Advice: Write the paper using your own words. Make it true through you and not through others.  Be original and genuine. How do you see self-actualization in architecture?

hi, I think that is very interesting analize how the architecture and in general the city can influence the human's activity. There is a book wrote by Jane Jacobs,  Death and Life of Great American Cities. It gives a description of the society, and how it evolves, on the strength of the changing of the city.

Human beings engage with sensory information and architecture provides sensory information but I don't know about self-actualization.

Excerpted From Wikipedia:

A self-actualizer is a person who is living creatively and fully using his or her potentials. In his studies, Maslow found that self-actualizers share similarities. Whether famous or unknown, educated or not, rich or poor, self-actualizers tend to fit the following profile.[16]

• Efficient perceptions of reality. Self-actualizers are able to judge situations correctly and honestly. They are very sensitive to the fake and dishonest, and are free to see reality 'as it is'.
• Comfortable acceptance of self, others, nature. Self-actualizers accept their own human nature with all its flaws. The shortcomings of others and the contradictions of the human condition are accepted with humor and tolerance.
• Spontaneity. Maslow's subjects extended their creativity into everyday activities. Actualizers tend to be unusually alive, engaged, and spontaneous.
• Task centering. Most of Maslow's subjects had a mission to fulfill in life or some task or problem ‘beyond’ themselves (instead of outside of themselves) to pursue. Humanitarians such as Albert Schweitzer and Mother Teresa are considered to have possessed this quality.
• Autonomy. Self-actualizers are free from reliance on external authorities or other people. They tend to be resourceful and independent.
• Continued freshness of appreciation. The self-actualizer seems to constantly renew appreciation of life's basic goods. A sunset or a flower will be experienced as intensely time after time as it was at first. There is an "innocence of vision", like that of an artist or child.
• Fellowship with humanity. Maslow's subjects felt a deep identification with others and the human situation in general.
• Profound interpersonal relationships. The interpersonal relationships of self-actualizers are marked by deep loving bonds.
• Comfort with solitude. Despite their satisfying relationships with others, self-actualizing persons value solitude and are comfortable being alone.[17]
• Non-hostile sense of humor. This refers to the wonderful capacity to laugh at oneself. It also describes the kind of humor a man like Abraham Lincoln had. Lincoln probably never made a joke that hurt anybody. His wry comments were gentle proddings of human shortcomings.[citation needed]
• Peak experiences. All of Maslow's subjects reported the frequent occurrence of peak experiences (temporary moments of self-actualization). These occasions were marked by feelings of ecstasy, harmony, and deep meaning. Self-actualizers reported feeling at one with the universe, stronger and calmer than ever before, filled with light, beautiful and good, and so forth.

In summary, self-actualizers feel finally themselves, safe, not anxious, accepted, loved, loving, and alive, certainly living a fulfilling life. Additionally, Schott discussed in connection with transpersonal business studies.

Can architecture do all that? Theoretically it can. So what are you writing about?

onestly i wasn't privy to that concept, but now i'm studying how to the people change them routine, on the strength of the environment where they lives. maybe this topic isn't very close to the self-actualizers's definition, but it could be an its consequence.

I'm writing about architecture as psychological and emotional as opposed to purely physical. Architecture should be made to challenge the mind, and to open it. Our lives are complex; our emotions are complex; our intellectual desires are complex and architecture needs to mirror that complexity in every single space we have, in every intimacy that we possess. It should be reflective of how human beings want their minds and themselves to be, constantly moving forward, striving for better, deeper, higher; it is within human nature to want to be challenged, to problem solve, and if architecture emulates this in its design and its form then in turn the spaces created will echo this idea back to the people who occupy them.

I think architecture in the modern day has the ability to entirely reflect and share the emotions of the human brain. So, taking phrases from the excerpt from Wikipedia, is it possible to design a building that is:

- alive, engaged, and spontaneous.

- free to see [show] reality 'as it is'.

- stronger and calmer than ever before, filled with light, beautiful and good

A lot of public spaces can of course be used as examples of these factors being achieved on some level but because my topic is in terms of a whole society I am still trying to relate the idea to whole towns/cities, not just particular buildings.

How does architecture reflect and share the emotions of the human brain? Architecture is a small part of what informs and interacts with our minds, it is more complicated than that, wouldn't you agree?

Not to mention the fact that people respond in different ways to the same stimuli due culture, education, context, stage of life, etc.  To be blunt (assuming architecture has that much power over someone) no single type of architecture can accomplish what you are suggesting.

Furthermore, every single space doesn't need to be complex or challenging.  Sometimes the inhabitant just wants to rest in some place that's quiet; as Peter Zumthor roughly states somewhere, sometimes the user doesn't want a building to communicate anything, but just fall into the background and support everyday life unobtrusively.

Through research into neuroscience the 'mirror neuron system' has been discovered, dual effect brain-cells that bring about swift social symmetry, subconsciously. The idea is that you react to things around you and 'mirror' them before you realize you are, patterns, shapes, movement etc. There are a lot of things that all people, from any culture or context, will mirror, such as a smile for example. What I am therefore saying is that these things that we subconsciously react to can and have been used in architecture to affect the overall mood it creates. Of course not every space has to be complex and challenging but there are times when spaces can be used to an advantage to have a mirror effect on the people inhabiting it, whether that be at work, school, the theater etc.

Another question for you then: Do mirror neurons work with inanimate objects?

^ Inverted neutrinos do.

You'll have to explain what an inverted neutrino is then, M.J.

Right after you explain mirror neurons, tint.

This isn't my thread, but ok. Mirror neurons (or the mirror neuron system, it is not known if they are dedicated cells or a function of other cells) are what gives us the ability to Monkey See, Monkey Do (you know, like in autocad). Seriously though, this function forms the basis of learning and empathy and probably the evolution of language. Some that study this system think that people with autism may have dysfunction in this system. Mirror neurons (or system as it may be) are known to be in or near the motor control and somatosensory portions of the brain, and might only reflect other animate, feeling objects. But that may incomplete, it may be forthcoming that we can also "reflect" inanimate objects such as buildings. I'm both skeptical and open to it, but I'm not a neurologist so I don't know. This is a huge area of study in psychology and neurology right now.

Your turn. What are inverted neutrinos?

Isn't there a lady who is "married" to the Eiffel Tower? And another lady who is married to a German bridge? Do they have this kind of mirror neuron dysfunction?

Thanks tint. I guess that's what I get for being a smartass.

Particle physics has demonstrated that neutrinos have mass. There are three flavors: v1, v2, v3, all with different masses. The neutrino hierarchy problem is that physicists don't have any idea of the size order of the masses. v3 could be the largest, or the smallest, they have no idea. If particle experiments such as double beta-decay are unable to solve the problem cosmology may be used and may also to determine whether neutrinos are Majorana or Dirac (are their own anti-particle or not). The two (so far) neutrino models are described as inverted and degenerate.

Inversion and degeneration are basic architectural principles.

Thanks Miles. If they don't know the different masses, how do they know there are 3 different ones?

You got me. Something to do with vacuum oscillations. Apparently they change flavor (mass) ... although how any of this can be demonstrated or proven is incomprehensible to me. I prefer Buddha's interconnectedness.

I having been teaching Revit on line since 2008. It is live, interactive and limited to 8 people. Although it is possible to learn Revit on your own, many people find interactive teaching efficient, inexpensive and comprehensive.

I prefer the Buddha's version too, no math.

As someone who is married to a Vietnamese Buddhist-I seriously hope you also realize that there is a significant population in the world who embraces the idea of suffering... That is, that is is impossible to truly be fulfilled in every way possible, and that learning how to accept and be content with the now or present is the natural (and in a way, preferred) way of being... To self actualize means that you strive to fulfill yourself in every way possible. The Buddha was a prince and with all the riches he still felt like there was something missing. 

BB, the term self-actualized does not refer to someone free of suffering at all and I think that clear links can be drawn between Buddhist beliefs and the principle of self-actualization, not dissimilarities. I think you are confusing self-actualization perhaps with the idea of what is seen as the 'dream' in modern life (to have wealth, and riches, like the Prince). But on the contrary I believe it is much more closely linked to his journey toward enlightenment and his search for it in that, once found, he discovered his place in the world and reached a higher understanding of life as we know it. Of course wealth and riches may satisfy for a short amount of time but once it has become a need that has been fulfilled then humans will naturally look towards other sources such as deeper knowledge for a sense of fulfillment.