What if cities are designed to “heal” the human brain?
Around 70% of the world’s population will live in cities by 2050. It is the UN that predicts this and, given this reality, there are researchers already focused on making cities a safe and advantageous space, also for our mental health, through architecture and urban design.
The approach crosses two emerging areas — biophilic architecture and neuroarchitecture, according to a recent article in . The first seeks to integrate shapes, light, sounds and elements inspired by nature into buildings; the second investigates how built environments influence brain processes linked to stress, learning, mood and neuronal plasticity.
Researchers at the University of Cambridge, in the United Kingdom, are among those seeking to deepen this connection. In 2024, Cleo Valentine, a research associate at Harvard, published a study in the journal Buildings on the impact of biophilic architectural designs on brain inflammation, a phenomenon associated with several neurodegenerative and psychiatric disorders.
In their work, stress responses were assessed using a 32-channel quantitative electroencephalogram. The results pointed to a reduction in stress and signs compatible with less neuroinflammation in environments with biophilic characteristics. The investigation also reinforced the author’s previous conclusions, according to which poor architecture can contribute to “allostatic overload”that is, the accumulation of the physiological effects of everyday stress.
More recently, a new study led by Mohamed Hesham Khalil investigated the possible role of architecture in hippocampal neurogenesis, a process essential for learning and mood regulation.
Khalil maintains that physical activity is recognized as promoting neurogenesis through brain-derived neurotrophic factor, known by the acronym BDNF. However, he remembers that most people spend around 90% of their time in built environments which, on the one hand, favor chronic stress and, on the other hand, they limit the physical activity necessary to counteract this effect.
The researcher highlights, for example, the importance of using stairs and calling “neurobiophilia“, a concept that values natural light, views of green spaces and exposure to natural sounds. Although these hypotheses remain in the theoretical phase, the authors argue that they can be applied in offices, schools, homes and healthcare units.
