Anticipation in architectural experience: a computational neurophenomenology for architecture?

The perceptual experience of architecture is enacted by the sensory and motor system. When we
act, we change the perceived environment according to a set of expectations that depend on our body and the
built environment. The continuous process of collecting sensory information is thus based on bodily
affordances. Affordances characterize the fit between the physical structure of the body and capacities for
movement in the built environment. Since little has been done regarding the role of architectural design in the
emergence of perceptual experience on a neuronal level, this paper offers a first step towards the role of
architectural design in perceptual experience. An approach to synthesize concepts from computational
neuroscience with architectural phenomenology into a computational neurophenomenology is considered. The
outcome is a framework under which studies of architecture and cognitive neuroscience can be cast. In this
paper, it is first argued that the experience of space is an embodied process—realized through action-perception
as directed by affordances. Second, we integrate a sensorimotor contingency theory with a predictive coding
architecture of the brain that in turn links the perceptual experience of forms and action possibilities with
neuronal processes. Here, we argue that the sum of action possibilities and the inferred precision thereof can
reflect the understanding of the designed space, while at the same time underwrite the basis for the perceptual
experience. To this end, affordances are inherently related to perceptual experience. Finally, by reviewing recent
empirical evidence we propose a principle of anticipation in architectural experience.