Designing for Empathy: The Architecture of Connections in Learning Environments - Softcover

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Aybars Aşçı, architect and educator, is an advocate of research-driven design, with a focus on designing learning environments. His projects range from planning large scale campuses to designing play structures. As a practicing architect he has over 25 years of experience, working in New York and London, on projects located in North America, South America, Middle East, and Asia. Aşçı is the president and founder of Efficiency Lab for Architecture, a design practice specialises in the design of Education Facilities.

Other contributors: Dr. Julia Higdon

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Designing for Empathy: The Architecture of Connections in Learning Environments explores the intersections between human development theories and spatial perception, and proposes design strategies for creating learning environments that catalyse empathy. The critical question guiding the book is: how can architecture influence human development, and by extension, how can concepts of empathy in development be influenced and catalysed by architecture? Planners, architects, and designers are responsible for shaping our physical environment ― from our homes, schools, and cultural and religious centres to the wider neighbourhoods and cities within which human development takes place. However, architecture is conspicuously absent in most development theories, even though the environment is omnipresent.

In Designing for Empathy, architect Aybars Asçi puts forth a new perspective on empathy in architecture, which shifts focus toward designing emphatic spaces. If the empathic imagination of the designer is at play during the creative process, designing for empathy occurs after the design reaches its intended users. Applied to the design of learning environments, this proposed approach aligns closely with development theories and explores the important impact of spatial environments on the experience of learning. Through examples of projects designed by Asçi, the book illustrates how physical spaces have the potency to catalyse empathy in learning environments.