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The proposal of Cognition and the Built Environment (MØYSTAD, 2017) is that architecture is a basic mode of human cognition. The production as well as the use of our environment is a cognitive process in and of itself. Building human environment relates to and is informed by the prior built environment. One of Christopher Alexander’s observations (1987) was that “building cities” actually means changing cities. Project by project. This insight carries implications for how we understand architecture, for how we understand the human brain and for how they interact. This paper will outline (1) the interaction between some spatial and morphological properties of the built environment on one hand, and (2) some of the recently discovered properties of the brain on the other, which seem to mirror similar properties of the external environment. Based on these two sets of properties I will then (3) make a brief discussion of some theories that seem to suggest an outline, not complete but still useful, of the cognitive relationship between (1) and (2).

In the south-eastern part of the Katanga Province (Democratic Republic of the Congo), high concentrations of copper and cobalt are found in the soils of the well-known "Copper Belt". Due to dominant south-eastern winds, the metallurgic industry in Lubumbashi has been the source of spatially concentrated atmospheric deposits of nonferrous metal particles and associated substances in a cone-shaped zone, situated north-west of the metal processing site. The existence of this zone has been evidenced using two different techniques: firstly, by means of landscape metric comparisons of the vegetation and bare soil patterns in two study areas, one inside the pollution cone and one outside; secondly, by means of the city perception theory developed by Kevin Lynch. Higher fragmentation and lower vegetation presence were observed inside the pollution cone, reflecting the negative impact of the atmospheric deposits. Those differences were higher for sites closer to the emission source. Lynch's approach outlined the negative impact of diverse industrial plants on the perception of the local population. Six pollution districts and several contaminated paths, limits, nodes and polluting landmarks were identified. Citizens even recognize them as part of the collective image of the city.