Frascari NeuroArchitecture

COPYRIGHT 2011 MARCO FRASCARI
1
Tuesday, June 7, 2011 1
THOUGHTS ON
NEURO-ARCHITECTURE
Marco Frascari
OAA MEETING
TORONTO
19th & 20th MAY 2011
2
With the amazing breakthroughs
taking place in the neurological
and cognitive sciences, we are
on verge of a vital revolution in
a number of related fields, such
as linguistics, educational
theory, medicine, philosophy,
urbanism, architecture and the
arts.
3
At first sight neuroscience and
architecture might appear to have
little in common.
Nevertheless, advances in
neuroscience are now able to give
a reason for the ways we perceive
the world around us and navigate
in it and for mechanisms embedied
in our physical environment that
can affect our cognition, problem
solving ability, and mood.
4
Architectural practice and
neuroscience research use our brains
and minds in much the same way.
H o w e v e r, the link between

neuros cience k n o w le d g e and
ar c h i t e ct u r al design—w ith r are
exceptions—has yet to be made.
The concept of linking these two

fi e l d s is a c h alle ng e worth
considering.
5
The basic axiom of neuroarchitecture is:
We Make Architecture
&
Architecture Make Us
Edifices Edify us as we edify them
6
Architectural Consciousness
Explaining consciousness is one of the last great
unanswered scientific and philosophical problems.
Immediately known, familiar and obvious,
consciousness is also baffling, opaque, and strange.
How and when did we become conscious?
What exactly is consciousness?
What is more precisely architectural consciousness?
A gift from God? Some kind of emergent property

of our brain? A sequence of electrical sparks off
electro-chemical neural activity?.
7
Since Architecture must satisfy the
different representational,
functional, aesthetic, and
emotional needs of organizations
and the people who live or work
in these structures.
Neuroscience can give to architects

a better understanding of the way
they have always been working.
8
It is commonly thought that the physical sciences
have dominated the stages of human knowledge
and making while the future will be dominated
increasingly by biological sciences and
especially by neurobiology.
Physics and chemistry have dominated the

making of building and now their contributions
are considered mature disciplines contributing
to architecture. Trough these, architects have
been able to subjugate positively and at times
negatively the environment but with the aim
always to increase comfort and well-being.
9
I believe that the physical environment
of architecture has been more and less
understood and controlled and thet the
time has come to devote our attention
to the contribution of the biological
science to increase our architectural
well-being which beside improving our
health and genetic inheritance by
eradicating diseases and physical
suffering should consist in making
individuals happy and alleviating “the
psychological misery of mankind.”
10
An understanding of the principles
of neuroscience, particularly in the
areas of sensual perceptions and
spatial orientation, can inform the
conceiving of built world to
include environmental features
that minimise negative
physiological, cognitive,
phycological and emotional effects
on the inhabitants
11
An awarness neuroscience can help
architects to deal with the following four
points
1. CREATIVITY: 3. AUTHENTICITY
Generating fresh ideas to F i lt e r i n g poor ex t e r n al
bring into being something
influences and fads that
new and useful and with a
real character by avoiding directly or indirectly can
unnecessary repetition, but often find their way into
s till having a co lle ctive design.
body of work
2. INSIGHT: 4. C O M MU N I C AT I O N S :
Removing personal Improving the
experiences, taming the ego interconnections with and
and tackling each project by between clients and builders,
kee p i ng an open mind, which can make or break a
listening to other's ideas project.
and realising t h at
architectural design is not
s i m p ly a b o ut b u i l d i ng a
monument to myself
12
A few parts of the brain are free to roam over the
worldand to map whatever sound, shape, taste or smell or
texture that the organism’s design enables them to map. But
some other brain parts — those that represent the organism’s
own structure and internal state — are not free to roam at
all; they can map nothing but the body, and are the body’s
captive audience. It is reasonable to hypothesize that this is
the source of the sense of continuous being that anchors
the mental self to architecture.
13
Neuro-architecture
Neuro-architecture is based on the premise that
artificial elements added by humanity have a
significant impact on the function of the brain
and nervous system. In some cases, the impact
may be beneficial, while in other situations the
form and structure of the building may create a
negative reaction on some level.
It is understood that the impact may not be

overt at first, and could in fact effect changes
to the way the nervous system functions over an
extended period of time.
14
A SHORT EXPLANATION
OF NEUROSCIENCE
15
NEURONS & NeuroScience
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Neurons
17
18
The imaging of
the brain
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when something grabs your attention—say, you spot a friend
across the street—the specific neurons governing perception
of that region of visual space (orange) become activated.
Simultaneously, inhibitory neurons (blue) suppress the nearby
brain cells responsible for perceiving surrounding areas
(dark brown).
Thus, paying attention to one thing makes it harder to notice

what is around it: while you are focusing on your friend, you
will fail to notice the cat slinking past you on the sidewalk.
20
Walter Benjamin pointed out:
"Distraction and concentration

Palais des Beaux Art in Lille designed by Ibos and Vitart
form polar opposites which
may be stated as follows: A
man who concentrates before
a work of art is absorbed by
it. […] In contrast, the
distracted mass absorbs the
work of art. This is most
obvious with regard to
buildings. Architecture has
always represented the
prototype of a work of art the
reception of which is
consummated by a collectivity
in a state of distraction."
"The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction" in Illuminations
(London: Cape, 1970) p. 241.
21
VISCERAL NEURONS
Think Twice:
The Gut's "Our Second
Brain" Influences Mood
and Well-Being
22
Neuroscientists have begun to dissect the nature of
attention and identify its neural correlates. The
initial brain areas that process a visual scene use
circuits that lay out visual space like a map. When
you decide to consciously pay attention to a speciic
location of this “retinotopic” space, neurons from
higher levels of your visual system increase the
activation of the low-level circuits and enhance
their sensitivity to sensory input. At the same time,
neurons in the surrounding regions of visual space
are actively in- hibited.
23
Some brain regions
can map not hing
but the body, and
are the b o d y ’s
captive au d ience.
These regions may
form the basis of
the m i n d ’s
representatio n of
the ‘self’.
24
The brain region linking the brain to experiences with
architecture is the parahippocampal place area (PPA).
The PPA is a subregion of the parahippocampal cortex that
plays an important role in the encoding and recognition of
scenes (rather than faces or objects).
25
Neuro-Testing
To realize how our brain generates its own way
26
Magicians and architects were taking
advantage of cognitive conditions long
before any scientist had identified them
27
Conjurers
Phibert de l’Orme John Dee
28
Galilean
Paradigm
A Diagram of
the change of
body, brain and
architecture
relationship
29
Paul
Delaroche
In 1837 Delaroche received the commission for the great picture, 27

metres (88.5 ft) long, in the hemicycle of the award theatre of the École
des Beaux Arts. The commission came from the Ecole's architect, Felix
Duban. The painting represents seventy-five great artists of all ages, in
conversation, assembled in groups on either hand of a central elevation
of white marble steps, on the topmost of which are three thrones filled
by the creators of the Parthenon: architect Phidias, sculptor Ictinus, and
painter Apelles, symbolizing the unity
30
of these arts.
Neurohistory
A historian of medieval Europe by trade, Smail ranges across
tens of thousands of years in On Deep History and argues for
the continuity between prehistory and history and particularly
between paleolithic and postlithic humans.
His reasons for suggesting this continuity are compelling and

simple: written records do not define history, it is evident
that ancient humans had forms of culture, any boundary we
draw between ‘them’ and ‘us’ is arbitrarily imposed and
finally that human culture has a real relationship with the
human body.
Neurohistory of a sort has been suggested by cultural

historians examining the history of emotions, but Smail argues
for the inclusion of all kinds of human behaviours as
candidates for examination through neurohistory. In
particular, he is interested in the use of new knowledge in
t he n eu ro s cie nce s in t he develo pm e nt of h is to r i cal
narratives. Smail is not suggesting that we reduce history to
a search for genetic mind states, but instead that we take into
account the fact that cultural experiences (drinking coffee,
riding rollercoasters, listening to Sunday sermons, singing)
impact our physiological state and our neurochemistry.
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Deep History
Valcamonica
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Naquane rock
33
Construction
Workers
34
Before wr iting there was
architectural construction
drawing
Reconstruction of a Camonian Hut
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AUREA AETAS (Golden Age) = Deep History
Aurea prima sata est aetas, quae vindice nullo,
Aurea prima sata est aetas, quae vindice nullo,

36
Cesariano & G.Semper
Semper’s
understanding of the
origin of the wall as
a hanging textile, a
colourful weave
providing vertical
enclosure was alredy
clear in Cesariano’s
illustratrion.
37
Neuroeconomy. Neurophilosophy. Neuropolitics.
Neurotheology. You neuro-name it. In reality,
however, these names are nothing but
neuromarketing.
That is, “neuroeconomy” is just the application
of concepts from neuroscience to issues
relevant to the field of economics. It’s still
economics. And it’s still neuroscience.
Neuro-cuisine will be about

the neuroscience behind the
dining experience, from
cooking to eating.
38
Neurocuisine/
Neuroarchitecture
I will refer to architecture
and cuisine as neuro-
analogical events to try
and to answer some
interesting questions about
our daily encounters with
food and buildings.
39
As you can imagine, the complexity
of executive functions demands a
dense and widespread underlying
network of brain tissue that can
feed this wide array of processes.
The core of this network sits on
Next time you are
the Prefrontal Cortex (PFC), which
cooking, think of the
is the part of the brain that lies complex network of
right behind the forehead. From an brain cells that are
feeding each and every
evolutionary perspective, this is the single step in your
most newly developed brain area, kitchen. Watch out not to
burn your oil while
accounting for almost 35% of the
you’re at it!
brain’s weight in humans.
40
From Mud
Pies to
Brick
Making
(deep history)
41
Bricks
& Pasta
42
Macaroni
and the
grand tour
Yankee Doodle went to town
A-riding on a pony
Stuck a feather in his hat
And called it macaroni.
43
Young men who had been to Italy on the Grand Tour had developed
a taste for macaroni, a type of Italian food little known in England
then, and so they were said to belong to the Macaroni Club.
The Earl of Sunderland

KG, PC
44
MARIE ANTOINE CARÊME (1784 - 1833)
“architecture the most noble of the arts
and pastry the highest form of architecture”
"Cooking, like architecture, manifests

itself in building. The cook, like the
architect, draws on an infinite array
of creative resources, which make it
possible to create wonders from basic
construction materials. But even
using the finest marble or the best
caviar, success is not guaranteed.
Architecture, like cooking, evolves
and lasts in the form of memories,
tastes, and temperatures."
Ferran Adrià, Head chef,

El Bulli Restaurant,
Barcelona
45
Food, food preparation, and the desire that drives the
conceiving and the making of cuisine creations have been
thought to be too corporeal for being of pure theoretical
importance, only cultural and anthropological studies
have focused on food, but only as material record of a
culture not as source of epistemological understanding.
Now with a neuroscientific approach the dimension it
becomes epistemological
46
Who do not understand the neuro-
relationship between cusine and
architecture makes real cake-architecture
47
Sapience, the ability to think about
apperception, sensations, feelings
and inspirations. Sapience, a sapid
word, is related to the Latin verb
sapere, meaning to taste or to
know.
Italian has generated a small change in spelling
48
Eating with your eyes
49
synaesthesia is a common and
harmless perceptual/brain condition
Imagine a world of magenta Tuesdays, tastes that have shapes,

and wavy green symphonies. At least 1% of otherwise normal
people experience the world this way—in a harmless
neurological condition called synaesthesia.
In synaesthesia, stimulation of one sense triggers anomalous

perceptual experiences. For example, a voice or music may be
not only heard but also seen, tasted, or felt as a touch.
Synaesthesia is a fusion of different sensory perceptions:

the feel of sandpaper might evoke an F sharp, a symphony
might be experienced in blues and golds, or the concept of
February might be experienced above the right shoulder.
Synaesthetes are typically unaware that their experiences are
unusual.
50
Synesthetes perceive by merging primary and secondary qualities
in the cloven world of the res extensa and res cogitans.
Synesthetic inter-sensory associations are emotional states of
affairs appreciating that there are ineffable things you hear,
invisible things that you see, and impalpable things that you touch,
that are describable but beyond words. Nevertheless, these
experiences are accompanied by a sense of certitude (the "this is it"
feeling) and a conviction that what is perceived is actual and
valid.
They are noëtic illuminations based on facts that are experienced
indirectly but at the same time coupled with a feeling of certitude.
51
Saul Steinberg’s
interpretations of
synaesthesia
52
THE “GALILEAN PARADIGM” HAS RUINED THE
GENERAL UNDERSTANDING OF ARCHITECTURE
The following quotation from Galileo is the origin of the Galilean Paradigm
(of course GG was a much better guy).
'Philosophy is written in that very great book-the

Universe-which is always open before our eyes.
However, we cannot understand it unless we first
learn to understand the language and the characters
in which it is written. It is written in mathematical
language, and the characters are triangles, circles,
and other geometrical figures, without which means
it is impossible, humanly speaking, to under-stand a
word of it.'
This has been interpreted as GG’s rejections all such sensible
qualities as colour, taste, smell, sound, etc., from the physical world
and ascribes to it only extension, figure, position, motion, and mass
which can be measured and treated mathematically.
53
One of the primordial functions of the brain,
then, is to obtain knowledge about the world.
How it does that is a problem that, today, belongs
firmly in the field of neuroscience in its
broadest sense. But long before neuroscience
existed as a discipline, the same problem
exercised philosophers. Indeed, the problem of
knowledge, of how we acquire it and how
certain we can be of what we know, has been a
cornerstone of philosophical debate ever since
the time of Plato.
How the brains of architects obtain

knowledge about the built environment has
never seriously investigated
54
For instance, by applying
neuroscience to
architecture, architects `
would understand how
the design of classrooms
can support the cognitive
activities
55
Neuroscience can give
direction for making
better rooms for resting
56
Neuroscience can
give direction
for making better
rooms for eating
Sarah Wigglesworth -
The meal
57
In other words Neuroscience can
give direction for making better
architecture for the every day life
58
Robin Hood Gardens, Alison & Peter
Smithson
In the late 1960s, the Smithsons were given the

opportunity to realise their vision of modern
housing by designing an estate of 213 homes at
Robin Hood Gardens in Poplar, east London. They
conceived it as a series of “streets in the sky”
mixing single-storey apartments with two-storey
maisonettes and including a wide balcony on every
third floor which, they hoped, the residents would
use for children’s play and chatting to neighbours
like a traditional street. Sadly Robin Hood Gardens
was plagued by structural flaws and a high crime
rate. It was often derided as an example of
modernist architectural folly rather than the role
model for progressive social housing that Alison
and Peter had hoped.
'Mistakes were another way of developing and testing ideas.'
Peter Salter
Many buildings that look great in photography or in

portfolios trigger anxiety and a stress response in
their everyday users.
59
'Architecture is not made with the Brain'
The Labour of Alison and Peter Smithson
Essays by Niall Hobhouse, Louisa Hutton, Bruno Kru
A unique record of the symposium

hosted by the AA to celebrate the
work of Alison and Peter Smithson, this
publication also includes specially
commissioned essays, among them an
important piece on Robin Hood Gardens
by Dirk van den Heuvel - co-curator,
with Max Risselada, of 'Alison and
Peter Smithson: From the House of the
Future to a House of Today', Design
Museum, London (2004).
However,
architecture is really
made with the brain
+ body + existing
environment
60
MIRROR
NEURONS
According to Vilayanur S.
Ramachandran, mirror neurons will
do for psychology what DNA did
for biology: They will provide a
unifying framework and help
explain a host of mental abilities
that have hitherto remained
mysterious and inaccessible to
experiments
61
The functions of Mirror
Neurons are essenial in
the facture of
architectural drawings
62
Emotions are also vital to the higher
Emotions
reaches of distinctively human
intelligence. Damasio demonstrates
that contrary to some popular
notions, emotions do not ‘get in the
way of’ rational thinking; emotions
are essential to rationality.
Storytelling is an essential and

emotional ability, the tool by which
our brains interpret life minute by
minute. The human brains are wired
for it. We respond to storytelling
automatically as we store memories
and use storytelling commonly in
life interactions. Human skills with
stories make them comfortable tools
to use in any kind of human
endeavor and venture.
63
Follow the red dots
Cognitive Way-finding
Architectural legibility and floor plan complexity
many think that the readability of plan means easy way-finding
64
Finding one’s way within a
building or among buildings
to reach a destination, or
remember the location of
relevant objects are some of
the elementary tasks of human
activity. Fortunately, human
navigators are well equipped
with an array of flexible
navigational strategies, which
usually enable them to master
their spatial environment. In
addition, human navigation
can rely on tools that extend
human sensory and mnemonic
abilities.
65
Walking down a
Follow the
hallway we hardly
realize that the blue steps
optical and
acoustical flows
give us rich
information about
where we are
headed and whether
we will collide with
other objects
66
ARCHITECTURAL
STORYTELLING
67
The telling of a story is at the origin of
all human communications and neural
world making (cosmopoiesis).
68
According to Antonio Damasio,
Dornsife Professor of
Neuroscience and d irector of
Brain and Creativity Institute at
the University of Southern
California, storytelling is vital for
the functioning of the human
brain.
The telling of a story is at the
origin of all human
communications and,as Damasio
poins out, its non-verbal origin
at the core of consciousness.
The acceptance of storytelling
as a procedure can be used both
for teaching and for conceiving
proper urban environments.
69
Dinocrates and the story of Mount Athos
70
Storytelling and architectural presentation
In his book “The Feeling of What

Happens,” Damasio dwells on the
relevance to the human
organism of telling stories; he
affirms that storytelling is at the
core of human consciousness in
its non-verbal origin.
Knowing springs to life in the
stories that are told in the brain,
they inhere in the constructed
neural patterns that constitute
the nonverbal accounts.
71
Damasio points out that we
hardly notice this kind of
storytelling-making that is
taking place in our brains
because the images that
dominate the mental
display are those of the
things of which we are
conscious—the objects we
see or hear—rather than
those that summarily
constitute the feeling of
us in the act of knowing.
72
Sometimes all we notice is the
whisper of a subsequent verbal
translation of a related
inference of the account: yes, it
is we seeing or hearing or
touching, life images playing
out in the theatre of the mind.
Instead of a cameraman or a
sound editor, nature has
provided us with eyes and ears
and muscles to pan our
internal cameras from scene to
scene. Instead of a nicely
packaged DVD, we end up with
memories.
73
Photorendering
presentations
The tradition of architectural storytelling is
vanishing drastically. Even if architects wear
“Armani Suits” to replace the Lion skin and hold a
red rose or a laser pointer instead of a club, they
are mostly swapping storytelling with lengthy
synopsis of factual notions relaying on a new
authority developed with the digital presentations
(3-D Cad Models, Photo Renderings, 3D walk-
through). These presentations are thought and
staged as the ideal solution for professional
works that must appears as “factual projections”
of future buildings. The resulting request is that
at the end of construction, a building must
precisely look as shown in the architect’s
presentation. Alternatively, the photographic
images of the buildings taken at the end of
construction must appear identical to the images
previously shown in the photo-renderings.
74
Information is antithetical to the essentially useful
deformations generated by storytelling. Information
conveys dry, isolated facts and figures; it explicates
impersonal objects and events.
Storytelling explains nothing and implicates presents

and absents. Fundamentally, this is the reason why it
does not matter how many times a story is told as it is
always food for thought.
75
LOUIS KAHN AND THE
BEGINING OF
NEUROARCHITECTURE
76
L.I. KAHN’S SALK INSTITUTE
77
San Francesco
Abbey Assisi Italy
78
Cloister San Francesco, Assisi
79
L.I.Khan
80
• Stepping into the
light [A.Damasio]
• Light [L. I. khan]
81
IAfter Salk’s statement in
2003 AIA announced two
unprecedented research
initiatives, one with the
Salk Institute, and the
other with the U.S.
General S e rv i c e s
Administration and the
National Institutes of
Health.
They are intended to show
empirically that different
physical environments
affect brain activity and
even change brain
structure.
The projects, though in
their infancy, could have a
major impact on how the
workplace, buildings and
even towns and cities are
planned, designed and
retrofitted 82
ANFA Academy of Neuroscience
for Architecture
Founded by John P. Eberhard
83
Main Readings on the Topic
A very large body of neurological investigation over the
last forty years has clearly delineated a unified
biological theory of mind and body. The neurologist
Semir Zeki has called for the creation of
Neuroaesthetics, the art historian John Onians has
recently published a book entitled Neuroarthistory and
Harry Mallgrave has discussed the Architects’s Brian from
L.B.Alberti to nowaday.
84
Architect’s sight as Blindsight
Blindsight is a phenomenon in which

people who are perceptually blind in a
certain area of their visual field
demonstrate some response to visual
stimuli
the exploration of the sense of smell,

touch, taste, and hearing as main design
guidelines. In doing so, an architecture
can be developed which moves beyond the
visual reliance of spatial understanding.
The sense of touch became of primary

interest as it is an immediate connection
between oneself and the world.
85
A NECESSARY ANTI-CARTESIAN DIGRESSION
AGAINST THE SEPARATION OF MIND AND BODY
86
I think, therefore I am
René Descartes
I yam what I yam.

That’s all that I yam.
Popeye the Sailor Man
87
88
FIVE
SENSES
89
Architecture is cosmopoietic feats
able to fashion signifying universes
out of the sensual material of the
world. The world of senses begins in
the periphery of our bodies and
moves to inner and higher levels of
perception. From there, in analogical
manner, the senses rule the way we
willfully and wittily act in our world
is at the basis for a sated human
sapience.
90
COSMOPOIESIS
Cosmopoiesis can be described as
‘world-making.’
In Ways of Worldmaking. Nelson

Goodman observes, a ‘world’ is
not only the physical universe, but
also the cultural artifacts, the
systems of organization and
meanings created by a group of
people at any one time.
In this way, the formation of

structure and spaces in
architecture plays a significant
role in the creation of and
contribution to a world.
91
An architectural cosmopoiesis contemplates
the different ways architects have thought
about the construal of a world in their
architectural conceiving.
92
Medieval representation of the senses
You cannot
walk within the
buildings
designed by
Carlo Scarpa
with your hands
in the pockets
(Arrigo Rudi in a seminar at UP)
93
As a function of the skin, then, the
haptic—the sense of touch —constitutes
the reciprocal contact between us and
the environment.
It is by way of touch that we
apprehend space, turning contact into
communicative interface. As a sensory
interaction, the haptic is also related
to kinesthesis, or the ability of our
bodies to sense their own movement
in space.
94
MANO OCULATA
95
MANO OCULATA
95
MANO OCULATA
95
I take the haptic to be the main
agent in the mobilization of space–
both geographic and architectural–
and, by extension, in the articulation
of the spatial arts themselves, which
include motion pictures.
96
Olivetti Shop San Mark Square
Venice
97
98
When my time comes, cover me with
these words, because I am a man of
Byzantium who came to Venice by way of
Greece.'
Carlo Scarpa
99
100
BUILDING IN TIME VS
BUILDING-IN-TIME
Duration and temporality in
architecture
101
chronotherapeutics
Chronotherapeutics are
controlled exposures to
environmental s timuli
that act on biological
r h y t h m s i n o r d e r to
ach ieve t herapeutic
eff e cts in psych i atr i c
conditions
102
Cognition & Duration
In pre-modern Europe, architects built
not just using imagination, drawings,
brick and mortar.
Architects built with time, using vast

quantities of duration as a primary means
to erect buildings that otherwise would
have been impossible. Not mere medieval
muddling-through, this entailed a highly
developed set of norms and efficient
practices.
A powerful temporal program, involving

an uncodified set of building principles,
guided the long-term planning and
making great architecture for a vita beata.
103
Time in the mind:
Using architecture to think about time and
using time to think about architecture.
(a) They moved the wall forward People often talk about time using
two meters. spatial language (e.g., a long
(b) They moved the meeting vacation, a short concert).
forward two hours. Do people also think about time
using spatial representations, even
People talk about time in terms of when they are not using language?
space more often than they talk
about space in terms of time The relationship between space and
time in language is asymmetrical
This pattern in language suggests
that our conceptions of space and (a) They moved the wall forward
time might be asymmetrically two meters.
dependent: we construct (b) They moved the meeting
representations of time by co- forward two hours
opting mental representations of
space, but not necessarily the (c) The service was slow
converse. (d) The window was slow
104
The effective presence of
tectonic condensation and the
poignancy of building details
and constructs results from
what Warburg identified as the
“pathos
formula” (Pathosformel).
Through tectonic pathos, i.e.
built storytelling, the energy
embodied in artifacts and
their factures can be
reactivated beyond the
threshold of rational
understanding. In brief, the
work of architecture is
interplay of the sum of sensual
perception and thought
105
a n to va
M
s N o va
Do m u P i azza
E r b e &
Piazza
o
Bro lett
106
Manto va
Piazza
Broletto
107
Bologna
Case
Beccadelli
108
John Ruskin’s Venice
(1819-1900),
109
Ca Da
Mosto
Casa fondaco
110
Campo Santa Maria
Mater Domini
I lived there
for a year
111
Carlo Scarpa & Castelvecchio in Verona
a modern case
for Building-in-time
112
Carlo Scarpa & Castelvecchio in Verona
a modern case
for Building-in-time
112
Catelvecchio memorable key-
joint
where past is present
113

AD 1957
An exhibition on
Medieval Veronese Art
entitled
“Da Altichiero a Pisanello”
is the beginning of Scarpa’s
never ending intervention
114
Pisanello (or Antonio di Puccio Pisano or
Antonio di Puccio da Cereto), or
erroneously called Vittore Pisano by Giorgio
Vasari, (c. 1395- probably 1455)
115
Altichiero da
Zevio (also
called
Aldighieri da
Zevio)
c. 1330 - c. 1390)
116
3 building campains
ｬ Museo di Castelvecchio (1A phase)

1957-1964
1968-1969
1973-1975
117
Castelvecchio before WWI
118
Castelvecchio before WWI
118
119
The Restoration After WWI
120
Castelvecchio after the bombing of the WWII
121
122
123
NEUROSCIENCE
AND HAPPINESS
124
Unfortunately many architects do not
think anymore within architecture, but
merely think about architecture.
Architectural happiness is not the

result of emotional states translated
into the built world. It is more about
having a building that can be all that
it can;
that is fulfilling both human and
architectural potentials.
125
Lombroso & Adolf Loos
126
Emotions:
Wrong Slipers in the Wrong Room
Loos’ storytelling of the poor-rich man
127
Adolf Loos and I - he
literally and I grammatically
- have done nothing more
than show that there is a
distinction between an urn
and a chamber pot and that
it is this distinction above
all that provides culture with
elbow room. The others,
those who fail to make this
distinction, are divided into
those who use the urn as a
chamber pot and those who
use the chamber pot as an
urn.
[Karl Kraus]
128
Happiness is not to live in a trash-building
In many constructions,
the devising and nurturing
of architectural happiness
has been prevented by the
fusion of f a s h i o n a b le
elat io ns with f inanci al
gratification.
This fusion has changed
t he t ho ug ht pro ce ss of
many architects: they do
not think anymore within
architecture, but merely
think about architecture.
129
A GOOD LIFE
The essential goal for neuro-architecture is to foster a vita
beata (good life) and it is impossible to achieve such an
outcome if the architects conceiving such dwellings do not
have themselves a vita beata.
Nevertheless, within the devastating memory loss generated by

the project of modernity, too many architects sadly regard
the making of architecture as occasions of economic greed,
but not as generator of their good life.
The vita beata results from, and must be embodied in, an

architectural landscape conceived for a “good existence.”
130
Architects who
are aware of
neuroscience
can make
better place
for thinking
131
The application of the rules
of modern architecture has
generated an incredible
number of functionally
conceived places for urban
existence. There places for
buying, selling, banking,
cooking, eating, sleeping,
washings, playing, working,
practicing sports, learning,
and so on. However, only a
few of these places have
“thinking” as the dominant
dedication.
132
In many urban bodies, the
devising and nurturing of
architectural happiness has
been prevented by the
fusion of fashionable
elations with financial
gratification.
This fusion has changed the
thought process of many
architects and urbanists:
they do not think anymore
within the body of the city,
but merely think about the
body of the city.
133
Caffeine belongs to the xanthine
chemical group. Adenosine is a
naturally occurring xanthine in
the brain that is used as a
neurotransmitter at some
synapses. One effect of caffeine
is to interfere with adenosine at
Lavazza Cafe: multiple sites in the brain
Ferran Adria’s Espresso including the reticular
formation.
Caffeine also acts at other sites

in the body to increase heart rate,
constrict blood vessels, relax air
passages to improve breathing
and allow some muscles to
contract more easily.
134
Venice
The european gate for COFFEE
135
Florian the oldest surviving
coffehouse
136
A Place for thinking
137
138
Florian
139
Pedrocchi & Pedrocchino
Padova By Giuseppe Jappelli
140
141
142
143
144
We make architecture and
architecture makes us.
By focusing on what the architectural nature of the
urban environments inherently multisensory experiences,
we can explore what are hints and clues of the neural
patterns of cognitive perception and thoughts detectable
in architectural drawings and theoretical writing and the
corresponding manifestation in architectural and urban
environments.
145
Within the overwhelming amnesia generated by the
project of modernity, too many urbanists and
architects have forgot that cities can become
engines not just of economic growth, but also of
happiness.
146
Wonder
147
Saul Steinberg
Architetto
Semel Architectus Semper Architectus
148
Movie in the Brain
149
Saul Steinberg’s hands
performing (doodling) a
drawing
150
DOODLING AS architectural
storytelling
Bauplan bauhouse
151
“My line wants to
remind constantly
that it's made of
ink, I appeal to
the complicity of
my reader who will
transform this line
into m ean ing by
using our common
backg ro u nd of
c u lt u r e , h i s to r y ,
poetry.”
152
These emblems of a draftsman
generating himself, his line and
his environment epitomize Saul
Steinberg’s work:
his drawings are about the ways
body and brain make art.
Steinberg did not represent what

he saw; rather, he depicted
consciousness in styles borrowed
from other arts, high and low,
past and present.
From Paul Klee to latrine
graffiti
In Steinberg’s graphic
imagination, the very artifice of
images already becames the
means to explore social and
political systems, human foibles,
geography, architecture, language
and, of course, art itself, i. e .
The embedment of humanity
153
Bauplan bauhouse
154
S. Steinberg’s view of
Venetian Sensorial
Consciousness
155
storytelling explains
nothing and implicates
presents and absents.
Fundamentally, this is
the reason why it does
not matter how many
times a story is told
as it is always food
for thought.
156
ABY WARBURG, scion of a
Hamburg banking family,
had no interest in ledgers
or letters of credit; he
had, however, a passion
for books and pictures.
He resigned his interest
in the family firm and in
the 1880s embarked on
career as a collector,
critic, and scholar.
157
Palazzo di Schifanoia
a Renaissance palace in Ferrara,
Emilia-Romagna (Italy) built for the Este family.
The name "Schifanoia" is thought to originate from “schifar la

noia” meaning literally to “scorn boredom”
Hall of the
Months
a place of
storytelling
158
Each month is in turn divided into three
horizontal bands.
In the upper one (the World of gods) are the

triumphant chariots of pagan gods, surrounded
by mythological or ordinary life scenes.
The world of man, upon which are inflicted
the divine laws, is painted in the lower part
showing the activities of the court and the
townsfolk, and in which the figure of the
patron, Duke Borso d’Este is portrayed,
glorified as a wise and fair governor of his
states.
The third band is placed between men and

gods and shows Western and Egyptian Zodiac
signs, evidence of the great importance held
by astrological “science” in the Estense court.
159
We make architecture and
architecture makes us.
By focusing on what the architectural
nature of the urban environments
inherently multisensory experiences, we can
explore what are hints and clues of the
neural patterns of cognitive perception
and thoughts detectable in architectural
drawings and theoretical writing and the
corresponding manifestation in
architectural and urban environments.
160
What are hints and clues of the neural patterns
of cognitive perception and thoughts detectable
in architectural draw ings and theoretical
writing and the corresponding manifestation in
architectural and urban elements?
161
consciousness
embodiment
econiches and
embedment
generate beatific
architecture
162
Architectura Beata
The thoughts in the act of conceiving

architecture and the architectura
beata are the result of epicurean
virtues ruling the conception and
erection of edifying buildings within
the world;
i.e., the making of a cosmopoiesis.
163
Mario Ridolfi
164
Mario Ridolfi’s
detail
165
166
THE INFINITE OF THE
NON-FINITO
THE FUTURE OF
NEUROARCHITECTURE
167
Inconpiuto Siciliano
An Internet site dealing with unfinished
contemporary Italian buildings
168
• Incompiuto Siciliano is a
project in progress that
aims to identify and
classify the aesthetic and
formaI characteristics of
unfinished public
architecture in ltaly. The
survey, carried out by
Alterazloni Video together
with Enrico Sgarbi and
Claudia D'Aita, has so far
resulted in tne
classification of around
500 unfinished
architectural projects.
• The Italian region with the

highest number of
169
Playground within the
Archeological Park of Giarre (CT),
Italy.
One of building listed in the Incompiuto

Siciliano and used to demonstrate how
to transform uncompleted and
abandoned building.
Proposal for transforming the existing

built structure in an acceptable
presence in the Park
170
San Petronio (Bologna)
171
172
SANT ANDREA MANTOVA
173
Giulio Romano, Transept San
Andrea (Mantova)
174
Alberti, Tempio Malatestiano,
Rimini
175
Leon Battista
Alberti Palazzo
Rucellai
176
Palladio
Palazzo Porto in Piazza Castello

(VICENZA)
177
Palladio,
Loggia del Capitanio
(Vicenza)
178
The most Incomplete
Palladio’s Villa Porto (Molina di Malo)
179
Casa Cogollo
Vicenza
Know as
Palladio’s
House
180
Casa
Cogollo
Immorsature
(stone-teething or stone tenons)
for the
continuation
of the facade
181
Michelangelo Non-Finito
Prigioni & Pieta Rondanini
182
NON FINITO
In discussing neuroarchitecture and architectural
imagination, it is essential to avoid economic models
derived from modern financial experience that postulate at
definite finishing point for the making of any object.
As result of this predicament, modern professional, historians

and critics focus on the pristine image of architecture, on
completed forms of buildings or drawings rather than when
they had been used and they are ready to be demolished,
shredder, transformed or assimilated in something else as it
happen to good food that can be appreciated when it is
destroyed, eaten or reused as leftovers ... .
183
Palladio’s House or Casa
Cogollo
Bertotti Scamozzi’s
drawing showing the
facade as finished
architecture
184
Possible extensions of the Cogollo’s House
Facade
185
L.Battista
Alberti Palazzo
Rucellai
completed
186
The infinito of the non-finito
187
188
Snøhetta
Opera House, Oslo
189
The Oslo Opera House seems to be washed ashore
191
Oslo Opera House rising out of the Oslo Fjord
192
ARCHITECTURAL DURATION
Architects built with

time, using vast
quantities of duration
as a primary means to
erect buildings This is
powerful temporal
program, involving
uncodified sets of
tectonic principles
194
San Salvatore
Spoleto
Italy
The basilica of San Salvatore (4th-5th
century) incorporates the cella of a
Roman temple and is one of the most
important examples of Early Christian
architecture. It was rebuilt probably
after an earthquake and fire by the
Lombards during the 8th century.
195
196
197
198
199
SLOW COOKING
ARCHITECTURE
TECTONIC PATHOS
200
Mater Misericordiae
Angelo Mangiarotti
Baranzate milano 1957
201
202
203
204
tectonic pathos, i.e. built time
storytelling
205
The Ningbo Historic Museum
was designed by
Wang Shu
of Amateur Architecture Studio
206
207
208
209
210
MODERN VERSIONS OF THE
NON FINITO
IN ARCHITECTURE
THE STONES AND THE GABIONS ARE THE CLUES FOR MAKING A COMPLETE NON FINITO
211
Mortensrud church / JSA
212
Jensen & Skodvin Arkitektkontor
Design Period: 1998 – 1999
213
The church is situated
on the top of a small
crest with large pine
trees and some
exposed rock.
Geometrically
speaking the church is
an addition to the
existing ground, no
blasting and
excavation was
necessary except
carefully removing
the thin layer of soil.
214
215
216
Public library in Villanueva,
Colombia
217
218
219
220
221
222
GIUSEPPE UNCINI.
Sculptor 1929–2008
Between 1958 and 1959, during a visit to

a shop for building materials, Giuseppe
Uncini had the idea of using the cement
for his works. From this reflection that
Primocementarmato: bare concrete
skeleton on a network and iron, in the
words of the artist himselforiginates the
idea, which he hoped "that the mode was
the technical concept and the concept
the way of technique. "

Igualada Cemetery (also known as Cemetery Nou) was built
by Carme Pinòs and Enric Miralles after an architectural
competition held in 1984.

The emotional impact of the project focuses on visual forces
which appeal to the memories of mourners and visitors. The
dynamic shape of walls, ramps and landscape are used as an
expression of life’s fugacity. Enric Miralles was buried in one
of the tombs after his death on July 3rd in 2000

232
FINALE
SHOWING MY BOOKS
233
This book deals with the critical
nature and crucial role of
architectural drawings. A manual
which is essentially not a manual;
it is an elucidation of an elegant
manner for practising architecture.
Organized around eleven exercises,

the book does not emphasize
speed, nor incorporate many
timesaving tricks typical of
drawing books, but rather proposes
a slow, meditative process for
construing drawings and for
drawing constructing thoughts.
Presently available on the market: you

can find it on amazon.ca
234
An old book (out of print)
235
A PLANNED BOOK
In a Near Future on the Market;
probably next year
The Happiness and

Misery of
Architecture:
A FEW SUBSTANTIATIONS
REGARDING THE ARCHITECTURAL
MÉTIER
236
Thank you for your attention
237

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COPYRIGHT 2011 MARCO FRASCARI

H o w e v e r, the link between

The concept of linking these two

How and when did we become conscious?

What exactly is consciousness?

What is more precisely architectural consciousness?

A gift from God? Some kind of emergent property

Neuroscience can give to architects

Physics and chemistry have dominated the

It is understood that the impact may not be

Thus, paying attention to one thing makes it harder to notice

"Distraction and concentration

"The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction" in Illuminations

(London: Cape, 1970) p. 241.

In 1837 Delaroche received the commission for the great picture, 27

His reasons for suggesting this continuity are compelling and

Neurohistory of a sort has been suggested by cultural

Reconstruction of a Camonian Hut

Aurea prima sata est aetas, quae vindice nullo,

Aurea prima sata est aetas, quae vindice nullo,

Neuro-cuisine will be about

The Earl of Sunderland

"Cooking, like architecture, manifests

Ferran Adrià, Head chef,

Italian has generated a small change in spelling

Imagine a world of magenta Tuesdays, tastes that have shapes,

In synaesthesia, stimulation of one sense triggers anomalous

Synaesthesia is a fusion of different sensory perceptions:

(of course GG was a much better guy).

'Philosophy is written in that very great book-the

How the brains of architects obtain

In the late 1960s, the Smithsons were given the

Many buildings that look great in photography or in

A unique record of the symposium

Storytelling is an essential and

many think that the readability of plan means easy way-finding

In his book “The Feeling of What

Storytelling explains nothing and implicates presents

• Light [L. I. khan]

Blindsight is a phenomenon in which

the exploration of the sense of smell,

The sense of touch became of primary

I yam what I yam.

In Ways of Worldmaking. Nelson

In this way, the formation of

(Arrigo Rudi in a seminar at UP)

Architects built with time, using vast

A powerful temporal program, involving

Tuesday, June 7, 2011 113

ｬ Museo di Castelvecchio (1A phase)

Architectural happiness is not the

Nevertheless, within the devastating memory loss generated by

The vita beata results from, and must be embodied in, an

Caffeine also acts at other sites

Steinberg did not represent what

Emilia-Romagna (Italy) built for the Este family.

The name "Schifanoia" is thought to originate from “schifar la

In the upper one (the World of gods) are the

The third band is placed between men and

The thoughts in the act of conceiving

• The Italian region with the

One of building listed in the Incompiuto

Proposal for transforming the existing

Palazzo Porto in Piazza Castello