. When transitioning from this space into a large, open room with high ceiling, our posture straightens, and our breathing deepens37. We rely on dimensions and proportions that fit well within our evolutionary constitution in order to easily and comfortably perceive forms about our place. Building with the starting point of the human body and scale allows for more usable, meaningful, and favourable spaces to be created. 5.2 POSITIVE AND NEGATIVE FORMS Humans are thigmotactic, meaning we statistically gravitate towards the edges of an open space38. This is remarkably necessary to designing for the human experience, especially within urban planning for spaces such as town squares. Thigmotaxis stems from the survival instinct to protect one’s back, observed in animal life and bacteria as old as 3.6 billion years39.In order to feel comfortable, a large open space must have monuments such as plants, seating, or sculpture so that we can ‘watch our backs’ to feel as safe in the open air as we do in a room. Thigmotactic behaviour often increases with anxiety and decreases with familiarity – meaning people will become more quickly comfortable in spaces they use frequently – something they will want to do if said space adheres to their genetic thigmotactic tendencies. Awareness and understanding of the mismatch between our modern building habits and our ancient genes can help inform our betterment in design. Our perception of architecture can often be informed by inferred actions depicted by interacting forms, due to our mirror-like behaviour and tendency to self-project into what we are observing. 35 Ibid, p.138-143 36 Mallgrave, Figure 9. Drawing of Action Through Agency. Pallasmaa and Airbib, Architecture and Neuroscience p.30 37 Ibid. 38 Sussman and Hollander, Cognitive Architecture: Designing for How We Respond to The Built Environment, p.29 39 Ibid, p.48 10 Many different actions can be seemingly performed by built forms, from pushing and pulling, to penetrating and catching. Depending on materiality, which will be discussed later on, these actions can bring us relaxation or great discomfort. Another phenomenon in the human brain is known as the curve bias, in which we find curvilinear shapes to be more beautiful than rectilinear40. A study conducted by Robert Ulrich, hospital design expert, concluded that patient feelings and recovery rates were much better when given a view of curvilinear abstract art, compared with a view of rectilinear abstract art, and that the rectilinear art produced higher anxiety than no art at all41. Repetitive parallel lines do not occur naturally, meaning our brains require more oxygen when met with them, to visually process what we have not evolved to42. The acknowledgment of our cognitive and genetic instincts within architectural design not only creates places that encourage activity and occupation, but can even affect recovery speeds, wellbeing, and mood. A space should be functional regarding intended building-use and functional as a healthy and satisfying place of being. 5.3 INTERIOR AND EXTERIOR The innate bond between humans and other living things, the biophilia hypothesis, seemingly compels us to statistically gravitate toward a savanna-like view43. If we used this fact to inform architectural design, ribbon windows (Like in Le Corbusier’s 5 points of architecture) and lots of natural light would increase unity between building and the human brain. Thresholds between interior and exterior can be approached architecturally in various ways, whether it be to create an imperceptible transition or a deliberate tension and contrast. Physical elements such as dimension and proportion have their resultant effects upon the emotional and behavioural experience of the journey across a threshold – other components to influence the experience would be temperature and lighting. Drastic changes in temperature and/or lighting between inside and out, vice versa, can make an observer aware of the act of crossing a threshold, whereas an undetectable temperature/lighting change upon threshold-crossing can prompt an observer to question whether they are inside or out; in public or private. Instinctively, people will gravitate towards natural light44. 40 Ibid, p.181 41 Ibid, p.184 Figure 10. Drawings of Interiority. 42 Ibid. 43 Sussman and Hollander, Cognitive Architecture: Designing for How We Respond to The Built Environment, p.33 Pallasmaa and Airbib, Architecture and Neuroscience, p.30 44 Mallgrave, 11 Interiority is the ‘experience of being within something’ and introduces a ‘sense of shelter, safety, inclusion and privacy’45. Interiority can occur in an internal or external space and is important to the human experience. Factors of internal spaces that make an occupier’s experience more pleasant are views of outside (preferably nature) and appropriate temperature and lighting. 5.4 MATERIALITY, TACTILES & ORNAMENT The material composition of a building consists of contradicting elements forced into harmony with each other. Neurologist Semir Zeki regards architects as neurologists; ‘they are those who have experimented with and (…) understood something about the organisation of the visual brain’, suggesting that this ability to compose an architectural space is profoundly related to the human cognitive experience46. The encounter of materials involves self-projection; notice of chisel marks within a marble structure grants us clues or summons questions about its conception. Ambiguity is considered an essential contributor to great art, a renowned example being Michaelangelo’s slaves – bodies in marble contorting to escape their entrapment, appearing unfinished47. Sensory perceptions of tactile materials can be influenced by thickness, temperature, and physiognomy. In a cold space composed of cool materials, contrasting materials can be introduced to tactile moments to stimulate a sensory experience and provide warmth – such as wrapping a steel handrail in rattan. In a seemingly lightweight and open space, a heavy and dark material could be introduced – like the tall, black leather curtain in Peter Zumthor’s thermal baths in Vals48. Sometimes however, materials can induce feelings of discomfort if perceived weights insinuate a danger, such as Michael Heizer’s Levitated Mass – a monument in which a giant boulder rests precariously on two thin walls over a pathway. An exhibition of material tactility that demonstrates our desire to interact with our surroundings through sensory exploration is Andrew Kudless’s P_Wall49. Created by pouring plaster into fabric pockets allowed to sag, the resulting wall evokes curves and contours of the human body. Viewers at the San Fransisco Museum of Modern Art ‘could not keep their hands off it’, and when the work was removed from the museum and left outside, ‘birds built their nests within the shelter of its curves’ – inspiring more in-depth study of the fascination and stimulation caused by this biophilic form50. Tactile materials have a patina of wear that presents an enriching experience of time, history, and aging, and with the fashions of minimalism this loss of tactility resultantly deprives a building of its 45 Philip D. Plowright, Making Architecture Through Being Human: A Handbook of Design Ideas (Abingdon: Routledge, 2020) p.154 Pallasmaa and Airbib, Architecture and Neuroscience, p.18 46 Mallgrave, 47 Ibid. Figure 11. Author Analysis of Levitated Mass by Michael Heizer. 48 Ibid, p.52 49 Pallasmaa, 50 Mallgrave, Robinson and Gallese, Architecture and Empathy, p.57 Ibid. 12 historical narrative. Minimalist facades appear flat and unengaging. A study conducted at Tufts University, New York, utilised eye-tracking to establish the lack of engagement people have with blank facades51. The conclusion of the study was that when presented with photographs of buildings, people found windowless facades so uninteresting that they preferred to look at road traffic or adjacent trees instead52. It is a pleasure for us to have visually-stimulating things to look at – we yearn to expose and display bare beams or rafters. A study at the University of Sheffield demonstrated the importance and desire to have details on ground-floor facades to promote street-engagement and visual-stimulation. Despite this desire for detail, we find complexity without organisation uncomfortable, and randomness overwhelming53. Repeatedly visible in nature, fractals are an example of complexity with organisation and induce a relaxed cognitive response54. We are seemingly fond of ornamentation based on fractal patterns and biophilic curves. 5.6 HEARING, SMELLING & TASTING The Italian word sentire refers to tasting and hearing as well as feeling55. In English, we have separate words for the three senses. The sensory experience of a building is often regarded as the visual and the tactile, but hearing, smelling, and tasting are just as important in the overall perception of architecture. A space with a specific smell may provoke forgotten memories, possibly of the last time the space was visited, and induce the ever-important act of daydreaming56. This phenomenon can be exploited by an architect to manipulate their desired perception of a visitor – for example Disneyworld famously uses artificial scents to encourage revisiting and reminiscing – I vividly remember feeling childlike and nostalgic over the sweet popcorn smell present on Main Street. A Japanese Garden is invigorating as it engages all senses with the space, encouraging healing and spirituality57. Vertical and horizontal planes are considered, the soft planting and the hard rocks are juxtaposed, and the abundance of life provides a perceived close connection to nature. More commonly, architects will consider mainly the visual and auditory senses upon the design of a space, controlling acoustics by dampening with dense textile materials, or amplifying with forms intended for echoing and reflecting noise. It is important to consider the sounds of architectural spaces, as our perception will undoubtedly be influenced by it, even if subconsciously – Peter 51 Sussman and Hollander, Cognitive Architecture: Designing for How We Respond to The Built Environment, p.187 52 Ibid. 53 Sussman and Hollander, Cognitive Architecture: Designing for How We Respond to The Built Environment,) p.186 54 Ibid, p.189 55 Pallasmaa, 56 Alberto Mallgrave, Robinson and Gallese, Architecture and Empathy, p.46 Perez Gomez, Questions of Perception: Phenomenology of Architecture p.32 57 Ibid, p.34 Figure 12. Author Analysis of a Japanese Garden. 13 Zumthor alludes to different buildings have different-sounding silences58. Curating a rich sensory space involves the balanced recognition of all senses on the cognitive and behavioural response of an inhabitant. 5.7 THE NARRATIVE OF INHABITING A SPACE In architecture narrative can be regarding history or space. The ridges worn by footsteps on the steps of the Wells Cathedral demonstrate historical narrative, whereas a building with a layout reflecting a person’s journey through it demonstrates a spatial narrative. Every profound building has been imaginatively inhabited by its architect in order to analyse the progression through each room into the next. An architect who is particularly able in this analysis, and realises it well is Frank Lloyd Wright, specifically his A Fireproof House for $5,00059. This house incorporates the journey of smaller entrance spaces which open up theatrically into larger living spaces with prominent central features like the fireplace. Exploration of dimensions’ effects on perception is present within this design, through contrasting widths, depths and heights composed in harmony. Architecture is an applied art within which things are most beautiful when coherent, including the people and objects they accommodate - ‘buildings are museums of objects and time’. We have progressed from keeping our belongings safely in caves to housing them in secure and personalised spaces that we choose because we like how our brain perceives them. The ways in which we inhabit a space through movement, exhibition and being can so easily be influenced by the subconscious and emotional implications of physical design features. Emphasising direction and moments of stasis throughout the layout of a building forms a perceived narrative of the space and determines our mood and behaviour. Figure 13. Author Analysis of Frank Lloyd Wright’s Fireproof House for $5000. 58 Peter Zumthor, Atmospheres: Architectural Environments, Surrounding Objects (Basel: Birkhauser, 2006) p.29 59 Sussman and Hollander, Cognitive Architecture: Designing for How We Respond to The Built Environment, p.198 14 6 . CONCLUSION To conclude, the integration of the human cognitive experience of our surroundings is vital within architectural design for the betterment of our spatial endeavours. Our sensory and psychological encounters with spaces combine to produce almost immediate perceptions that we can better understand and manipulate through neuroscientific study. With the additional information provided by neural studies we can learn how to intentionally conceive spaces with specific desired subconscious existential and emotional user responses, through proper design and manipulation of proportion; positives and negatives; interior and exterior; materiality, tactiles, and ornament; hearing, smelling, and tasting; and narrative. The future is likely to present more and more discoveries similar to that of mirror neurons, uncovering the biological reasons for our experiences as human and our innate fondness and preference of certain spatial encounters. It is fascinating and inspiring to expect architectural design to become so much more intertwined with different disciplines and become such a beautifully complex speciality, producing built surroundings so closely relatable and bespoke to its users and functions. I regard that this study has shed light upon and provided helpful analysis of steps that can be taken to manipulate building design in order to produce cognitively joyous and satisfying spatial experiences. Utilising relatable proportions in regard to us as human and acknowledging evolutionary behaviours like thigmotaxis can encourage our occupancy of space to become something much more than plainly physical. Providing interactions with nature that we instinctively desire, tactile encounters with building materials, spatial narrative to create a sense of intentionality and inhabitation, and recognition of all senses within our built environment is incredibly important in bringing joy to our manmade surroundings. Figure 14. Author Analysis of Wells Cathedral worn steps. 15 BIBLIOGRAPHY - Alberto Perez Gomez, Questions of Perception: Phenomenology of Architecture (San Fransisco: William Stout Publishers, 1994) - Ann Sussman, Justin B Hollander, Cognitive Architecture: Designing for How We Respond to The Built Environment, Second Edition (New York: Routledge, 2021) - Christian Norburg-Schulz, Architecture, Presence, Language and Place/Existence, Space and Architecture (Milan: Skira Editore, 2000) Gaston Bachelard, The Poetics of Space, 1994 Edition (Boston: Beacon Press, 1994) - Harry Mallgrave, Juhani Pallasmaa and Michael A Airbib, Architecture and Neuroscience (Finland: Tapio WirkkalaRut Bryk Foundation, 2013) Juhani Pallasmaa, Harry Mallgrave, Sarah Robinson and Vittorio Gallese, Architecture and Empathy (Finland: Tapio Wirkkala-Rut Bryk Foundation, 2015) Peter Zumthor, Atmospheres: Architectural Environments, Surrounding Objects (Basel: Birkhauser, 2006) p.29 Philip D. Plowright, Making Architecture Through Being Human: A Handbook of Design Ideas (Abingdon: Routledge, 2020) LIST OF FIGURES • • • • • • Steen Eiler Rasmussen, Experiencing Architecture, First United States Edition (Massachusetts: The MIT Press, 1964) • • • • • • • • Figure 1 – Emily Foster, Drawing and Monument House, Joshua Tree National Park, digital illustration on digital photograph; original photograph by Tyshaia Earnest, Accidentally Wes Anderson <https://accidentallywesanderson.com/places/monument-house/> [accessed 18 January 2024] Figure 2 – Cemal Emden, Villa Stein in Garches, digital photograph, Pinterest <https://www.pinterest.co.uk/pin/435019645237370664/> [accessed 18 January 2024] Figure 3 – Steven Zucker, Michaelangelo “Atlas”, digital photograph, Flickr, 19 October 2018 <https://www.flickr.com/photos/profzucker/50195394196> [accessed 21 January 2024] Figure 4 – Matsy’s Design Studio, Andrew Kudless p_wall, digital photograph <https://www.archdaily.com/1005332/the-second-studio-podcast-interview-with-andrewkudless/64d637228177ff3461c4b5a5-the-second-studio-podcast-interview-with-andrew-kudlessimage?next_project=no> [accessed 12 January 2024] Figure 5 – Emily Foster, Author Analysis of Pareidolia Façade, digital illustration on digital photograph; original photograph by Alex Maridashvili, Instagram, 4 September 2023 <https://www.instagram.com/thedustrails/p/CzLd5PuW7S/?img_index=1> [accessed 20 December 2023] Figure 6 – Emily Foster, Author Analysis of Indian Institute of Management by Louis Kahn, digital illustration on digital photograph; original photograph by 準建築人手札網站, Flickr, 10 October 2011 <https://www.flickr.com/photos/eager/9247753908> [accessed 2 February 2024] Figure 7 - Emily Foster, Drawing of Ambulation Man, illustration derived from Cognitive Architecture: Designing for How We Respond to The Built Environment (see bibliography), 10 February 2024 Figure 8 - Emily Foster, Drawing of 35 meters and the emotional field of vision, illustration derived from Cognitive Architecture: Designing for How We Respond to The Built Environment (see bibliography), 10 February 2024 Figure 9 – Emily Foster, Drawing of Action Through Agency, illustration derived from Making Architecture Through Being Human, A Handbook of Design Ideas (see bibliography), 10 February 2024 Figure 10 – Emily Foster, Drawings of Interiority, illustration derived from Making Architecture Through Being Human, A Handbook of Design Ideas (see bibliography), 10 February 2024 Figure 11 – Emily Foster, Author Analysis of Levitated Mass by Michael Heizer, digital illustration on digital photograph; original photograph by BLDGBLOG, BLDGBLOG, 6 August 2016 <https://bldgblog.com/tag/michael-heizer/> [accessed 5 January 2024] Figure 12 – Emily Foster, Author Analysis of a Japanese Garden, digital illustration on digital photograph; original photograoh by Gramydeco, 21 June 2023 <https://gramydeco.com/japanese-landscaping/> [accessed 12 January 2024] Figure 13 – Emily Foster, Author Analysis of Frank Lloyd Wright’s Fireproof House for $5000, digital illustration on digital photograph; original photograph from Henry-Russel Hitchcock, In the Nature of Materials: The Buildings of Frank Lloyd Wright 1887-1941 (New York: Duell, Sloan and Pearce, 1942) Figure 14 – Emily Foster, Author Analysis of Wells Cathedral worn steps, digital illustration on digital photograph; original photograph by Steven Zucker, Flickr, 1 January 2014 <https://www.flickr.com/photos/profzucker/35856137822> [accessed 13 January 2024] 16