Mind in Architecture by Unknown

Author:Unknown
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: buildings; built environment; behavior; well-being; brain; biology; cognitive science; collection
Publisher: MIT Press
Published: 2015-04-10T00:00:00+00:00

6

ARCHITECTURE AND NEUROSCIENCE: A DOUBLE HELIX

John Paul Eberhard

“How would you like to move back to Washington and organize a program to respond to Dr. Salk's challenge?” Norman Koonce, the President of the American Architectural Foundation, and Syl Damianos, Chancellor of the College of Fellows of the American Institute of Architects, asked. At sixty-eight, I had recently retired as Head of the architecture program at Carnegie Mellon University, and was not expecting to return to work again—but how could I refuse such an offer?

Dr. Jonas Salk was convinced that architectural settings profoundly influence our mental and physical welfare, a conviction that stems from his personal experience. While he was working in his laboratory at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, Dr. Salk faced the problem of brain overload. In 1948 he set out to quantify the different types of polio virus, but soon extended his mission to developing a vaccine against polio. For seven years, he and a skilled research team addressed what most people at the time considered the most frightening public health problem in the United States. In 1952 there were nearly 58,000 cases of polio reported; 3,145 people died and 21,269 were left with mild to disabling paralysis; and most of its victims were children.

Dr. Salk realized the importance of his work while he was watching children playing and recognized that thousands of them might never walk again if they contracted polio. He accepted this awesome responsibility, and drove himself at a frantic pace. It was at this point he felt his brain was “overloaded” and that he needed to get away to reinvigorate himself.

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