What if the key to designing better cities wasn’t just in concrete, code, or cost, but in understanding how our brains actually work?
In this episode, I talk with Ann Sussman and Kelsey Bradley of the Human Architecture and Planning Institute (HAPI) about a subject that’s as profound as it is underdiscussed: how our unconscious biology reacts to the built environment – and how that should change everything about how we design.
Ann, architect and author of Cognitive Architecture and Kelsey, founder of Design Cause Inc., now Executive Director at HAPI, walk us through the neuroscience of placemaking. We talk eye tracking. Skin conductivity. Heart rate variability. And how our “Stone Age brains” are still calibrated for the Savannah, even when we’re stuck in a strip mall.
This episode will validate what many of us feel but can’t quite explain why some places energize us, and others quietly drain us. The answers aren’t just aesthetic. They’re evolutionary.
CHAPTERS:
00:00 The Car-Free City: Oslo's Urban Transformation
03:43 Human Architecture: Merging Biology and Design
08:03 Understanding Human Experience: The Emotional Brain
11:24 The Impact of Environment on Human Behavior
18:37 The Influence of Modernism on Architecture
23:28 The Threatening Nature of Suburban Design
26:47 Measuring Human Responses: Biometrics in Architecture
31:25 The Science of Emotions in Design
33:52 The Power of Empathy in Leadership
36:57 Designing for Human Flourishing
40:07 The Impact of Built Environments on Mental Health
45:35 Understanding Human Perception in Urban Design
49:13 The Need for Beautiful and Functional Spaces
53:00 The Future of Urban Planning and Community Well-being
MENTIONED RESOURCES
Book: Cognitive Architecture: Designing for how we respond to the built environment
Book: Urban Experience & Design
https://thehapi.org/
Free course on "The Genetics of Design" – HAPI.org Courses
Design Cause Inc. – Kelsey’s nonprofit building schools in Africa
CONNECT WITH ANN SUSSMAN
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ann-sussman-a1a34a14/
X: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ann-sussman-a1a34a14/
Ann’s Blog: https://annsussman.com/
The Genetics of Design: https://geneticsofdesign.com/about
CONNECT WITH KELSEY BRADLEY
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kelseybradley/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/kelseydeebradley/
CONNECT WITH AUSTIN TUNNELL
Newsletter: https://playbook.buildingculture.com/
https://www.instagram.com/austintunnell/
https://www.linkedin.com/in/austin-tunnell-2a41894a/
https://twitter.com/AustinTunnell
CONNECT WITH BUILDING CULTURE
https://www.buildingculture.com/
https://www.instagram.com/buildingculture/
https://twitter.com/build_culture
https://www.facebook.com/BuildCulture/
SPONSORS
Thank you so much to the sponsors of The Building Culture Podcast!
Sierra Pacific Windows: https://www.sierrapacificwindows.com/
One Source Windows: https://onesourcewindows.com/
