Neuroarchitecture

Description

The isolation measures of the Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, like remote work and lockdowns, have negatively impacted mental health, causing loneliness, depression, and financial stress. Addressing these challenges, it's necessary to study the effects of urban built environment related to mental health and well-being, which align with SDG3 and SDG11 of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

Neuroarchitecture is an emerging interdisciplinary field that bridges neuroscience, architecture, and urban design to create spaces that positively impact mental health and well-being. However, there is a lack of systematic literature review related to the urban built environment, mental health and well-being. Such research is critical for guiding urban planners and architects in developing strategies like designing resilient public spaces, moderating urban density to reduce stress, and developing solutions of social isolation.

Our team aims to produce a systematic literature review that explores these connections, offering actionable insights for urban planners, designers, researchers, government agencies, and students in architecture and urban planning.

Tools

Methodology

Search terms selected

• Process

Seleted Terms and Interests.xlsx

• Selected Terms

  | Category            | Selected Terms                                         |
  |---------------------|--------------------------------------------------------|
  | Mental Health       | Mental Health or Mental-Health                         |
  |                     | Well-being or Well Being or wellbeing                  |
  |---------------------|--------------------------------------------------------|
  | Urban               | Built Environment                                      |
  |                     | Building Architecture                                  |
  |                     | Architectural Design                                   |
  |                     | Building Design                                        |
  |                     | Environmental Design                                   |
  |                     | Urban Architecture                                     |
  |                     | Urban Environment                                      |
  |                     | Sustainable Architecture                               |
  

• Definition

• Well-being
  • Definition: Well-being refers to the quality of life experienced by individuals, encompassing both physical and psychological aspects. It includes emotional, mental, and social health, as well as satisfaction in life and the ability to function effectively in society.
  • In Neuroarchitecture: Well-being is influenced by how environments (urban spaces, buildings, and natural surroundings) are designed to promote comfort, mental balance, and overall health.
• Mental Health
  • Definition: Mental health is the state of well-being, where individuals can cope with stress, work productively, and contribute to their community. It is not merely the absence of mental illness but includes positive attributes like psychological resilience and cognitive function.
  • In Neuroarchitecture: Mental health is enhanced through the design of spaces that reduce stress, foster positive emotional experiences.
• Built Environment
  • Definition: The built environment encompasses all human-made or modified spaces that facilitate human activity. This includes structures such as buildings, roads, bridges, parks, and other infrastructure elements. Essentially, it comprises the physical surroundings crafted by people to support living, working, and recreational activities. We focus on outdoor built environments.

Search stragetgy

• Boolean Formula of different databases we use:

• Search Result

666 references imported for screening as 666 studies - 23 duplicates identified manually - 101 duplicates identified by Covidence

Eligibility Criteria

• Process

Eligibility criteria Sheet_selected_process.csv

• Eligibility Criteria

Screening “Title and Abstract”

• Result

542 studies screened against title and abstract, 362 studies excluded

• Problem

• Some are without Abstract

  • Abstracts of some doc type can’t be imported: letters, editorials, essays or other non-peer-reviewed material, reviews, meta-analysis, case-reports, books, conference abstracts, dissertation.
  • Abstracts have other language.
  • Some article have limited access.
  • For some abstracts, Google Scholar does not have permission to export the abstracts, so we must search again in other databases.

• Some title and abstract mention both mental health and physical health

• As for mental health/wellbeing outcomes, some terms like “satisfaction”, “stress” be classified under wellbeing without specifically mentioning the term “wellbeing”.

• Some Transportation (Reducing stress from commuting or causing traffic-related stress).

Screening “Full-text Review”

• Result

158 studies assessed for full-text eligibility, 91 studies excluded.

• 36  Wrong population (not within 16-60)
• 19  letters, editorials, essays or other non-peer- reviewed material, reviews, meta-analysis, case-reports, books, conference abstracts, dissertation
• 13  Wrong outcomes (does not mention mental health/well-being)
• 10  Wrong intervention (does not mention elements of built environment)
• 8  Wrong setting (not urban or suburban environment)
• 4  Interior-only spaces

• 1  Not English (full text in another language besides English)

• Problem

• Age Problem

  • Some of the literature does not specifically describe the age distribution of the study subjects.
  • The age and demographic characteristics of the study subjects were not described in sufficient detail.
  • The study subjects included very few children or elderly people, meaning that the majority of subjects were aged 16-60.

• Built Environment

  • Exclude papers that discuss only indoor environments, and if the article discusses both outdoor built environments and indoor built environments, include them.

• Soluton of Age Problem

• For documents in which a very small number of children or elderly  are included in the research subjects, the current solution is to retain these documents, but the criteria for handling such cases need to be further clarified.(mean of ages reported as exclusion criteria)
• When writing the system literature review, it was pointed out that research in the field of architecture is relatively loose in terms of describing the research population and standardizing data compared to fields such as psychology or psychiatry, and calls for stricter standards in the field.

Data Extraction

Data Extraction Draft

Results

Plan

• Reading list

• Publish

• Text Mining

Presentation

Team