NEUROARQUITECTURA Y COMPORTAMIENTO DEL CONSUMIDOR: UNA PROPUESTA DE MODELO DE DISEÑO

Abstract

The physical environment in which the human beings develop has an influence on their behavior, in this context, the architectural spaces affect significantly the emotional conditions and the behavior of individuals who use them: A particular design can promote or facilitate a certain behavior, based on the way how the individuals who frequent them perceive them, fact that will depend, on the other hand, on their social demographic features. In the marketing of real estate, it is known that when customers decide to purchase a housing, a variety of factors are taken into account. The design of architecture spaces must meet three fundamental requirements: functionality, safety and aesthetics. Therefore, a housing design is a creative process that involves the choice among different alternative options, in order to search for the conciliation of the technical project with the final use of the space. The new paradigm set out in the 21st century, in relation to architecture, arises according with the discoveries in the neurosciences fields and the studies on the environmental psychology: These scientific advances have shown that particular surroundings help adult human beings to produce the new nerve cells (neurons), (Gage & Erisson, 1,998) or that the new architectonic spaces¿ design have an influence on the individuals¿ emotional states and behaviors (Bell et al. , 2001). The study analyzes the different variables of neurosciences and environmental psychology, that allow give an answer to the customer needs, in the housing choice. How do our brain interpret the environment we live in? What kind of environments suggests a higher dissatisfaction and aggression level? How does the natural light affect our performance? Why do certain environments inspire us the sense of well-being? How the living conditions influence our thoughts and the stress degree? We will also analyze the distribution of our work place: how does the privacy degree in our working environment affect our behavior? Why the patients recover more quickly in hospitals with natural surroundings and large windows looking through the outside? What kinds of environments favor our collaboration in work? Finally, we will propose a concept model of the architectural spaces perception and its influence on behavior. Throughout the article is proposed a conceptual model about the effects of perception of the design of architectural spaces, an enumeration of the variables to consider for their emotional and cognitive influence and finally, a how to implement these architectural variables in the design process.