The use of biometric monitoring allow researchers insight into the processing of environmental data by our central nervous systems. As a result we can determine precisely which stimuli cause arousal or draw our attention. This technology is used widely by commercial interests but is not commonly used to improve the public realm. Our authors hope to change this.
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The coronavirus pandemic highlighted the vital role urban areas play in supporting citizens’ health and well-being (Ribeiro et al., 2021). In times of (personal) vulnerability, citizens depend on their neighbourhood for performing daily physical activities to restore their mental state, but public spaces currently fall short in fulfilling the appropriate requirements to achieve this. The situation is exacerbated by Western ambitions to densify through high-rise developments to meet the housing demand. In this process of urban densification, public spaces are the carriers where global trends, local ambitions and the conditions for the social fabric materialise (Battisto & Wilhelm, 2020). High-rise developments in particular will determine users’ experiences at street-level. Consequently, they have an enduring influence on the liveability of neighbourhoods for the coming decades but, regarding the application of urban design principles, their impact is hard to dissect (Gifford, 2007).Promising emerging technologies and methods from the new transdisciplinary field of neuroarchitecture may help identify and monitor the impact of certain physical characteristics on human well-being in an evidence-based way. In the two-year Sensing Streetscapes research study, biometric tools were tested in triangulation with traditional methods of surveys and expert panels. The study unearthed situational evidence of the relationship between designed and perceived spaces by investigating the visual properties and experience of high-density environments in six major Western cities. Biometric technologies—Eye-Tracking, Galvanic Skin Response, mouse movement software and sound recording—were applied in a series of four laboratory tests (see Spanjar & Suurenbroek, 2020) and one outdoor test (see Hollander et al., 2021). The main aim was to measure the effects of applied design principles on users’ experiences, arousal levels and appreciation.Unintentionally, the research study implied the creation of a 360° built-environment assessment tool. The assessment tool enables researchers and planners to analyse (high-density) urban developments and, in particular, the architectural attributes that (subliminally) affect users’ experience, influencing their behaviour and perception of place. The tool opens new opportunities for research and planning practice to deconstruct the successes of existing high-density developments and apply the lessons learned for a more advanced, evidence-based promotion of human health and well-being.ReferencesBattisto, D., & Wilhelm, J. J. (Eds.). (2020). Architecture and Health Guiding Principles for Practice. Routledge, Taylor & Francis Group. Gifford, R. (2007). The Consequences of Living in High-Rise Buildings. Architectural Science Review, 50(1), 2–17. https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.3763/asre.2007.5002 Hollander, J. B., Spanjar, G., Sussman, A., Suurenbroek, F., & Wang, M. (2021). Programming for the subliminal brain: biometric tools reveal architecture’s biological impact. In K. Menezes, P. de Oliveira-Smith, & A. V. Woodworth (Eds.), Programming for Health and Wellbeing in Architecture (pp. 136–149). Routledge, Taylor & Francis Group. https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003164418 Ribeiro, A. I., Triguero-Mas, M., Jardim Santos, C., Gómez-Nieto, A., Cole, H., Anguelovski, I., Silva, F. M., & Baró, F. (2021). Exposure to nature and mental health outcomes during COVID-19 lockdown. A comparison between Portugal and Spain. Environment International, 154, 106664. https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1016/j.envint.2021.106664 Spanjar, G., & Suurenbroek, F. (2020). Eye-Tracking the City: Matching the Design of Streetscapes in High-Rise Environments with Users’ Visual Experiences. Journal of Digital Landscape Architecture (JoDLA), 5(2020), 374–385. https://gispoint.de/gisopen-paper/6344-eye-tracking-the-city-matching-the-design-of-streetscapes-in-high-rise-environments-with-users-visual-experiences.html?IDjournalTitle=6
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Background and objectivesBefore the Covid-19 pandemic, important social studies already indicated the severe negative feedback associated with high-rise developments. During the Covid-19 pandemic, citizens were confronted with their neighbourhoods’ insufficient restorative capacity to maintain their health and well-being. New methods are urgently required to analyse and learn from existing high-density developments to prevent a repetition of past mistakes and to catalyse the salutary effects of architecture in new developments.Process and methods (for empirical research)The Sensing Streetscapes research investigated the potential of emerging biometric technologies to examine the effects of commonly applied urban design principles in six western cities. In one outdoor and four laboratory tests, eye-tracking technology with sound-recording and Galvanic Skin Response captured subjects’ (un)conscious attention patterns and arousal levels when viewing streets on eye level. Triangulation with other techniques, such as mouse tracking to record participants’ appreciation value and expert panels from spatial design practice, showed the positive and negative impact of stimuli.Main results (or main arguments in the case of critical reviews)The preliminary results provide a dynamic understanding of urban experience and how it is affected by the presence or absence of design principles. The results suggest that streets with high levels of detail and variety may contribute to a high level of engagement with the built environment. It also shows that traffic is likely an important factor in causing stress and diminishing the restorative capacity society seeks.Implications for research and practice/policy | Importance and originality of the contributionThe research study led to the development of a Dynamic User Experience Assessment (D-UXA) tool that supports researchers and designers in understanding the impact of design decisions on users’ experience, spatial perception and (walking) behaviour. D-UXA enables a human-centred analysis and is designed to fill the gap between traditional empirical methods and aspirations for an evidence-based promotion of human health and wellbeing in (high-density) urban developments.
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