People and Buildings

by Gutman,Robert

• ISBN13: 9781412809931
• ISBN10: 1412809932
• Format: Nonspecific Binding
• Copyright: 2009-04-30
• Publisher: Routledge

Summary

There is at the present time a continuing interest in relating the behavioral sciences to design disciplines. Sociologists and social psychologists have been added to faculties of architecture schools, where they offer seminars and participate as programming specialists and design critics in studio courses. Behavioral scientists in many European countries have collaborated with architects and planners in design work undertaken by governmental ministries, and more recently have been participating in the work of private design fi rms. Similar developments are now common in the United States. In this fascinating study of the "ecology of buildings," biologists, anthropologists, sociologists, psychologists, and architects analyze the effect of working and living spaces on human behavior. Focusing on such contemporary social problems as the influence of the physical environment on psychological stress, mental illness, family disorganization, urban violence, and delinquency, the contributors show that we must respect the constraints that the environment and the nature of man impose on human adaptability. The selections in People and Buildings have been written primarily by scientists and designers working in the behavioral mode. The selections within each part have been arranged to provide an ordered argument or exploration of the general topic with which the part as a whole deals. To facilitate the reader's appreciation of the argument, each selection is preceded by a short prefatory statement. In view of the fact that a single article or preface can hardly be representative of the depth of the literature that has developed around an argument, Gutman has included an annotated bibliography, which is keyed to the selections through the use of subheadings. A new introduction by Nathan Glazer has been prepared for this edition.

Author Biography

Robert Gutman, until his death in 2007, was a lecturer in social and environmental studies at Princeton University's School of Architecture. He is the author of Architectural Practice: A Critical View, and The Design of American Housing: A Reappraisal of the Architect's Role among numerous scholarly articles. Nathan Glazer is professor of sociology and education emeritus at Harvard University. He is known for his writings on ethnicity and race, immigration, urban development, and social policy in the United States. Glazer has served on advisory committees of the schools of architecture of the University of Virginia and Northeastern University. His books include We Are All Multiculturalists Now, Beyond the Melting Pot and, most recently, From a Cause to a Style: Modernist Architecture's Encounter with the American City.

Table of Contents

Preface	p. xi
Introduction to the Transaction Edition	p. xvii
Contributors	p. xix
Behavioral Constraints on Building Design
The Aesthetics of Function	p. 3
Physiology and Anatomy of Urination;	p. 17
Design Considerations for Urination	p. 21
Cultural Variability in Physical Standards	p. 33
Invasions of Personal Space	p. 54
Territoriality: A Neglected Sociological Dimension	p. 65
The Physical Environment: A Problem for a Psychology of Stimulation	p. 83
Spatial Organization and Social Interaction
The Psycho-Social Influence of Building Environment: Sociometric Findings in Large and Small Office Spaces	p. 97
Architecture and Group Membership	p. 120
Silent Assumptions in Social Communication	p. 135
The Social Psychology of Privacy	p. 152
Social Theory in Architectural Design	p. 170
Environmental Influences on Health and Well-Being
The Housing Environment and Family Life	p. 189
Medical Consequences of Environmental Home Noises	p. 202
Effects of Esthetic Surroundings: I. Initial Short-Term Effects of Three Esthetic Conditions upon Perceiving "Energy" and "Well-Being" in Faces	p. 212
Effects of Esthetic Surroundings: II. Prolonged and Repeated Experience in a "Beautiful" and an "Ugly" Room	p. 220
Grieving for a Lost Home	p. 229
Health Consequences of Population Density and Crowding	p. 249
The Social Meaning of Architecture
Images of Urban Areas: Their Structure and Psychological Foundations	p. 271
Furniture Arrangement as a Symbol of Judicial Roles	p. 291
Fear and the House-as-Haven in the Lower Class	p. 299
Pecuniary Canons of Taste	p. 314
Place, Symbol, and Utilitarian Function in War Memorials	p. 327
The Application of Behavioral Science to Design
The Questions Architects Ask	p. 337
The Room, A Student's Personal Environment	p. 370
Old People's Flatlets at Stevenage	p. 384
Typology and Design Method	p. 394
The City as a Mechanism for Sustaining Human Contact	p. 406
Annotated Bibliography	p. 435
Index	p. 463
Table of Contents provided by Ingram. All Rights Reserved.