NICE aims to understand how the typology (green vs built), design (aesthetic judgement), and social density (crowding) of urban spaces interact with the affective experience and cognitive performance of urban populations during active mobility.

When observing the “crowdedness” of different places such as a street in the Central Business District, an underground walkway, or a park, are the pedestrian densities at these places the same? Does pedestrian density influence aesthetic judgements – how much one tends to ‘like’ urban spaces? In this project, we will investigate the interaction between the aesthetic perceptions of the environment, its typology and its congestion by studying the cognitive, affective, and brain correlations in an environmental neuroscience framework. We will conduct a set of two complementary naturalistic neurophysiological studies, with the aim of understanding the complex interaction between perceptions of crowding and the design and typology of urban public spaces.

This research project is hosted at the Future Cities Laboratory and at the Clinical Brain Lab at NTU.

November 2021: We are hiring an RA find out more.

October 2021: The project has officially started!