Post by Marco Lucisano

If you want investors to care about human-centric design, talk about numbers, the right kind of data, standards and measurements! That was just one takeaway from a day at Università Iuav di Venezia curated by Davide Ruzzon on the intersections of neurosciences, architecture and real estate economics. Teresa Ribeiro framed the day with insightful keynotes both on developing buildings for human beings and on the economics of neurourbanism Trying to move in a more human centric direction, the industry has relied on well-being certifications that measure building elements (like light or temperature) or subjective occupant surveys. But as Teresa pointed out, there is a massive "missing mechanic" in how we value real estate: we aren't measuring the actual biological and psychological impact of spaces on the human brain and body. Buildings are never neutral. They either tax our cognitive load and spike our stress, or they optimize our focus, sleep, and social health. When we back human-centric design with hard data—using neuroscience to measure attention, emotional regulation, and physiological recovery—the economic argument becomes compelling. To scale human value in real estate, we have to stop treating healthy buildings as a "nice-to-have" ESG checkbox and start treating them as the financial value creators they actually are. Many thanks Davide Ruzzon, Teresa Ribeiro, Sandro Innocenti, Tiziana Cristini, Pierluigi Sacco, David Gow, Bill Browning!