eMOTIONAL Cities Hosts 2nd Workshop on Neurourbanism

On 16 January, the IGOT team of the eMOTIONAL Cities project, in collaboration with the FMUL team, organised the 2nd Workshop on Neurourbanism at TTC@ULisboa. The session aimed to present and discuss the findings of neuro-urbanistic experiments conducted in public spaces across various streets in Lisbon. These experiments revealed participants' psychophysiological reactions to different urban stimuli, depending on the morphology and environmental conditions of the locations.

The workshop opened with speeches by Mário Vale (President of IGOT-ULisboa), who highlighted the importance of the project for urban studies and the analysis of human emotions in diverse environments, and Professor Cecília Rodrigues, Vice-Rector of the University of Lisbon.

The session continued with presentations by project members Bruno Miranda, Ana Bonifácio, Rafael Ramusga, and João Amaro, who shared the results of interactions between participants and six of the twenty predefined routes analysed. Conducted throughout 2024, these routes examined participants' emotional responses to various stimuli and types of environments — green and urban — to understand how diversity in surroundings influences emotions and spatial perception.

The highlighted routes — located in Belém, Lapa, the gardens of the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation, Baixa, Graça, and Parque das Nações — represented a variety of public space typologies. The findings indicated that noise is a key factor affecting human health and that the presence of trees does not always mitigate its impact. Conversely, natural features, such as green areas and water bodies, were shown to significantly promote emotional well-being and reduce stress.

At the conclusion of the event, participants formed teams to discuss opportunities for improvement and propose suggestions for the project's future. This collaborative moment fostered the identification of new approaches and strengthened interdisciplinary cooperation, essential for advancing public health and well-being in urbanised environments.