Environment and self, concepts which have historically been considered interwoven
have been increasingly divergent in the postindustrial society, which has given primacy
to the mass produced tectonic. Historically, synergies between environment and
habitation initiated the first architectural act in the primitive hut, highlighting the direct
relationship between self and the habited environment; the need for shelter. Though,
the genesis of the architectural act began in this way, one can say it reached its
antithesis with the advent of the modernist aesthetic which privileged the primacy of the
tectonic. In addition, the whimsical synthetic material culture afforded by the assembly
line gave way to globally pervasive materials and the subsequent rise of globalization,
creating architectural environments of non-identify space. Can one begin to reassert
the identity space as a means of identifying self? Currently, trends are reversing.
Designers and architects have made strong claims about the impact of buildings and
spaces on the psychological and physical well-being of its inhabitants, notably humanist
and phenomenological thinkers. Given the increasing quantification of a wide spectrum
of building criteria and characteristics (best exemplified by the importance given
recently to metrics of sustainability) contemporary architects are pushed beyond
philosophical claims, and called upon to consider more rigorous biometric parameters
as frameworks for their design. In addition, neuroscientists and the recent development
of functional magnetic resonance imaging (FMRI) machines has made it possible to
accurately locate human cortical responses to space in specific loci of the brain, and
how these responses change over time. It is here at this recursive loop between self
and context, where I interject the concept of neuroplasticity and its implications in the
mediation of the active role of architecture in the definition of self. Neuroplasticity, was
formerly thought to only be present in young children during their critical period,
however, in the past two decades has been proven to be a continuing active process
through adulthood. Tasked with the design of our built environment, architects now
must consider a new facet of design, in which the neurologically considered space can
curate new social, economic, and psychological conditions yielding a new framework of
spatial intentions. Conditions afforded by these new ideas alter the intuitive conditions
within which the architect works. The rigorous documentation in these studies and
technologies offer the designer a datum to develop empirical understanding of the
broader sensibilities of architecture, both historically and currently.
The "parameter" can then gain in addition to its use for optimization and sustainable
criteria, one of human synergies and affordances. As neurons constantly fire action
potentials between one another in the context of our environment to reference
memories, facilitate movement; create self-perception, etc., the resultant behavior is the
outcome of these neuron firing patters. Ideas of projective design strategies can create
a relationship between self and artifact in such a manner as to predict and achieve
desired or rehabilitative behavior. One's control over another is not the goal, however,
with this knowledge; one can design for what one wishes to be. Closely examining and
augmenting neurological proxies which one uses in their daily lives, to trigger non
familiar neurological processes; one can foster new memories, thoughts, and
relationships with their physical and sociological context. Collaborations between
neuroscientists and architects have yielded observational evidence of the increased
well-being of individuals, moving beyond the rhetoric of architects which claim the
evocative intentions of designed space. The material and the sensory foster the
enhancement of human life in the above stated examples, and in many more, however,
the ill considerations of the chemical augmentations influenced by habited space can
create radically different neuronal activity that can produce volatile social scenarios. I
speak of the physical and social extraction of the non-compliant population from society,
and placement into the total institution, prison. This abrupt isolation is often times in
remote regions of geography and occurs in the neutralist of concrete structures,
stripping prisoners of rights, a rich sensorium, and recollection, which has been the
impetus for degenerative neurological and social conditions of the imprisoned. This
thesis examines the prison as a theater of neurological potentials for the ideas
speculated above, through designed cognitive stimulation guided by our new found
knowledge of the brain. Returning to the generative intent of prisons can be brought
about by a new literature of practice between architects and neuroscientist to address
the ambivalent condition of contemporary imprisonment.
