The Architect’s Brain

The Architect’s Brain: Neuroscience, Creativity, and Architecture Harry Francis Mallgrave
© 2010 Harry Francis Mallgrave. ISBN: 978-1-405-19585-0

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 The Architect’s Brain
Neuroscience, Creativity,
and Architecture
Harry Francis Mallgrave

A John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., Publication

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 This edition first published 2010
© 2010 Harry Francis Mallgrave

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1 2010

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 Contents

List of Illustrations vii

Introduction 1

Part I Historical Essays 7

1 The Humanist Brain: Alberti, Vitruvius, and Leonardo 9
2 The Enlightened Brain: Perrault, Laugier, and Le Roy 26
3 The Sensational Brain: Burke, Price, and Knight 41
4 The Transcendental Brain: Kant and Schopenhauer 53
5 The Animate Brain: Schinkel, Bötticher, and Semper 61
6 The Empathetic Brain: Vischer, Wölfflin, and Göller 76
7 The Gestalt Brain: The Dynamics of the Sensory Field 85
8 The Neurological Brain: Hayek, Hebb, and Neutra 98
9 The Phenomenal Brain: Merleau-Ponty, Rasmussen,
and Pallasmaa 109

Part II Neuroscience and Architecture 123

10 Anatomy: Architecture of the Brain 125
11 Ambiguity: Architecture of Vision 139
12 Metaphor: Architecture of Embodiment 159
13 Hapticity: Architecture of the Senses 188

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 vi Contents

Epilogue: The Architect’s Brain 207

Endnotes 221
Bibliography 253
Index 267

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 Illustrations

1.1 After Francesco di Giorgio Martini, Opera di

Architettura (c.1479–80) 18
1.2 Leonardo da Vinci, Vitruvian Man (c.1490) 21
1.3 Carlo Urbini (after Leonardo da Vinci), from
the Codex Huygens 22
2.1 Francesco Borromini, San Carlo alle Quattro
Fontane, begun in 1638 27
2.2 The Louvre, East Wing 31
2.3 Julien-David Le Roy, View of the Temple of Minerva
(Parthenon) 38
3.1 John Vanbrugh and Nicholas Hawksmoor,
Blenheim Palace 50
5.1 Karl Friedrich Schinkel, Altes Museum,
Berlin (1823–30) 63
5.2 Karl Friedrich Schinkel, Berlin Architectural Academy
(1831–6) 64
5.3 Carl Bötticher, plate from Die Tektonic der Hellenen
(Potsdam, 1844–52) 67
5.4 Gottfriede Semper, Basket-weave capital 70
5.5 Gottfried Semper, Persian tubular column capital
with Ionic volutes 71
5.6 Ionic capitals from the East porch of the Erechtheum 72
5.7 Gottfried Semper, Rusticated block from the Dresden
Art Museum 73
7.1 Michelangelo, Dome of Saint Peters, Vatican
(1546–64) 93

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 viii Illustrations

7.2 Michelangelo, Porta Pia, Rome (1561–5) 95

9.1 Pietro da Cortona, Santa Maria della Pace, Rome
(1656–67) 116
10.1 Neuron or brain cell 127
10.2 Brainstem 129
10.3 Limbic system 131
10.4 Lobes of the brain 133
11.1 Optic nerve 140
11.2 Visual processing areas of the brain (V1–V4) 141
11.3 Leon Battista Alberti, Santa Maria Novella, Florence
(1448–70) 147
11.4 Frank Lloyd Wright, Robie House (1908–10) 152
11.5 Frank Lloyd Wright, Robie House (1908–10) (detail) 152
11.6 Andrea Palladio, Church of Il Redentore, Venice
(1577–92) 154
11.7 Andrea Palladio, San Giorgio Maggiore (c.1565–80) 155
11.8 Andrea Palladio, Church of Il Redentore 158
12.1 Parthenon, Athens (447–432 BC). View of the
east facade 162
12.2 Temple of Hephaestus, Athens (449–415 BC) 163
12.3 Gerald Edelman’s “Theory of Neuronal Group
Selection” 168
12.4 Thalamocortical Loop (after Gerald Edelman) 168
12.5 Antonio Gaudi, The roof of the Casa Battlo, Barcelona
(1904–6) 183
13.1 Longitudinal section through the brain showing areas
activated by emotions and feelings, with a transverse
section through the brain showing the location
of the insula 191
13.2 Areas of the brain involved with hearing, speech
(Broca’s area), language comprehension
(Wernicke’s area), and sensorimotor activities 198
13.3 The supramodal network that is activated during
spatial processing for either visual or tactile stimuli 204

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