Places That Are Truly Alive (4)
Places that are truly alive stimulate our senses just right – not too much and not too little.
By The Empty Square
Photo: Vidar Nordli-Mathisen/Unsplash
Places that are truly alive stimulate our senses just right – not too much and not too little.
Too few or too many stimuli are equally bad, prompting negative behavioral consequences. Actually, our experiences are remarkably deteriorated, not only when we find ourselves in decidedly unattractive but also in neutral, boring, ‘normal’ surroundings.
According to several studies, there is a close connection between the sensory experiences that are received and the development of the mammalian brain.
Likewise, the degree of beauty in our surroundings is directly linked to our behavior and also our job performance.*
Did you know that the brain of a rat physically shrinks and grows in response to certain experiences? And that, when placed in a super-enriched environment, its intelligence increases?
The main factor is stimulation. Nerve cells are designed to receive stimulation. And everything – lighting, noise, odors etc. – appear to influence the behavior.
The right amount of stimuli to the human brain is estimated to be 1000 per hour. That is one every 4 second. With a walking speed of 4,5 km per hour, the perfect street presents something new every 4 or 5 meters. That is exactly what the streets in many medieval towns do. Four or five meters equal the width of a typical house in old towns, and the variations in appearance from building to building provide the stimuli we need.**
Photo: sterlinglanier Lanier/Unsplash
So forget about big-box-structures, supermarkets with blank walls, facades reproducing themselves until eternity. Forget about standardization. Our brains shrink from it, and it’s not what we need.
An essential task it to reinvent urban environments where we are being stimulated just right.
When was the last time you found yourself in such a place?
*Read Tony Hiss’ great book The Experience of Place (Vintage, 1991 (orig.1990))
** Numbers from Gehl Architects