The Architect's Brain

The Architect's Brain: Neuroscience, Creativity, and Architecture is the first book to consider the relationship between the neurosciences and architecture, offering a compelling and provocative study in the field of architectural theory. Explores various moments of architectural thought over the last 500 years as a cognitive manifestation of philosophical, psychological, and physiological theory Looks at architectural thought through the lens of the remarkable insights of contemporary neuroscience, particularly as they have advanced within the last decade Demonstrates the neurological justification for some very timeless architectural ideas, from the multisensory nature of the architectural experience to the essential relationship of ambiguity and metaphor to creative thinking

Introduction Part One: Historical Essays 1. The Humanist Brain (Alberti, Vitruvius, and Leonardo). 2. The Enlightened Brain (Perrault, Laugier, and Le Roy). 3. The Sensational Brain (Burke, Price, and Knight). 4. The Transcendental Brain (Kant and Schopenhauer). 5. The Animate Brain (Schinkel, Bötticher, and Semper). 6. The Empathetic Brain (Vischer, Wölfflin, and Göller). 7. The Gestalt Brain (The Dynamics of the Sensory Field). 8. The Neurological Brain (Hayek, Hebb, and Neutra). 9. The Phenomenal Brain (Merleau-Ponty, Rasmussen, and Pallasmaa). Part Two: Neuroscience and Architecture. 10. Anatomy: Architecture of the Brain. 11. Ambiguity: Architecture of Vision. 12. Metaphor: Architecture of Embodiment. 13. Hapticity: Architecture of the Senses. 14. Epilogue: The Architect's Brain. Endnotes. Bibliography. Index.