Does living in Grenoble, Cannes or Paris affect your health? According to scientists, yes. The concept even has a name: “neural architecture.”
We don’t always have the freedom to choose where we live, not just because of work, family or life changes. But an article in the US magazine Wired warns that our health depends on it. Few cities are built with human health in mind
Today’s urban spaces are “making people sick,” according to two thinkers in Wired: radical writer Jane Jacobs and architect Jane Gehr.
“Today, 100% of the population lives in cities built around work, commerce and traffic (…) But these spaces are rarely built with human consumption in mind. At the same time, as cities grow, the human environment changes, and we see an increase in diseases such as depression, cancer, and diabetes,” she warned.
The “contradiction” between people and habitat is marked by gray buildings and highways.
ask? Jane Jacobs and Jan Gehr warned authorities about “unnecessary” urban construction in the second half of the 20th century, but few listened at the time. Now their work is finding new resonance thanks to the hybrid discipline of “neuroarchitecture.”
Neuroarchitecture, a discipline that (re)places humans at the center of architecture
Developed in the United States and Europe at the intersection of neuroscience and architecture, this approach investigates the impact of our environment on our brains. Neuroarchitecture therefore measures how our brains respond to urban planning. The idea behind this difficult word is to take into account people’s needs and put them back in the place of architecture. “For example, people with mental disorders are particularly affected by the design and the urban environment. So if these aspects are not integrated into the architectural process, the environment will become stressful, stressful and stressful for these people.” , in an article from the University of Lyon about Claude Bernard 1.
Neuroarchitecture: What projects have stood out recently?
Colin Ellard is the Director of the Urban Reality Lab at the University of Waterloo (Canada) and is widely recognized for his work. In 2025, he collaborated with the Humanize movement on an international study of human emotions for several building facades. A “sister” project underway at the University of Cambridge in the United Kingdom is investigating the link between facades and neuroinflammation, a brain condition that can lead to cognitive impairment.
Finally, (re)imagining a new way of thinking about the city of tomorrow…