Exploring the influence of the built environment on human experience through a neuroscience approach: A systematic review

Abstract

The built environment provides a habitat for the most sophisticated mammal in our universe, the human being. Developments in science and technology are forcing us to reconsider the priority of human needs in current theories of architecture and the built environment. Newly developed theories and methodologies in neuroscience have allowed us to improve and deepen our knowledge of human experience in the built environment. The potential of the relationship between neuroscience and architecture for knowledge creation generates an increasing interest in theoretical and methodological approaches to explore this intersection. Thus, a common ground on which to conduct interdisciplinary studies investigating developing and emerging concepts at the intersection must be established. However, few reviews in the literature have systematically examined developing and emerging concepts at the intersection of neuroscience and architecture. The present review aims to examine the existing literature systematically to explain the influence of the built environment on human experience by using approaches from neuroscience by examining the conceptualizations in the field. The study is conducted as a systematic qualitative review that analyzes and synthesizes the developing and emerging concepts that have appeared in the ever-evolving literature. The study concludes with an overall discussion about these concepts as a means of deeply understanding the influence of the built environment on human experience, responses to the environment based on approaches from neuroscience, and their potential for providing further directions for future research.

Keywords

Architecture / Neuroscience / Human experience / Built environment / Cognitive architecture / Neuro-architecture

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2019 Higher Education Press Limited Company. Production and hosting by Elsevier B.V. on behalf of KeAi. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).