In Search of Deep Beauty
A Unique Approach to Occupant Wellness
Credits Earned
- 1.0 HSW Credit – AIA
- 1.0 General LU – LEED AP
- 1.0 PXE Credit – CPXP
- 0.1 HSW Credit – IDCEC
NOTE: Advanced course. The Neurobiology of Biophilia and Spatial Cognition is a recommended prerequisite.
This course is approved by:
Course Summary and Learning Objectives
This course explores the experience of deep beauty as an indispensable part of restorative design.
We define deep beauty as a self-transcendent experience (STE), one that shifts egocentric awareness into a more empathic allocentric perspective that enables occupants to feel connected to their surroundings in a meaningful manner. Such embodied experiences are essential if the contemporary built environment is to evoke deep layers of shared meaning in the spaces it creates.
We explore the neuroaesthetics behind the experience of deep beauty and how, through expressive form and spatial relationships, attention experiences wholeness, galvanizing our imagination, engaging our emotions and consolidating our memories, all of which shape our sense of deep beauty and enhance the places where we dwell, work, or play.
Sky Factory offers two ways to earn CE credits. Individuals can register for our regularly scheduled sessions while organizations can schedule a course at a time that works for them.
Following This Course You Will be Able to:
Define the experience of deep beauty as a Self-Transcendent Experience (STE) and its relevance to the design of restorative and healing environments.
Explain deep beauty as a record of the artist’s experience wherein the viewer shares certain native perceptual capacities that enable them to reenact the artist’s perceptual experience and encode a meaningful memory of place.
Discuss the Mirror Neuron System (MNS) as a general principle of brain functioning that enables the observer to simulate the emotions, action potentials, and environmental attributes of place.
Detail why experiences of deep beauty uproot the observer from an egocentric point-of-view, shifting perspective to a more empathetic allocentric worldview.
Describe how the neuroaesthetics of deep beauty reveal the importance of designing spaces that engage our subconscious autonomic reaction to nature’s universal sensory patterns, as well as spatial relationships.
Explain why cultivating a sensibility to the experience of deep beauty is fundamental to the architect’s ability to design a memorable atmosphere.