Interface Lectures

Panellists: Sean Hanna, Alan Penn, Yeoryia Manolopoulou, Niall McLaughlin, Sam McElhinney, Lara Gregorians

The first session will present a series of provocations as ‘lightning talks’ around the theme of ‘Architecture and Mind’. Architecture has a rich history considering the phenomenology of space and contemporary neuroscience and its intersection with architecture promise to deepen knowledge and understanding. Panellists will discuss challenges and potentials with each other and then invite members of the audience to ask questions and join the conversation.

Speakers
Sean Hanna is Professor of Design Computing and a member of the UCL Space Syntax Laboratory. His research is primarily in developing computational methods for dealing with complexity in the built environment, including the comparative modelling of space and its perception by machine, and the use of machine learning.
Alan Penn is Professor in Architectural and Urban Computing and a founding director of Space Syntax Ltd. His research focuses on understanding the way that the design of the built environment affects the patterns of social and economic behaviour of organisations and communities.
Yeoryia Manolopoulou is an architect and design researcher working from two parallel positions: as Professor of Architecture and Experimental Practice at The Bartlett School of Architecture and as founder and co-director of AY Architects. Her work focuses on the connections that can be made between architecture and experience, aleatoricism and environment. She is interested in the innate capacity of architecture to construct a felt reality (drawn or built).
Níall McLaughlin is Professor of Architectural Practice at The Bartlett School of Architecture and prinicipal architect at Niall McLaughlin Architects, the winner of the 2022 Stirling Prize. For his practice's design for an Alzheimer's Respite Centre in Dublin, and his subsequent collaboration with Yeoryia Manolopoulou in the creation of an installation at the Venice Architecture Biennale, Niall explored the neuroscience and psychology of dementia and Alzheimer's disease.
Sam McElhinney is programme director for Architecture at UCA, Canterbury and a UCL affiliate. His research is focused on developing real-time and motive spatial analytic models. He is a former member of the ‘Space Group’ at University College London (UCL) and has expansive theoretical and exhibit based research into adaptive maze and labyrinth spaces.
Lara Gregorians is a PhD student in the Spatial Cognition Laboratory at UCL. Her research is interested in architectural experience and spatial and aesthetic mapping of architectural spaces, with a focus on physiological and subjective responses.

Panellists: Sean Hanna, Alan Penn, Kate Jeffery, Stephen Gage, Grant Mills, Anna Stroe

In the second session, panellists will focus on the global challenge of ‘Health’. Following a set of ‘lightning talk’ presentations, the panel will discuss how the intersection of architecture and neuroscience can contribute to considering – and designing – healthier spaces. The audience will be able to join the conversation and pose questions for discussion.

Speakers
Kate Jeffery is Head of the School of Psychology & Neuroscience at the University of Glasgow and Professor of Behavioural Neuroscience at UCL. She is interested in how sensory information is assembled by the brain into more complex, cognitive representations of the world. Her focus is on the “cognitive map,” which is formed by the hippocampus and associated structures and underlies our sense of direction and sense of place.
Stephen Gage is Professor of Innovative Technology at The Bartlett School of Architecture. He has expertise in healthcare architecture and is interested in the way that the technology of building relates to the external environment, as well as the time-based aspects of architecture that relate to human occupation and building use, taking forward an early interest in cybernetics.
Grant Mills is Professor of Healthcare Infrastructure Delivery at The Bartlett School of Sustainable Construction, UCL. He is specialised in the design and delivery of healthcare infrastructure facilities. Specifically, the evidence that supports the scale, scope and distribution of healthcare buildings (e.g. how they are therapeutically designed and engineered to be adaptable).
Anna Stroe is a cognitive scientist and artist, currently undertaking a PhD at the Bartlett School of Architecture and the Clinical Neuroscience Centre. Her PhD research focuses on “Diagnostics and rehabilitation after stroke in enriched XR+ML environments”.