Anatomy and physiology of architectural perception

During the first three months, students will be given the fundamentals to understand how our body is provided with a uniquely evolved range of systems able to receive signals from the outside world, with a focus on body movements. Next, we will analyse the interaction between each element involved in the architectural process and the human sensory system. Light, topology, organisation and use of space, geometry, rhythm, texture and matters, sounds and smells: all these elements, prior individually and then through their integration, will be analysed concerning the physiology of the human sensory system, along with the interaction into architecture. Also, students will deal with the evolution and nature of emotions and feelings up to the arising of conscience.

week 1.a

THE BODY-BRAIN-SPACE SYSTEM, AND THE PHYSIOLOGY OF ENACTMENT.

Students will be shown how biological neural networks of multisensorial experiences of space are set. The brain elaborates and memorizes data from the hearing, visual, tactile, smell, proprioceptive, and interoceptive systems. Trainees will deal with the paths whereby some of the relevant architectural features, such as the dimensions, proportions, shapes, and topology, affect the human brain-body-movement patterns inside the framework of neuro-phenomenology and pragmatism.

LESSONS: From Monday 27th November to 01th December 2023

*Week IN PRESENCE

week 1.b

HOW ENVIRONMENTAL COMPONENTS AFFECTS HUMANS: NATURE, LIGHT, RHYTHM, MATERIALS, TEXTURES, COLOURS, SMELL AND SOUND.

Through five days work, students will deal with how the architectural features - such as nature, light, rhythms, materials, textures, colours, smells and acoustic, - affect brain-body multisensorial responses, inside the framework of neuro-phenomenology and pragmatism.

LESSONS: From Monday 04th to 07th December 2024

*Week IN PRESENCE

week 1.c

EMOTIONS, FEELINGS, CONSCIOUSNESS: ARCHITECTURE COMES FROM THE BODY MOVEMENTS

This part will focus on the axis that starts from movements, emotions and leads to the feelings and thence decisively to the consciousness. On this terrain, lessons will help students to understand the emergence and development of architecture, as a step of the mind’s evolution, and as a system of multiple affordances.

LESSONS: From Monday 08th to 12th January 2024