Minding Design: Neuroscience, Design Education and the Imagination

We are primarily biological beings whose senses and neural systems have developed over millions of years. And, although we now spend over ninety percent of our lives inside buildings, we understand very little about how the built environment shapes our thoughts, emotions and well-being. Breakthroughs in neuroscience help us to understand the many ways our buildings determine our interactions with the world around us. This expanded understanding can help us design in a way that supports our minds, our bodies and our social and cultural evolution. The symposium, Minding Design: Neuroscience, Design Education and the Imagination, a collaborative effort between the Frank Lloyd Wright School of Architecture and the Academy of Neuroscience for Architecture, brings together architects Juhani Pallasmaa and Steven Holl together with scientists Iain McGilchrist and Michael Arbib to explore implications of these scientific advances on the education of those who design our built world. The setting for this symposium is Taliesin West, the desert campus of the Frank Lloyd Wright School of Architecture, an inspirational context in which to explore the relationship between the mind and designed space. Discussion will address such questions as the implications of neuroplasticity on lifelong learning, how the environment changes the structure of the brain, how the imagination functions, how to best nurture it, and what is important for the designer to know and how best to teach it. This event also celebrates the 75th anniversary of Taliesin West and the 80th Reunion of the Taliesin Fellows. For more information: http://www.taliesin.edu/md/md.html