by Aashna Bajaj

The second installment of the three-part series, “What Design Can Do: Bridging Human Experience, Neuroscience, and Architecture,” took place at the Center for Architecture on July 16, 2025. This series explores how design can integrate insights from neuroscience and architecture to advance evidence-based, human-centered design that supports well-being.

After the first event introduced foundational principles and case studies, a panel discussion, moderated by Margaret O’Donoghue Castillo—Chief Architect of the New York City Department of Design and Construction—focused on the ways that neuroscience can be used to elevate human experience in architecture. Three panelists—architect Suchi Reddy, lighting researcher Dr. Mariana Figueiro, and Milton Shinberg, an architect and educator—emphasized the urgency behind shaping the next frontier of ethical, evidence-based design.

Castillo introduced Active Design 2.0, a soon-to-be-launched revision of the city’s 2010 Active Design guidelines that expands the category of “health in design” to include physical activity and emotional well-being. A 14-year life-expectancy gap across New York’s neighborhoods offered a clear reflection of how inequality is embedded in our built environments, and how more holistic design can be used to improve lives.

Castillo illustrated this through DDC’s collaboration with the Department of Health and Hygiene, where community partnership emerged as a foundational design principle. She also revived the intent behind Bloomberg’s Plan NYC, emphasizing how proximity to inviting public spaces can measurably strengthen social connectedness. She pointed to the Far Rockaway Library as a project that puts this idea into practice.

With this opening, the audience was challenged to consider a paradigm-shifting question: What would happen if every design decision prioritized measurable mental health outcomes as highly as energy savings or carbon use?

Architect Suchi Reddy, founder of Reddymade, an NYC-based architecture, design, and public art studio, illustrated this fusion of art and neuroscience by presenting her collaborative projects with clients like Google and Johns Hopkins. In her experiment, A Space for Being, visitors moved through three sensory environments while biometric sensors measured heart rate, skin temperature, and conductivity. The results showed how spaces literally shape our nervous system. Another insight came from Reddy’s prototypical hospital room for the Kennedy Krieger Institute in Baltimore, which revealed a striking relationship between environment and physiology: the caregiver’s stress directly amplified the child’s stress. Reddy’s provocation to the audience was simple but profound—if we know this, how do we design environments to actively reduce external stressors and prevent cortisol spikes?

Dr. Mariana Figueiro, a professor at Mount Sinai’s Light and Health Research Center, explored the nonvisual effects of light: its influence on circadian rhythms, cognition, mood, and immune regulation. She shared field studies linking daylight exposure in classrooms to delayed melatonin onset, sleep disruptions, and even increases in childhood myopia.

Architect and educator Milton Shinberg, author of People-Centered Architecture: Design, Practice, Education, revealed how neuroscience has reshaped his 45 years of practice and pedagogy. From designing schools to teaching sensory perception, Shinberg uses cognitive science to understand how form, acoustics, and texture influence attention and learning. His assertion that “architects are humanists who don’t know enough about humans” struck a collective chord.

Shinberg illustrated this through a school project in Washington, DC, showing how shifts in tone, spatial permeability, and the activation of surrounding urban space can strengthen community connectedness and encourage intuitive movement through the interiors.

He shared how he brings this lens into his teaching as well, including a course in which students designed for a blind music composer—an exercise that required them to rethink space through non-visual cues and sensory hierarchy.

Researchers like Vittoria Falchini at Foster + Partners are hoping to use the pillars of Neuroarchitecture to create an “architecture of empathy.” And as neuroscience continues to inspire creativity in architectural design, more spaces will be designed to calm cortisol levels, enhance memory, and foster empathy.

As this series advances, the charge is clear: design is not only about form and function, but about the nervous system, cognition, and community. The evening underscored a pragmatic path forward, in which neuroscience literacy is embedded in every step of the design process. By integrating human factors expertise into their designs, architects can confidently create spaces that uplift people’s physical and mental health. With neuroarchitecture as a central foundation, the environments we design should—and can—help people and communities thrive.

Watch the full event recording: What Design Can Do: Bridging Human Experience, Neuroscience, and Architecture – Center for Architecture, AIANY Social Science and Architecture Committee, July 16, 2025

About the Author

Aashna Bajaj is an Architectural Designer at AECOM NY, a Neuropsychology Researcher and a committee member. A Pratt Institute Grad, Aashna’s research focuses on how neuroscience and behavioral economics can strengthen the way we design and evaluate spaces – translating scientific insights into design frameworks with measurable advantage.