The built environment influences our perceptions, emotions, interactions, therefore our personalities. These are all processes finding their ultimate substratum in our nervous system, and so far architects could only intuit these mechanisms. Now Neuroscience has found the connection between our daily experience to multi-sensorial perceptions and is beginning to discover the way in which they are transformed into emotions, empathy and complex behaviors.
What is the reason why symmetrical figures are pleasant, what is the mechanism that makes us ecstatic when admiring a piece of art, how come a certain shade of light makes us more likely to socialize or to isolate ourselves? There are many questions of architectural interest to which neuroscience begins to give answers, but many are those that do not have an explanation.