Objective Exploration of the Effects of Architectural Components on Users’ Spatial Evaluation: A Neuroimaging Approach

Authors

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.15320/ICONARP.2022.209

Keywords:

Objective spatial evaluation, architectural components, functional magnetic resonance imaging, users’ brain

Abstract

A review of the studies that have been conducted in the field of architectural evaluation reveals that there is insufficient evidence on objective understanding of how architectural components psychologically affect users. This study draws on advances in neuroscience and aims to objectively examine the neurological process of spatial evaluation to create a pleasant environment for users. Research has used quantitative and experimental methods such as surveys and functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). To observe the brain’s neural responses and to understand how it works when users evaluate architectural spaces, 36 participants’ brains were scanned with an MRI scanner. In addition, 250 volunteers were asked to participate in a survey experiment to determine the contribution of each sensational and perceptional component to the users’ spatial evaluation. The results showed that the spatial experience of architecture is involved in the brain’s regional, emotional, perceptual, beauty judgment, and evaluation system. Also, the results revealed that pleasant spaces contribute much better to architectural design than unpleasant spaces due to higher attention and memory effects. Furthermore, the results showed that the texture and geometry have a greater ability to produce a pleasant and unpleasant sensation and perception. The high number of patients referred to the radiology polyclinic during the week posed serious problems for the researcher in renting an fMRI scanner and performing the imaging. It is expected that incorporating neuroscience findings into an architectural experience in the form of data can create new perspectives and solutions for qualified architectural design that addresses users’ psychological responses and considers their environmental behavior and satisfaction.

Metrics

Metrics Loading ...

Author Biography

Navid Khaleghimoghaddam, Konya Food and Agriculture University

Navid Khaleghimoghaddam works as an assistant professor at the Department of Interior Architecture at Konya Food and Agriculture University. In general, he works on key topics in architecture and neuroscience with psychological and physiological approaches, such as the study of the brain’s perceptual mechanism and emotional behavior, spaces of worship and healing, neuroarchitecture, cognitive psychology, and environmental psychology.

References

Abdollahi, R. (2021). Design of lighting system for sacred places with the approach of improving technical and economic conditions, Ain Shams Engineering Journal, 12(33), 2899-2905.

Arellano, M. R. (2015). Hawaiian Healing Center: A Weaving of Neuro-Architecture and Cultural Practices, Ph.D Thesis. University of Hawaii.

Bakker, I., van der Voordt, T., Vink, P. & de Boon, J. (2014). Pleasure, Arousal, Dominance: Mehrabian and Russell revisited, Journal of Current Psychology, 33(3), 405-421.

Barati, N. & Soleymannejad, M. (2011). Perception of Stimuli in Controlled Environment and Gender Impact on It. Case Study: Faculty of Architecture and Urbanism Students at the International University of Imam Khomeini, Journal of Bagh-e Nazar, 8(17), 19-30.

Barker, T. V., Buzzell, G. A. & Fox, N. A. (2019). Approach, Avoidance, and the Detection of Conflict in the Development of Behavioral Inhibition, New Ideas in Psychology, 53, 2-12.

Barrett, L. F. & Wager, T. D. (2006). The Structure of Emotion; Evidence from Neuroimaging Studies. Journal of Current Directions in Psychological Science, 15(2), 79-83.

Bigne, J. E., Andreu, L. & Gnoth, J. (2005). The theme park experience: An analysis of pleasure, arousal, and satisfaction. Journal of Tourism Management, 26(6), 833-844.

Bowera, I., Tuckera, R. & Enticott, P. G. (2019). Impact of built environment design on emotion measured via neurophysiological correlates and subjective indicators: A systematic review, Journal of Environmental Psychology, 66, 1-11.

Cacioppo, J.T., Berntson, G.G., Larsen, J.T., Poehlmann, K.M. & Ito, T.A. (2001). The psychophysiology of emotion. In M. Lewis & J.M. Haviland-Jones (Eds.), Handbook of Emotions (2st ed., pp. 173-191), The Guilford Press, New York.

Choo, H., Nasar, J. L., Nikrahei, B. & Walther, D. B. (2017). Neural codes of seeing architectural styles, Scientific Reports, 7, 40201.

Coburn, A., Vartanian, O. & Chatterjee, A. (2017). Buildings, Beauty, and the Brain: A Neuroscience of Architectural Experience, Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience, 29(9), 1521-1531.

Cohen, J. B. and Areni, C. S. (1991). Affect and consumer behavior. In T. S. Robertson & H. H. Kassarjian (Eds.), Handbook of consumer theory and research (pp. 188-240). Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall.

Costa, V. D., Lang, P. J., Sabatinelli, D., Versace, F. & Bradley, M. M. (2010). Emotional Imagery: Assessing Pleasure and Arousal in the Brain’s Reward Circuitry, Human Brain Mapping, 31, 1446–1457.

Djebbara, Z., Fich, L.B., Petrini, L. & Gramann, K. (2019). Sensorimotor brain dynamics reflect architectural affordances, PNAS, 116(29), 14769–14778.

Djebbara, Z., Jensen, O.B., Parada, F.J. & Gramann, K. (2022). Neuroscience and architecture: Modulating behavior through sensorimotor responses to the built environment, Neuroscience & Biobehavioral Reviews, 138(104715), 2-13.

Eberhard, J. P. (2009). Applying Neuroscience to Architecture, Neuron, 62(6), 753-756.

Elbaiuomy, E., Hegazy, I. & Sheta, S. (2019). The impact of architectural spaces’ geometric forms and construction materials on the users’ brainwaves and consciousness status, International Journal of Low-Carbon Technologies, 14(3), 326–334.

Ellsworth, P.C. & Scherer, K.R. (2003). Appraisal processes in emotion. In R.J. Davidson, K.R., Scherer, & H.H. Goldsmith (Eds.), Handbook of affective sciences, New York: Oxford University Press, 572‐595.

Eun Cho, M. & Kim, M. J. (2017). Measurement of User Emotion and Experience in Interaction with Space, Journal of Asian Architecture and Building Engineering, 16 (1), 99-106.

Gepshtein, S. & Snider, J. (2019). Neuroscience for architecture: The evolving science of perceptual meaning, PNAS, 116(29), 14404–14406.

Galindo, M. P. G. & Rodriguez, J. A. C. (2000). Environmental aesthetics and psychological wellbeing: Relationships between preference judgements for urban landscapes and other relevant affective responses, Psychology in Spain, 4(1), 13–27.

Gogoi, B.J. (2017). Effect of store design on perceived crowding and impulse buying behavior, International Review of Management and Marketing, 7(2), 180-186.

Gregorians, L., Velasco, P.F., Zisch, F. & Spiers, H.J. (2022). Architectural experience: Clarifying its central components and their relation to core affect with a set of first-person-view videos, Journal of Environmental Psychology, 82, 1-20.

Holl, S., Pallasmaa, J. and Gomez, A. P. (2007). Questions of Perception: Phenomenology of Architecture. William Stout Publishers, San Francisco.

Iraji, A.A. & Zolfagharzadeh, H. (2020). Comparative study of Daylight Design in Safavid Mosque and Renaissance Church ase studies: Jame Abbasi Mosque in Isfahan and St. Peter Church in Rome, Maremat & Me’mari-e Iran, 10(21), 77–89.

Kirk, U., Skov, M., Christensen, M. S. & Nygaard, N. (2009). Brain correlates of aesthetic expertise: A parametric fMRI study, Brain and Cognition, 69, 306-315.

Lowe, M. X., Rajsic, J., Gallivan, J. P., Ferber, S. & Cant, J. S. (2017). Neural representation of geometry and surface properties in object and scene perception, Neuroimage, 157, 586–597.

Ma, K. W., Wong, H. M. & Mak, C. M. (2018). A systematic review of human perceptual dimensions of sound: Meta-analysis of semantic differential method applications to indoor and outdoor sounds, Building and Environment, 133, 123–150.

Mallgrave, H. F. (2011). The Architect’s Brain: Neuroscience, Creativity, and Architecture. Chichester: Wiley-Blackwell.

Maroofi, S., Taghvaie, A.A. & Pourjafar, M.R. (2019). Evaluation of the Effects of Religious Spaces on Citizen’s Behaviors with Particular Reference to the Selected Tehran Mosques, Naqshejahan- Basic studies and New Technologies of Architecture and Planning, 8(4), 205-211.

Mehrabian, A. & Russell, A. (1974). An approach to environmental psychology. Cambridge, Mass: MIT Press.

Mizokami, Y., Terao, T., Hatano, K., Hoaki, N., Kohno, K., Araki, Y. & Kochiyama, T. (2014). Difference in brain activations during appreciating paintings and photographic analogs, Frontiers in Human Neuroscience, 8(478), 1-8.

Paiva, A. (2018). Neuroscience for Architecture: How Building Design Can Influence Behaviors and Performance, Journal of Civil Engineering and Architecture, 12, 132-138.

Pakzad, J. and Bozorg, H. (2012). Alefba-e-Mohit Baraye Tarahan, Armanshahr, Tehran.

Pallasmaa, J. (Eds.). (2012). The Eyes of the Skin, Architecture and the Senses (3th Ed.). John Wiley and Sons Ltd, United Kingdom.

Papale, P., Chiesi, L., Rampinini, A. C., Pietrini, P. & Ricciardi, E. (2016). When Neuroscience “Touches” Architecture: From Hapticity to a Supramodal Functioning of the Human Brain, Frontiers in Psychology, 7(866), 1-8.

Radberg, J. Steffner, L. (2003). Affective appraisals as indicators of aesthetic qualities in urban places, 1th Nordic symposium, Local Planning in Change, New Possibilities and Roles, 14-16 August 2019, pp. 14-16. Lillehammer.

Reghukumar, A. (2019). Sense and sensitivity in architecture-the use of five senses in space making, International Research Journal of Architecture and Planning, 4(3), 97-101.

Russell, J. (2003). Core Affect and the Psychological Construction of Emotion, Journal of Psychological Review, 110(1), 145-172.

Ryu, K. & Jang, S. C. (2008). Influence of restaurants’ physical environments on emotion and behavioral intention, The Service Industies Journal, 28(8), 1151-1165.

Shemesh, A., Talmon, R., Karp, O., Amir, I., Bar, M. & Grobman, Y.J. (2017). Affective response to architecture – investigating human reaction to spaces with different geometry, Architectural Science Review, 60(2), 116-125.

Stokolos, D. & Altman, I. (1987). Handbook of environmental psychology. Wiley, New York.

Teh, E.J., Yap, M.J. & Liow, S.J.R. (2018). PiSCES: Pictures with social context and emotional scenes with norms for emotional valence, intensity, and social engagement, Behavior Research Methods, 50(5), 1793-1805.

Vartanian, O., Navarrete, G., Chatterjee, A., Fich, L. B., Leder, H., Modrono, C., Nadal, M., Rostrup, N. & Skov, M. (2013). Impact of contour on aesthetic judgments and approach-avoidance decisions in architecture, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 110, 10446-10453.

Vartanian, O., Navarrete, G., Chatterjee, A., Fich, L. B., Gonzalez-Mora, J. L., Leder, H., Modrono, C., Nadal, M., Rostrup, N. & Skov, M. (2015). Architectural design and the brain: Effects of ceiling height and perceived enclosure on beauty judgments and approach-avoidance decisions, Journal of Environmental Psychology, 41, 10-18.

Vogels, I. M. (2008). Atmosphere metrics. In J. H. Westerink, M. Ouwerkerk, T. J. Overbeek, W. F. Pasveer, B. F. de Ruyter (Eds.). Probing experience: From assessment of user emotions and behaviour to development of products (pp. 25-41). Dordrecht: Springer.

Wiesmann, M. & Ishai, A. (2011). Expertise reduces neural cost but does not modulate repetition suppression, Cognitive Neuroscience, 2(1), 57-65.

Zaredar, A. (2015). Considering the five senses in architecture, Curr World Environ, 10(special issue), 138-143.

Zhang, W., He, X., Liu, S., Li, T., Li, J., Tang, X. & Lai, S. (2019). Neural correlates of appreciating natural landscape and landscape garden: Evidence from an fMRI study, Brain and behavior, 9(7), 1-10.

Downloads

Published

20-12-2022

How to Cite

Khaleghimoghaddam, N. (2022). Objective Exploration of the Effects of Architectural Components on Users’ Spatial Evaluation: A Neuroimaging Approach . ICONARP International Journal of Architecture and Planning, 10(2), 428–443. https://doi.org/10.15320/ICONARP.2022.209

Issue

Section

Articles