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kaszz [soylentnews.org] writes:

Winston Churchill said in 1943: "We shape our buildings and afterwards our buildings shape us,".

Now neuroscientists and psychologists have found the connections [bbc.com]. Specialized brain cells in the hippocampal [wikipedia.org] region are attuned to the geometry and arrangement of the spaces we inhabit. But this is something architects seems to ignore at the peril of those forced to live in their creations.

Researchers has made use of wearable devices such as bracelets that monitor skin conductance which is a marker of physiological arousal. To gauge the impact of environments.

It has been found that if a façade is complex and interesting, it affects people in a positive way; negatively if it is simple and monotonous. Access to green space such as woodland or a park can offset some of the stress of city living. People feel better in rooms with curved edges and rounded contours than in sharp-edged rectangular rooms – though, tellingly perhaps is that design students preferred the opposite.

Objects and artefacts in public spaces nudges people physically closer together and makes it more likely they would talk to each other, a process called “triangulation”. An example is the Rockefeller Center in New York City there by placing benches alongside the yew trees in its basement concourse instead of the people-repelling spikes the management had originally wanted, transformed the way people behaved.

To make people feel connected to a place they need to know how things relate to each other spatially. In other words, there needs to be a sense of direction. This applies both outdoors and indoors.

One visible rebellion against prescribed routes of architects and planners are the paths across grassy curbs and parks marking people’s preferred paths across the city.

Adopt to human scale, making sidewalks, bike lanes, parks and public access water.

A number of studies have shown that growing up in a city doubles the chances of someone developing schizophrenia, and increases the risk for other mental disorders such as depression and chronic anxiety. The main trigger appears to be what researchers call “social stress” – the lack of social bonding and cohesion in neighborhoods.

These are probably examples of good architecture:
Jakriborg [wikipedia.org] (New Urbanism)
Art Nouveau [wikipedia.org]

And there is also bad.. [wikipedia.org]

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