Long before we form an opinion about a building, our bodies have already responded to it. Heart rate, posture, attention, mood: all shift in response. Sometimes the effect is barely perceptible. Sometimes it stops us at the threshold. Cognitive science and environmental psychology have mapped these responses for decades, but architecture lags in considering them.
In this conversation with architect, writer, and educator Sarah Robinson, we will explore an alternative way of thinking and designing. Drawing on her latest book, Robinson introduces resonance as a model and metaphor for design, a way of bringing together cognitive science, neuroscience, environmental psychology, and anthropology to attend to what actually happens between people and place. The word itself means to re-sound: an interdependent process between a source and a receptive body, neither complete without the other.
What does it mean for designers to shift focus from fixed forms to the dynamic, affective, tactile, ecological, and social fields that buildings participate in?
Reflecting on Robinson’s work and its implications for Conscious Design, how might we structure and support the relationships between the built and the natural, between people and place?
Together, we will examine:
- How resonance reframes the relationship between body, building, and environment
- What the cognitive sciences and environmental psychology reveal about how spaces affect us
- The implications of resonance for science-informed and conscious design
Join us for a thought-provoking exploration at the intersection of architecture, science, and human experience. The conversation with Sarah Robinson will be hosted by CCD Founder Itai Palti and will end with an open floor for Q&A with participants.
