“Neuroscience doesn’t have all of the answers, but has matured to the point where we will be able to ask the right questions, and perform meaningful experiments.”
Academy of Neuroscience for Architecture 2005
The Neuroscience Institute needed its own sense of identity, where beside functionality and utility, scientists will have a chance to experience architecture also as facility for research for neuroscience.
CLIENT BRIEF
Client: PAKISTAN NEUROSCIENCE SOCIETY
Neuroscience in Pakistan is neglected at a time, and there is a national need to create opportunities and excitement about brain research among bright young Pakistanis. Though, Pakistan has an active neuroscience society. It includes researchers and students in primary science institutes, as well as interested staff in clinical environments, such as neurologists, neurosurgeons, psychiatrists, and psychologists.
The neuroscience institute of Pakistan will be an independent scientific research organization dedicated to furthering our knowledge of the biological bases of brain function, mainly its higher functions such as perception, memory, and learning. This knowledge will profoundly affect the way we think about ourselves and will have practical implications for many aspects of our lives, from medicine to education to philosophy. It will educate and train students in the neurosciences at the undergraduate, graduate level, and postgraduate level. It will also give a platform for Pakistan Neuroscience Society to bring together neuroscientists from all parts of Pakistan and to facilitate professional and academic interaction among them.
Unfortunately, in Pakistan, as in most parts of the world, mental health and mental disorders are not accorded the same degree of importance as physical health. Instead, they are and have been largely ignored or neglected. Mental ill-health has been hidden behind a curtain of stigma and discrimination far too long. It is time to bring it out into the open.
On the one hand, understanding of neurosciences will pave the way for treatment and support to a more significant proportion of the nearly 450 million people suffering from mental disorders. On the other hand, a basic perception of neuroscience in our society will help avoid chronic disability and premature death, and provide the support that gives individuals a life that is healthier and richer - a life lived with dignity.
The neuroscience institute of Pakistan will be an independent scientific research organization dedicated to furthering our knowledge of the biological bases of brain function, mainly its higher functions such as perception, memory, and learning. This knowledge will profoundly affect the way we think about ourselves and will have practical implications for many aspects of our lives, from medicine to education to philosophy. It will educate and train students in the neurosciences at the undergraduate, graduate level, and postgraduate level. It will also give a platform for Pakistan Neuroscience Society to bring together neuroscientists from all parts of Pakistan and to facilitate professional and academic interaction among them.
Unfortunately, in Pakistan, as in most parts of the world, mental health and mental disorders are not accorded the same degree of importance as physical health. Instead, they are and have been largely ignored or neglected. Mental ill-health has been hidden behind a curtain of stigma and discrimination far too long. It is time to bring it out into the open.
On the one hand, understanding of neurosciences will pave the way for treatment and support to a more significant proportion of the nearly 450 million people suffering from mental disorders. On the other hand, a basic perception of neuroscience in our society will help avoid chronic disability and premature death, and provide the support that gives individuals a life that is healthier and richer - a life lived with dignity.
DESIGN BRIEF
As the Neuroscience Institute of Pakistan will among the world race in brain research problem, extending our understanding of the neural basis of human individuality. Thus it needed its own sense of identity while cultivating the type of collaborative atmosphere that has become a staple of modern science buildings. The Institute’s architecture should create a physical environment that nurtures the Institute’s unique scientific sociology and adds to the effective exchanges between researchers in theoretical and experimental neuroscience.
The design needed to reflect the Institute’s unique belief that creativity in science is best fostered in an environment with few constraining rules and with unlimited opportunities for discovery and communication.
The project will focus on clinically supportive and home-like buildings for psychiatric patients where healing environment helps create an ambiance where patients recover sooner, experience less pain, and feel better psychologically. The experimental structure will consider factors as:
v The impact of daylight and views, including the level of luminance and means of control
v The effect of exposure to nature (e.g., views of greenery or water) on stress and aggression
v The impact of the size of space in which one is confined (and the number of people one shares it with), density, crowding, etc.
v The impact of ambient noise on stress and communications
v The effects of environmental design features on inmate‐staff relationships
v The effect of color on perceptions
v The impact of nature and natural elements
