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Cognitive Architecture
In "Cognitive Architecture," the authors review new findings in psychology and neuroscience to help architects and planners better understand their clients as the sophisticated mammals they are, arriving in the world with built-in responses to the environment that have evolved over millennia.
The book outlines four main principles---Edges Matter, the fact people are a thigmotactic or a 'wall-hugging' species; Patterns Matter, how we are visually-oriented; Shapes Carry Weight, how our preference for bilateral symmetrical forms is biological; and finally, Storytelling is Key, how our narrative proclivities, unique to our species, play a role in successful place-making. The book takes an inside-out approach to design, arguing that the more we understand human behavior, the better we can design for it. The text suggests new ways to analyze current designs before they are built, allowing the designer to anticipate a user's future experience. More than one hundred photographs and drawings illustrate its key concepts. Six exercises and additional case studies suggest particular topics - from the significance of face-processing in the human brain to our fascination with fractals - for further study.
The book outlines four main principles---Edges Matter, the fact people are a thigmotactic or a 'wall-hugging' species; Patterns Matter, how we are visually-oriented; Shapes Carry Weight, how our preference for bilateral symmetrical forms is biological; and finally, Storytelling is Key, how our narrative proclivities, unique to our species, play a role in successful place-making. The book takes an inside-out approach to design, arguing that the more we understand human behavior, the better we can design for it. The text suggests new ways to analyze current designs before they are built, allowing the designer to anticipate a user's future experience. More than one hundred photographs and drawings illustrate its key concepts. Six exercises and additional case studies suggest particular topics - from the significance of face-processing in the human brain to our fascination with fractals - for further study.
212 pages, ebook
First published December 1, 2014
20 people are currently reading
669 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews
April 17, 2021
İnteraction between humans and spaces
The book is wonderfull by the aspect of to summerize recent scientific researches on human neuroscience and to mix it with contemproray architecture literature... it helps designer more counciously to design the built environment by many aspects including indoors outdoor landscape and facade design
The book is wonderfull by the aspect of to summerize recent scientific researches on human neuroscience and to mix it with contemproray architecture literature... it helps designer more counciously to design the built environment by many aspects including indoors outdoor landscape and facade design
April 15, 2020
Fantastic, informative read
This title is a must for anyone interested in the brain and built environment! It provides clear, actionable steps for redesigning built spaces.
This title is a must for anyone interested in the brain and built environment! It provides clear, actionable steps for redesigning built spaces.
January 17, 2016
This book broaches interesting topic but lacks scientific rigor. It is a good starting point for people interested in applying psychology and (rather lose) neuroscience to architecture but serves as little more than that.
March 13, 2018
A few interesting ideas, but poorly argued and with weak examples. Follows the trends of using evolution and neurosciences to bolster their ideas. Ideas underdeveloped. Photos are lackluster.
November 13, 2019
I always tell my friends (perhaps jokingly) that "the answer is always evolution", and I agree with what Egyptian Pharmacist and Science writer Shadi AbdulHafiz once said: "you can't understand the world properly except in the light of evolution, quantum physics, and calculus". I do think this book does indeed start explaining our behavior and tendencies in built environment based on evolution and I've seen previous research for the author regarding that, which I do really like...
BUT
perhaps except for the first one or two chapters, the book is mainly based -in my humble, critic-able, view- about evolutionary psychology mainly, and I to be honest I don't think evolutionary psychology is that much of a solid ground to link architecture and the urban to behavior.
For example, the first chapter (edges matter) speaks about the anatomy and physiological history of humans, and how, therefore, they relate more to lower level edges. Makes sense. Compare to chapter 5, Storytelling, where not a single research is referenced, and sounds more like a phenomenological description than a proper "cognitive" explanation. Mhmm..
I do agree with the author's quote of Steve Jobs 'The broader one's understanding of the human experience, the better design we will have.", and her final words on design theory and policies. I think this field needs more research (I am writing a dissertation about a related topic), and this book is an appreciated kick-start.
BUT
perhaps except for the first one or two chapters, the book is mainly based -in my humble, critic-able, view- about evolutionary psychology mainly, and I to be honest I don't think evolutionary psychology is that much of a solid ground to link architecture and the urban to behavior.
For example, the first chapter (edges matter) speaks about the anatomy and physiological history of humans, and how, therefore, they relate more to lower level edges. Makes sense. Compare to chapter 5, Storytelling, where not a single research is referenced, and sounds more like a phenomenological description than a proper "cognitive" explanation. Mhmm..
I do agree with the author's quote of Steve Jobs 'The broader one's understanding of the human experience, the better design we will have.", and her final words on design theory and policies. I think this field needs more research (I am writing a dissertation about a related topic), and this book is an appreciated kick-start.
March 2, 2025
From what I see, the scope & limitations of the book is within the US territory while the primary audience are urban planners & architects. The use of layman's terms and simple language made it comprehensible. It was also enjoyable to see the connection between biology, psychology, architecture, and even history.
The aforementioned limitations make me wonder the degree of plausibility this has on third world countries that thrive on foreign investments. The authors wrote a section about how the chapters can impact policy, but in the case of the PH for example, it is less about considering how the people will interact with the said space. Rather, the focus is how to maximize the capital from the infra project, vouched by the policymaker, spurred forth by the foreign investors. It thus creates a tricky dilemma in what is supposed to be sustainable, human-centric development, and lowballs local architects, urban planners, and engineers. In my future reading, I want to look into this theme again, but from the standpoint of governance & political economy.
The aforementioned limitations make me wonder the degree of plausibility this has on third world countries that thrive on foreign investments. The authors wrote a section about how the chapters can impact policy, but in the case of the PH for example, it is less about considering how the people will interact with the said space. Rather, the focus is how to maximize the capital from the infra project, vouched by the policymaker, spurred forth by the foreign investors. It thus creates a tricky dilemma in what is supposed to be sustainable, human-centric development, and lowballs local architects, urban planners, and engineers. In my future reading, I want to look into this theme again, but from the standpoint of governance & political economy.
April 16, 2024
Short but sweet. Each chapter covers a different topic (bilateral symmetry, biophilia, etc.) that is scientifically grounded and persuasively argued. Some of the examples seem a little odd, but I also respect the author's conspicuous and repeated contempt for Boston City Hall (which is a concrete wasteland).
September 13, 2018
A short good read. Some chapters are better than others, but all open new perspectives about the human factor in architecture.
April 6, 2015
Yes indeed, we are wired for narrative. When I travel to cities of the present and archaeological ruins of the past I am reminded of American poet Bayard Taylor saying.. that every mountain has a ruin and a legend and that when one visits one feels the spirit of the past. This same force appears again and again in Sussman and Hollander's revelations about walking through the architecture of cities, villas, and estate gardens. The Villa Lante segment beautifully illustrates the power of walking through the biblical flood. Each structure explored in this book is treated like a pilgrimage. The authors have compiled an initial set of enriching tools and concepts for not only architects but for all who live in or visit buildings and structures of the past as well as those yet to be planned and built. More of this interdisciplinary type of analysis will surely be forthcoming and will influence the success of structures planned, designed, and built with human responses in mind.
April 7, 2015
Yes indeed, we are wired for narrative. When I travel to cities of the present and archaeological ruins of the past I am reminded of American poet Bayard Taylor saying.. that every mountain has a ruin and a legend and that when one visits one feels the spirit of the past. This same force appears again and again in Sussman and Hollander's revelations about walking through the architecture of cities, villas, and estate gardens. The Villa Lante segment beautifully illustrates the power of walking through the biblical flood. Each structure explored in this book is treated like a pilgrimage. The authors have compiled an initial set of enriching tools and concepts for not only architects but for all who live in or visit buildings and structures of the past as well as those yet to be planned and built. More of this interdisciplinary type of analysis will surely be forthcoming and will influence the success of structures planned, designed, and built with human responses in mind.
October 2, 2015
I only wish this wonderful short book weren't text-book priced, because more lay-people should have access to its important ideas and recommendations.
http://annsussman.com/
http://annsussman.com/
December 12, 2015
It opens up new horizons of viewing architecture and linking it to the human brain.
Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews