HOW SCIENCE SHAPES ARCHITECTURE Although the application of neuroscience to architectural design is new, it follows a well-known pattern. In 1895, when he accepted a challenge to turn an acoustically impossible lecture hall at Harvard College into a usable room, physics professor Wallace Sabine embarked on his pioneering journey into architectural acoustics by utilizing knowledge from his ?eld. For several years, Sabine and his assistants studied the sound characteristics of the room. Some nights, they borrowed hundreds of seat cushions from Sanders Theater, a lecture hall known for its acoustic excellence, and, playing organ pipes, measured the time it took for different frequencies of sound to decay to inaudibility when re?ected off the surfaces of various materials.  Sabine’s experiments produced the empirical data for the concept and measurement of reverberation time {the time required for a sound to diminish to one millionth of its original intensity}, now stated in units called “sabines.” An appreciable reverberation time improves acoustical effects, especially of music. A loud sound in an auditorium should be barely audible only one to two seconds after the source of the sound has stopped. In a private home, a shorter {but still discernible} reverberation time is desirable. To ensure the best acoustic qualities, architects now design rooms to achieve a reverberation time that comes as close as possible to producing natural sound.  Sabine’s ?edgling research was among the ?rst to use new discoveries in physics to create architectural design tools. Today, physics undergirds not only acoustics design but structural design, lighting design, and thermal design {heating and cooling}. For the most part, these tools were developed not by physicists but by engineers who understood physics and saw ways to apply it to solve design problems.  Other developments in science or engineering also gave rise to far-reaching changes in architecture. When steel became more plentiful and affordable with the invention of the Bessemer furnace in 1855, architects could use steel beams in building design. These beams made using exterior masonry walls for structural support unnecessary and eventually led to the design of skyscrapers. Elisha Otis’s invention of the elevator in 1857 made it practical for people to move up and down in taller and taller buildings. And Thomas Edison’s invention of the electric light bulb in 1879 sparked a new era in lighting, freed from the danger of ?re from gas lamps. Each of these breakthroughs continues to shape architectural design today.  In their book Liars, Lovers, and Heroes, Steven R. Quartz, Ph.D., and Terrence J. Sejnowski, Ph.D., write that “Progress in science is made by focused experiments under highly controlled conditions, usually communicated in brief articles to scienti?c peers. As powerful an engine of knowledge creation as this enterprise has been, there is also value in occasionally stepping back and attempting to make connections across disciplinary boundaries.” Let us consider several cases in which the boundaries between brain science and architecture are already being crossed and which have exciting implications for in?uencing the way architects design spaces in the future. We also explore examples of design questions that neuroscience might help to answer. But all of these together are only the beginning of this new ?eld. 
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