Neuroscience for architecture

This August I attended the “Neuroscience for Architecture” executive summer course at the NewSchool of Architecture in San Diego. Immersed in an intensive weeklong program with a select group of 25 other design professionals from no less than 15 different countries, we explored how a better understanding of the links between building performance and human performance can improve the spaces we plan. Noted neuroscientists such as Eve Edelstein described current research and discussed its implications for better design. Studio work around the iconic Salk Institute in La Jolla by Louis Kahn, lectures and panel discussions with renowned architect Steven Holl, and noted Finnish architect/author/critic Juhani Pallasmaa prompted fascinating exchanges among our diverse group. It was an inspiring and invigorating experience collectively reaching for ways to access and apply scientific data to elevate the poetic aspect of the spaces we create.