Welcome to Building for Wellbeing
Building for Wellbeing investigates how to design streets in extremely dense environments while maintaining a human scale at eye level. The project applies novel approaches from the fields of neuroarchitecture and artificial intelligence as well as co-research methods to find practice-proven, evidence-based design solutions and develop cutting-edge tools for spatial design practice.
Building for Wellbeing is a two-year research project conducted by the Chair of Spatial Urban Transformation at the Amsterdam University of Applied Sciences. It brings together co-researchers from Dutch spatial design firms with expertise in urban design, architecture, and landscape architecture and their clients (municipalities, housing corporations and urban developers). The project is supported by an advisory board of leading international institutions and global pioneers in the field of neuroarchitecture. It is co-funded by the Taskforce for Applied Research SIA.
News & Events
Neuroarchitecture book
Journal Paper: The Non-Experts’ Experience of 3D City Visualisations
Symposium Building for Wellbeing
Book Neuroarchitecture: Designing High-rise Cities at Eye Level
How do we design the streets in large-scale housing projects so that they retain a human scale? This book seeks to remedy that by exploring the new hybrid field of neuroarchitecture in which researchers use advanced technology to find out how the body responds to sensory stimuli from the built environment. Neuroarchitecture introduces the discipline and systematically analyses examples of high-density streets in Western cities like Amsterdam, Toronto, Manchester and Oslo. What design solutions have been employed there? And how are the places experienced visually? What lessons we can draw about designing with a human scale? Neuroarchitecture challenges conventional design guidelines and offers practical tips for enhancing the human scale of densely built environments. The book is available in English & Dutch.
Research lines
Neuroarchitecture
How can the emerging field of biometric technology deliver evidence-based design solutions?
Research through Design
In high-density environments, what are the commonly applied design principles and how do they contribute to a human scale at street level?
Artificial Intelligence
How can we apply AI algorithms to trace high-density reference locations across the western world?