The visceral experience of architecture: object affordance and our need to grasp our surroundings. By Nikos A. Salingaros

Nikos A. Salingaros

Nikos Salingaros is a mathematician but also a  strong supporter of biophilic design and  new architectural theories that he has developed through his collaboration with the architect Christofer Alexander, author of "A Pattern Language"",  ( still a seller after over four decades from publication). His critical analysis of conventional modern architecture is very harsh especially when he tries to combine  theories from physics  with architectural discipline .The following excerp form his recent chapter introduces you to a another approach to neuroarchitecture, without getting too deep into the neuro-physiological analysis, but using its assumptions to conceive a different approach to design. This time Salingaros does it without any regard for ancient architectural language, or does he ???

“The visceral experience of architecture: object affordance and our need to grasp our surroundings.”
By Nikos A. Salingaros

Introduction
A quiet revolution is underway, in which architects are beginning to prioritize human neurological responses in what they build (Robinson & Pallasmaa, 2015; Sussman & Hollander, 2015). How does the human organism react and relate to a building, space, surface, or structural detail? A collaborative effort between architects and scientists, with cross-fertilization among disciplines, is revealing important new findings. This represents a paradigm shift after decades during which design focused almost exclusively on form, materials, and abstract geometries.
At the same time, we are discovering that traditional wisdom embedded in the built environment contains many of the design answers we now seek. Our ancestors who built towns and cities had an intuitive idea of which environments were more accommodating emotionally, and more healing (Alexander, 1979; Alexander et al., 1977). The tools they used to evaluate them were their own direct senses. Those older methods of choosing one design over another are now verified by our present-day laboratory techniques.
The sensory impact that our environment has on our nervous system and our body as a whole is the result of a complex mixture of distinct sources, all of which affect us viscerally. Our state of wellbeing is due in part to the effect that environmental information triggers in our body, coming from how our neurological system is designed for organismic survival during our evolution. Instinctive responses to form, pattern, and surface play a fundamental role in how we experience architecture.
Following the lead of Christopher Alexander (2001-2005), I have been investigating the organization of complexity (Mehaffy & Salingaros, 2015; Salingaros, 2006; 2011; 2014; 2015a). The central assumption is that our neurophysiological mechanism is developed for precisely this purpose — to analyze information automatically — hence theoretical results will help to explain how our body reacts to different environments.
Our neurophysiology picks up specific useful pieces of complex information from our surroundings. It does this subconsciously. Other, separate layers of our cognitive apparatus synthesize all this information to compute an integrated result. Our body then acts and reacts according to this internal cue. Building form adapts to our neurophysiology whenever all the individual internal elements, spaces, and surfaces — which should hopefully have followed criteria that guarantee an emotional connection — cooperate cognitively. Increasing the system’s interdependent relationships towards geometrical coherence consequently enhances its value in accommodating human life.
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you can keep on reading here (link)

A brief Overview of the History of Conscious Spaces

This article briefly reviews some of humanity's computational developments, and touches on some developments in neuromimetic architectural implementations and finally tying it all back to cutting edge opportunities for AI and the built environment.

"The cinetic art of Gianni Colombo (1937-1993)".   

More than two thousand years ago humanity developed what some argue is an analog computer called the Antikythera Machine. It is a clear example of human ingenuity, facility, and mathematical precision. More importantly the device begins humanity down a trajectory of computation and algorithmically informed decision making, which finally leads us to the artificial neural networks with which innovations in computation are dealing with today. It is believed that a device such as this was commissioned by and sought after by the kings and emperors of the time, as it would have provided information only available to the elite. Likewise the automata of Pierre Jaquet-Droz centuries later fall into the same pedigree and created a similar allure. 

In 1843 Ada Lovelace changed everything by articulating the algorithmic process which may be described as the bedrock upon which modern computing has been built. Inspired by the development of the Analytical Engine by Charles Babbage, she elaborated on the possible futures that such a machine implied. In essence developing a language upon which such a machine could operate.

Innovation is often the product of competition, such is the case in war. World War II is no different. The warring factions sought to encrypt, intercept and decipher the messages sent in the war effort, thus the modern age of computation is born. Alan Turing and his team developed a machine designed to decipher the encrypted enemy messages. His machine took the prior developments to a new place. These developments begin to chart out a vein of logic which have helped to develop the trajectory of civilization as we know it. Later his work would develop what is known as the Turing Test which has become important in Artificial Intelligence research and theoretical computation.

Roughly two decades later, Cedric Price was commissioned to design a new space for the Gilman Paper Corporation, named The Generator Project. The project is arguably the seminal architectural project dealing with what Michael Arbib calls "neuromorphic architecture". This ambitious project even evaluated today. The objective was to create a space in direct dialog with its patrons. Responding to the users and the programmer actions/queries and provoking responses.

Price worked with John and Julia Frazer to develop the computational models upon which the project is based. 

Ada Building -  Zurich.     

Year’s later, and much less ambitious, yet actualized project memorializing Ada Lovelace was conceived and executed for the Swiss national exhibition of 2002. The project set out to accomplish what Cedric Price had ambitions to do years earlier, the difference was one of computational capacity, and a much smaller scope. The ambition was to create a responsive dance floor, which encouraged a dialog between it and its users, through interactive lite floor tiles, other lighting effects, and music. If the dance floor became too crowded it would run one routine. It could run another routine to calm the mood and another to increase the tempo of the group.

Ada Building: inside. Credit:www.architettura.it

Tononi, has developed a Integrated Information Theory attempting to quantify consciousness. He defines it as "integrated information" where an experience consists of informational relationships which have an n-dimensional relationships or volume. In this view consciousness is a measurable quantity similar to "mass, charge, or energy." Integrated Information Theory, has deep implications. It “quantifies the connectivity and intelligence of a particular neural network, and the degree to which it is self-aware”. This means that consciousness is quantifiable with an equation called Phi, which happens to be the name of Tononi’s latest book; where he works with a mathematician Christof Koch to develop, test and illustrate his findings. Essentially in their view consciousness is a spectrum upon which sufficiently sophisticated and self-aware systems have some degree of consciousness. This implies that even complex synthetic or simulated neural network systems have levels of consciousness. Following this logic one could argue that even if the system lacks being self-aware it does contain some aspects of integrated information or consciousness. This has been a pursuit throughout the ages: understanding or creating consciousness.

The ability for a system to be self-aware seems to be the aspect which humanity has struggled with. There are two recent developments which I believe have the ability to alter our relationship to such limitations: the exponential increase in sensors sophistication/ubiquity, the advances in machine learning/AI, the innovation of quantum computing, and the global interconnected database which is the internet (including increasing physicality of computing through mobile and internet of things developments, such as block chain innovations).

One compelling body of work addressing a move toward self-aware proto-biological spaces is that of Philip Beesley. His work is becoming increasingly sophisticated, incorporating advances in material and manufacturing processes, near living chemical system, and responsiveness through inter-connectivity and sensor data.

 Aurora,  Philip Beesley  installation in Alberta.       Credits www.philipbeesley.com

Using recent developments in machine learning as a part of the design process opens extensive opportunities for development of prototype versioning in order for the designer to realistically tease out and analyze innumerable possible configurations. Allowing for comprehensive real-time analysis of a greater set of possible parametric examples. The research team believes that this technique will aid in the discovery of unrealized configurations potentially with unforeseen benefits, or applications. Additionally, incorporating sensors into the assembly allows for an automatically actuated or responsive system. Eventually, this may lead to analytical feedback into the machine learning parameters applied to future configurations, and optimal techniques for interaction.

There is an opportunity to use the recently released OpenAI Gym project, which is an "open-source library" used to develop and test reinforcement learning (RL) algorithms or agents. Some of the environments lend themselves to use with the development of dynamic structures. In essence it allows the RL agent to explore configurations without preconception. This method is similar to current computational geometry tools in that it allows the designer to evaluate more iterations, but it takes the logic one step further. Because the RL agent uses four values to inform the iterative learning process: observation, reward, info, and done(used to reset the environment for another iterative experiment) This logic is based on a tried and tested "agent-environment loop. Each timestep, the agent chooses an action, and the environment returns an observation and a reward." The RL agents start with random actions and then through the feedback provided by the iterative learning process the RL agent is encouraged to make increasingly informed decisions over time. Current experiments have not been directed toward spatial or architectural problems, but the preliminary exercises show promise for their application toward dynamic structural systems.

Salutogenesis and Humanism in Healthcare Design

The conference just held  in Trento about the innovative outcomes of healthcare (and conscious) design was very interesting as it gave the opportunity to compare 3 centres of excellence of  different times and places about the "salutogenic model", a kind of approach to care-giving which support human health and well-being rather than focusing on factors that cause disease. The Filderklinik of Stoccard, presented by professor Treichler,  expression of antroposophic design (1),  is an extraordinary example for achieving very high standards already back in 1975: the clinic was the first to focus the attention towards wellbeing  of all the occupants of the clinic: patients, staff and visitors.

FILDERKLINIK: CHROMOTHERAPY ROOM - PHOTO BY BO WE PA ARCHITEKTEN GMBH

 Filderklinik : Warm colors, Green, Sunlight - Photo by BO WE PA ARCHITEKTEN GMBH

The same vision is shared in the recently finished Isala Clinic in Zwolle, Netherlands, (Alberts & Van Huut International Architects)  which still proposes an organic architecture, revealed through design choices that are expression of deep thought and extra-ordinary solutions.

Isala Clinic: Irregular geometries, natural materials -   Photo: www.albertsenvanhuut.nl

The New Meyer Hospital Centre in Florence,  is also a good example for theclear guidelines, the integrate design, the pre and post occupancy survey, all realized with great cost effectiveness . The presentation by professor Romano Del Nord, founder of CSPE, the practice involved in the definitive and working plan, left also room for interesting consideration about the evolution of  healthcare design in the last centuries: we have passed progressively from the idea of Healing Machine , to that of Patient Centered Hospital, then  to Smart Hospital  and, only recently, to the concept of “Smart Healthcare Service Delivering”, where efficiency, safety, sustainability and quality are converging key points.

Isala Clinic:Bespoke Bricks for building facade - photo by WWW.ALBERTSENVANHUUT.NL

Biofilic Design is the common field for each approach: there is no doubt that human interaction with any kind of nature, alive or not, enhance or accelerate the healing process, beyond providing a sense of pleasure. Roger Ulrich could prove that back in 1984 with his research on the effect that  a nice view in a patient room can have on recovery speed after a surgery, and later on other research studies could confirm this result.

If we look back in time to ancient Pre-Hippocratic medicine  and the places of treatment we find out that building criteria and related rituals can still represent  good models to refer to. Those places were actual samll cities that sick people  would visit to receive either treatment or some sort of healing. They were  organized around the healing temple sacred to the god of Medicine Asclepius, the asclepeion,  and were always located  on hills with good air quality, modulated sunlight, not isolated from the urban centers and , above all, nearby vegetated areas with specific beneficial effects. We don’t have proof of  the cure or surgery procedures  they used, but healings, mainly reported as miracles, did happen, as some realistic description let understand. 

Epidaurum:  1. Asklepios temple. 2. Abaton. 3. Artemis temple. 4. Tholos. 5. Stora Altaret. 6. Propyleum. 7.Stadium

Still there are other aspects of asclepeion’s organization worth of considerations for their anticipatory character, especially  on the importance of the socio-emotional factors in the healing process. Besides the temple, strictly for religious and care purpose, the area included a building for "xenia", i.e.  dwelling to host patient’s relatives, who could so be close and participative in that particular  moment.  Another relevant practice  was the “incubation”, a period during which the sick, once settled in a “abaton”,  could fall in a dream-like state of induced sleep known as "enkoimesis” during  which they would be revealed the remedies for their own disease.

 Couldn’t we just re-interpret this apparently supernatural phenomenon as a sort of self-healing, that only recently has been  explained as automatic, homeostatic processe of the body that is controlled by physiological mechanisms ? And can we consider meditation (2), with the assent of science, as an introspection technique that can help and accelerate those mechanism ?

NOTES:
(1) architecture following Steiner's philosohy through an organic-expressionist style
(2) see previous article in this blog "Contemplative Spaces"