For an ecological approach to architecture

Bagh-e Nazar, 2018

Statement of the problem : Today, the quality of achieving environmental meaning and subsequently the actualization of the sense of place in different levels has been specially considered due to its importance in architecture, especially with the emergence of the knowledge of environmental psychology. According to this and the belief in the dominant methodology propagated in behavioural sciences, it seems that attempting to explain the environmental design process in the form of common methods in other sciences and presenting it in descriptive patterns is one of the main goals of joining these areas of knowledge. The significance of this adaptation is considerable and covers the core of this research in point of the effectiveness of architectural products in the contemporary world. The current study attempts to answer the following questions: "what are the main effective physical factors in forming the environmental meaning and actualization of a sense of place? Moreover, what is their mechanism of action in the process? Also, how can it be described as a generative structural pattern?" Research Objective: According to the above-mentioned subject, the main goal of this research is to investigate the state of achieving the environmental meaning and subsequently actualizing the sense of place. It is focused on its structural process by a systematic approach in a form of psychological pattern based on the levels of human existence. Methodology : Regarding the exploratory nature of the study, a qualitative survey method entitled "Constructivist Grounded Theory" was chosen to identify the variables of the problem and deduce the relations between them. It should be noted that the semi-structured interviews with some specialists in the field of architecture and environmental design were utilized in this method, in addition to the descriptive-analytical strategy. Conclusion: In this research, the importance of the variable "environmental perception" was focused, in different aspects, as the center of the considered process in the proposed pattern. Therefore, its key role in defining human expectations of the built environment and his behavioral reaction was emphasized as a result. Accordingly, a generative structural pattern consisting of three elements of "components, syntax, and meaning" is presented, which are equated with physical factors, environmental behavior, and environmental sense respectively. Finally, it could be claimed that the suggested pattern is capable of evaluating the existing environment purposefully and efficient in designing new environments.

Uzzell, DL. and Romice, O. (2003) ‘L’analyse des expériences environnementales’ in G. Moser and K. Weiss (Eds.) Espaces de vie: Aspects de la relation homme-environnement, Paris: A. Colin., pp 49-84

Journal of Architecture and Construction, 2018

The main effort of this article is to discuss the design theory development theory in architecture theory. Over years, many of sociologists and psychologists begun to study and research in design business, designers and architects’ issues of interest. In addition, some people in fields of interior design, architecture, landscape design and urban design, have done structured research using behavioral sciences and this group grows larger day by day. Both groups believe that behavioral sciences can develop some models and concepts that lead to clear understanding of human-environment relation. The goal is to increase the skills of designers in interior, building sets and better environment and landscape design. Some psychologists believe that built environment has a little effect on human life. Some designers believe that behavioral sciences are just playing with words and makes simple works complex. Another group worried about complexities that can be solved by eye witness, decays by using the decremented philosophies. But if a good understanding of behavioral sciences in design theory development takes place, these considerations fade away. In conventional view point, believed that moral values of visitor can be separable of his/her vision and one can study the universe unaligned. The goal of making a clear foundation of environment design focal point is to determine a set of defined patterns such as: 1, Decision making process in environmental design procedure.2, Built environment and its usage and reaction of people.3, Physical nature of built environment and its results in daily human living spaces.

Adaptive Behavior, 2023

The notion of atmosphere has taken prominence in contemporary architecture discourse, used mainly to denote the affective characteristic of inhabitable spaces. In this paper, we employ the ecological-enactive approach to cognition to explain how atmospheres are perceived and created. According to that approach, cognitive systems actively explore meaningful possibilities for action in their environments. We thereby construe the perception of atmospheres as the possibilities for being in certain moods by exploring what the place affords. The perception of atmospheres is, therefore, a meaningful activity that is primarily related to the organism's biological interests, which we argue, is a type of meaning that cannot be fully conveyed descriptively. From this, it seems to follow that architects cannot foresee the atmospheres of a place during the designing phase of their projects. We avoid this undesirable conclusion by evoking the material engagement theory and the situated aspect of cognitive performances. Accordingly, skillful architects can imagine the intended atmospheres of a place by creating what we call proto-atmospheres, which involves creatively thinking through and with their tools.

2018

The present work aims to contribute to broaden the discussion about issues that involve the aspects related to environmental comfort in the built environment and its derivations, understanding the environment as place of participatory actions by its users. This study addresses the notion of comfort seen under two main aspects: initially, the most common, under a more pragmatic and technical content, from the basis of generating norms, and standards, then, under a prism rarely associated with the field of comfort, a more subjective, naturally embodied by users, and finally emphasizing the work of the contemporary architect Peter Zumthor. The study sequences its development studying the main normative sources such as the Technical Standards and Quality applied to the built environment, and discusses the thought of several contemporary professionals dedicated to the questions here listed. Finishing with an approach on the thought of Peter Zumthor, the study exposes, contributing to the...

2010

Interactions between people and buildings are complex. People vary; built structures vary. Ask ten people what they think of a particular building and you may hear ten different answers. However, ask the ten about another building and their answers may be quite uniform. The first part of this chapter is about the ways people evaluate, or appraise, built environments around them. The second part offers an overview of approaches that use insights and knowledge from environmental psychology to inform the design of the built environment to enhance human welfare. When is a building beautiful? The answer is that beauty is partly in the eye of the beholder and partly in the building itself (see Chapters 4 and 7 for a similar argument pertaining to natural stimuli and settings). For example, architects and lay persons sometimes disagree about whether a building is beautiful, but other times almost everyone thinks a building is beautiful or ugly (see Box 9.1). Environmental psychologists aim to discover which human differences and which design differences account for such variation and uniformity in environmental appraisals so they can usefully contribute to the design of buildings, neighbourhoods and cities (e.g.

Global Journal of Health Science, 2012

We find environmental psychology at the intersection between architecture and psychology. This article discusses the ways in which individuals are affected by architecture, departing from an early source on the psychology of architecture and taking three architectural examples as illustrations: a public place in Berlin, a health environment in Sweden, and a fitness centre in Denmark. Each of these architectural examples creates what might be called its own psychological emotions, and these are analysed and discussed using a psychodynamic and existential attempt to understand the interrelationship between individuals and spatial reality. A health oriented existential approach is used as a methodological basis to conceptualise the psychological effects of various forms of architecture.

Educational spaces are of the most important public buildings, since a large number of people in a long time present there, so their design can be discussed from multiple perspectives. One of these aspects is environmental psychology. Given the vast communication between these spaces and students, this subject is of great importance. Environmental psychology in architecture is considered as a new science in psychology. Undoubtedly, architectural space not only has a great impact on creating a friendly, playful and lively environment, but also it can positively affect learning of students and energize them. In this study, after reviewing the environmental psychology terms and definitions, characteristics of space and human needs in environment, the impact of the mentioned things on other items such as furniture of spaces will be discussed. Since the educational spaces must be a place for learning, student interactions can pave the way for various discussions and conversations in specialized fields of the students or social issues, etc. These conversations give students the opportunity to take advantage of various thoughts, and open up new opportunities on solving confronted issues. In addition, the advantage of increased interdisciplinary awareness and increase of the students’ scientific knowledge level can be also mentioned. Finally, an example about impact of communication and social interaction on artists and architects is expressed. The methodology used in this paper is analytical and comparative, and library resources have been used

IAAP Handbook of Applied Psychology, 2011

Environmental psychology is the study of transactions between individuals and their physical settings (Gifford, 2007a). In these transactions, individuals change their environments, and their behavior and experiences are changed by their environments. It includes theory, research, and practice aimed at making the built environment more humane and improving human relations with the natural environment. Considering the enormous investment society makes in the physical environment (including buildings, parks, streets, the atmosphere, and water) and the huge cost of misusing nature and natural resources, environmental psychology is a key component of both human and environmental welfare. Environmental psychologists work at three levels of analysis: (a) fundamental psychological processes like perception of the environment, spatial cognition, and personality as they filter and structure human experience and behavior, (b) the management of social space: personal space, territoriality, crowding, and privacy, and the physical setting aspects of complex everyday behaviors, such as working, learning, living in a residence and community, and (c) human interactions with nature and the role of psychology in climate change (e.g., Gifford, 2008a). The history of environmental psychology has been reviewed elsewhere (see Bechtel & Churchman, 2002, Bell, Greene, Fisher, & Baum, 2001, and Gifford, 2007a). But, for perspective, we note that early 20th century psychologists studied the effect of noise (United States) and heat (England) on work performance, while scholars in Germany and Japan explored concepts and moral philosophy related to environmental psychology. By mid-century, environmental psychology was a clearly established discipline with work on topics such as sensory isolation, personal space, and building design. Journals devoted to the field were established; the most prominent of these are the Journal of Environmental Psychology and Environment and Behavior.