Investigating the Effects of Architectural Space on Cognition and Brain Activities: A Systematic Review

The built environment is rapidly expanding because of the growing need for architectural spaces in urban life. However, not enough studies have been carried out about the effect of architectural space on cognition and brain activities. Earlier studies on the environmental psychology of architecture qualitatively were not able to respond to this query. However, nowadays with the emergence of the new theory of neuroscience and its connection with architecture, researchers have found valuable results shedding morelight on the ways that architectural space affects the human brain through the use of modern tools in neuroscience giving rise to a new paradigm of Neuro-architecture. The purpose of the present study was to investigate the effect of architectural space on brain functions and human cognition by measuring brain activities. The main questions in this study were: what are the literature, key concepts, research methods, and techniques in the field of architecture and neuroscience? In addition, how many fields are such resources divided into?

The present study has introduced and analyzed the available resources from 2010 to 2020 via a systematic qualitative method.

The resources are divided into two main categories of theoretical and experimental studies. The focus of the present study is on experimental studies indicating that the physical elements of the architectural space are generally related to the visual field, affect cognition and brain activities, and cause different emotions.

The results revealed that these studies are classified into five general areas of stress reduction, aesthetic judgment, navigation, attention, and emphasis on visual elements and human experiences. EEG technique, fMRI, and some auxiliary tools, such as eye tracking, have been used to measure the effect of architectural space on the brain.