The research
With Amirhosein Ghaffarianhoseini and the cognitive psychologist Dr Zohreh Doborjeh, who oversees AUT’s EEG Lab, the lab set out to measure how houses, offices, walkways and outdoor spaces affect stress, anxiety, productivity and focus, by reading brain responses. Using Auckland as a living lab, the team combined electroencephalography and functional magnetic resonance imaging with simulated environments in which colour, light, smell, sound and temperature could be varied.
A parallel doctoral study with Associate Professor Nicola Naismith, carried out by Sameh Azzazy, examined the relationship between buildings’ environmental performance, particularly thermal comfort and air quality, and occupants’ mental wellbeing.
Using Auckland city as a living lab, we are currently exploring why and how buildings, walkways and outdoor spaces affect citizens’ well-being.
AUT News, 17 October 2019
The argument
He observed that although neuroarchitecture had been discussed for some time, studies showing how it could be translated into meaningful design solutions for real buildings and cities were limited. The lab’s aim was to close that gap: to give designers evidence for new guidelines, and to encourage professional bodies and government to take the mental health effects of the built environment seriously.
The article recorded the team’s view that the full potential of neuroscience in shaping built environments had not yet been realised, but that it could change how future cities are designed and how they perform.
What followed
That line of research has continued. The doctoral work reported in 2019 became the 2025 review in Architectural Science Review on the brain’s response to thermal comfort, and the question of how environments are perceived, not merely measured, runs through his later work on comfort, wellbeing and digital twins.
Why it was early
In 2019, research linking building design to mental health through direct measurement of brain activity was still rare, particularly in New Zealand. Most building research measured physical conditions and asked occupants to rate their comfort. Using neuroimaging to read responses directly placed the lab among a small group of researchers internationally attempting to give neuroarchitecture an empirical footing.