Journal of Asian Architecture and Building Engineering

Advancing Neurodesign for Human Experience in the Built Environment: Biosignals, Cognition, and Behaviors

The spaces we inhabit shape how we think, feel, and behave. Effective spatial design, therefore, requires attention not only to function and performance but also to users’ cognitive, emotional, and behavioral responses. Approaches to achieving this balance are evolving as digital, responsive, and intelligent technologies become increasingly embedded in everyday environments. This Article Collection examines existing spatial conditions alongside emerging technologies, asking how they independently and jointly shape human experience and patterns of spatial use. It frames neurodesign as an interdisciplinary, human-centered field that integrates perspectives and methods from neuroscience, environmental psychology, behavioral science, and psychophysiology. Rather than positioning biosignal-based methods as replacements for established research approaches, the Collection treats them as complementary sources of evidence for understanding how user responses vary across individuals, settings, and technological contexts, and how built environments can better support users’ needs, activities, and wellbeing.

The quality of the built environment directly affects human health, productivity, and well-being particularly in dense and rapidly urbanizing cities, where buildings and public spaces accommodate large and diverse populations. At the same time, artificial intelligence, immersive media, and other digital technologies are reshaping how people perceive and use within both physical and digitally mediated spaces. Yet architectural practice do not always draw systematically on empirical evidence of how users respond cognitively, emotionally, physiologically, and behaviorally. Physiological and behavioral measures such as brain activity, eye movement, skin conductance, and heart rate variability can complement observational studies, surveys, interviews, and post-occupancy evaluations, offering insight into attention, engagement, stress, and cognitive load during spatial experience. A human-centered, neuroscience-informed approach that integrates these diverse forms of evidence can support data-informed and responsive design, reduce cognitive overload and stress, promote inclusive and equitable access, and help shape healthier, more adaptive, and more sustainable environments in which people live, work, and experience.

This Article Collection invites interdisciplinary contributions that connect architecture and building engineering with neuroscience, cognitive and environmental psychology, and human-computer interaction. Methodologically, it welcomes biosignal-based experimental studies that use measures such as EEG, eye tracking, and skin conductance to examine emotion, engagement, and cognitive load, increasingly in combination with immersive media and AI-driven analysis. Equally welcome are observational studies, field surveys, post-occupancy evaluations, and analyses of existing conditions in everyday settings such as schools and learning spaces. We invite original research articles, theoretical and methodological papers, and forward-looking perspectives. Topics of interest include, but are not limited to: emotion and engagement recognition in built environments; spatial attention, wayfinding, and cognitive load in buildings; the effects of daylight, biophilic design, and indoor environmental quality on wellbeing and cognition; responsive environments that adapt to users in real time; user experience assessment before and after construction; design frameworks for inclusive and accessible spaces; and methodological advances in collecting, analyzing, and interpreting experiential data in architectural research.

Keywords: Neurodesign; Built Environment; Biosignals; Human Experience; Cognition and Behavior

­­All manuscripts submitted to this Article Collection will undergo a full peer-review; the Guest Advisor for this Collection will not be handling the manuscripts (unless they are an Editorial Board member).

Please review the journal scope and author submission instructions prior to submitting a manuscript.

The deadline for submitting manuscripts is June 30, 2027.

Please contact Zhan Yu at zhan.yu@taylorandfrancis.com with any queries and discount codes regarding this Article Collection.

Ju Yeon Kim is a professor in the School of Architecture at Soongsil University in Korea. She received her Ph.D. from Yonsei University. Prior to her current appointment, she ran her own design practice, In-Between Wall Design, and gained professional experience in New York. She later served as a visiting researcher at the University of Georgia. Her research focuses on neuroarchitectural methods, including EEG, eye tracking, and behavioral observation, to collect and analyze data on users' sensory perceptions and preferences and to develop evidence-based spatial design guidelines. Her recent work also examines learner cognition in AR/VR-based spatial design environments.

Ning Gu is a Professor of Architecture at Adelaide University, Australia. He has researched in the broad areas of Architectural Computing and Design Cognition, including topics such as Computational Design Analysis; Computer-supported Collaborative Design; Interactive and Virtual Environments; Building Information Modelling (BIM); Generative and Parametric Design Systems; Intercultural Design and Communication; and Protocol Studies on designers' behaviour and cognition.

Eunji Jang is a Professor in the Department of Interior Architecture at Yuhan University, South Korea. She received her master’s degree in the United Kingdom and completed her Ph.D. in Korea, focusing on the objectification and systematic evaluation of spatial design through data-driven methodologies such as the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP). Her research interests include human-centered spatial design, user experience, AI-integrated design methodologies, spatial branding, and sustainable interior environments. Currently, her academic and educational activities focus on integrating design creativity with AI-driven design processes, and future-oriented interior architecture education.

Mi Jeong Kim is a professor of the School of Architecture at Hanyang University in Korea. She received her Ph.D. at the University of Sydney and worked as a postdoc fellow at UC Berkeley. Her current research interests include convergence issues such as sensing architecture, Human-Building Interaction, virtual reality & augmented reality for spatial design, design education & strategies for creativity, health smart home, smart city & communities, and cognitive studies related to design & environment.