Photo credit: Florian Göpfert on Unsplash

Event Description

High-performing buildings often fail not because of technology but because human behaviour does not fully follow design intent. Despite increasingly advanced sustainability frameworks, many projects underperform once occupied, revealing a persistent gap between calculated performance and everyday use. This gap is rarely technical; more often, it is perceptual.

This session proposes a shift in perspective: place should be understood not only as a physical system but as a perceptual one. Architecture acts as an interface that shapes how people interpret space, navigate it and make daily decisions. When perception is unclear or cognitively demanding, even well-designed sustainable systems struggle to influence behaviour.

Drawing on sensory design, UX design principles and embodied perception, the talk explores how biophilic strategies can operate as an active, operational layer rather than a purely visual one. Elements such as light, water, materiality and spatial cues are discussed as perceptual signals that reduce cognitive friction and guide behaviour.

The presentation connects this approach to concrete challenges including water use, environmental comfort and resource management. Instead of framing sustainability as restriction or compliance, it shows how carefully designed sensory conditions can support behaviour change without coercion.

Finally, the session addresses how perceptual and behavioural outcomes can be linked to performance metrics, helping bridge the gap between experience and verification. Shaping place, in this sense, also means shaping responsibility: aligning perception, behaviour and measurable outcomes to translate insight into real impact.

Speaker

Gianlodovico de Mojana di Cologna

Speaker Bios