John P. Eberhard Student Design Competition 2024 - “Discourse”     

In recognition of the 20th anniversary of the founding of the Academy of Neuroscience for Architecture (ANFA), ANFA will host a design competition honoring one of its key founding members, John P. Eberhard, FAIA, with the goal of creating greater interest and understanding of the relationship between neuroscience and architecture. 

The competition will be titled “Discourse” with the explicit goals of fostering a dynamic conversation between neuroscience and architecture, enhancing neuroscience knowledge in architecture, fostering collaboration within academic institutions, cultivating opportunities for students to become interested in both architecture and neuroscience, and creating new opportunities in general for students interested in both architecture and neuroscience.

The competition will be to design a project on the site of the Salk Institute campus, which holds a connection to ANFA and boasts international recognition in the field of architecture. The competition will. require participants to explicitly apply the principles of “Neuroscience for Architecture” based on the curated material and resources, addressing topics such as:  Sensation and Perception (how do we see, hear, smell, taste, etc.?, ),  Learning and Memory (how do we store and recall our sensory experiences?),  Decision-making (how do we evaluate the potential consequences of our actions?), Emotion and Affect (how do we become fearful or excited? or what makes us feel happy or sad?), Movement (how do we interact with our environment and navigate through it?).   More to come when the competition is launched at the beginning of the semester.

For participation in the competition, organizers will be reaching out to ANFA affiliated universities where ANFA members are active and present, institutions that already have experts in both architecture and neuroscience who are willing to supervise student teams to participate in the competition. The competition will be in a format to easily allow professors to integrate the competition into their curriculum, but independent students will also be allowed to participate, assuming they are supported by their professors/institutions to do so. Monetary prizes will be awarded to the winners of the competition.

More detailed is covered by a talk in the 2023 ANFA Conference