Students will learn how our bodies are equipped with uniquely evolved sensory systems that receive signals from the outside world. Next, we will analyze the connection between architecture and the human sensory system. Light, topology, layout, geometry, rhythm, texture, materials, sounds, and smells: all these elements will be understood individually and through their integration via the physiology of the human sensory systems. Additionally, students will explore the evolution and nature of emotions and memory, culminating in the rise of consciousness. Risk factors can negatively impact user experience in architecture if we do not address these needs; the course will include classes that focus on this issue during seminars centered on existing buildings and designs to measure these topics. In this module, we will also conduct classes in the neuroscience laboratory to study measurement tools and instruments.
The first module consists of 120 hours of lessons and lasts three months. It will develop its contents through one week of classes per month. In the mornings, classes will be structured based on the theory, while in the afternoons, after discussing architectural case studies, students will participate in seminar-based investigations.
This section will focus on three dimensions: the neurophenomenology of users’ experiences, embodied simulation, and predictive models of human interaction within the environment, as well as the methodological approach to briefing and design. Understanding the neuroscientific basis of phenomenology is crucial for comprehending the role of memory, particularly bodily memories, throughout human evolution and the effectiveness of architecture in shaping our cultures. By studying the interplay between stored models of body-space interaction, we will recognize how architecture influences our postural forms during navigation, allowing the brain to modulate embodied simulations and imagination. NAAD will also explore the concept of mild trauma to assess the adverse outcomes of architecture. From this background arises the methodology that enables conscious architects to brief and design protective and healthy urban areas and buildings.
The second module consists of 120 hours of lessons and lasts three months. It will develop its contents through one week of classes per month. In the mornings, classes will be structured based on the theory, while in the afternoons, after discussing architectural case studies, students will participate in seminar-based investigations.
This module will give students the tools to design buildings and urban areas, considering users' needs. Referring to a selected district within a town, NAAD will organize fourteen days covering the following themes: Urban Design, Workplaces, Housing, Student Housing, Silver Housing, Hospitals and Rest Housing, Civic Centers, Airports, Retail, and Schools. These daily classes will address the expected emotional components and neuropsychological needs in the first part of the daily lessons, focusing on the specific typology for each field of study. Scholars, scientists, and specialists will enrich these mornings by sharing their research experiences. Then, during the second part of each class, in the afternoon, key projects and case studies will be presented by firms, managing companies, or designers who developed them. The first week will focus four days on Urban Design, as NAAD aims to emphasize the crucial role of the public domain in fostering a collaborative social fabric. .
The third module consists of 120 hours of lessons and lasts for three months. Its content will be developed through one week of classes each month. In the mornings, classes will be structured around a round table with specialists, while in the afternoons, students will participate in seminar-based investigations after discussing architectural case studies.
Students must develop a thesis design using a three-step workflow along with the course's running. NAAD will bring all the participants to work on an existing area in Venice that needs to be reshaped. The master plan phase for this district will be a common task for all the students. In this way, all can face the crucial challenge of enriching the design of public rooms and creating proper features for the buildings’ assembly. Among the ten themes presented in the third module, inside the plots focused on the master plan, each student must design the thesis theme.
All the students will choose a theme by the beginning of the course to progress the thesis path according to the following steps:
1 The theoretical frame of thesis design is composed of a proposed balance between risk and protective factors directly connected with the thesis topic (by the end of the first module);
2 Definition of a Neuroscientific Brief capable of driving the design toward the goals pictured in the Theoretical Frame (by the end of the Second Module);
3 Design proposal using sketches, maquette, and visualizations (by the end of the Third Module);
4 Refinement of Thesis Design also with the support of tutors (virtual client and NAAD tutor) by the end of September 2026;
The concluding days of each module will be devoted to the collective discussion of the thesis. Each of the three Fridays, we will focus on the thesis presentation in the morning and a workshop in the afternoon before the NAAD works close.
Each student will develop a 250-hour internship with the companies and design firms invited to present their works in the Third Module or other appropriately selected companies. During this internship, students will progress with the architectural design to advance the thesis path. Within the mentioned managing companies, public or private, we will select a tutor able to work as a potential client, giving a development brief strictly linked to actual needs. On the NAAD side, differently, students will have support from a design tutor belonging to our Tutors Team.
Using the neuroscience lab, the understanding of the experimental approach should be progressively consolidated. In this context, students will design an experiment that measures the protective factors described in their thesis theoretical frameworks.
A tutor with specific neuroscientific background expertise will assist them in developing their draft protocol.
Faculty members will be available to support thesis draft protocol development from the end of January are Alain Berthoz, Colin Ellard, Sergei Gephstein, Kate Jeffery, Oshin Vartanian, Cleo Valentine, Zakaria Djebbara, Eve Edelstein, Erika Borella, Chiara Ionio, Elisabetta Canepa, Alessandra Micalizzi, John Zeisel, Cinzia di Dio.
Roberto Fulciniti (Coordinator), Giulietta Boggio Bertinet, Stefano Caglioni, Antonio Sorrentino.
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