Mihaela Mitrovic: On the Interplay of Neuroscience and Architecture, or How Architectural and Urban Spaces Influence Human Cognition, Emotion and Behaviour: The Case of Awe, Affordance, and Urban Wellbeing

Supervisor: Prof Koen Steemers

Research overview:

As an academic discipline and as a practice, architecture faces a reckoning. In 1962, in his book The Structure of Scientific Revolutions, Thomas Kuhn presented the idea that fields of human knowledge evolve non-gradually, through abrupt and momentous paradigm shifts. As theory of relativity reconstructed modern physics, and the cognitive revolution transformed psychology, I believe that architecture is experiencing a paradigm shift at this very moment– and the main goal of my research is to be at the forefront of it. 

As a scholar of architecture, I have always considered the lack of a biological, psychological, cognitive, and neuroscientific dimension in architecture at least surprising, and at worst irresponsible. Technological and methodological advancements in sciences, from machine learning and artificial intelligence to neuroimaging, developed over the last few decades, all gave rise to a number of neurohumanities, which in turn have shed light on important topics, from art to law. The time for neurodesign, neuroarchitecture, and neurourbanism is now.

The overlap of behavioural, psychological, neurological, and cognitive sciences with architecture has two main directions: exploring the neural underpinnings of creativity and planning, i.e. how architects’s neurobiological and cognitive functions influence their designs (direction from mind to space), and researching the effects that architectural and urban spaces have on human emotion, cognition, and behaviour, i.e. the interplay between the designed and built environment and the individual, the community and the society (direction from space to mind). My research is within the later; using psychological, cognitive, and neuroscientific methodology, I study the emotion of awe elicited by architectural and urban spaces. Apart from constructing awe as an architectural emotion, I examine affordance as a biological and architectural phenomenon, and urban wellbeing as an architectural responsibility.

Beyond specific topics within this emerging discipline, my research entails a comprehensive, field-defining perspective: working towards a profound change in architecture on three distinct levels. These levels are (1) education, (2) academic research, and (3) practice. Through partnerships with cities, medical institutions, and local/regional authorities, and subsequent implementation of quantifiable and evidence-based research firmly based on human biology and psychology– these initiatives will lead to policies that lower healthcare costs, enhance quality of life, and improve both mental and physical health. 

Biography:

Mihaela Mitrovic is a neuroscientist and an architect, currently a PhD researcher at the Behaviour and Building Performance group at Cambridge University. An alumna of Oxford University, she has studied cognitive science, neuroscience, artificial intelligence, and film aesthetics– wishing to bridge sciences and humanities.

After her BArch and March (RIBA II equivalent), she practiced as a Senior Architect and obtained a professional licence and engineering qualification (RIBA III equivalent), designing a variety of buildings, with her work featured in international publications, and displayed in exhibitions. Returning to graduate studies, she studies Cognitive Science at the University of Vienna, and University of Ljubljana, Neuroscience and King’s College London, and Aesthetics at University of Oxford. As a cognitive scientist and Federation of European Neuroscience (FENS) Research Intern, she was trained at University of Oxford’s Department of Experimental Psychology (EP) in AI and neural networks, Medical University of Vienna in human neuroscience, Austrian Centre for AI Excellence in modelling, and Trinity College Dublin’s in psychological and multi-sensory processing. 

Mihaela is the Co-Founder and Co-Director of Lumi, a science-based consultancy and creative studio, and the Founder of Oxford School of Architecture (OSA), a pre-college academic program running at University of Oxford since 2014. She is the Member of scientific, engineering, and cultural institutions, has served on boards and committees in the UK and as an external critic for the Architectural Association, and has more than 15 years of experience in project management, architectural and interior design. Apart from being a scientist and engineer, Mihaela is a passionate public speaker, educator, and artist. She works with sculpture and design, and has directed music videos; while at Lumi she also works on evidence-based art and cultural direction.