ENDORSEMENTS
"Milton Shinberg's prolific career in architecture has been driven by a search for what it means to be human. The answer, revealed in this engaging and richly illustrated new book, begins with a sure affirmation that architects are humanists in the sense that they incorporate empathy, responsibility, and optimism to satisfy the needs and aspirations of their clients. But Shinberg also observes that humanistic architects should appeal to modern neuroscience for knowledge of how people think, feel, and act. Shinberg smartly explains how key elements of human experience and the use of architecture – from sensation and perception to feelings of order, beauty, and awe to choice, behavior, and social communication – can be understood as products of the brain. The future of architecture – and Shinberg's lesson for us all – is thus a humanism woven through and through with functional insights from modern brain research. For these insights will afford a truly human-centered approach to design."
—Tom Albright, PhD, Professor and Director of the Vision Center Laboratory, Salk Institute for Biological Studies, and former president of the Academy of Neuroscience for Architecture
"Milton Shinberg is a dedicated architect and educator of architects who has immersed himself in ways a humanistic approach can be enriched by an understanding of the way in which various sciences study humans interacting with their environments. The book carries the science lightly, with an accessible text combined with copious illustrations –- but, balancing this appeal to the visual bias of many architects, there is a literally "insightful" interview with the blind architect Chris Downey. The book concludes with sections on revisiting and enhancing the education of architects."
—Michael A. Arbib, PhD, University Professor Emeritus and Professor Emeritus of Computer Science, Biomedical Engineering, Biological Sciences, and Psychology, USC Viterbi School of Engineering, Author of When Brains Meet Buildings: A Conversation Between Architecture and Neuroscience
"Shinberg has done something truly impressive. He has managed to translate and develop a practical framework for architectural thinking and design, grounding in the latest research on human perception and cognition. His ideas and insights offer a fresh perspective, helping to clarify many aspects of my own approach to design. As an art, architecture engages all our senses, with the ultimate aim of raising the spirits of all those who experience it. The book is a reflection of these essential qualities."
—Stefan Behling, Architect, Senior Executive Partner, Head of Studio, Foster+Partners, London
"Out of decades of a successful and reflective architectural practice and teaching career come Milton Shinberg's timely insights on pursuing human-centered architecture. Far from subjective observations, these discernments and recommendations are grounded in a nuanced reading of science, psychology, and education and the thoughtful consideration of many other respected voices and perspectives. The result is a book that expands our understanding of design thinking, making, and pedagogy by inviting us to go beyond what we know. Using a friendly and engaging writing style, Shinberg brings us on a journey exploring the most relevant topics in today's architectural world. This book will prove useful to the seasoned architectural practitioner or academic, the college student, and any ordinary citizen intrigued by the value and power of the built environment."
—Julio Bermudez, PhD, Architect, Author, ACSA Distinguished Professor of Architecture, President of the Architecture, Culture and Spirituality Forum
"People-Centered Architecture is a must-have for every architect, teacher, and student of architecture. This transformative work redefines the core principles of design, prioritizing a profound alignment with the needs and experiences of real people. By challenging traditional foundations and reshaping design thinking, it sets a new standard for what architecture can and should be. It's a remarkable achievement that will inspire and elevate the field."
—Mariela Buendia-Corrochan, IIDA, LEED AP ID+C, Founder and CEO, studioMBC
"This book is an excellent 'gateway' for anyone involved in the design process, offering valuable insights into how to serve and inspire better those we design for. Milton Shinberg expertly guides us—with clarity and enthusiasm—through how the science of human experience, learned from and applied to people, can shape architectural thinking, practice, and education. His message is so fundamental (though often forgotten) that it feels like a return to something familiar—something we have always known but struggle to translate into design. Enjoy this book as a refreshing 'pause' from the demands of everyday research and professional work, helping us refine our design sensibility."
—Elisabetta Canepa, PhD in Architecture and Design Research, Architect, Assistant Professor of Architecture at the University of Genoa, Kansas State University, and Florida International University
"Milton Shinberg will disabuse you of the notion that architecture and neuroscience are strange bedfellows. He is at the vanguard of architects motivated by the belief that the design of buildings for people to flourish should incorporate a deep understanding of human psychology and neuroscience. A clearly written book, rich with reflections from the science of human emotions, embodiment, and aesthetics, People-Centered Architecture drives home the importance of such inter-disciplinary infiltrations that will enhance architectural thinking, education, and practice."
—Anjan Chatterjee, MD, FAAN, Professor of Neurology, Psychology, and Architecture, Director of the Penn Center of Neuroaesthetics, The University of Pennsylvania, Author of The Aesthetic Brain, How We Evolved to Desire Beauty and Enjoy Art, co-author of Brain, Beauty, and Art: Essays Bringing Neuroaesthetics into Focus
"In People-Centered Architecture, Milton Shinberg, a renowned architect and educator, offers a deeply curated meditation on being an architect (broadly construed) of well-tuned observation skills. Copiously illustrated and succinctly written, this book is constructed for a visual mind. Of particular benefit is Milton's synthesis of a comprehensive Humanist literature covering the last 30 years. From the biology of our full sensory engagement with buildings, from beauty to techniques for listening to people, followed by suggestions that will improve education and professional practice, this book is your guide for becoming a designer a little ahead of your time and a better architect."
—Bob Condia, FAIA, Architect, Emeritus Professor of Architecture in The College of Architecture, Planning & Design, Kansas State University, Advisory Committee, Academy of Neuroscience for Architecture
"Milton's introduction to the use of social science research in architecture is invitingly warm and personal. His language is friendly, supportive, and down-to-earth. Research concepts from anthropology, sociology, and psychology are illustrated and demonstrated with well-known architectural examples. He connects architects with important researchers like Whyte, Rappoport, and Hall by noting the media –film, drawing, observation—that they share. A convenient feature is that references for further study are easy to find in footnotes at the bottom of the same page. He reassures us that our brains synthesize information from multiple sources, both scientific and artistic."
—Galen Cranz, PhD, Sociologist, Professor Emerita, Graduate School in Architecture, University of California, Berkeley, Author of Ethnography for Designers (Routledge), The Chair: Rethinking Culture, Body and Design, The Politics of Park Design: A History of Urban Parks in America, Co-editor, Environmental Design Research: Bodies, Cities and the Buildings InBetween, Founding Member of the Association for Body Conscious Design
"This wise book brings architecture back to where it should be—not in abstraction or arcane theory--but in how it should respond to the people who live, work, play, and dream within its realm. The author draws upon the science of human behavior—its sensory foundations—to show how design can more faithfully respond. The design process must be grounded in empathetic and active engagement with clients, users, and the architecturally curious—their hopes and aspirations--to make them at home in the world through beauty. This book is a humanist call to architectural practitioners, educators, and students to place people first and for all of us to be in service—first and foremost—to our brothers and sisters."
—Michael J. Crosbie, Ph.D., Architect, Fellow of the American Institute of Architects, Professor of Architecture, University of Hartford, Editor-in-Chief at Faith & Form, Editor at Architecture: The AIA Journal and Progressive Architecture, Contributor to Architectural Record, Author of Pelli: Life in Architecture, Houses of God: Religious Architecture for a New Millenium, Arches to Zigzags: An Architectural ABC, Architecture Colors, Co-Author, Time Saver Standards for Architectural Design
"In this groundbreaking work, Milton Shinberg cuts through the fog about architecture's effects on the human mind, offering instead a clear journey into the science of how buildings shape our brains and behavior. Moving seamlessly between cognitive neuroscience, psychology, and architecture, Shinberg reveals the hidden processes behind why some spaces uplift us while others leave us cold. Written with incredible clarity and without sacrificing scientific accuracy, this book transforms our understanding of the built environment—essential reading for anyone who has ever wondered why architecture moves us and why we need a people-centered approach to our spaces."
—Zacharia Djebbara, PhD, MS Architecture, PhD Architecture and Cognitive Neuroscience, Faculty, Aalborg Universitet, Department of Architecture, Design and Media Technology, Built Environment and Cognitive Neuroscience
"Milton Shinberg's People-Centered Architecture is a remarkable distillation of the wisdom he has drawn from a lifetime of architectural practice and a distinguished career in architectural education. The book draws together some of the most recent and relevant ideas from the human sciences with the pragmatics of architectural practice. Young architects will want to have this book close at hand for down-to-earth advice and vital inspiration. Likewise, nudges from voice of a master teacher, the book will remind them of the power of what they can accomplish. Scientists wanting to contribute to architecture will find much-needed insight into some of the cornerstones of architectural practice. Throughout, Shinberg's crystal-clear, beautifully grounded voice, free of artifice and jargon, oozes with passion for his subject and will similarly infect the reader in the best possible way. This book will endure and will inspire and excite future generations of those of us who want to build a better world."
—Colin Ellard, PhD, Professor, University of Waterloo Urban Realities Lab, Author of Places of the Heart, The Psychogeography of Everyday Life, Author of You Are Here: Why We Can Find Our Way to the Moon But Get Lost at the Mall, and Design Consultant
"In People-Centered Architecture, Milton Shinberg shares his questions and findings from an exceptional career of architectural practice and teaching. Those like me fortunate enough to have known him throughout these decades appreciate that his professional and academic interests and insights reflect so fully his open heart and mind. He asks how can architectural principles and practices become fully humane? What do today's and tomorrow's architects need to know about people to create the architectural future in which we can thrive? Understanding the depth and breadth of People-Centered Architecture starts here. In People-Centered Architecture, Milton Shinberg shares his questions and findings from an exceptional career of architectural practice and teaching. He asks how can architectural principles and practices become fully humane? What do today's and tomorrow's architects need to know about people to create the architectural future in which we can thrive? Understanding the depth and breadth of People-Centered Architecture starts there."
—Carl Elefante, FAIA, Fellow and Former President of the American Institute of Architects, Principal Emeritus, Quinn Evans Architects
"In writing People-Centered Architecture, Milton Shinberg has provided a huge service to architectural practitioners, educators, and students—and anyone else with more than a passing interest in the built environment. This clear and thoroughly accessible book offers a comprehensive guide to what has come to be known as "Neuroscience for Architecture," with chapters on the senses, behavior, beauty, and much, much more. And in rethinking aspects of both contemporary design training and practice, the author reminds us that the discipline of architecture must always—first and foremost—consider people."
—Kurt Hunker, Architect, Fellow of the American Institute of Architects, Chief Design Officer, Davy Architecture, President of the Academy of Neuroscience for Architecture
"With the warp of the new biological sciences and the astute weft of an architect's imagination, Milton Shinberg weaves a polychromatic pattern revealing not only how we construct the built environment but also how we might conceive a more humane and embodied approach to design."
—Harry Francis Mallgrave, PhD in Architecture, Professor at the Illinois Institute of Technology, Author of The Architects Brain, and From Object to Experience, Director of International Center for Sustainable New Cities, IIT
"In People-Centered Architecture, Milton Shinberg deftly lays out a thoughtful, immersive design process that integrates insights from sensory sciences. Shinberg advocates for a more humanistic, efficient, and inspiring approach to architecture that can lead to better outcomes for clients, communities, and architects alike. His book will undoubtedly help architects create designs that resonate deeply with human needs and aspirations."
—Susan Magsamen, Founder and Executive Director of the International Arts+Mind Lab and the Center for Applied Neuroaesthetics at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, Pedersen Brain Science Institute, and Co-author of Your Brain on Art, How the Arts Transform Us
"Here is a book by an architectural practitioner who reflects deeply about how to listen qualitatively to those affected by design and to absorb research findings relevant to a design and then, most importantly, how to cultivate mental habits to unleash creative solutions inspired by these listenings."
—Raymond Richard Neutra, President, Neutra Institute for Survival Through Design, to Preserve and use the Neutra Legacy to promote creative research and design that benefits people and the planet
"This book is grounded in a wide and deep reading in the complex interactions of life, "The science of people," to use a notion of the writer, long personal design practice, and decades of writing and teaching. Instead of an abstracted, intellectualized and formal approach, the writer discusses architecture as real experiences and stages of multifaceted life. He also aims at integrating the artistic and scientific views to the art of building, especially through the knowledge generated recently by neuroscience and neuroaesthetics. Shinberg´s text has a conversational tone - the writer is present in the act of reading - which makes the book inviting, friendly and approachable for varying readerships. Due to its many layers and angles, the book offers itself to students, teachers, scholars, and practitioners alike. It reveals the complexities of the art of architecture while also providing ways to understand this inherent layeredness and its irreplaceable value for our lives."
—Juhani Pallasmaa, Architect SAFA, HonFAIA, IntFRIBA, former Chair and professor emeritus of the School of Architecture at Aalto University, Helsinki), and author of Mind in Architecture, The Eye of the Skin – Architecture and the Senses, The Thinking Hand – Existential and Embodied Wisdom in Architecture, and many others
"This book is a must-read for architects and designers at any stage of their career. Milton ties together a wide range of topics into an inspiring and practical narrative, providing invaluable insights—from our relationship with our surroundings to the design process and client communication. Milton's clear and precise writing makes even the most complex concepts accessible, offering both experienced professionals and aspiring architects a fresh perspective and a set of tools to reignite their passion for architecture."
—Andrea de Paiva, Author, Neuroscience Applied to Environments and Creation, Evidence-Based Design Consultant, and Member of the Advisory Council of the Academy of Neuroscience for Architecture ANFA
"Architects often describe their work in terms of creating "experiences" for the people who will inhabit—or just pass through—the environments they create. But they do not really know much about how people actually perceive the environment around them. Milton Shinberg gives us the tour of neuroscience that designers need to understand how perception of our surroundings actually works. He then provides a much-needed guide to applying that knowledge in the journey of exploration with clients and communities that should precede every project."
—Robert Peck, Principal of the Architectural Firm, Gensler, Recipient of the 2012 Thomas Jefferson Award for Public Architecture, Former GSA Commissioner, and Honorary Member of the American Institute of Architects
"Bridging the hard realities of practice with the ideal aspirations of the academy, this work is a truly generous contribution to the field of architecture and beyond. This word generous, that so accurately describes Milton Shinberg, is rooted in the word to be born—and is the shared origin of other words, like gentle, generative and genuine—terms which also suggest essential qualities of this book. Grounded in decades of experience creating schools, homes and public places, Shinberg details research-based, practical methods that prioritise openness, active listening and deliberate slowness at the conception of the design process—a gentle approach that begins with the needs and aspirations of real people. Such a generative approach is a welcome relief to the reigning formalist, ego-driven architecture of past decades. This book is a manual for creating a different kind of architecture, one genuinely responsive to people, place and the planet."
—Sarah Robinson, Architect, Adjunct Professor in the Department of Architecture Design and Media Technology at Aalborg University, Denmark, teacher in the NAAD program at IUAV, Venice, co-editor of Mind in Architecture, co-author of Architecture and Empathy, and author of Architecture is a Verb, and Nesting: body dwelling mind
"Another cornerstone in the long journey to rebalance human needs and architectural design. Milton wrote this book embracing all his passionate experience as a designer but departing from it to gain a broader view of reality through a lucid and complete scientific understanding of human-space interplay. It contributes to warming younger students' hearts and keeping the dream that people can live better."
—Davide Ruzzon, Architect, Principal of TA tuning arch in Milan, Director of the Neuroscience Applied to Architectural Design, Postgraduate Program, Universita luav Venezia, Author of Tuning Architecture with Humans
"As a student of Professor Shinberg, I had the privilege of working with him in the design studio. His mentorship was instrumental in shaping my development as a designer, and his innovative thinking continues to inspire me and many others. One of his most ground-breaking contributions is his course, Beauty & Brains, which explores the relationship between aesthetics and cognitive science, reflecting a forward-thinking approach to architecture and design. His book is an essential tool for anyone interested in contemporary architectural theory and practice, and I heartily recommend it."
—Ryan Saidi, 2024 Graduate, The Catholic University of Architecture and Thesis Super Jury Winner
"Milton Shinberg's People-Centered Architecture does just that: it re-focuses architects on the people who will occupy the spaces they design and shows design professionals both the theories behind designing for health and how to implement those theories into practice. An important book for anyone in the field wanting to make their spaces wellbeing spaces for all!"
—Esther M. Sternberg, M.D., Author of Healing Spaces: The Science of Place and Wellbeing Well At Work: Creating Wellbeing in Any Workspace, Professor of Medicine and Psychology, Architecture, Planning and Landscape Architecture, and Nutritional Sciences and Wellness at the University of Arizona
"Milton Shinberg has thrown an elegant net over the messy, contentious, fuzzy-edged world of people-environment relationships. His book is beautifully organized, using carefully chosen information categories and sequences that lead the reader on an information journey that is both clear and persuasive. The book begins by making the case for people-centered design. Then it moves on to how we function as human organisms, ways we engage our built environment, methods for expanding people-environment information, and the importance of attention to people-environment in the design process, in the management of architectural practice, and in educating future architects. It is a timely and important book in these days of project agendas that often take human factors for granted."
—Edward T. (Tim) White, Professor of Architecture, Florida State University, Author of Building Meaning, and Introduction to Architectural Programming, Post-Occupancy Evaluation, and Design Intervention, and Concept Sourcebook