Architecture and urban space
For some time now I have been interested in our built environments and how they interact with our own internal perception, or cognitive map, of space. My vision is that what we have learned about the cognitive neuroscience of navigation will influence architectural practice. To this end I have been engaging increasingly frequently with architects and designers - see some outputs below. In service of this aim I founded the CogNav (Cognitive Navigation) Special Interest Group within the Royal Institute of Navigation. See also my YouTube playlist of talks relating to urban navigation
Written work
2025 Jeffery, K. A map in the brain for space, memory and imagination. Book chapter in Routledge Handbook of Neuroscience and the Built Environment (pp. 122–137). Routledge.
2021 Jeffery, KJ and Zisch, F (2021) Spatial entities of the future: designs through the lens of neuroscience Book chapter in Routledge Companion to Ecological Design Thinking In Architecture & Urbanism
2021 The Structural Logic of the Brain’s Representation of Space: How studies in rodents can inform architectural design for humans. Keynote talk/paper for the DC I/O (Design Computation Input/Output) conference
2021 Jeffery, K., Guo, W., Ball, D., & Rodriguez-Sanchez, J. Visual imagination and cognitive mapping of a virtual building. Research article in Journal of Navigation, 1–14
2019 Review article: Urban architecture: A cognitive neuroscience perspective The Design Journal 22(6)
2016 Article on three dimensional thinking for July issue of Navigation News
Talks
2025 The neuroscience of space, time and flow. Lecture and workshop Moving Boundaries, India
2025 The neuroscience of spatial cognition & emotion. Masters course: Neuroscience Applied to Architectural Design, IUAV, Venice
2024 Interweaving the senses to create a mental map. Lecture and workshop Moving Boundaries, Nordicx
2024 The neuroscience of spatial cognition & emotion. Neuroscience Applied to Architectural Design, IUAV, online
2023 The experience of buildings: from perception to emotion via cognition. Lecture and workshop Moving Boundaries, Mexico
2023 The rodent cognitive map. Invited speaker, symposium for ANFA (Academy for Neuroscience and Architecture) annual meeting, La Jolla California.
2022 How action and space combine in the brain: The neuroscience of spatial cognition Corporeal Architecture lecture series online
2021 The Freewheeling Podcast with Thomas Ableman https://www.freewheeling.info/the-freewheeling-podcast/kate-jeffery.
2021 Lecture: The neuroscience of spatial cognition & emotion Neuroscience Applied to Architectural Design IUAV, Venice
2021 Thinkdeep UK panel discussion on designing spaces for underground living
2021 Invited panel discussant at the Academy of Architecture for Neuroscience (ANFA) online meeting
2021 Panel discussion on Navigation and Neuroscience with Tim Fendley from Applied Wayfinding for the London Design Festival
2020 Conscious Cities London talk Uneasy cities: The neuroscience of spatial cognition & emotion
2020 Panel discussion on wayfinding in cities with Disegno Wayfinding (with Tim Fendley, Sarah Manning, and Jada Stevens)
2020 Talk to the Sign Design Society: Neuroscience of cognitive mapping and wayfinding
2020 MOVE conference talk What can AV navigation learn from neuroscience? (February 11)
2019 Talk to the London Walking Network on Our sense of place and sense of direction
2019 Kevin Lynch memorial lecture to the Urban Design Group
2019 Talk to Ordnance Survey : Cognitive neuroscience and navigation
2018 Talk to Thinkdeep UK Cognitive neuroscience and architecture
2018 Talk at the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA; Oct 22) as part of the Conscious Cities festival. Cognitive neuroscience and architecture.
2018 Talk at the Royal College of Physicians Fellows Club (Oct 16) How the brain makes a map of space
2018 Talk at Transport for London
2018 Keynote and workshop participant at SmartGeometry conference, Toronto: How the brain makes a map of space
2018 Talk to Solent branch of the RIN and Ordnance Survey (Feb 22) How the human brain makes a map of space
2018 Organised a CogNav discussion evening: “Dementia and navigation” (Feb 20) featuring a cognitive neuroscientist (Michael Hornberger) and an architect (Niall McLaughlin)
2017 London transport Museum Late Debate – presentation and lecture
2017 Closing lecture for Geocom17 (Oct 26) Urban wayfinding and neuroscience
2017 Keynote lecture at the Ordnance Survey Cambridge Conference
2017 Urban Wayfinding symposium: Urban wayfinding and neuroscience
2017 Conscious Cities symposium: Studying the sense of direction in the brain.
Interviews
2023 Podcast interview with Tim Fendley (Applied Wayfinding) and the DiSegno design company on the neuroscience of navigation (Aug) Spotify, Apple Podcasts and also the Disegno article on the launch of the series
2021 Interview with Nigel Scard for Ergonomist magazine (Part 1 and Part 2)
2021 Interview for BNP Paribas Real Estate's TrendBook - Cities of Tomorrow
2019 Interview with Brian Resnik for Vox Magazine about whether GPS is ruining our brains
2016 Interview with architects Niall McLaughlin and Yeoryia Manolopoulou for the Venice Biennale exhibition “Losing myself” audio
2016 Interview with The Naked Scientists for podcast on navigation audio
2011 UCL Bright Club: interviewed by Steve Cross and comedian Steve Hall about space. audio