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Urban Architecture: A Cognitive Neuroscience Perspective

Jeffery, K; (2019) Urban Architecture: A Cognitive Neuroscience Perspective. The Design Journal. An International Journal for All Aspects of Design , 22 (6) pp. 853-872. 10.1080/14606925.2019.1662666. Green open access

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Abstract

The rapid urbanization of the past century has led to an accelerating demand for urban design that caters for city-dwellers in both physical and psychological domains. The field of architecture has begun to cultivate more analytic approaches to city design, in order to enable quantification and hypothesis-testing of design principles. In parallel, the cognitive science of human navigation has been developing rapidly, fuelled by neuroscientific findings from rodent research. The time seems ripe to bring these disciplines together. This paper reviews some of the most salient neuroscientific discoveries of recent decades and shows how these discoveries, and the design principles that emerge from them, can add important constraints on architectural design. By taking these cognitive constraints into account it is argued that urban spaces – particularly large, complex ones such as transport termini and convention centres – can be made more navigable and able to provide a better experience for users.

Type: Article
Title: Urban Architecture: A Cognitive Neuroscience Perspective
Open access status: An open access version is available from UCL Discovery
DOI: 10.1080/14606925.2019.1662666
Publisher version: https://doi.org/10.1080/14606925.2019.1662666
Language: English
Additional information: This version is the author accepted manuscript. For information on re-use, please refer to the publisher’s terms and conditions.
Keywords: spatial cognition, wayfinding and navigation, neuroscience, architecture, memory
UCL classification: UCL
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Brain Sciences
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Brain Sciences > Div of Psychology and Lang Sciences
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Brain Sciences > Div of Psychology and Lang Sciences > Experimental Psychology
URI: https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10087023
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