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Neuroarchitecture is an emerging interdisciplinary field combining neuroscience and architectural design. It can be significantly enhanced by green electronics and smart, sustainable technologies, such as those developed at AlmaScience. Thoughtfully designed and built environments, informed by neuroscience, promote human well-being, with cellulose-based sustainable functional materials and flexible electronics playing a transformative role in this space.

Design and neuroscience

Think of pristine silence. The Altai Mountains. The sound of a cascade. A bench in the shade. The Atlantic Ocean’s ebbs and flows. The scent of moss in wet forests. A ray of sun on a wooden deck. A walk in crunching snow as if an astronaut. Kiasmos playing its sonic loops.

Built spaces, natural environments, and sounds can be dreamlike, regenerative, conducive to creativity, of active interactions, or peaceful, meditative, and spiritual connections. Built spaces can be hyphens between nature and culture, soft shelters for human well-being, and headspace.

In this light, design choices at Lisbon Design Week 2025 are no longer ambiguous. In essence, a movement has palpably formed at the intersection of human science, neuroscience, design and architecture, biotech, and green electronics.

A movement is seeding that bridges data sets with empirical knowledge, and psychological expertise with the consciousness that neurogenesis is environment-dependent and nurtured by physical movement. The brain is teased by discoveries. The human psyche is enhanced and ecstatic in constructive interactions. At the root of these factors, built environments and their wider surroundings matter and have a role to play.

Designing for community, belonging, transformation, and longevity has shifted the focal point of design from sole aesthetics or endless tech device updates – and tech waste – to the meaningful role of nurturing living beings alongside the natural elements while considerably reducing waste.

Design in construction, in tech, in textile and furniture, in packaging, in the choices of materials we choose to wear, has become inseparable from the preservation of nature and the ethics of recycling.

What is Neuroarchitecture?

In essence, Neuroarchitecture is an emerging interdisciplinary field that applies neuroscience research and datasets to architectural design, focusing on how built environments affect human brain function, behavior, and well-being.

A pivotal moment in this development was the establishment of the Academy of Neuroscience for Architecture (ANFA) in 2003. ANFA played a significant role in promoting research and collaboration between neuroscientists, architects, and designers, fostering a deeper understanding of how architectural design impacts the human brain. Its conceptual foundations began to solidify in the early 2000s, marking the emergence of the discipline.

Further solidifying the field, NeuroAU, founded in 2018 by Brazilian architect and researcher Andréa de Paiva, is an international platform dedicated to exploring the intersection of neuroscience and architecture. NeuroAU aims to disseminate discussions about the connections between cognitive science and architecture, design, and urbanism.

Architecture plays a central role as a collective canvas, weaving physicality and meaning, as well as shaping human experience and memory. And neuroscience can inform this practice in guidance and recommendations.

Buildings mediate the world and our consciousness through internalizing the world and externalizing the mind.
– Juhani Pallasmaa, Finnish architect and theorist

We prefer locations in a space where we experience both high refuge (protection of some kind) and high prospect (the ability to sense our surroundings, to know what’s going on, to have vistas).
– Dr. Colin Ellard, cognitive neuroscientist at the University of Waterloo

Big Data in neuroscience

COVID-19 contributed to spinning off the field of Neuroarchitecture, particularly in addressing cities and well-being. Isolation profoundly altered our interaction with urban dwellers and environments. Lockdowns and remote work led people to spend unprecedented amounts of time indoors. This shift heightened awareness of how architectural design affects mental and emotional well-being.

In 2021, research multiplied around “Architecture and Health: How Spaces Can Impact Our Emotional Well-Being” (Source).

Concern for mental health met a sprawling human movement toward lifestyles igniting a more sustainable balance between indoor activities and screen time, outdoor breathing exercises, and social interaction beyond the screens. Remote work became the social movement we now associate with well-being, affordable costs of living, and more sustainable ecosystems. Apps monitoring health behavior and physical workshops in nature, along with eco-projects rethinking housing in the realm of nature, have contributed to well-being becoming a growing and effective business.

The idea of a wellbeing economy (WE) has recently made significant inroads into the political mainstream. It has attracted diverse adherents, including social activists, environmentalists, health advocates, international organizations such as the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), and a small but growing number of governments.
– Anders Hayden, Nature.com, 2024

The advent of big data has revolutionized neuroscience by enabling the analysis of vast and complex datasets, leading to deeper insights into brain function and behavior. Advanced technologies, such as Neuropixels probes, have facilitated the recording of activity from hundreds of neurons simultaneously, allowing researchers to study neural circuits at an unprecedented scale, propelling our understanding of cognitive functions and decision-making processes.

With big data enriching the quality of analysis, Neuroarchitecture devoted research in pursuit of sustainable solutions for modern living.

The Six Principles of Neuroarchitecture

1. Biophilia Affinities

Biophilia is the inherent human tendency to connect with nature and other forms of life. Humans are biologically wired to respond positively to natural elements. Environments that integrate natural light, ventilation, water features, and greenery reduce stress and improve focus.

A study highlighted in the Journal of Environmental Psychology reported that the presence of natural light alone contributed to a 15% increase in productivity and a 6% decrease in sick leave among employees.

2. Sensory Engagement

Designing for the entire sensory spectrum (not just visual aesthetics) improves mood, memory, and comfort. Tactile materials, acoustic design, olfactory cues, and temperature variations all affect how people experience space.

Green electronics, in the form of sensors that enable real-time environmental feedback loops, can facilitate dynamically adjusting temperature, light, and sound based on users’ behaviors and assumed needs, improving comfort and cognitive performance.

3. Spatial Cognition

The human brain creates cognitive maps of environments. Spaces that are legible, intuitive to navigate, and offer clear visual cues reduce mental fatigue and increase confidence in movement, especially for vulnerable populations like the elderly or neurodivergent individuals.

4. Cognitive Load and Restorative Design

Minimizing overstimulation through visual clarity, symmetry, and proportion helps reduce cognitive load. Environments that offer refuge, prospect, and privacy restore mental energy and reduce anxiety.

Emerging technologies, including responsive glass, kinetic façades, and smart textiles, can adapt based on sensory inputs. These materials support stimulus-rich but not overstimulating environments, crucial for long-term mental health.

5. Emotional and Behavioral Outcomes

Architecture directly influences mood, productivity, sociability, and health. For example, high ceilings have been linked to more abstract thinking, while enclosed spaces may enhance focus and concentration.

Sustainable buildings are not only about materials and energy use—they’re about aligning human health with planetary health. NeuroArchitecture provides the human-centered layer to sustainable design: if a building is green but stressful to be in, it fails its purpose.

According to Gallup, workplace well-being boosts talent attraction, with 62% of job seekers prioritizing employers that support mental and physical health.

6. Neuroplasticity in Conducive Spaces

Spaces can be designed to encourage neuroplastic changes over time. For instance, educational or therapeutic spaces are being shaped with inputs from neuroscience to foster emotional regulation, learning, and recovery.

Andréa de Paiva speaks of the concept of Active Design that encourages people to do more physical activity simply through the use of architectural elements, such as a staircase or ramp instead of an elevator – a very effective strategy for combating chronic stress and its negative effects on health (Source: "Architecture for the Prevention of Cognitive Decline: Contributions of Space to Healthy Ageing," ArchDaily, Aug. 2023.).

AlmaScience: enabling neuroarchitecture through sustainable technologies

In future housing, workspace, and product design (e.g., wearables, ambient tech, or urban furniture), the marriage of green electronics, sustainable functional materials, and Neuroarchitecture will lead to more meaningful, adaptive, and regenerative interactions.

At the confluence of Neuroarchitecture and green electronics, AlmaScience is actively researching and developing a powerful suite of materials and technologies that can actively support and transform the way spaces are designed and experienced.

One such breakthrough is the CelluGel tech bundle: a platform of sustainable, cellulose-based aerogels, hydrogels, and foams designed to meet the dual challenges of acoustic and thermal comfort. These ultra-light, biodegradable materials can be integrated into walls, furniture, or even wearable textiles, enabling environments that insulate without suffocating, reduce noise without muting life, and buffer heat without harming the planet. In spaces where clarity and calm are essential for cognition, be it a learning environment or a meditative one, CelluGel becomes an invisible ally.

But CelluGel’s promise goes even further. By mimicking the tactile properties of premium materials, these gels can replace synthetic fabrics in luxury design applications, while offering electromagnetic shielding capabilities through smart textile integration. In a world increasingly saturated with signals and stimuli, materials that protect and ground us while maintaining aesthetic and sensory appeal become part of the architecture of care.

Another pioneering technology is PaperWeight Digital, AlmaScience’s platform for paper-based pressure sensors and surface intelligence. These ultra-thin, cost-effective, and flexible sensors can be embedded into floors, walls, furniture, or wearable devices. With this, every surface becomes capable of sensing presence, pressure, and interaction, creating ambiently responsive environments. Think: a room that adjusts lighting and acoustics based on movement and posture, or a quiet pod that signals its availability and mood based on subtle behavioral data.

These are not speculative futures. They are real, material technologies, born from cellulose, activated by research, and guided by product design. This is not sci-fi: these technologies are already coming out of the lab and into the real world, as is the case with PaperWeight AI.

AlmaScience invites architects, urbanists, and experience designers to explore how these tools can enrich the built environment with new intelligence, one that is soft, sustainable, and centered on human well-being.

As the field of Neuroarchitecture grows, it will need tools that are more than functional – it will need tools that understand the human body, mind, and world. In this shared ambition, AlmaScience is not just a partner. It is a co-creator of spaces that think, feel, and evolve.