Big data can lead to a new science of how humans behave in structured environments. It is an opportunity to answer age-old questions about why certain architectural forms more successfully facilitate social interaction, delight, physiological and mental health, as well as cognitive efficiency and work performance. One goal of this year’s conference is to bring together researchers in diverse communities all interested in how buildings and people interact: structurally, physiologically, socially and cognitively.
Our sensor data comes from: (1) Quantified Buildings (QB), (2) Quantified Self (QS), and (3) Internet of Things (IoT). From quantified buildings we might learn how light, sound, air quality, and wireless performance changes throughout a building move and see how changes outside move through interior shapes. We might learn about occupant behavior: where they move, when they sit, where, for how long, in what social units, the sounds they make and when they turn lights on and off. We might correlate these parameters with physiological, mental and neural data derived from QS. How do people react to changes in light, the presence of other people as a function of spatial structure? We might further correlate QB and QS parameters with IoT behavior of devices (mobile or laptop), various machines, and furniture. How would this affect our perceptions and expectations of privacy in public spaces? All this new data is bound to inform our understanding of how architectural form interacts with neurocognition.
While ANFA remains open to all research that applies brain science as a basis for understanding the impact of building design on occupants, you are encouraged for this conference to incorporate the theme of big data in your submission abstract.
Conference Language: English
Abstracts will be accepted until February 28, 2021
Notification of Acceptance or Rejection: April 26, 2021
The ANFA Conference will explore, from a scientific basis, the range of human experiences that occur in context with elements of architecture, both exterior and interior.
Communication, knowledge sharing, collaboration, partnership, and integration will set the tone for the three day conference. The goal is to inspire ideas and new alliances that will ignite change and unlock the potential of ‘Neuroscience for Architecture.’ It is anticipated that the conference will be delivered in a hybrid format with part of the program being made available as an online platform.
Presentations will be chosen on the basis of abstracts (instructions below). Accepted presentations may be presented orally or as posters. When preparing your abstract, look ahead to how you will present your work. If you are from a field within science, remember that you must make the language of your discipline clear and relevant to architects; and if you are an architect or from the building design field, give attention to how your work will be understood by participating scientists. In approving an oral presentation, ANFA reserves the right to require a short recording demonstrating the author’s presentation skills.
The Program Committee will be especially, but not exclusively, receptive to submissions that report on collaborations between an architect and a neuroscientist, with the scientist as the lead principal investigator.
All posters selected for the conference will be judged for an award valued at $100 U.S. Selection criteria will include the quality of the verbal presentation and the visual approach taken to convey project study methods, results and conclusions.
Submission Deadline February 28, 2021
Abstracts are to be emailed to admin@anfarch.org. Preparation of abstracts can begin following the guidelines below:
Title: Provide a clear, concise title that accurately reflects the presentation’s content. This will be the official title listed in the program guide. (Limit: 15 words.)
Abstract: Abstracts are crucial to the review and selection process. They must thus be written in clear English that makes sense both to architects and to neuroscientists. It should specify the contribution made by the paper and how the paper relates to the ANFA Conference Mission stated above. Inclusion of references to relevant publications in both neuroscience and architecture is strongly encouraged – since this is the sixth ANFA conference, we are keen to see to what extent insights into neuroscience for architecture have become cumulative. (Limit: 350 words + References + Figures.)
Author(s): Provide name, title, firm or organization, professional designations, full mailing address, telephone, email address, and (where applicable) URL. Provide a brief biographical narrative for each speaker, spelling out the particular expertise on which the presentation is built. (Limit: 200 words per author.)
Committee Decisions will be Final:
Notification of Acceptance or Rejection: April 26, 2021
The Program Committee will carefully evaluate all abstracts and on that basis make one of three decisions for each submission: Accept for oral presentation, accept for poster presentation, or reject.
Since the decision may depend as much on the balance of the program as on the quality of the abstract, these decisions will not be open to review.