Impactive Spaces : Translating Neuroaesthetics into Commercial Applications

What is neuroaesthetics?

Neuroaesthetics is the science of how the brain and body respond to what we see, hear, touch and feel in a space, in terms of light, sound, material, scent, colour and proportion. Understanding those responses lets designers, architects and precinct planners build spaces that measurably improve how people feel and how they behave.

How does The Future Laboratory track this trend?

At The Future Laboratory, neuroaesthetics is nothing new – we interviewed two of the field’s leading exponents, Susan Magsamen and Ivy Ross, in our Back to the F**kture podcast in 2023. Its ability to positively influence consumer behaviour is making it one of the hottest emerging trends of the day.   

Three years on, Ross tells The Future Laboratory that she still defines neuroaesthetics – impactive design to use its more commercial description – as ‘how the arts and aesthetics affect our brain and body to aid health and wellbeing’.  

‘We don’t get to choose whether [our spaces] will affect the people who encounter them. Our only choice is whether these effects will be intentional’

The how, why, where and who

As a rapidly developing area of behavioural science, neuroaesthetics has profound ramifications for how we shape hospitality, design cities and engineer retail spaces.

In the coming weeks, as we delve deeper into the subject, we’ll look at the who of the neuroaesthetics movement as well as the how, why and where:

• How, in Stockholm, for instance, the redistribution of visual, audio and spatial cues is reducing stress levels at a major city junction
  
  
• Why the use of different frequencies and audio wave forms are being used to stimulate melatonin levels and induce sleep
  
  
• Where retailers and designers are using biosonification to translate the electrical impulses of trees, soil and microbial life into the same cadence our nervous systems tap into for pleasure, positivity and blissful wellbeing

As Ross explains, neuroaesthetics doesn’t just offer brands an under-utilised tool – it’s also a preview of how problems will be solved in the future.

‘I think neuroaesthetics is indicative of where we’re heading, with all these different disciplines coming together to look at things through different lenses,’ she says.