This paper introduces the ongoing project “The Cognitive User of Architecture”. The project attempts to investigate the relationship between architecture and its user. Its main thesis is in order to achieve knowledge of this relationship the focus has to be on the user rather than on architecture. Accepting the user, as a subjective actor with perception and consciousness, the central claim of this project is that architecture is a consciously experienced subjective product, emerged out of the subjective perception of the user. The consequence is a focus on cognitive science, among others on the work of Thomas Metzinger. In Being No One, Thomas Metzinger, a German philosopher, draws strongly on neuro-scientific research to present a representational and functional analysis of what a consciously experienced first-person perspective actually is. The significant point of Metzinger’s model is the new conceptual toolkit he developed of interlinking the humanities and the empirical sciences of the mind.
This paper explores the capabilities and implications of Metzinger’s studies on the concept of the architectural user. Therefore the paper presents not only theoretical concepts based on the neuro-scientific debate but also interactive experiment spaces – responsive architecture– verifying the theoretical concepts by empirical data.