In 2005, Guattari redefined the notion of Ecology with the inclusion of Mental Ecology, with this moving the focus on emotions and spiritual life as part of ecological theory. Therefore, how do the invisible emotional layers generated by our interactions with space become relevant within an ecological approach to urban design?

Emotional Dynamics explores the correlations between our emotive responses and urban space, using generative methods to explore the design of healthy emotional spaces as a positive contribution to the mental ecology of cities. The project chooses Borough Market for this exploration, investigating the lively dynamics linked to food consumption and shopping. Environmental comfort and the sensorial experiences (smell) are investigated in correlation with emotive mapping (Social Media and Galvanic Skin response) and the simulation of emotional dynamics in crowds (Adamatzky, 2005).

The speculative proposition entails the replication of the market’s successful formula in the city, as a multi-objective adaptive system that maximises the experience of outdoor food consumption. By deconstructing the unconscious emotional layer, the project enables emotions to participate in the situated experience, expressing the diversity of the emotive responses to the general audience, to construct a cognitive infrastructure that enables mechanisms of collective participation.