Built Beautiful – An Architecture & Neuroscience Love Story

Built Beautiful is a feature length documentary movie that examines how neuroscience defines healing environments. The movie features leading experts from around the world in the emerging field of neuro-aesthetics as well as academics, researchers, architects, and interior designers. It is the brainchild of noted architect Donald H. Ruggles. Neuroscience gives architects a new lens through which to consider the built environment’s influence on the users’ health and wellness. We can finally see what people around the world are instinctively looking for in buildings. They’re trying to connect unconsciously, and all people share the same engagement mechanism. The question remains: what makes a building beautiful – or more specifically, which elements of the built environment does the brain recognize as beautiful? Architects and neuroscientists are embarking on a new field of study in which subliminal responses to one’s built environment will most probably influence the future of design. Experts argue that positive subliminal reactions lead to a pleasurable experience, one reminiscent of a powerful meditation session. For centuries, humans have sought to express beauty in architecture and art, but it is only recently that neuroscience is helping to determine how and why beauty plays an important role in our wellbeing.