University of Oklahoma assistant professor of architecture Dr. Tiziana Proietti recently presented her research during the Academy of Neuroscience for Architecture (ANFA) conference. ANFA is a nonprofit organization whose mission is to promote and advance knowledge that links neuroscience research to a growing understanding of human responses to the built environment.
Proietti partnered with Dr. Sergei Gepshtein of the Salk Institute for Biological Sciences in a presentation entitled, “Appraising the role of architectural proportion from a psychophysical perspective.” They are developing an interdisciplinary program of research that bridges neuroscience and architectural design to test age-old hypotheses about human responses to architectural proportion.
Their project explores how individuals’ understandings of proportion affect perceptions of structure and other architectural factors. Drawing on the work of Dutch architect Hans van der Laan (1904 – 1991), in particular his “plastic number” system, Proietti and Gepshtein are carrying out “psychophysical experiments into the human ability to discriminate proportions of three-dimensional objects and volumes
across distances and spatial scales.”
For the first time, the 2020 ANFA Conference was held online. The conference is designed to continue a tradition of exploring, from a scientific basis, the range of human experiences that occur in context with elements of architecture, both exterior and interior. The researchers and practitioners focused on communication, knowledge sharing, and integration at the conference.
Including Proietti, 32 speakers attended the conference to share their work, in five core areas: Design Thought Process, Health & Healthcare, Spatial Interactions & Navigation, Sensory Experience, and Catalysts to Learning.
Dr. Proietti earned her doctorate from the Department of Architecture of the Sapienza University of Rome. Today, she directs the Sense-Base Laboratory at the University of Oklahoma.
Read the full abstract here, and see a video and poster below.
View a video summarizing Drs. Proietti’s and Gephstein’s research, below:
Gibbs College of Architecture is proud to recognize Petya Stefanoff, who is pursuing her doctorate in the Planning, Design & Construction (PDC) program, has been appointed the new role of Director of Community Development for the City of Shawnee, Oklahoma. She joined the city in 2024.
Gibbs College of Architecture is pleased to announce that Amber N. Wiley, Ph.D., associate professor in the Division of Planning, Landscape Architecture and Design and director of the Institute for Quality Communities, has received national recognition for her book Model Schools in the Model City. The book has been named a finalist for the 2026 the PROSE Awards.
Gibbs College of Architecture Regional + City Planning Professor of Practice Vanessa Morrison and Associate Professor of Architecture Deborah Richards’ Open Design Collective received top honors at the inaugural BlackSpace Urbanist Collective Studio KIN Pitch Night Competition, held last month in Brooklyn, New York City.
