Conscious Cities Festival 2020, Centre for Conscious Design (2020)

The continuing process of densification of cities poses challenges for planning professionals and spatial designers to both build dwellings in high density and retain environments with a human scale as desired by the community. The reception of previous urban high-density developments teaches us that scientific foundations and user-based reflections on the proposed designs are needed ex-ante to ensure liveable environments.
By combining two research projects – one of which focuses on the urban renewal processes in 32 deprived neighborhoods in Amsterdam, and the other on utilizing neuroarchitecture to design livable streetscapes with urban area development – we propose an innovative means to reinforce participatory planning and design. We explore how the application of neuroarchitecture and in particular, eye-tracking technology evaluates scientifically proven and user-tested design solutions possible before they are implemented.