A technique for imaging and studying user reactions.
How a person perceives architectural space is chiefly based on visual perception. Architects usually make design decisions using their intuition, their own individual experiences, observations and knowledge. However, the completed structure is then perceived by many users whose reactions vary. The specific manner of the space’s perception by users affects their emotional state, behavior and well-being.
Regardless of whether you are sleeping, reading, preparing for the next business meeting or taking a stroll through the city, your brain is always active.
Using its natural sensors, your brain receives information about your surroundings, compacts and merges it with existing data, integrating everything into a coherent experience of you and your surroundings. Your brain shapes how you perceive your environment; it filters and identifies the objects and information most appropriate for you, making each of us perceive space differently. Based on thoughts, emotions, and individual experience, your brain ultimately drives your behavior, makes decisions, and affects how your entire organism functions.
Cutting-edge imaging techniques
Owing to the latest advances in imaging techniques, processor technologies, data analysis and algorithms, academics and scientists in industry alike can now dive deep into the human brain and watch it shape our perception of and interactions with the world.
One of the most versatile brain imaging techniques is electroencephalography, or EEG. Electroencephalography literally means recording the brain’s electrical activity. Electroencephalography records the electrical activity of the brain using electrodes placed on the scalp.
Thanks to recorded data of brain activity, it is possible to study the reactions of individual areas of the brain, the intensity of the impact of a visual stimulus on its operation, and to assign emotional states experienced by the recipient as they perceive their environment.
Using modern technological achievements, it is possible to use the previously stationary biometric devices for measuring how the brain operates on a mobile basis, enabling the study of the surrounding architectural space.
Research into user reaction
In our research we study how users react to the surrounding space, both at the scale of the building and of the city. This allows us to understand the impact of individual elements on their behavior, decision-making or well-being.