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About This Event
Leveraging Science for People-Centered Design is a six-session series that shows architects how insights from the sciences of people can reshape design thinking and practice, with a strong focus on health, safety and welfare (HSW).
Led by architect, educator and author Milton Shinberg, AIA, the series brings together human factors, neuroscience, psychology and aesthetics to explain how people actually experience the built environment.
Each session turns fast-growing research into clear, practical strategies, refined through decades of teaching and professional practice — from emotion and beauty through to perception, process and project delivery.
*Please note, this is an exclusive educational series. Fees applicable.
Per Session: $100
Series: $450
NCARB Certificate Holders:
Per Session: $75
Series: $350
Agenda
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Sep 11, 2026 12:00 pm - 1:00 pm (EDT)
Architecture Built On Human Factors
Apply science-driven insights to create healthier, safer, more responsive spaces. Register now for practical strategies that connect neuroscience, human safety, and deeper user needs to stronger architectural outcomes. (Earn 1 AIA LU/HSW Credit.)
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Sep 18, 2026 12:00 pm - 1:00 pm (EDT)
Real Experience & Architecture
Create better spaces by designing for how people perceive, process, and navigate the built environment. Join this session to gain practical strategies that strengthen wayfinding, visibility, safety, and well-being for diverse users. (Earn 1 AIA LU/HSW Credit.)
Session Details
What elements of architecture can actually be perceived and cognitively processed by people. What can’t be perceived and processed can’t be experienced and so has no real impact in architectural design. Sensory and cognitive capabilities and limitations, when better understood by architects, can help shape strategies and tactics for effective, impactful design.
Learning objectives:
• Assess design strategies for enhancing human-centered environments, to enhance visibility, safety, and wayfinding; Propose specific design improvements to for healthier engagement with the designed environment.
• Apply multisensory design strategies to support health and reduce stress, linking design choices to measurable outcomes.
• Apply foundational aspects of perception to help create designs that support health and safety for diverse users.
• Create design strategies that can be enlisted in pre-design and structured for evaluation of design intent post-occupancy. -
Sep 25, 2026 12:00 pm - 1:00 pm (EDT)
Human Sciences & Architecture
See how science-backed design can improve health, safety, accessibility, and wayfinding. Reserve your spot to learn practical strategies that help create spaces that reduce stress and support well-being. (Earn 1 AIA LU/HSW Credit.)
Session Details
Research conducted in the last twenty years provides foundations for evidence-based design. This talk will curate such research for relevance, translating outcomes into insights that architects can apply to their own work and use in conversation with clients, stakeholders, and users. Trends in research will be described.
Learning objectives:
• Define key neuroscience and neuroarchitecture principles and explain how light, color, proportion, and texture relate to each, noting one HSW impact.
• Identify sources of visual stress in a space and propose design fixes to reduce cognitive stress and provide support for human physiological health.
• Help architects Integrate into their design processes scientific research that enhances positive engagement, with science-based insights for clear, simple circulation and wayfinding to help occupants navigate safely and comfortably.
• Share science-supported insights for safe and accessible environments. -
Oct 30, 2026 12:00 pm - 1:00 pm (EDT)
Emotional Foundations of Architecture & Design
Discover how light, sound, scale, and sensory design shape emotional response, health, and well-being in the built environment. Explore evidence-based approaches for creating spaces that reduce stress, support comfort, and better serve diverse users. (Earn 1 AIA LU/HSW Credit.)
Session Details
People respond to the environment, both built and natural, through their emotional connections. Many of these arise from our primordial ancestors, are hard-wired, and can be generalized to describe responses among broad swathes of people. Those can be understood through the sciences of people. That makes this information useful for architectural thinking and design. Understand core emotional and physiological responses to the built environment and explain how light, sound, and spatial scale influence them, noting one HSW implication for each.
Learning objectives:
• Apply evidence-based design strategies in a public and private spaces to reduce stress, improve health, and explain the expected health and IEQ benefits.
• Demonstrate approaches for gauging positive and negative reactions to design, leveraging legibility and cognitive-load risks, and propose at least three design strategies for enhancing positive engagement with architecture through resonance with body and mind processes and biophilic design.
• Develop approaches that support sensory comfort for neurodiverse and neurotypical users. -
Nov 06, 2026 12:00 pm - 1:00 pm (EDT)
The Science of Beauty in Architecture
Explore how neuroaesthetics can help create beautiful spaces that reduce stress, support well-being, and improve occupant experience. Learn how to incorporate evidence-based beauty into your design practice. (Earn 1 AIA LU/HSW Credit.)
Session Details
Beauty is commonly thought of as impenetrable to analysis. Recent advances in neuroscience, including the development of a new sub-specialty, neuroaesthetics, reveals insights that can help architects understand how people respond aesthetically to what is built.
Learning objectives:
• Outline neuroaesthetic principles and explain how each affects stress, attention, or comfort, noting one HSW implication per principle.
• Analyze a space to identify visual stressors and propose evidence-based design interventions that can measurably reduce cognitive load.
• Define and evaluate health improvements that accompany making beautiful architectural environments.
• Connect underlying benefits that beauty can contribute to measurable improvements in the psychological state of occupants and the public, documenting how each can land pragmatically in architectural practice. -
Nov 13, 2026 12:00 pm - 1:00 pm (EDT)
Integrating Human Factors into Practice
Integrate human factors, neuroscience, and user-centered research into every stage of design. Enroll today for practical strategies that improve health, safety, welfare, stakeholder buy-in, and project outcomes. (Earn 1 AIA LU/HSW Credit.)
Session Details
This talk addresses the conventional stages of design and how those can be adapted to better absorb and reflect human factors. The potential changes for design thinking can enhance design efficiency, design approvals, and the appeal of design solutions to people. The suggestions can reduce the time, and hence the cost, of design in firms. It is a detailed proposal for how human factors can evolve and be applied to further help architects be effective in design.
Learning objectives:
• Map human-factors methods to each design phase and create a plan showing interventions and their HSW outcomes.
• Turn user research into measurable HSW criteria, specifying design principles that guide the design of lighting, acoustics, materials, and other typical design factors to protect occupant health and safety.
• Help architects integrate the principles of neuroscience into concept-phase and schematic-phase design strategies that promote the health, safety, and welfare of future occupants.
• Identify design strategies and outcomes that promote client and stakeholder approval of designs that are healthy, safe, and that promote the broadened and inclusive role of welfare.
People-Centered Architecture
Driving Design, Practice, and Education
Why Read People-Centered Architecture
Architecture shapes how we live, learn, work, and thrive. Drawing on decades of practice and on research in neuroscience, neuroaesthetics, and behavior, this book looks at how placing human experience at the center changes the way we design, practice, and teach.
FAQs
- Do I need to attend all six sessions?No. You can register for individual sessions, several sessions, or the full series, based on your interests and availability.
- Can I modify my registration after signing up?You can register for additional sessions at any time, subject to availability. To cancel a registration, please see the refund policy below.
- How do I join a session?A unique join link is included in your registration confirmation email and in the reminder emails. Click that link shortly before the start time.
- I have not received my confirmation or reminder email. What should I do?Please check your spam, junk, and promotions folders first. If you still cannot find it, email webinars@live.aecdaily.com with the session title you registered for.
- Can several people attend using the same registration link?No. Each registration is for a single attendee and should not be shared. Everyone who needs attendance verification or continuing education credit must register individually.
- Can I ask questions during the presentation?Yes. You can submit questions during the designated Q&A periods, and they will be answered as time permits.
- How do I earn continuing education credit?To earn credit you must attend the full session and meet the attendance requirements set by the accrediting organization.
- When will I receive my Certificate of Completion?Certificates are typically available 2-4 business days after the session, once attendance has been finalized and verified. If yours has not arrived after that, email webinars@live.aecdaily.com with the session title and date.
- Where can I access my Certificate of Completion?Sign in to your AEC Daily account and choose Transcript from the navigation menu to see the courses and sessions you have completed.
- When will my credit appear on my AIA transcript?Credits are reported to the AIA every 10 business days. If more than 10 business days have passed, email webinars@live.aecdaily.com with your name, email address, and the course title so it can be investigated.
Cancellation and Refund Policy
- Full refundCancellations made at least 7 days before a registered session are eligible for a full refund.
- 50% refundCancellations made less than 7 days before a registered session are eligible for a 50% refund.
- No refundCancellations made on or after the registered session date are not eligible for a refund.
- Cancellation requestsAll cancellation requests must be submitted in writing by email to webinars@live.aecdaily.com.
