Will Rogers became the best-known popular voice on American radio in the 1930s by speaking in homespun prose and providing common-sense wisdom through humor. Milton Shinberg, a Washington, D.C., architect and longtime teacher at Catholic University, does much the same in his new book, People-Centered Architecture (John Wiley & Sons), which serves as a no-nonsense guide for both students and practicing architects who wish to understand some of the ways in which new discoveries in neuroscience, psychology, and biology are changing the way we see buildings and places. It reduces sometimes tedious information into readily understood, simple lessons that any educated person can apprehend. It’s also funny, entertaining, and visually stimulating.

In many respects, the book is a throwback to the 1970s, when most schools of architecture offered courses in “human factors” in design or “programming for the user” as part of the required curriculum. The fact that such social science–based instruction has vanished from NCARB and ASCA requirements should be disturbing to anyone who cares about what young architects know when they receive a B.Arch. or M.Arch. degree. There were, to be sure, many books issued in the late 20th century that catered to such courses, but most are well out of date with regard to current high-tech information. 

The premise of the book is that good architecture serves people—not critics, government officials, academic theorists, conceptual art mavens, or any of the arbiters of taste in our confused, oligarchic society. With that in mind, it lays out a menu of information, wise advice, rules of thumb, and lessons from an experienced practitioner who has seen the changes in the profession over more than half a century. People-Centered Architecture has two parts: one addresses research in the human sciences; the other shows what practicing architects and educators might learn from that research. Along the way, Shinberg offers numerous stories and lessons from his own experience. I have known him for years, and his distinctive voice comes through in the text. 

The first part is eye-opening and grounded in a basic knowledge of its subject matter. I know of no other place where one may learn about “embodied cognition,” “saccades,” “mirror neurons,” and “affordances” in such a concise and entertaining format. Shinberg—who for decades offered a course called Beauty and Brains at Catholic University—has cracked the problem of explaining science in a way that students can take it in. For this reason alone the book should be on your shelf.

Aphorisms, jokes, questions, and a host of other rhetorical flourishes help the author broach all kinds of difficult subjects. The first two large chapters flow naturally from one subject to the next. As might be expected, some parts of the material are better explained and footnoted than others. Early sections of the first chapter cover the brain and body, the sensory systems, and behavior quite thoroughly, while also discussing how architects began to engage with these subjects after the founding of the Academy of Neuroscience for Architecture in 2003 by Jean Paul Eberhard. A later section on beauty feels tentative and not quite grounded in current science.

Chapter 2 is more practical and centers on how architects can bring their clients and users into dialogues about what they need in their buildings. Here the author brings his own methods into play by following a few case studies, step by step. After a good deal of “theory,” the reader gets a dose of real-world advice on what has and hasn’t worked in Shinberg’s own office. The shift is refreshing and gives the book additional weight by grounding itself in present-day problems and solutions. I was particularly taken with a charter school project designed for a troubled D.C. neighborhood by Shinberg Lavinas Architects. Intensive, word-based dialogues gave the architects a deeper level of understanding than even sketches or diagrams might have elicited.

People-Centered Architecture could well have stopped at this point, having deftly negotiated territory that needed new mapping. Indeed, very little of the research presented yearly at the Environmental Design Research Association (EDRA) has found its way to the desks of architecture school deans since the late 1980s, when deconstruction became the dreadnought of our educational system. The only university devoted exclusively to building science closed its doors in Sydney in 1984 upon the retirement of its founder, Henry J. Cowan (1919–2007). Shinberg joins Juhani Palassmaa and Harry Francis Mallgrave in calling for a reorientation of the design professions toward a humanistic, rather than a technocratic, focus. His voice is clear and should be regarded by the AIA, the ASCA, and the profession at large.

The final three chapters of People-Centered Architecture repeat some of the earlier material and contain some useful ideas about design, practice, and education, their titular subjects. I found problems in each, often stemming from a lack of scholarly rigor or documentation. The style of writing that was so effective in the first portion of the book begins to sound hollow, full of cliches and truisms. “The best way to enhance the design process is not to rush it,” begins a section of the third chapter. Later he writes, “We’re better when we engage our authentic selves in design thinking, engaged, not aloof.” When delving into the myriad problems that plague schools and the profession, Shinberg repeats too many familiar tropes about staying focused on quality and being “better.” The structural faults in our institutions demand more specific analysis and hard questioning.

One misstep is typical of the wandering text in a section of the fourth chapter, “Enhancing Practice.” Most neuroscientists who write about design thinking are against the use of AI and make no bones about this. Yet Shinberg muses, “Whatever I write about artificial intelligence at this moment will be at least partially obsolete before the ink on this book has dried …” and still persists: “AI is too important, too momentous, to ignore.” A few positive reviews from digerati don’t make a case for trusting the “garbage in, garbage out” that AI generates. Better to have avoided the subject altogether.

Shinberg is not only an architect and teacher, he also paints and exhibits his art. His eye is always on the subject at hand, and thus many of the book’s illustrations are deftly integrated into the text. Wiley has allowed the design to reflect the author’s multimedia style (he cites film and music as inspiration for his ideas). Like a good lecture, many sections flow seamlessly between images and words. The early pages on vision are particularly effective, with photos, diagrams, and special graphics enhancing the narrative. The colorful and varied page layouts keep the reader interested throughout the entire book, and the typography points to key ideas. Plentiful quotes also bring those ideas to life at the beginning of each section.

Wiley is one of the largest publishers still focused on the building industry, but all have been challenged during the past few decades as sales have fallen and production costs have risen sharply. Many new books suffer from insufficient copy editing and sloppy design, and this one is no exception: the footnotes are often incomplete; picture sources are confusing; and some of the text is repetitive. If People-Centered Architecture is to remain in print, as it should, the author and publisher should address these issues before the second printing. 

None of my qualms with the shortcomings of Shinberg’s book should keep most readers from enjoying its many delightful and informative features. This is a wise, insightful, and necessary addition to a growing library of work on human-centered design. It makes an excellent introduction to a field that will change the way all buildings are designed—if we follow its discoveries and change current attitudes toward hard science as a contributor to the art of building. 

Featured image via Planetizen.