by Ann Sussman + Abigail C. Sekely

At the SNEAPA conference in New Haven this fall, we asked more than two dozen planners to draw ‘a house‘. Participants took part in the House Experiment, a study where they are asked to made a quick sketch. And while they all work on their own – they also all generally end up drawing something quite similar, as shown below:

The buildings made are most always bilaterally symmetrical with a face-like facade. This does make sense, when you come to think about it; we are a social species with our evolutionary path presetting what we most need to see. “Our brain devotes more space to reading the details of faces than to any other object,” explains neuroscientist Eric Kandel, elaborating on why faces so often appear as subjects in art. We see here, how the face-bias spills over to how we take in architecture.

But in reviewing the results from the New Haven ‘House Experiment’, we noted something else – how often the sketches included a tree or several trees and bushes. Yet these were never asked for; participants were not prompted to include Nature or greenery or any context! Yet in 52% of cases, (16 of 31 participants) they did – adding a tree, bushes, flowers or combination of natural elements to the sketch.

Could this be regional? After all, conference attendees were in New England, an area known for forests and greenery. So, we reviewed the results from a ‘House Experiment’ study done in Amsterdam, the Netherlands, in 2019. At this conference, 46 people, attending Greenbuild Amsterdam, were asked to draw ‘a house’; they turned in similar results, bilaterally symmetrical buildings with face-like facades. Participants hailed from 17 countries, including the U.S., and in 15 cases, (33%) they, too, added a tree. Here are sample results, with country of origin noted below.

Do humans have a tree bias? These preliminary studies suggest indeed we do; thinking of a house, people often draw a tree next to it – no matter where they come from. It fits, when you learn that we share 50% of our DNA with trees; they are – quite literally in us. 

It all brings to mind the wise quote from the poet, Rumi:

       ’There is a voice that doesn’t use words. Listen.’

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