Essential readers

The RESONANCES project grows up also thanks to the inspiring experience of teaching fundamentals of atmospheric design and phenomenography. This section collects essentials about a (neuro)scientific education for architecture students, as well as an atmospheric education, both of which are required to investigate the experiential basis that sustains architectural activity. A special thanks to Prof. Bob Condia (Professor of Architecture, APDesign, Kansas State University), mentor in the craft of teaching architects to teach.



  • Contents

    1 — Applied Neuroscience for Architects
    2 — Atmospheric Design and Phenomenography





  • Languages

    DE — German
    EN     — English
    ES — Spanish
    FR — French
    IT — Italian
    JP — Japanese
    NL — Dutch

  • Topics

    D — Design disciplines
    S — Human science and neuroscience
    M — Miscellany




Notes

Due to the international nature of the research project, our literature rosters include sources in English. We list non-English literature only when a translation is not available. The original-language edition of every translation is enclosed in parentheses following the title.

Each bibliography item routes readers to the publisher's website or directly to the document. The acronym OA marks that the full-text is online open access.

Applied Neuroscience
for Architects
Essential Reader

Bob Condia, FAIA
Professor of Architecture, APDesign, Kansas State University (K-State)
Member of the Advisory Council to the Academy Neuroscience for Architecture (ANFA)
Director of the P\Lab2003

“I grew my essentials list for architect (AIA) and student (K-State) audiences who have asked for more information, particularly accessible texts. Applied Neuroscience for Architects Essential Reader's unfolding is my best attempt to bridge, or focus on, the intersection of architecture and the biology of perception that is within the research of neuroscientists. My inspiration, I believe the architecture profession will earn enormous benefit from expertise in human perception understood as behavior within built environments. I teach a graduate seminar in Architecture and Neuroscience over more material than this highly condensed outline below, but I hope it is an invitation to the party. The videos below are an especially accessible manner to introduce yourself to the important language about our relationship to space where architecture is the verb. In simple terms that designers should understand, the biological science today suggests a new theory for the architectural practice where one's aesthetic experience of space is — at least in good sensory measure — founded in the human body/brain. My edit (herewith) narrows to a model of human acuity where architecture is implicit as kinesthetic, immediate, emotive, and meaningful. The body measures architecture.”

 

Essentials

Eberhard, John P. 2007.
Architecture and the Brain:
A New Knowledge Base from Neuroscience.
Atlanta, GA: Östberg.
book [EN] [D/S]
*
This is the origin of the species and still a fine introduction
to the cause of architects learning from scientists,
and scientists learning from architects.

Gibson, James J. 2014.
The Ecological Approach to Visual Perception:
Classic Edition (1979).
New York, NY: Psychology Press.
book [EN] [M/S]

Griffero, Tonino. 2014.
Atmospheres: Aesthetics of Emotional Spaces (2010).
Trans. by S. de Sanctis.
Farnham and Burlington, VT: Ashgate.
book [EN] [M]

Holl, Steven, Pallasmaa, Juhani,
and Pérez-Gómez, Alberto. 1994.
“Questions of Perception:
Phenomenology of Architecture.”
A+u. Architecture and Urbanism Magazine.
special issue [JP/EN] [D]

Jelić, Andrea, Tieri, Gaetano, De Matteis, Federico,
Babiloni, Fabio, and Vecchiato, Giovanni. 2016.
“The Enactive Approach to Architectural Experience: A Neurophysiological Perspective on Embodiment, Motivation, and Affordances.”
Frontiers in Psychology 7: 481, 1–20.
DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2016.00481
paper [EN] [D/S]

Mallgrave, Harry F. 2010.
The Architect’s Brain:
Neuroscience, Creativity, and Architecture.
Chichester: Wiley-Blackwell.
book [EN] [D/S]

Mallgrave, Harry F. 2013.
Architecture and Embodiment: The Implications
of the New Sciences and Humanities for Design.
Abingdon and New York, NY: Routledge.
book [EN] [D]

Mallgrave, Harry F. 2018.
From Object to Experience:
The New Culture of Architectural Design.
London and New York, NY: Bloomsbury.
book [EN] [D]

Robinson, Sarah. 2021.
Architecture is a Verb.
Abingdon and New York, NY: Routledge.
book [EN] [D]

Robinson, Sarah, and Pallasmaa, Juhani (eds.). 2015.
Mind in Architecture:
Neuroscience, Embodiment, and the Future of Design.
Cambridge, MA and London: The MIT Press.
book [EN] [D/S]

Tidwell, Philip (ed.). 2013.
Architecture and Neuroscience.
Espoo: Tapio Wirkkala — Rut Bryk (TWRB) Foundation.
book [EN] [D/S]

Tidwell, Philip (ed.). 2014.
Architecture and Atmosphere.
Espoo: Tapio Wirkkala — Rut Bryk (TWRB) Foundation.
book [EN] [D]

Zeki, Semir. 1999.
Inner Vision: An Exploration of Art and the Brain.
New York, NY: Oxford University Press (OUP).
book [EN] [D]

Zumthor, Peter. 2006.
Atmospheres: Architectural Environments.
Surrounding Objects.
Basel, Berlin, and Boston, MA: Birkhäuser.
book [EN] [D]

Videos

Arbib, Michael A. 2014.
The Challenge of Adapting Neuroscience
to the Needs of Architecture.
ANFA 2014 Conference.
video [EN] [D/S] [OA]

Barrios Solano, Marlon, and Noë, Alva. 2008.
Dance As a Way of Knowing: Interview with Alva Noë.
Embodied Techne Series, 2.
New York, NY.
video [EN] [M] [OA]

Damasio, Antonio. 2011.
The Quest to Understand Consciousness.
TED talk.
video [EN] [S] [OA]

Dutton, Denis. 2010.
A Darwinian Theory of Beauty.
TED talk.
video [EN] [M] [OA]

Ellard, Colin. 2011.
Getting Lost.
TEDxWaterloo talk.
video [EN] [S] [OA]

McFerrin, Bobby. 2009.
Watch Me Play ... The Audience!
TED "Best of the Web" talk,
World Science Festival.
video [EN] [M] [OA]

McGilchrist, Iain. 2011.
The Divided Brain.
TED "Best of the Web" talk.
video [EN] [S] [OA]

Noë, Alva. 2012.
Getting Out of Our Heads.
Talk at SAND'12, California.
video [EN] [M] [OA]

Pallasmaa, Juhani. 2014.
Imagination and Empathy.
ANFA 2014 Conference.
video [EN] [D] [OA]

Ramachandran, Vilayanur. S. 2009.
The Neurons That Shaped Civilization.
TED talk.
video [EN] [S] [OA]

Seymour, Richard. 2011.
How Beauty Feels.
TED talk.
video [EN] [M] [OA]

Zeki, Semir. 2012.
The Neurobiology of Beauty.
TED talk.
video [EN] [S] [OA]

Zumthor, Peter. 2014.
Real and Imagined Buildings.
”Building the Picture: Architecture in Italian Renaissance Painting” exhibition, the National Gallery, London.
video [EN] [D] [OA]


*
Those without the reader’s inclination can watch Andrew Huss’s video for architects or architecture students:
TriptychAPN — Call for Architecture.
video [EN] [D/S/M] [OA]

Podcasts

Murphy Paul, Annie in conversation with Ezra Klein.
”Our Workplaces Think We’re Computers: We’re Not.”
In The Ezra Klein Show, The New York Times, July 20, 2021.
audio and transcript [EN] [M]

Interfaces events at APDesign

Canepa, Elisabetta, and Condia, Robert J. (eds.). 2023.
Designing Atmospheres: Theory and Science.
Introduction by B. Condia, essays by K. Beighle, E. Canepa, Z. Djebbara, and H.F. Mallgrave. Interfaces, 4.
Manhattan, KS: New Prairie Press.
book [EN] [D] [OA]
< Designing Atmospheres: Theory and Science, an APDesign + Interface/ANFA event, sponsored by the EU’s Horizon 2020 MSCA Program — RESONANCES Project, the Perkins Eastman Studio, and the K-State Architecture Department. Manhattan, KS: Kansas State University, 03.28.2023.

Canepa, Elisabetta, and Condia, Robert J. (eds.). 2022.
Generators of Architectural Atmosphere.
Introduction by B. Condia, essays by E. Canepa, K. Güler, T. Proietti and S. Gepshtein. Interfaces, 3.
Manhattan, KS: New Prairie Press.
book [EN] [D] [OA]
< Generators of Architectural Atmosphere, an APDesign + Interface/ANFA event, sponsored by the EU’s Horizon 2020 MSCA Program — RESONANCES Project, the Perkins Eastman Studio, and the 2020 Regnier Chair. Manhattan, KS: Kansas State University, 12.04.2022.

Condia, Bob. (ed.). 2020.
Affordances and the Potential for Architecture.
Manhattan, KS: New Prairie Press.
Introduction by A. Jelić A., essays by S. Robinson,
H.F. Mallgrave, and J.R. Hamilton.
book [EN] [D] [OA]
< Affordances and the Potential for Architecture,
an APDesign + Interface/ANFA event, sponsored by Regnier Chair and HOK Studio sponsorships.
Manhattan, KS: Kansas State University, 19.03.2019.

Condia, Bob. (ed.). 2019.
Meaning in Architecture:
Affordances, Atmosphere and Mood.
Introduction by K.K. Rooney, essays by M.A. Arbib,
C. Ellard, B. Condia, and B. Chamberlain.
Manhattan, KS: New Prairie Press.
book [EN] [D] [OA]
< Meaning in Architecture: Affordances, Atmosphere and Mood, an APDesign + Interface/ANFA event, sponsored by Regnier Chair and HOK Studio sponsorships. Manhattan, KS: Kansas State University, 17.04.2018.

Fundamentals
of Atmospheric Design
and Phenomenography

Elisabetta Canepa, PhD
Adjunct Professor of Architecture, APDesign, Kansas State University (K-State)
Member of the Academy Neuroscience for Architecture (ANFA)
Member of the P\Lab2003

This bibliographical selection was born for preparing the syllabus of the seminar Perception of Space: Atmospheres, Spring 2022 course. Master of Architecture (M.Arch.). Department of Architecture, College of Architecture, Planning and Design (APDesign), K-State University.

 

Essentials

Böhme, Gernot. 2013.
“Sfeer als bewuste fysieke aanwezigheid in de ruimte /
Atmosphere as Mindful Physical Presence in Space.”
OASE. Tijdschrift voor architectuur / Journal for Architecture 91 (special issue on “Sfeer bouwen /
Building Atmosphere”): 21–32.
paper [NL/EN] [D] [OA]

Böhme, Gernot. 2017.
“The Presence of Living Bodies in Space” (2006).
In Atmospheric Architectures:
The Aesthetics of Felt Spaces.
Ed. and trans. by A.C. Engels-Schwarzpaul, 81–95.
London and New York, NY: Bloomsbury.
book [EN] [D]

Bower, Isabella, Tucker, Richard, and Enticott, Peter G. 2019. “Impact of Built Environment Design on Emotion Measured via Neurophysiological Correlates and Subjective Indicators: A Systematic Review.” Journal of Environmental Psychology 66: 101344, 1–11.
DOI: 10.1016/j.jenvp.2019.101344.
paper [EN] [D/S]

Carver, Raymond. 1981.
Cathedral.
New York, NY: Alfred A. Knopf.
book [EN] [M]

De Matteis, Federico. 2020.
“Atmosphere in Architecture.”
In International Lexicon of Aesthetics (ILAe).
Spring edn. Sesto San Giovanni: Mimesis.
DOI: 10.7413/18258630074
dictionary entry [EN] [M] [OA]

De Matteis, Federico, Bille, Mikkel, Griffero, Tonino,
and Jelić, Andrea. 2019.
“Phenomenographies: Describing the Plurality of Atmospheric Worlds / Phenomenographies: décrire la pluralité de mondes atmosphériques.”
Ambiances. International Journal of Sensory Environment, Architecture and Urban Space / Ambiances. Revue internationale sur l’environnement sensible, l’architecture et l’espace urbain 5 (special issue on “Phenomenographies: Describing Urban and Architectural Atmospheres”): n.p.
DOI: 10.4000/ambiances.2526
paper [EN/FR] [D/S] [OA]

Delplanque, Sylvain, and Sander, David. 2021.
“A Fascinating but Risky Case of Reverse Inference:
From Measures to Emotions!”
Food Quality and Preference 92: 104183, 1–5.
DOI: 10.1016/j.foodqual.2021.104183
paper [EN] [S]

Imrie, Rob. 2003.
“Architects’ Conceptions of the Human Body.”
Environment and Planning D: Society and Space 21, 1: 47–65.
DOI: 10.1068/d271t
paper [EN] [D]

Kotler, Philip. 1974.
“Atmospherics as a Marketing Tool.”
Journal of Retailing 49: 48–64.
paper [EN] [M]

Leitner, Bernhard, and Conrads, Ulrich. 1985.
“Der hörbare Raum: Erfahrungen und Mutmaßungen. Gesprächsnotizen von Bernhard Leitner and Ulrich Conrads / Acoustic Space: Experiences and Conjectures. A Conversation between Bernhard Leitner and Ulrich Conrads.” Daidalos. Architektur Kunst Kultur / Architecture Art Culture 17 (special issue on “Der hörbare Raum / The Audible Space”): 28–45.
essay [DE/EN] [D]

Mostafavi, Armin. 2021.
“Architecture, Biometrics, and Virtual Environments Triangulation: A Research Review.”
Architectural Science Review, 1–18.
DOI: 10.1080/00038628.2021.2008300
paper [EN] [D/S] [OA]

Pallasmaa, Juhani. 2016.
“The Sixth Sense: The Meaning of Atmosphere and Mood.” AD. Architectural Design 86, 6 (special issue on “Evoking Through Design: Contemporary Moods in Architecture”):
126–133. DOI: 10.1002/ad.2121
essay [EN] [A]

Schönhammer, Rainer. 2018.
“Atmosphere — The Life of a Place:
The Psychology of Environment and Design” (2012).
In Designing Atmospheres,
ed. by J. Weidinger, 141–179.
Berlin: Universitätsverlag der TU Berlin.
essay [EN] [D/S]

Shusterman, Richard. 2006.
“Thinking through the Body, Educating
for the Humanities: A Plea for Somaesthetics.”
The Journal of Aesthetic Education 40, 1: 1–21.
Stable URL: www.jstor.org/stable/4140215
essay [EN] [M]

Warhol, Andy. 1975.
The Philosophy of Andy Warhol:
From A to B and Back Again.
New York, NY and London: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich.
book [EN] [M]

Zevi, Bruno. 1993.
Architecture as Space: How to Look at Architecture (1948). Ed. by J.A. Barry. Trans. by M. Gendel.
New York, NY: Da Capo Press.
book [EN] [D]

Suggested readings

Bloomer, Kent C., and Moore, Charles W.,
with a contribution by R.J. Yudell. 1977.
Body, Memory, and Architecture.
New Haven, CT and London:
Yale University Press (YUP).
book [EN] [D]

Eisenman, Peter. 1992.
“Oltre lo sguardo: L’architettura nell’epoca
dei media elettronici / Visions’ Unfolding:
Architecture in the Age of Electronic Media.”
Domus 734: 19–24.
essay [EN] [D]

Höök, Kristina. 2018.
Designing with the Body:
Somaesthetic Interaction Design.
Design Thinking, Design Theory, 15.
Cambridge, MA and London: The MIT Press.
book [EN] [D]

Neutra, Richard J. 1954.
Survival Through Design.
New York, NY: Oxford University Press (OUP).
book [EN] [D]

Norberg-Schulz, Christian. 1971.
Existence, Space and Architecture.
London: Studio Vista.
book [EN] [D]

Norberg-Schulz, Christian. 1979.
Genius Loci: Towards a Phenomenology of Architecture.
New York, NY: Rizzoli International Publications.
book [EN] [D]

Pallasmaa, Juhani. 2002.
“Geleefde ruimte: Belichaamde ervaring en zintuiglijk denken / Lived Space: Embodied Experience and Sensory Thought.”
OASE. Tijdschrift voor architectuur /Journal for Architecture 58 (special issue on “Het zichtbare en het onzichtbare / The Visible and the Invisible”): 13–34.
paper [NL/EN] [D] [OA]

Pallasmaa, Juhani, and Zambelli, Matteo. 2020.
Inseminations: Seeds for Architectural Thought (2011).
Chichester and Hoboken, NJ: Wiley.
book [EN] [D]

Plummer, Henry. 2016.
The Experience of Architecture.
London: Thames and Hudson.
book [EN] [D]

Rasmussen, Steen E. 1959.
Experiencing Architecture (1957).
Cambridge, MA and London: The MIT Press.
book [EN] [D]

von Meiss, Pierre. 1990.
Elements of Architecture: From Form to Place (1986).
New York, NY: Spon Press.
book [EN] [D]

Videos

Jiménez Torrecillas, Antonio. 2011.
Interview in the video-documentary
Spain Alight, directed by Jorge Cosmen.
© 2011 Narita Estudio / Stone Designs / Les Films Anonymes
video [ES/EN] [D]

Wenders, Wim (ed.). 2014.
Cathedrals of Culture:
A Film Project in 3D about the Soul of Buildings.
Berlin: Neue Road Movies.
video [EN] [D]