Suchi Reddy speaks on “The Feeling City” at Bloomberg CityLab 2023

Bloomberg CityLab, the preeminent global cities summit organized by Bloomberg Philanthropies in partnership with the Aspen Institute, featured mayors, city innovators, business leaders, urban experts, artists, activists, and more to discuss and discover replicable solutions to pressing issues from leading their communities through rapid urbanization to confronting emerging technologies to reinvigorating economic development to solving for housing affordability.

Suchi presented “The Feeling City”:

“What are the innovations we have at our disposal to make our cities more feeling, more livable, more human, safer, and healthier? Enter the field of neuroaesthetics—the study of how our brains and bodies respond to our environments. 

The knowledge that our built environment acts on our minds and bodies can direct the design of more engaging streetscapes for a direct experiential and therefore economic return, better parks for better health, for better transit patterns for lowered stress and cognitive loads for healthier communities. 

What would happen if we decided to design for what’s missing in our collective experience? Designing for “states of being” can be a new paradigm in urban design. Cities must respond if they are to evolve. The future of design is feeling, and the power of design to amplify feeling and generate change is an indispensable tool for our survival.”