Kesi Shankar

Kesi Shankar is a designer and writer working on neuroarchitecture: the study of how buildings and interiors affect the brain, the nervous system and behavior. She founded NEURODESIGN in 2023 and works from Chicago.

Her work starts from the research rather than from a style. Each piece of writing on this site traces its claims to the primary studies, says how strong those studies are, and says how far they sit from a real building. Where the evidence is thin, the page says so.

What she publishes

The NEURODESIGN research corpus, a library of 167 neuroarchitecture studies, reviews and standards. Every record is graded on two separate axes, evidence strength and distance from a real building, and null or conflicting results stay in the library next to the positive ones.

A 39-part research series on how specific features of a building act on the people inside it, from ceiling height and acoustics to thresholds, materials and memory. The series also runs as short videos on TikTok.

Guides to the evidence: what neuroarchitecture is and what the research shows, and how it applies to specific building types.

A book, The Dopamine Palette, is forthcoming.

Practice

Through NEURODESIGN she works on spatial research, interior design, creative direction and strategy across residential, hospitality, workplace, retail, cultural and urban projects. See the studio page for services, or get in touch about a project, a talk or press.

Elsewhere

For press and speaking requests, use the contact page.