ANFA - Academy of Neuroscience for Architecture

Welcome

Not since the contributions made by physics at the end of the 19th century (structural design methods, acoustic design formulas, lighting calculations, etc.) has science been so well prepared to expand the knowledge base available to the profession of architecture. ANFA is the only organization in the world devoted to the goal of building intellectual bridges between neuroscience and architecture.

Not only will architects benefit from the knowledge base made possible by neuroscience, but future generations of school children, hospital patients, office workers, and worshippers in sacred places will have their environments more carefully tuned to their needs and desires.

Events

The 2011 ANFA Interfaces Series:

ANFA INTERFACES: March 2nd, 2011

-- March 2nd Lecture Video Part 1 *

-- March 2nd Lecture Video Part 2 *

ANFA INTERFACES: April 20th, 2011

-- April 20th Lecture Video Part 1 *

-- April 20th Lecture Video Part 2 *

ANFA INTERFACES: May 25th, 2011

-- May 25th Lecture Video Part 1 *

-- May 25th Lecture Video Part 2 *

The 2009 - 2010 ANFA INTERFACES Series:

ANFA INTERFACES: May 19th, 2010
ANFA INTERFACES: March 17th, 2010
ANFA INTERFACES: November 4th, 2009

*Video courtesy of The Science Network

News

ANFA is delighted to announce the first Hay Fund Grant Recipients: Sergei Gepshtein, Ph.D., Alex McDowell, R.D.I, and Greg Lynn, M.Arch for their project entitled: Vision Science for Dynamic Architecture. Click here to read more.

ANFA board member, Dr. Fred Gage, will be one of the scientists researching common links between diseases such as cancer, Alzhiemer's and diabetes at the Helmsley Center for Genomic Research. This center is being funded by a $42 million donation from the New York-based Helmsley Charitable Trust to the Salk Institute for Biological Studies and will involve 12 of the Salk's 44 laboratories.

On January 11, 2013, The New York Times posted an article on architecture and mental health. Click here to read more.

ANFA is excited to announce that Dr. Tom Albright, professor and director of the Vision Center Laboratory at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies, as ANFA's newest President. His term began January 2013. Click here to read more.

The Symposium Minding Design: Neuroscience, Design Education, and the Imagination was developed and hosted by the Frank Lloyd Wright School of Architecture (FLWSA) with support from the Academy of Neuroscience for Architecture and was held at Taliesin West, November 9-10, 2012. Michael Arbib reports here. Iain McGilchrist's precis of his talk at the meeting is here. Coverage in Metropolitan Magazine is here. Architectural historian, Barbara Lamprecht, shares her impressions of both the Taliesin West meeting and the ANFA Conference here.

Pacific Standard posted an article about ANFA and our involvement at the AIA National Conference entitled Corridors of the Mind: Could neuroscientists be the next great architects? Click here to read it.

ANFA Conference presenter, Donald McEachron of Drexel University, has written a new book: Chronobioengineering: Introduction to Biological Rhythms with Applications, Volume 1. Click here to learn more about this work.

ANFA Board Member Michael Arbib was delighted to be a featured speaker at the Frank Lloyd Wright School of Architecture symposium titled: Minding Design: Neuroscience, Design Education and the Imagination. The symposium, was co-sponsored by ANFA and also celebrates the 75th anniversary of Taliesin West and the 80th Reunion of the Taliesin Fellows. Click here to read more about this event.

Michael Arbib, the ANFA Board member who shared his knowledge of Brains, Machines and Buildings at an Interfaces lecture last year, has now published his research in Intelligent Buildings International. To read the full article click here and to see the Interfaces lecture, click here.

Congratulations to ANFA Board Member Gil Cooke who was recently named a Fellow of the American Institute of Architects for his contributions to Architectural Education. These contributions include the incorporation of Neuroscience for Architecture courses into the curriculum at the NewSchool of Architecture & Design.

ANFA’s Founding President, John Paul Eberhard, FAIA, was happy to deliver the commencement address at the State University of New York at Buffalo's School of Architecture and Planning. As the founding Dean of the School, Eberhard is honored to speak its 40^th annual commencement ceremony this May.

Dr. Rusty Gage, ANFA board member and renowned neuroscientist, is joining forces with colleagues in La Jolla's newest research "collaboratory." This innovative facility, the Sanford Consortium for Regenerative Medicine, will unite 335 professionals with the goal of catalizing medical advancements using stem cells. More Info

The wait is over, Sustainable Environmental Design in Architecture: Impacts on Health is now available! More Info.

ANFA board members Eduardo Macagno and Randal Peterson have been collaborating with ANFA reasearch associate Eve Edelstein and others on innovative research at UC San Diego's Calit2. Click here to learn about some of the recent findings that Dr. Macagno will be sharing at the Spatial Cognition for Architectural Design Symposium in November.

The verdict is in and the book, Design Informed: Driving Innovation with Evidence Based Design is a hit! Click here to see why this book, co-authored by ANFA board member Gordon Chong, and featuring a case study of ANFA board member John Zeisel, is innovating the architectural industry.

ANFA Board Member Michael Arbib of the University of Southern California gave a plenary address on "Brains, Machines and Buildings" as the opening talk of the NSF-sponsored symposium "From Brains to Machines" at the 2011 International Joint Conference on Neural Networks, San Jose, California.

John Eberhard, ANFA's Founding President, Dr. Eduardo Macagno, ANFA's Immediate Past President, and Dr. Eve Edelstein, ANFA Research Associate have composed chapters within Sustainable Environmental Design in Architecture: Impacts on Health. More Info

Dr. Tom Albright, ANFA Board Member and Director of the Vision Center Laboratory at the Salk Institute of Biological Sciences, was awarded "The Conrad T. Prebys Chair in Vision Research." More Info

ANFA's founding president John Eberhard, FAIA participated in a panel discussion at The Science of the Arts Speaker Series hoste by the Johns Hopkins Medicine Brain Institute in Baltimore, MD.

Gordon Chong, ANFA past president and current board member, co-wrote Design Informed: Driving Innovation with Evidence-Based Design (ISBN 9780470916407). The book was released in September 2010 and is currently available both in print and electronic reader formats.

Board Member Ken Kornberg co-authored a book titled, Greener Labs: Sustainable Laboratory Design. The book was published in April and is available only in Japanese via Maruzen.

Construction on a new National Intrepid Center of Excellence for Psychological Health and Traumatic Brain Injury (NICoE) has been completed. This innovative space at the National Naval Medical Center in Bethesda, Maryland was dedicated in June 2010 and the officially opened for operation in October of that year.

In November 2009, Board Member Fred Marks presented at the National Building Museum in Washington, DC as part of the a U.S. Department of Energy’s Building Technologies Program.