1) The presentation discusses how neuroscience insights can inform architectural design to support human autonomy and experience. It outlines three drivers of autonomy - executive control, deliberation with time and effort, and freedom from external influences. 2) The neuroscience of architectural experience involves sensory-motor systems, emotions and evaluation, and learning and stored knowledge interacting with the prefrontal cortex and decision making. Design can enhance autonomy by facilitating comprehension, awareness of framing, inclusion and participation. 3) Restorative design that considers the interior milieu and environment can support autonomy by allowing the "high road" of thinking with the prefrontal cortex rather than automatic reactions from subcortical regions.

1. Urban Depth & Autonomy Workshops : Architectural Depth
Natalia Olszewska
MD, Dual MSc, Master in Neuroscience Applied to Architecture
Impronta
The Centre for Conscious Design

2. Presentation Outline
Neuroscience for Architecture
Neuroscience on Autonomy
Conclusions for Architectural Design

3. Neuroscience for Architecture

4. ‘I have come to believe that the key to understanding how our brains enable our
minds to experience architectural settings is consciousness’
John Eberhard, Architect & Founder of ANFA

5. INSIDE OUTSIDE
A PERSON
(PERSONA / ARCHETYPE)
HUMAN-ENVIRONMENT
INTERFACE
WHAT MENTAL
STATE DO WE
SUPPORT?
CONSTELLATION
OF
SPATIAL METRICS

6. Consciousness
1.
2.
Panksepp and Biven, ‘The archeology of mind: Neuroevolutionary origins of human emotion’
pinterest.com
1. Affective, subcortical
2. Cognitive, cortical, computational

7. Channels of Architectural Experience
https://getemotionallypsyched.weebly.com

8. Daniel Liebeskind, Jewish Museum Berlin
Direct (unconscious) reaction to architectural features

9. Cognitive Map
A mental representation of a physical environment based on one or an accumulation of experiences.
Defining features: choice points, memorable events, rewards
Indirect (conscious) reaction to architectural features

10. Indirect (conscious) reaction to architectural features
Landmark

11. NEUROSCIENCE ON HUMAN AUTONOMY
http://bullandbearmcgill.com/maintaining-human-autonomy-face-automation/

12. NEUROSCIENCE ON HUMAN AUTONOMY
AUTONOMOUS DECISION
It is consistent with individual’s higher order desires and beliefs
It is rational, it must be an outcome of a deliberative process
It is NOT influenced by external factors beyond individual’s control / covert influences
Gidon Felsen & Peter B. Reiner (2011) How the Neuroscience of Decision Making Informs Our Conception of Autonomy, AJOB Neuroscience

13. 3. Limbic system, emotions, mediates
between 1 & 2
AUTONOMY & ORDER OF DESIRES
1. Brainstem
2. Cortex
3. Limbic system
pinterest.com
Gidon Felsen & Peter B. Reiner (2011)
1. Unconscious automatic physiological
reactions
2. Conscious responses and complex
cognitive tasks

14. PREFRONTAL CORTEX (PFC)
&
EXECUTIVE CONTROL THEORY (ECT)
AUTONOMY & ORDER OF DESIRES
PFC
pinterest.com
Gidon Felsen & Peter B. Reiner (2011)

15. AUTONOMY & ORDER OF DESIRES
PFC
pinterest.com
Limbic system
TIME
EFFORT
FRAMING
(CHOICE ARCHITECTURE)
Gidon Felsen & Peter B. Reiner (2011)

16. AUTONOMY & RATIONALITY
“Evidence suggests that there are many instances in which we do not make rational decisions”
(Tversky & Kahneman)
boycewire.com
Cognitive Limitations
Time Constraint
Information Imperfection
Bounded
Rationality
Satisfying
Sub-optimal
Decision

17. AUTONOMY & RATIONALITY
“The action of biological drives, body states, and emotions may be an indispensable foundation for
rationality”
(Damasio 1994, 2000)
PFC BODY
Somatic Marker Hypothesis, Damasio
Gidon Felsen & Peter B. Reiner (2011)

18. AUTONOMY & FREEDOM FROM COVERT INFLUENCES
AWARENESS
OF
FRAMING
(CHOICE ARCHITECTURE)
https://ankita1site.files.wordpress.com/2015/05/simpsons.png
Gidon Felsen & Peter B. Reiner (2011)

19. CONCLUSIONS

20. Executive Control
Deliberation (Time and Effort)
Freedom from External Influences (Choice Architecture)
AUTONOMY DRIVERS

21. “Buildings, Beauty, and the Brain: A Neuroscience of Architectural Experience”. (Vartanian et al. 2017)
Knowledge
/ Meaning
ARCHITECTURAL
EXPERIENCE
Sensory-Motor
System
Emotions /
Evaluation
Learning, Stored facts, Schemas
and models
Orbitofrontal cortex
Decision making
Interior milieu and environment
Human
Behaviour
Neuroscience of Architectural Experience

22. ARCHITECTURAL
EXPERIENCE
Learning, Stored facts, Schemas and models
Prefrontal Cortex and Decision making
Interior milieu and environment
AUTONOMY DRIVERS
COMPREHENSION
AWARENESS OF FRAMING
THE THINKING
HIGH ROAD
AUTONOMY
INCLUSION
PARTICIPATION
PERCEIVED CONTROL
RESTORATION

23. THANK YOU
natalia.impronta@gmail.com
www.linkedin.com/in/natalia-olszewska
www.venetianletter.com