What is neuroarchitecture? It is an interdisciplinary field that brings together neuroscience, environmental psychology and design to understand how built environments influence the brain, body, behaviour and wellbeing of the people inside them. In a hotel, that means asking what a room does to a guest’s sleep, stress and sense of orientation before asking what it looks like.
The field starts from a question that traditional architecture rarely centres: not what does this space look like, but what does it do to the people who experience it?
Where does neuroarchitecture come from?
The term has an institutional home. The Academy of Neuroscience for Architecture (ANFA) was founded in San Diego in 2003 to promote, in its own words, the use of neuro and cognitive science to better design the built environment. In Australia, NeuroAU’s Toward a Neuroarchitecture Manifesto (2026) describes the field as research and practice that integrates scientific knowledge into design so that the inhabitant’s experience and wellbeing sit at the centre.
A useful working definition is offered by Kim et al. (2023), writing in Chronobiology in Medicine: neuroarchitecture is a field that explores which architectural elements are beneficial or harmful to the physical and mental health of humans, based on neuroscience principles.
In practice, neuroarchitecture goes beyond what a space looks like. It examines what happens in the brain and body of a person who enters it: how their stress responses behave, how their circadian biology responds to the light environment, whether their nervous system shifts toward restoration or remains on alert.
Why does the built environment matter so much?
People spend more than 87% of their time indoors (Santos, 2023). The spaces we inhabit are not neutral. Everyday exposure to noise, light conditions, spatial layout and access to nature gradually influences stress regulation, cognitive functioning, emotional states and patterns of social interaction (NeuroAU Manifesto, 2026).
Because people inhabit environments over long periods of time, these effects accumulate. A poorly designed acoustic environment does not just create a single moment of discomfort. It compounds. A lighting system that disrupts circadian biology does not simply affect one night’s sleep. It affects how the body regulates hormones, mood and cognitive performance across time.
What does the research show about specific design variables?
Light and circadian health
Light is among the most studied variables in neuroarchitecture research. Circadian rhythm is a cellular, biochemical and behavioural rhythm that allows humans to adapt to the 24-hour solar cycle. Modern light profiles create a mismatch between the endogenous circadian rhythm and the light environment, with documented acute and chronic negative health effects (Kim et al., 2023).
A landmark study by Gooley et al. (2011), published in the Journal of Clinical Endocrinology and Metabolism, established that exposure to room light before bedtime suppresses melatonin onset and shortens melatonin duration in humans. Melatonin is central to sleep initiation and the body’s overnight repair and restoration processes.
Research has also shown that creating person-centred light environments, those that work with rather than against the body’s natural circadian signals, can have measurable positive effects on health, mood and cognitive performance (Kim et al., 2023).
Nature exposure and stress regulation
A significant body of research demonstrates that exposure to natural environments affects the brain in measurable ways. A study by Bratman et al. (2015), published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, found that participants who walked for 90 minutes in a natural environment showed reduced self-rumination compared to those who walked in an urban environment.
This research supports the design principle that access to nature within or around built environments is not decorative. It produces different neurological states in the people who experience it.
Multisensory experience and behaviour
Neuroarchitecture understands spatial experience as multisensory. Design strategies including natural materials, natural lighting, colour choices, ceiling height, acoustic treatment and spatial arrangement all influence how the brain and body respond to an environment (Santos, 2023).
How is neuroarchitecture research conducted?
Functional neuroimaging (fMRI), electroencephalography (EEG), eye-tracking and galvanic skin response (GSR) measurements are increasingly used to study how people experience space (NeuroAU Manifesto, 2026). Mobile Brain/Body Imaging (MoBI) records a moving person’s brain activity and bodily sensations in real time, making it possible to study neurological responses within actual built environments (Kim et al., 2023).
What the evidence supports, and how we apply it
Reviews of the literature, including Attaianese, Barilà and Perillo (2025) in Buildings, describe an evidence base that is growing quickly and is strongest for the variables a hotel brief can act on directly: light exposure, noise, thermal comfort and contact with nature. Light that suppresses melatonin, noise that raises stress and views of nature that aid recovery are well established, and they are the variables that decide whether a guest sleeps and how the arrival sequence feels.
Cocoplum Design Studio treats the established findings as design requirements and tests everything else in the property itself: every brief names its source and the effect it is designed to produce, and the guest room is built as a prototype and measured overnight before it is rolled out. That is how a laboratory result becomes a specification for a 400-room hotel.
What is neuroarchitecture not?
Neuroarchitecture is not a style. It is not a synonym for biophilic design, though the two fields share significant overlap. The NeuroAU Manifesto (2026) is explicit: neuroscience knowledge must never be used as an instrument of control or persuasion. Its role is to inform design decisions that enable healthier, more inclusive and more supportive environments.
What does neuroarchitecture change in a hotel?
In hospitality design, the commercial implications of neuroarchitecture are direct. A guest room whose light environment works against melatonin production will consistently underdeliver on its core product: rest. A lobby designed without attention to acoustic quality or sensory transition from the street will fail to begin the stress recovery process that determines how a guest experiences their stay.
The practical applications are ordinary decisions made on evidence rather than habit:
- Sleep: blackout that seals at the edges, warm and dimmable light in the evening, no standby glow, and quiet air conditioning with a set point the guest controls.
- Acoustics: door seals, glazing, plumbing and lift isolation and corridor treatment, tested overnight in a prototype room rather than assumed from the drawings.
- Wayfinding and arrival: a lobby sequence that lowers cognitive load, sightlines that make the route obvious, and a sensory step down from the street.
- Daylight and views: rooms and public areas planned around the windows, not around the furniture.
- Privacy and sensory load: material, pattern and lighting choices that let a guest settle rather than stay alert.
Neuroarchitecture hospitality consultant Ozge Fettahlioglu founded Cocoplum Design Studio to apply these principles through an evidence-based design process, beginning with what the environment needs to do physiologically before any aesthetic decisions are made. She is a member of the Academy of Neuroscience for Architecture and a graduate of the NeuroAU neuroarchitecture program, and her research on biophilic room audits for stress-supportive interior environments at Western Sydney University underpins the studio’s methodology.
Further reading
- What Is Biophilic Design?: the closely related field and where the two approaches overlap
- How a Neuroarchitecture-Led Hotel Design Brief Works: what a neuroarchitecture-led brief looks like in practice
- Neuroarchitecture strategy for hotels: the evidence brief, measurement plan and prototype room we deliver
- Download the Hotel Performance Risk Audit: apply the neuroarchitecture framework to your property, free
- Cocoplum Design Studio Capabilities
References
- Academy of Neuroscience for Architecture (ANFA). Founded 2003, San Diego. https://anfarch.org/
- Attaianese, E., Barilà, M., & Perillo, M. (2025). Exploring neuroscientific approaches to architecture: Design strategies of the built environment for improving human performance. Buildings, 15(19), 3524. https://doi.org/10.3390/buildings15193524
- Kim, E.H., Youn, C.S., Nam, Y.J., Hong, S., Cho, Y.H., Son, S.J., Hong, C.H., & Roh, H.W. (2023). Neuroarchitecture from the perspective of circadian rhythm, physical, and mental health. Chronobiology in Medicine, 5(1), 3 to 6. https://doi.org/10.33069/cim.2023.0005
- Gooley, J.J., Chamberlain, K., Smith, K.A., Khalsa, S.B., Rajaratnam, S.M., Van Reen, E., Zeitzer, J.M., Czeisler, C.A., & Lockley, S.W. (2011). Exposure to room light before bedtime suppresses melatonin onset and shortens melatonin duration in humans. Journal of Clinical Endocrinology and Metabolism, 96(3), E463 to E472. https://doi.org/10.1210/jc.2010-2098
- Bratman, G.N., Hamilton, J.P., Hahn, K.S., Daily, G.C., & Gross, J.J. (2015). Nature experience reduces rumination and subgenual prefrontal cortex activation. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 112(28), 8567 to 8572. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1510459112
- Bulaj, G., Forero, M., & Huntsman, D.D. (2025). Biophilic design, neuroarchitecture and therapeutic home environments. Frontiers in Medicine, 12, 1610259. https://doi.org/10.3389/fmed.2025.1610259
- Santos, V.C.M. (2023). Neuroarchitecture: how the built environment influences the human brain. Revista Científica Multidisciplinar Núcleo do Conhecimento, 8(7), 96 to 113.
- NeuroAU (2026). Toward a Neuroarchitecture Manifesto. DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.19223917
Frequently asked questions
What is neuroarchitecture in simple terms?
The study of what a building does to the people inside it. It combines neuroscience, environmental psychology and design to understand how light, sound, materials, layout and access to nature affect the brain, body, behaviour and wellbeing, and then designs for those effects.
How is neuroarchitecture different from biophilic design?
They overlap but are not the same. Biophilic design concerns the connection between people and nature; neuroarchitecture is broader and covers every environmental variable that affects the nervous system, including acoustics, circadian light and spatial legibility. Neither is a style.
What evidence supports neuroarchitecture?
Gooley et al. (2011) showed room light before bedtime suppresses melatonin; Bratman et al. (2015) found a 90-minute walk in nature reduced rumination compared with an urban walk; and people spend more than 87 per cent of their time indoors (Santos, 2023), so these effects accumulate.
How is neuroarchitecture researched?
With functional neuroimaging, EEG, eye-tracking and galvanic skin response, and increasingly with Mobile Brain and Body Imaging, which records a moving person’s brain activity inside real built environments.
How does neuroarchitecture apply to a hotel?
A guest room whose light works against melatonin underdelivers on its core product, rest. A lobby without attention to acoustics and the sensory transition from the street fails to start the stress recovery that shapes the whole stay. The brief asks what each space must do physiologically before deciding how it looks.
Is neuroarchitecture a way of manipulating people?
No. The NeuroAU Neuroarchitecture Manifesto (2026) is explicit that neuroscience must never be used as an instrument of control or persuasion; its role is to inform healthier, more inclusive and more supportive environments.
