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      The Enactive Approach to Architectural Experience: A Neurophysiological Perspective on Embodiment, Motivation, and Affordances

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          Abstract

          Over the last few years, the efforts to reveal through neuroscientific lens the relations between the mind, body, and built environment have set a promising direction of using neuroscience for architecture. However, little has been achieved thus far in developing a systematic account that could be employed for interpreting current results and providing a consistent framework for subsequent scientific experimentation. In this context, the enactive perspective is proposed as a guide to studying architectural experience for two key reasons. Firstly, the enactive approach is specifically selected for its capacity to account for the profound connectedness of the organism and the world in an active and dynamic relationship, which is primarily shaped by the features of the body. Thus, particular emphasis is placed on the issues of embodiment and motivational factors as underlying constituents of the body-architecture interactions. Moreover, enactive understanding of the relational coupling between body schema and affordances of architectural spaces singles out the two-way bodily communication between architecture and its inhabitants, which can be also explored in immersive virtual reality settings. Secondly, enactivism has a strong foothold in phenomenological thinking that corresponds to the existing phenomenological discourse in architectural theory and qualitative design approaches. In this way, the enactive approach acknowledges the available common ground between neuroscience and architecture and thus allows a more accurate definition of investigative goals. Accordingly, the outlined model of architectural subject in enactive terms—that is, a model of a human being as embodied, enactive, and situated agent, is proposed as a basis of neuroscientific and phenomenological interpretation of architectural experience.

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                Author and article information

                Contributors
                Journal
                Front Psychol
                Front Psychol
                Front. Psychol.
                Frontiers in Psychology
                Frontiers Media S.A.
                1664-1078
                31 March 2016
                2016
                : 7
                : 481
                Affiliations
                [1] 1Department of Architecture and Design, Sapienza University of Rome Rome, Italy
                [2] 2Department of Psychology, Sapienza University of Rome Rome, Italy
                [3] 3IRCCS Fondazione Santa Lucia Rome, Italy
                [4] 4Department of Molecular Medicine, Sapienza University of Rome Rome, Italy
                [5] 5Department of Physiology and Pharmacology, Sapienza University of Rome Rome, Italy
                Author notes

                Edited by: Isabella Pasqualini, Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne, Switzerland

                Reviewed by: Robert J. Lowe, University of Gothenburg/University of Skövde, Sweden; Cor Baerveldt, University of Alberta, Canada

                *Correspondence: Andrea Jelić andrea.jelic@ 123456uniroma1.it

                This article was submitted to Cognitive Science, a section of the journal Frontiers in Psychology

                Article
                10.3389/fpsyg.2016.00481
                4815679
                27065937
                a83cd88d-7b63-4e12-a084-e88198ba3109
                Copyright © 2016 Jelić, Tieri, De Matteis, Babiloni and Vecchiato.

                This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

                History
                : 01 September 2015
                : 18 March 2016
                Page count
                Figures: 6, Tables: 0, Equations: 0, References: 170, Pages: 20, Words: 17993
                Funding
                Funded by: Sapienza Università di Roma 10.13039/501100004271
                Award ID: 3-years PhD Fellowship
                Award ID: C26N149PK8
                Funded by: Ministero dell’Istruzione, dell’Università e della Ricerca 10.13039/501100003407
                Award ID: PRIN2012
                Categories
                Psychology
                Hypothesis and Theory

                Clinical Psychology & Psychiatry
                enactive approach,architectural experience,embodiment,body schema,emotion,motivation,affordances,virtual reality

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