Using current body-sensing technologies to collect data, this project aims to understand intricate areas of the brain related to different spaces and events that we encounter, which will be used create a taxonomy of urban concerns from a neurological perspective.
Kristine Mun
NewSchool of Architecture & Design
Biayna Bogosian
University of Southern California
Namju Lee
Harvard GSD and ESRI
Jury
Luís M. A. Bettencourt
Leo Chow (Cochair)
Scott Duncan
Jason McLennan
Doug Voigt
San Diego is currently feeling the crisis of housing for the predicted one million city dwellers migrating here in the near future. Urban housing issues are facing an upward battle with homeless population growing while housing prices continue to soar. Unaffordability, lack of housing, urban noise, smell, and light are all challenges that cause extreme stress to the residents. Evidence shows that these create and “alter neural processing of acute social stress” (Meyer-Lindenberg), a neurological response to the environment. We feel that in order to successfully create a healthy living environment, the focus should be on the individual. We believe any new urban development proposals would not be effective without taking into account the occupants’ conditions.
Research shows the chaos of urban environments, saturated with intensities such as sound, smell, light (or absence thereof), creates an immense amount of stress on the body. Many people living in crowded cities suffer from depression, loneliness, and stress, which evidence shows can alter the neural processing of acute social stress. We aim to tackle this complex problem of urban overstress by looking at the relationship between a user and their environment. Humanizing High Density can be achieved through the perspective of neuroscience where we measure the limits in the body and its correlation in the brain. For example, we know that the hippocampus in the brain is responsible for spatial memory; can we use this information to create easy navigation clues throughout the city? How loud is too loud, how narrow should an alley be, or how much ornamentation should be on our buildings to keep the brain active for goal-oriented pleasures. Statistical analysis of this data will help generate new architectural standards that give us clues about human emotions, feelings, and moods. Using current body-sensing technologies we collect data to understand intricate areas of the brain related to different spaces and events that we encounter. With this research grant, we aim to create a taxonomy of urban concerns from a neurological perspective. This research will initiate the development of the first Architectural Standards Guide from a Neurological Perspective (ASG/NP) where city officials, planners, and designers can incorporate evidentially based research data in their design process.
Kristine Mun
NewSchool of Architecture & Design
Biayna Bogosian
University of Southern California
Namju Lee
Harvard University
Graduate School of Design
ESRI
earned her doctorate degree from the Architectural Association in London, Master of Architecture from Cranbrook Academy of Art, and BS in Design from Arizona State University. As an architect, artist, experimental designer, and professor, she shares her diverse background and perspectives as the Head of Neuroscience for Architecture Program at the NewSchool of Architecture + Design. She is a registered architect in the Netherlands and currently runs a small practice in Los Angeles. She has previously taught at University of Southern California, University of Minnesota, AADRL-Architectural Association, University of Brighton, Pratt Institute, and conducted workshops at the University of Pennsylvania, the Berlage (Rotterdam), Ion Mincu University of Architecture and Urban Planning (Bucharest), and Tsinghua University (Shanghai).
is an architect and interactive media designer researching perceptual and cognitive interaction design that highlight the relationship between environmental data and the built environment. Bogosian is pursuing a PhD in Media Arts & Practice in the School of Cinematic Arts at the University of Southern California (USC). She holds a Master of Science in Advanced Architectural Design from Columbia University and a Bachelors of Architecture from Woodbury University. Since 2011, Bogosian has taught digital media and architectural design courses at Columbia University Graduate School of Architecture Planning and Preservation, USC School of Architecture, Tongji University in Shanghai, and the American University in Armenia. Bogosian is principal of Los Angeles-based studio Somewhere Something that works at the intersection of architecture, urban design, interaction design, and digital fabrication in order to change the way we perceive and construct our cities.
is an architectural designer, researcher, and lecturer. He has been the principal of NJSTUDIO since 2004, specializing in architecture, computational design, and visualization. He graduated from Seoul National University of Science and Technology (BS), University of California, Berkeley (MArch), and Harvard Graduate School of Design (MDes). As a researcher, he worked both at UrbanAid Lab at the University of Technology, Sydney, at SENSEable City Lab and Media Lab (Changing Places Group) at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and at the College of Environmental Design, University of California, Berkeley. Lee works in the integrative and interdisciplinary domain of built environment and technology, with a particular interest in computational design and visualization. Central to his practice is the use of data as the primary methodology in shaping a design process by integrated computation and visualization.
