Linking Differences / Defining Actions

Transcripción

Asumiendo Diferencias / Definiendo Acciones
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Community
Participation
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Planning
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Design
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Sustainable
Environments
Proceedings of the 39th Annual Conference of the
Environmental Design Research Association
Editors: Dra. Beatriz Rodriguez and Dr. Meldrena Chapin
Environmental Design Research Association
May 28 - June 1, 2008
Boca del Rio, Veracruz, México
EDRA39 Conference Organizers
Dr. Raúl Arias Lovillo, Rector,
Universidad Veracruzana
Dr. Ricardo Corzo Ramírez,
Academic Secretary, Universidad
Veracruzana
Lic. Víctor Aguilar Pizarro,
Administration and Finance
Secretary, Universidad Veracruzana
Lic. Francisco Fernández Rodríguez
Director de Vinculación General
L.A.E. Liliana I. Betancourt
Trevedhan, Vice-Rector Veracruz
Region, Universidad Veracruzana
M.V.Z. Emilio Zilli Debernardi
Vicerrector Región Orizaba-Córdoba
Arq. Abel Colorado Sainz
Director, Facultad de Arquitectura
Córdoba, Universidad Veracruzana
Dra. Beatriz E. Rodríguez Villafuerte,
EDRA39 Congress Chair and
Academic Committee,
Lic. Nora Isabel Prieto
y equipo de apoyo
Vicerrectoría Región Veracruz
Mtra. Elvira Sáinz Sánchez,
EDRA39 Co-Chair and Treasurer,
Naxelli Burgoa Baizabal, EDRA39
Students Committee, Universidad
Veracruzana
Arq. Luis Francisco de la Llave Gil,
EDRA39 Co- Chair and Image/
Design Committee, Universidad
Veracruzana
Anabel Colorado Subizar, EDRA39
Student Committee, Universidad Veracruzana
Lic. Gerardo Hernández García,
Informatics and Diffusion
Committee, Universidad Veracruzana
Mtra. Carolina Valerio Mateos,
Informatics and Diffusion
Committee, Universidad Veracruzana
Arq. Ma. Del Carmen Sosa Aguiluz
Facultad de Arquitectura
Biol. Miguel Sáinz Jaspeado, EDRA39
Student Committee, Universidad
Veracruzana
Dr. Daniel Mittleman,
EDRA Board Chair,
Depaul University, Chicago, IL
Dr. Janice Bissell, EDRA Conference
Liasion, SKW Architects,
Sacramento, CA
Dr. Meldrena Chapin, EDRA
Conference Liasion, Atlanta, GA
EDRA39 Conference Sponsors / Patrocinadores
SKW Architects, Sacramento, California, USA
Universidad Veracruzana, Veracruz Mexicó;
Dr. Jon Rementería Sempé, Ing. Ezequiel Guzmán,
Presidente Municipal , Director Turismo,
H. Ayuntamiento de Veracruz H. Ayuntamiento de Veracruz
M.V.Z. Manlio Alpírez Mendoza,
Director Fomento Agropecuario,
H. Ayuntamiento de Veracruz
EDRA 2008 Board of Directors:
Danny Mittleman -Chair, Kristen Day - Vice Chair, Janetta McCoy - Secretary, Habib Chaudhury - Treasurer
Janice Bissell, Mary Anne Akers, Robert Ryan, Darcy Varney - Student Representative, Thierry Rosenheck,
Keith Diaz Moore - Ex-officio
EDRA Placemakers: Robert Bechtel
Kristen Day
Jay Farbstein
Daniel Stokols
EDRA Wayfinders:
Thierry Rosenheck
Lynn Paxson
Ann Devlin
Leanne Rivlin
Cornelia Hodgson
David Baycura
Sherry Ahrentzen
Keith Diaz Moore
Daniel Mittleman
Karen Franck
Copyright © 2008The Environmental Design Research Association (EDRA)
PO Box 7146, Edmond, Oklahoma 73083-7146 www.edra.org
Victor Regnier
Lyn Geboy
Janetta McCoy
Jack Nasar
David Saile
ISBN 0-939922-32-0
All rights reserved. No part of this book covered by copyright herin may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means – graphic,
photocopying, recording, taping, electronic or information storage and retrieval systems – without written permission of the publisher
Table of Contents
Asumiendo Diferencias / Definiendo Acciones (Linking Differences / Defining Actions) 1
EDRA39 Welcome & Conference Overview from Conference Committee Chair, Dra. Beatriz Rodríguez Villafuerte
Invited Papers and Presentations
La ciudadanía ecológica y España The ecological citizenship and Spain
Dr. Ángel Rivero Rodriguez
7
Centro Histórico de La Habana: una gestión novedosa para su recuperación integral La Habana Historical Center: Innovative management for integral recovery
Arq. Rita Maria Hernández Gonzalo
10
Gobernanza y desarrollo local, nuevo camino para la sustentabilidad Governance and Local Development, a New Way to Sustainability
Dr. Alfonso Xavier Iracheta Cenecorta
12
Refereed Full-Papers
18th & 19th Century Sustainable Design Technologies in the Eastern U.S. Tecnologías del diseño sostenible de los siglos décimo octavo y decimonoveno en el este de Estados Unidos
Lisa Tucker (Virginia Tech)
23
Designing For Addiction Recovery: Reflections from an Architectural Case Diseñando para la recuperación de la adicción: reflexiones de un estudio de caso arquitectónico
Brian Schermer, Caitlin Boyle, Emi Kiyota, Matt Jaroz (University of Wisconsin – Milwaukee) and
Newton D’Souza (University of Missouri – Columbia)
30
The Effects of Commercial Signs on Users’ Sense of Visual Quality in Historic City Centers of Different Urban Contexts
Los efectos de muestras comerciales en el sentido de los usuarios de la calidad visual
En los centros de ciudad históricos de diversos contextos urbanos
Adriana Portella (University College London, United Kingdom)
36
Environmental Evaluation of Hospital Waiting Rooms: Relationships of psycho-environmental variables
Patricia Ortega-Andeane and Cesareo Estrada-Rodriguez (School of Psychology,
Universidad Nacional Autonoma de México)
49
Job Satisfaction and Organizational Commitment in Alternative Officing La satisfacción del trabajo y el compromiso organizacional en la alternativa laboral
Seunghae Lee (Purdue University, Indiana)
Outdoor Space for Aging: Environmental Assessment and Survey of Assisted Living Residents and Staff Espacios abiertos para la vejez: contribución ambiental y la perspectiva de los residentes y el staff asistidos
Susan Rodiek (Texas A&M University)
55
62
Percibiendo la escala de restauración (PRS): diferencias por edad y sexo en adolescentes y adultos Mexicanos
Perceived Restorativeness Scale (PRS): Differences by Age and Sex in Mexican Adolescent and Adult Samples
Joel Martinez Soto and Montero y Lopez-Lena (Universidad Nacional Autonoma de México)
70
Physical Form and Social Activities: A Case Study in Belo Horizonte Forma física y actividades sociales: un estudio de caso en Belo Horizonte
Paula Barros (Oxford Brookes University, United Kingdom)
78
Scale of Electric Power Consumption at Home: A Mexican Proposal Escala del consumo eléctrico en el hogar: una propuesta Mexicana
Claudia Garcia-Landa and Maria Montero y Lopez-Lena (Universidad Nacional Autonoma de México)
85
Social Practices, Free Time and Leisure Urban Spaces at el Barrio del Parral, Puebla, Mexico Prácticas sociales, espacios para descanso urbano y tiempo libre en el Barrio del Parral, Puebla, México
Javier Guevara, Eduardo Lugo, Juan Marquez, and Roberto Yescas (Universidad Popular Autonoma del Estado de
Puebla)
91
Stair and Elevator Design and Their Influence on Daily Exercise and Social Equality 99
Diseño de escaleras y elevadores y su influencia en el ejercicio diario y la igualdad social
Phillip G. Mead, Jon Inui, Paul Baril, Stephen Springer, Jeremy Mitchell, Joshua Devereaux, Rebecca Stephens, Laura
Harris, Rob Brier, Samantha Garlow, Nate Tunnell, Orson Badger and Andrew Stohner (University of Idaho Department of Architecture and Interior Design)
Una mirada del habitante en el espacio de la vivienda de interés social Take a Look at the Inhabitant of the Space in the Social Interest House
Ana Rosa Velasco-Avalos and Adolfo Amador (Universidad Michoacana de San Nicolas de Hidalgo)
105
Violencia doméstica: mensajes dentro del espacio arquitectónico Domestic Violence: Messages within the Architectural Space
Adolfo Gomez-Amador (Universidad de Colima, México)
112
Thematic Abstracts
Active Living
124
Children and Youth Environments
School and Classroom Environments
129
139
Cognition, Wayfinding & Movement in the Designed Environment
147
Community & Neighborhood Planning 156
Culture & Environment
166
Environmental & Architectural Phenomenology
173
ii
May 28- June 1, 2008 Boca del Rio, Veracruz México
Environmental Design
Education
Research Professional Practice
177
187
192
Environmental Gerontology
196
Environmental Psychology
Neuropsychology
208
217
Health Environments
220
Housing & Residential Environments
231
Interior Design / Interior Architecture
247
Nature & Ecology / Landscape Architecture
254
Participatory Design
266
Post-Occupancy Evaluation & Programming
281
Sustainable Environments
284
University Campus Environments
301
Urban Environments & Urban Planning
305
Workplace Environments 325
Index
Author & Presenter Index
336
Title Index
340
Asumiendo Diferencias / Definiendo Acciones iii
edra
Dear EDRA Colleagues,
On behalf of the EDRA Board, I extend you a warm - or perhaps hot - welcome to the 39th EDRA Conference here
in Boca del Rio, Veracruz, Mexico. We are excited to return to Mexico for the first time since 1991 and to hold a
conference in our fourth nation this decade.
We thank Rector Raúl Arias Lovillo for inviting us to Universidad Veracruzana; he and the University have been the
most gracious hosts. And we thank our local organizing committee, chaired by Dr. Beatriz Rodríguez Villafuerte,
for arranging for us a spectacular conference full of regional flavor.
This year is truly an international celebration with conference activities scheduled by presenters from 25 different
countries. But our multi-national list of presenters is only a portion of EDRA’s current international outreach. Last
year EDRA, through the hard work of Mary Anne Alabanza-Akers, initiated the International Connections Network to facilitate global environment and behavior collaboration and multi-national EDRA communication. Our
goal with this Network is to remove barriers that limit international participation in EDRA activities. The EDRA
Board has initiated financial aid, taking several forms, to assist with travel and conference fees to further encourage international conference participation. And the upgrades to the EDRA website makes it possible to not only
disseminate environment and behavior information around the world, but to enable a global two way exchange of
information and ideas.
Our visit to Veracruz is a celebration of this outreach. I encourage all conference attendees to take advantage of the
local hospitality. Please explore Boca del Rio and, if you can, find the opportunity to visit Cordoba and other fascinating nearby towns.
Have a great conference,
Danny Mittleman
Chair, EDRA Board of Directors
iv
Asumiendo Diferencias / Definiendo Acciones
Fue en marzo de 1995 cuando asistimos por
primera vez a un Congreso Anual de Edra, era el
vigésimo sexto y tuvo lugar en Boston, Massachussets; en esa ocasión presentamos los proyectos finales
resultado de un año de trabajo en la Especialización
en Vivienda Bioclimática para el Trópico Húmedo
del Golfo de México, en la Facultad de Arquitectura
de Córdoba, de la Universidad Veracruzana. Llamó
mi atención desde el primer momento el carácter
multidisciplinario de esta asociación, sobre todo, la
camaradería e intercambio intelectual y la forma particular en que se abordaba la problemática ambiental
y se discutían los temas de la preservación, conservación, cuidado y construcción de entornos sustentables. Desde entonces la presencia de la Universidad
Veracruzana ha sido constante a lo largo de estos años,
con el trabajo académico de estudiantes y profesores.
Después de varios años de haber solicitado la sede
y compitiendo con otros países, finalmente la obtuvimos para el Congreso 2008, nos interesaba que el
tema a discutir durante los trabajos de Edra 39, reflejara la riqueza, diversidad y pluralidad de los enfoques
existentes para analizar los espacios construidos, y
los entornos que el ser humano con intención o sin
ella, ha afectado de manera importante, al tiempo que
mostrara los esfuerzos que se han emprendido, en
particular en el estado de Veracruz, para tomar decisiones que buscan respetar y cuidar esos espacios.
Nuestra convicción es que el reto ambiental debe
asumirse como una responsabilidad compartida, la
experiencia nos ha enseñado, que las decisiones en
torno al hacer ciudades son colectivas y deben basarse
en la planeación participativa, estratégica e incluyente.
No hay otro camino, las decisiones consensuadas
son las que llevarán a los ciudadanos y sus gobiernos
a hacer mejores ciudades, a planear el futuro de los
espacios urbanos, la toma de decisiones debe además
estar bien informada y sustentada en los datos que
desde la academia, desde la investigación científica
nos aporten datos permitan ilustrar de mejor manera
los proyectos que se llevarán a cabo sobre determi-
nados espacios y territorios. La Universidad Veracruzana asume este reto y desde sus diferentes áreas
académicas trabaja a favor de la sustentabilidad.
Las diferencias socioeconómicas, culturales, étnicas,
territoriales, geográficas, vuelven mucho más compleja la definición de acciones, sin embargo, si éstas
se asumen con una visión plural, buscando vincular
y unir esas diferencias, con información que las
respalde, las decisiones que se tomen en torno a esos
espacios será más completa y respetuosa de la diversidad. Las ciudades contemporáneas son escenario
del florecimiento de culturas urbanas, enriquecidas
y diversas, que convocan a reconocer los derechos y
deberes ciudadanos. Surgen nuevos actores urbanos
y nuevas formas de relación con el territorio. Tienden
a transformarse las prácticas de la planeación tradicional hacia modalidades participativas que buscan
acuerdos democráticos entre la sociedad civil, el
Estado y el sector privado.
De ahí que la ciudad y su gestión nos comprometen
a todos a trabajar en un proyecto que garantice la individualidad a la par de la comunidad, que conserve la
diversidad urbana característica de cada lugar a la vez
que preserve sus elementos naturales, como elementos
fundamentales para elevar la calidad de vida de todos
los seres humanos. La experiencia reciente en muchos
países demuestra que es precisamente a través de la intervención de la sociedad civil, de la ciudadanía, como
se ha logrado el manejo protección y preservación de
los recursos naturales, y encontrar un camino más
directo para garantizar esa relación armónica entre
los individuos y su hábitat. Las discusiones que surjan
a lo largo de estos días buscan aportar elementos para
dar algunas respuestas a los retos que tienen ante si
los gobiernos locales para ofrecer soluciones nuevas,
creativas y sustentables para reconfigurar los escenarios futuros en espacios en donde prevalezcan criterios democráticos de respeto ambiental, y una gestión
responsable de los recursos y la población.
Pareciera que ante patrones de asentamiento territorial más depredadores que los anteriores, la preser-
Asumiendo Diferencias / Definiendo Acciones 1
vación del ambiente emerge más que nunca como una
responsabilidad de los ciudadanos y sus localidades.
Los gobiernos locales y regionales gozan de una mayor
capacidad de representación y de legitimidad con
relación a sus representados: son agentes institucionales de integración social y cultural de comunidades
territoriales. En ese contexto, los conferencistas
magistrales que han sido invitados, abundarán
sobre algunos aspectos particulares de este “asumir
diferencias para definir acciones”, compartiendo sus
experiencias en los respectivos espacios en los que se
desenvuelven: España, Cuba y México.
El Dr. Ángel Rivero Rodríguez, mostrará lo que se
ha hecho en España para construir una conciencia
ecológica y en este sentido sostiene que en la última
década, la discusión sobre el significado de la ciudadanía en las democracias contemporáneas se ha
abierto a campos nuevos de comprensión. Uno de
ellos ha sido el de la formulación del concepto de Ciudadanía Ecológica en el que se intenta acomodar, por
una parte, la percepción ya instalada en la conciencia
pública de muchas sociedades desarrolladas de que la
naturaleza es un bien intrínseco que debe ser respetado y que, por tanto, tiene derechos específicos. Y,
por otra, se buscaría hacer sitio en dicho concepto a
la percepción, también sentida en muchas sociedades
desarrolladas, de que tenemos obligaciones específicas
hacia el medio ambiente que rebasan lo que se ha
denominado hasta ahora una ética de la tierra. La ciudadanía ecológica hace referencia al tipo de derechos
y obligaciones que tenemos en relación al medio
ambiente o mejor, a la Naturaleza. La Naturaleza, el
espacio de la vida, es evidentemente una comunidad,
pero no es una comunidad política. Es, a un tiempo,
un tipo de comunidad más abstracta pero, debido al
carácter global de los problemas medioambientales, es
cada vez una comunidad que percibimos como más
próxima. Dado que nuestras tradiciones políticas
han sido, al menos en occidente, antropocéntricas, la
percepción de este punto de vista señala un cambio
cultural muy importante. La consecución de dicho
cambio es lo que podría llamarse el desarrollo de la
conciencia ecológica.
Por su parte la Arq. Rita María Hernández Gonzalo, presentará el interesante caso de la recuperación
integral del Centro Histórico de La Habana, en Cuba,
a través de una gestión novedosa que logró despertar
2
la sensibilidad cultural por medio de la participación
comunitaria, preservando con ello la riqueza de su
herencia cultural. Logrando al mismo tiempo conciliar el rescate y fortalecimiento de los valores culturales con el desarrollo socioeconómico, mediante
un proceso autofinanciado. Con ello nos demuestra
que el desarrollo de una economía local dinámica,
tecnológicamente avanzada y con alto nivel de autosustentabilidad, no sólo es compatible con la restauración y conservación de la zona, sino que resulta
indispensable como garantía de la recuperación. La
obra social, relacionada con la elevación de la calidad
de vida de la población residente, se vincula directamente a la cultura que se inserta en la comunidad.
Preservar, exponer y divulgar el patrimonio tangible
e intangible principalmente mediante acciones con la
comunidad que mejore su vida espiritual utilizando
diferentes vías que contribuyen al conocimiento y
disfrute de ese patrimonio. Nos mostrará cómo uno
de los mayores logros ha sido la consolidación de un
amplio programa cultural, dirigido a promocionar la
cultura cubana, a la vez que enlazan los componentes
de otras nacionalidades y culturas que tienen su
espacio en este lugar.
Finalmente el Dr. Alfonso Iracheta Cenecorta, ofrecerá una reflexión sobre los principios que se deben
rescatar para dar pasos más firmes a favor de una
gobernanza democrática que tenga en las autoridades
locales verdaderos agentes de desarrollo humano; nos
expondrá cómo la gobernanza y el desarrollo local
pueden ofrecer un nuevo camino hacia la sustentabilidad. Afirma que si se parte de la base que la
responsabilidad y sentido esencial del gobierno local
es el desarrollo, en el sentido de proceso, para que la
comunidad eleve de manera sistemática y permanente
sus capacidades y calidad de vida; para que los beneficios del desarrollo, se distribuyan de manera justa
y equilibrada entre los miembros de una comunidad;
para que la relación entre sociedad y naturaleza / territorio, sea lo más equilibrada posible y cercana a la
sustentabilidad, se reconocerá que debe cumplir con
una serie de principios de orden político, entre los que
destacan:
• La gobernanza como modelo socio-político. 1
1
Como nos recuerda Aguilar, Luis, 2006: Gobernanza y gestión
pública. FCE. México. (pp. 35-36), gobernanza fue originalmente
una expresión antigua que denota la acción y efecto de gobernar o
gobernarse y que, a partir de 2001, en el Diccionario de la Lengua
• La política que va más allá del gobierno y los
partidos políticos para incluir a la sociedad.
• La democracia representativa y participativa
como elemento consubstancial de la gobernanza.
• La participación social como un valor.
• La vida urbana como proyecto comunitario.
En este sentido, “asumir, unir y vincular las diferencias para definir acciones” es la clave para transformar los espacios que habitamos, tal vez porque
se refiere específicamente a que los habitantes de las
ciudades deben intervenir en las actividades públicas
representando no sus intereses individuales, sino
los colectivos, sumándolos al asumirse diferentes, lo
cual se reflejará en beneficios y mejoras en su entorno
inmediato. Resulta fundamental, sin embargo, crear
compromisos y asegurar las condiciones institucionales para que esto sea posible. Debe entenderse que
es el espacio local, el ámbito cotidiano, desde la comunidad, en donde esta tarea podría resultar más exitosa.
Para que la vecindad territorial y física se traduzca
en una labor de construcción conjunta de realidades,
de calles, colonias, barrios, jardines, en ese sentir suyo
el espacio como un proyecto colectivo, será necesario
trabajar con un alto sentido de responsabilidad, participación y concertación. Elementos indispensables
para que esa proximidad efectivamente genere nuevas
modalidades de interacción entre ciudadanos y autoridad; entre vecinos, entre gobiernos, entre los actores
políticos del proceso, en una vinculación permanente
y cotidiana, en una nueva forma de asumir las diferencias para definir acciones concretas, que son urgentes.
Dra. Beatriz Rodríguez Villafuerte
Profesora/Investigadora
Facultad de Arquitectura
Española, se define como arte o manera de gobernar que tiene el objetivo de alcanzar un desarrollo económico, social e institucional duradero, promoviendo un sano equilibrio entre el Estado, la sociedad
civil y el mercado en la economía. “Se trata del paso de la democracia
como doctrina de forma de gobierno a la democracia como gobierno
con capacidad gubernativa” (p.39).
On March 26, 1995 we attended our first EDRA
Annual Congress in Boston, Massachusetts. On that
occasion we presented the final projects of the Specialization in Bioclimatic Housing for the Humid Tropic
of the Golf of Mexico at the School of Architecture in
Córdoba of the Universidad Veracruzana. Since the
first moment of the congress, we were impressed by the
multidisciplinary character of this association, most of
all, the intellectual camaraderie and exchange, and the
particular form in which edra-ites discuss the environmental problems and issues surrounding preservation,
conservation, care and construction of all types of sustainable environments. Since 1995 the presence of the
Universidad Veracruzana has been constant at EDRA
through the presentation of the academic work of both
students and faculty members. After several years of
presenting to the EDRA Board of Directors our proposal to host an Annual Conference in Veracruz and
competing with other countries and venues to host the
conference, we finally were accepted as the host for the
2008 Conference. Our interest focused on creating a
theme that could be discussed by all the presenters and
attendants of the Conference, which would reflect the
richness, diversity and plurality of the existing points
of view and many theories that relate to analyzing the
built environment and its relationship to human being
with or without intention. This focus has affected our
conference in an important way, and at the same time
reflects the efforts that had been made, particularly
here locally in the State of Veracruz, to make decisions
that seek to respect and preserve those environments.
We are convinced that the environmental challenge
must be assumed as a shared responsibility, our experience has shown, that decisions around making cities
are collective and should be based in a participatory,
strategic and inclusive planning efforts. There is no
other way to be successful - consensual decisions are
the type of decisions that will help citizens and its governments to make better cities and to plan the future
of urban spaces. This decision making process must be
well informed and steeped in data from academia, from
scientific research, and from professional practice. This
data should be applicable and best support the projects occurring in specific spaces and territories. The
Universidad Veracruzana assumes this challenge and
its different academic areas works collaboratively for
sustainability.
The socioeconomic, cultural, ethnic, territorial, and
geographic differences which exist here (and everywhere) result in more complex definitions of action.
Never the less, if those decisions are assumed with a
plural vision, specifically searching to link those differences with information that supports them, we can be
sure that the decisions made in regards to space and the
built environment will be more complete with respect
for diversity. Contemporary cities are the scenario of
flourishing of urban cultures, enriched and diverse,
which intend to acknowledge citizen’s rights and duties.
New urban actors and new forms of relating with the
territory emerge as cultures and cities change. Traditional planning practices tend to transform using new
participative modalities that seek democratic arrangements between civil society, the State and the private
sector.
That is why the city and its management must make
us all compromise to work together in order to create
projects that guarantees individuality simultaneously
with community; compromises that preserve the urban
diversity and characteristics of each place, but at the
same time preserves natural elements, as fundamental
requirements for improved life quality of all human
beings. Recent experiences in many countries shows
that it is precisely through civil society and citizen participation that it has been possible to manage, protect
and preserve natural resources, in addition to finding
a more direct path to guarantee a harmonic relationship between individuals and their habitat. Discussions
that may emerge during this Conference seek to find
elements which give some answers to the challenges
that local governments face in offering new, creative
and sustainable solutions for rebuilding the environment and creating future sceneries in which democratic
environmental respect and responsible management of
resources and population prevail.
It seems that in front of more depredating territorial settlement patterns, environmental preservation
emerges more than ever as a responsibility of citizens
and its localities. Local governments and regions have a
bigger representation and legitimist capacity in relation
to the areas and people they represent: they are institutional agents, responsible for the social and cultural
integration of territorial communities. In this context,
our Keynote Speakers will discuss some particular
aspects of “linking differences, defining actions” by
4
sharing their experiences from the respective places
where they practice: Spain, Cuba and Mexico.
Dr. Ángel Rivero Rodríguez, will show what steps
have been made in Spain to build an ecological consciousness. He argues that in the last decade, discussion
regarding the meaning of citizenship in contemporary
democracies has begun to include new comprehensive
fields. One of them has been the field that formulates
the concept of Ecological Citizenship, in which is intended to explain, on one hand, the perception already
installed in public conscience of many developed
societies that nature is an intrinsic good that must be
respected and, therefore, has specific rights; and on the
other hand, recognizes that we have specific obligations
toward the environment that go beyond what has been
called the ‘ethics of earth’. Ecological Citizenship refers
to the type of rights and obligations that we have in
relation to the environment, or to say it more appropriately, to Nature. Nature, the space of life, is an evident
community, but it is not a political community. It is a
more abstract kind of community but, because of the
global character of environmental problems, it is more
often a community that we perceive more. Since our
political traditions have been, at least in the occident,
anthropocentric, the perception of this point of view
indicates a very important cultural change. The results
of this change is what we could call the development of
an ecological consciousness.
Arq. Rita María Hernández Gonzalo, will present
the interesting case of the integral recovery of the
Historical Center of La Habana in Cuba, through an
innovative management that sought to awaken the
cultural sensibility of the region through community participation aimed at preserving the richness
of its cultural heritage. Conciliating at the same time
the rescue of cultural values with the socioeconomic
development, through a self financial process. In this
way she demonstrates that the development of a local
dynamic economy, technologically advanced and with
a high level of auto-sustainability, is not only compatible with the area’s efforts toward restoration and
conservation, but becomes indispensable as a guarantee
for its recovery. The social work, related to improving
the resident population life quality, links directly with
the culture that exists in that community. These efforts
preserve, expose and divulgate the tangible and intangible patrimony, mainly through actions with the com-
munity aimed at improving their spiritual life through
different ways that contribute to the knowledge and enjoy
of that patrimony. One of the major goals has been the
consolidation of a wide cultural program, focused on
promoting Cuban culture, and at the same time linking
components of other nationalities and cultures that play a
role in that place.
Finally, Dr. Alfonso Iracheta Cenecorta, will
offer a reflection about the principles that must be
restored to give more firm steps for a democratic
governance, especially a governance that has true
local development agents in local authorities. He
will explain how governance and local development
can offer a new way of functioning and providing
guidance through sustainability. He assures us that
if part of the basis of community is that responsibility and essential sense of a local government is
developed, so too that community can raise systematically and permanently its capacities and life
quality. In this manner development benefits are be
distributed in a more fair and equitative way among
the members of the community. This results in the
relation between society and nature/territory being
as equilibrated as possible moving toward selfsustainability, which must should follow a series of
principles of political order, among them:
• Governance as sociopolitical model
• The politic that goes over the government and
political parties to include society.
• The representative and participative democracy as consubstantial element of governance.
• Social participation as an important value.
• Urban life as community project.
possible. It should be understood that it is from the
local space, from the daily ambit, where this goal
becomes most successful.
So that territorial and physical neighborhood
can turn out to be a joined construction of realities,
streets, neighborhoods, barrios, gardens, and public
areas - all feeling as if to be of the same space and
working as a collective project. In order to achieve
this it will be necessary to work with individually
and collaboratively with a high sense of responsibility, participation and consensus. Indispensable
elements must be generated so that links and proximity can effectively create new ways of interaction
between citizens and authorities; between neighbors,
between governments, between political actors and
the process in a permanent and daily link - a new
way of assuming differences defining concrete actions which are urgently needed in order to address
the existing issues.
We hope that EDRA39 offers you not only insights,
but the encouragement and skills necessary to begin
effectively linking differences and defining actions.
Dra. Beatriz Rodríguez Villafuerte
Professor / Researcher
Faculty of Architecture
Universdad Veracruzana
Veracruz, Mexico
In this sense, “assuming, adding and linking
differences to define actions” is the clue to transforming the spaces in which we live, because it refers
specifically to the way inhabitants in cities should
participate in public activities representing not their
individual interests, but the collective interests as
well by linking rather than assuming themselves
to be different from one another. This will result in
benefits and improvements in the immediate environment. It is fundamental, never the less, to create
compromises and assure institutional conditions so
that the improvements remain and others become
Keynote Presentations
La ciudadanía ecológica y
España
The Ecological Citizenship and Spain
Dr. Ángel Rivero Rodriguez
(Titular Professor, Department of Politics and
International Relations of the Universidad
Autónoma de Madrid, Spain) Mayo de 2008
RESUMEN
En la última década, la discusión sobre el significado de la ciudadanía en las democracias contemporáneas ha rebasado la definición del contrato de
pertenencia a una comunidad política, sustanciado en
derechos y obligaciones, para abrirse a campos nuevos
de comprensión. Uno de ellos ha sido el de la formulación del concepto de Ciudadanía Ecológica en el que
se intenta acomodar, por una parte, la percepción ya
instalada en la conciencia pública de muchas sociedades desarrolladas de que la naturaleza es un bien
intrínseco que debe ser respetado y que, por tanto,
tiene derechos específicos. Y, por otra, se buscaría
hacer sitio en dicho concepto a la percepción, también
sentida en muchas sociedades desarrolladas, de que
tenemos obligaciones específicas hacia el medio ambiente que rebasan lo que se ha denominado hasta ahora
una ética de la tierra.
Un ciudadano es, en su sentido más simple, el miembro de una comunidad política, sujeto de derechos
y obligaciones. Ciudadanos son, de manera variable,
todos aquellos que viven en un país pues todos están
sujetos a obligaciones y derechos. Ahora bien, el pleno
disfrute de los derechos es lo que hace que unas personas sean ciudadanos legalmente, en un sentido jurídico, y otros sean ciudadanos en un sentido distinto.
No quiero profundizar esta idea, sino sólo apuntar
que la ciudadanía ecológica se encuentra a caballo de
estas dos maneras de entender la ciudadanía: como
contrato de pertenencia a una comunidad particular,
con derechos y deberes explícitos, y como aquello
que se espera de toda persona que forme parte de
una sociedad. Esto es, aquella conducta que se espera
que tenga hacia la sociedad, su civismo, y aquello que
espera recibir de esa sociedad, a lo que le da derecho
justamente, su comportamiento en la sociedad.
La ciudadanía ecológica no hace referencia a
la pertenencia a una comunidad política particular,
hace referencia, por el contrario al tipo de derechos
y obligaciones que tenemos en relación al medio
ambiente o mejor, a la Naturaleza. La Naturaleza, el
espacio de la vida, es evidentemente una comunidad,
pero no es una comunidad política. Es, a un tiempo,
un tipo de comunidad más abstracta pero, debido al
carácter global de los problemas medioambientales, es
cada vez una comunidad que percibimos como más
próxima.
Es decir, la comunidad a la que referimos la
ciudadanía ecológica no es tal o cual país, sino la
comunidad de los seres vivos y de aquello que permite
la vida. La comunidad de la ciudadanía ecológica es
Gaia, el sistema de vida del planeta Tierra. En este
contexto, aquellos ciudadanos sujetos de derechos no
son únicamente los humanos, sino los seres vivos y el
medio. Sin embargo, aquellos sujetos a obligaciones en
relación a la comunidad son únicamente los humanos.
En el plano de los derechos, sin embargo, hay
derechos que son propios de los humanos y derechos
que son propios del medio y de los seres vivos. Respecto a los primeros, éstos tienen derecho a un medio
ambiente rico y saludable que permita el desarrollo
de una vida humana de calidad. En este sentido, la
ciudadanía ecológica formaría parte de la lógica del
desarrollo de la ciudadanía que formuló T.H. Marshall: la ciudadanía como un proyecto que aumenta
la dignidad de las personas y de la vida humana al ir
creando cada vez más derechos para su protección:
así, en las oleadas de desarrollo de la ciudadanía,
encontraríamos en primer lugar los derechos civiles;
después los políticos; tras estos los sociales; después
quizás los culturales; y ahora los ecológicos.
En relación a los seres vivos no humanos y al
medio ambiente, la ciudadanía ecológica amplia la comunidad de ciudadanos al otorgar a la riqueza natural
un valor propio, en sí mismo, que debe ser protegido.
De este modo, los derechos no sólo sacralizan la
vida humana, sino que otorgan un valor igualmente
importante a la Naturaleza como algo rico, valioso,
en sí mismo y sujeto, por tanto, de derechos que han
de ser protegidos por los Estados. Dado que nuestras
tradiciones políticas han sido, al menos en occidente,
antropocéntricas, la percepción de este punto de vista
señala un cambio cultural muy importante. La con-
Invited Papers
& Presentations
EDRA39
Keynote
Presentations
secución de dicho cambio es lo que podría llamarse
el desarrollo de la conciencia ecológica. Del mismo
modo que el respeto de los derechos de los otros
humanos forma parte del elenco elemental de la vida
cívica, esto es, de la vida en sociedad y de las obligaciones que comporta, en el terreno de la ciudadanía
ecológica esto significa el desarrollo de esta actitud de
respeto en relación a la Naturaleza. Esto quiere decir
que, en este contexto, no se espera que los ciudadanos
manifiesten meramente una actitud afectiva o comprensiva hacia lo natural sino que entiendan que los
límites de su libertad como ciudadanos encuentran
Invited Papers los derechos no sólo de los demás ciudadanos sino
& Presentations
también de la naturaleza.
El desarrollo de la conciencia ecológica en ocEDRA39 cidente, ha atravesado tres estadios y aún dista mucho
Keynote
Presentations de haberse completado: la naturaleza como enemiga;
la naturaleza como algo valioso para el hombre; y la
naturaleza como algo valioso en sí mismo. La teoría
política clásica, inspirada en sus fuentes bíblicas, veía
la naturaleza como una amenaza a la vida del hombre,
como un espacio de brutalidad, miseria y arbitrariedad propicias para la guerra pero no para la vida
civil.
Este significado radicalmente negativo de la naturaleza comenzó a cambiar con el romanticismo y su
valoración del paisaje, el sentimiento y la naturaleza
como caracterizado esencialmente por la libertad frente a las cadenas de la sociedad. Esta segunda visión
de la naturaleza es sin duda más positiva puesto que
la naturaleza es recuperada como algo valioso para el
hombre: ofrece algo completamente distinto donde,
en su contemplación y disfrute, el individuo se siente
libre. De modo que el romanticismo hizo florecer
en Europa occidental una percepción distinta de la
Naturaleza que, a la postre, generó una conciencia
ambiental de la que participaron (en determinados
países) todas las ideologías: liberalismo, socialismo y
hasta fascismo.
Por último, en el occidente post-industrial, amenazado sucesivamente por el fantasma de las crisis
energéticas, del agotamiento de recursos, por el problema de los residuos y de la sombra del calentamiento
global, está aflorando una nueva conciencia ecológica
en la que la Naturaleza es un valor en sí mismo que
debe ser respetado. Esta nueva conciencia ecológica
tiene dos manifestaciones principales. Por una parte,
8
el ambientalismo que sostiene la congruencia entre
las formas de vida occidentales y el respeto por la
naturaleza y, por otra, el el ecologismo profundo
(deep green). Este último, ha rechazado explícitamente la aproximación ambientalista a la Naturaleza
y, de forma revolucionaria, ha intentado construir un
discurso biocéntrico en el que la ética de la tierra sustituye al antropocentrismo característico de todas las
ideologías políticas. De esta forma, el ecologismo contemporáneo constituye un discurso político original.
Por tanto, en la dimensión de los derechos
implícita en el concepto de ciudadanía tenemos,
cuando ésta se refiere a la ciudadanía ecológica, a) los
derechos de las personas en relación al medio ambiente b) los derechos de los demás seres vivos y de la
naturaleza que hace posible la vida. Estas dos dimensiones de derechos deben ser objeto de protección por
parte de los Estados y de las instituciones transnacionales.
Pero, como he señalado, la ciudadanía no sólo
se compone de derechos sino de obligaciones. En
este caso, las obligaciones asociadas a la ciudadanía
ecológica corresponden únicamente a humanos.
Puesto que estamos hablando de obligaciones de
ciudadanía, no nos referimos únicamente a una ética
de la tierra, esto es, al tipo de obligaciones morales
que podemos asumir según nuestra conciencia individual de forma libérrima. No, esta ética de la tierra
es importante para la ciudadanía ecológica porque, a
medida que se extiende, hace que lo que es una opción
individual se pueda convertir en una norma colectiva. Por tanto, en la dimensión de las obligaciones
de la ciudadanía ecológica, el avance de la conciencia
ecológica es esencial para el avance de una legislación
ambiental pero, al mismo tiempo, el desarrollo de una
legislación ambiental que no sólo proteja los derechos
de los humanos sino que reconozca los derechos de los
seres vivos y las obligaciones de respeto que tenemos
hacia ellos, es esencial para el avance de esa conciencia
ecológica.
En esta conferencia mostrare qué se ha hecho
en España hasta ahora para construir esa ciudadanía
ecológica. Para ello examinaré cuáles son los problemas ambientales que más preocupan a los españoles;
qué derechos ambientales tienen los ciudadanos
españoles y cómo surgieron y se desarrollaron; cómo
se protege la naturaleza en España y cuando nació
esta idea de que la naturaleza debía ser protegida; y,
en tercer lugar, mostraré cuáles son las obligaciones
que tienen los españoles en relación a la protección
del medio ambiente. Por último, examinaré cuál es
el grado de desarrollo de la conciencia ecológica en
España.
Bibliografía:
Ernest Callenbach, La ecología. Guía de bolsillo,
Madrid, Siglo XXI editores, 1999.
Andrew Dobson, Citizenship and the Environment,
Oxford, Oxford University Press, 2003.
Invited Papers
& Presentations
Aldo Leopold, Una ética de la tierra, Madrid, Los
libros de la Catarata, 2000.
EDRA39
Keynote
Presentations
Ángel Rivero, “Tres espacios de la ciudadanía”, Madrid, Isegoría, 24, junio 2001.
Ángel Rivero, “¿Es incompatible el liberalismo con
la idea de una sociedad sostenible?, Madrid-México,
Revista Internacional de Filosofía Política, , 13, Julio
1999.
Centro Histórico de La
Habana: una gestión
novedosa para su
recuperación integral
La Habana Historical Center: Innovative
management for integral recovery
Invited Papers
& Presentations
EDRA39
Keynote
Presentations
Arq. Rita Maria Hernández Gonzalo, (Architect, Master Plan of the History Man Office,
Historical Centre, Cuba) Abril de 2008
“En este centro histórico se ha despertado la sensibilización cultural a través de la participación comunitaria y se han creado riquezas a partir de la herencia
cultural que ha llegado a nuestros días”. Herman van
Hooff, Director de la Oficina de la UNESCO en La
Habana y de la Oficina Regional de Cultura.
El Centro Histórico de La Habana, conjunto urbano
de excepcional belleza y altos valores patrimoniales, actualmente constituye un referente nacional e
internacional. La labor de rescate por su recuperación
integral lo ha convertido en modelo de descentralización y proyecto sustentable para la revitalización de
estos singulares sitios.
La importancia por su cuidado y preservación lo
han hecho merecedor de significativas distinciones,
declaratorias y respaldo legal. En 1978 es declarado
Monumento Nacional, por cumplir los requisitos que
demanda la Ley No. 1 y 2 de Protección de Monumentos. Es declarado por la UNESCO en 1982 “Patrimonio Cultural de la Humanidad”, junto al Sistema
de Fortificaciones.
Debido a difíciles exigencias económicas del país, en
1993 queda respaldado por el Decreto Ley 143, que lo
designa “Zona priorizada para la conservación” otorgando a la Oficina del Historiador las prerrogativas legales que le permitan su recuperación. Posteriormente,
en 1995 el acuerdo 2951 lo declara “Zona de alta
significación para el turismo” que amplía las disposiciones sobre el suelo y su patrimonio construido.
Fundada en 1519, la villa San Cristóbal de La Habana, manifestó desde sus inicios las cualidades que la
distinguirían por su importancia económica, política
10
y cultural a lo largo de su historia. Su situación al
borde de la bahía favoreció la condición de puertoescala que asumiera desde épocas tempranas, así
como su configuración urbana que le otorgó el título
de ciudad y capital del país desde finales del siglo XVI.
De calles estrechas y relativa ortogonalidad, la trama
urbana se caracteriza por constituir un conjunto
armonioso donde destaca el sistema de plazas y plazuelas, protagonistas de este tejido único, acompañado
por las fortificaciones, ejemplo de arquitectura militar.
Esta privilegiada localización la acompañó en todo su
desarrollo urbano, al crecer sin abandonar el borde de
mar, embelleciéndola con el paisaje marino que forma
parte de su imagen urbana. El modo en que se desarrolló este proceso determinó una imagen coherente
con la estructura urbana del Centro Histórico.
El Centro Histórico de La Habana, con una extensión de 2,14 km. cuadrados, tiene un fondo construido
de 3 370 edificaciones, con alrededor de 530 inmuebles de muy altos valores patrimoniales.
El modelo de gestión aplicado por la Oficina del
Historiador de la Ciudad tiene como premisas fundamentales contar con la voluntad política al más alto
nivel, el reconocimiento de una autoridad única para
la gestión del territorio, la existencia de un fuero legal
especial que la ampara jurídicamente, la capacidad
para planificar el territorio estratégica e integralmente, la descentralización de los recursos financieros
generados en el propio territorio y la disposición de
un fondo inmobiliario. Para su aplicación, ha creado
y consolidado una estructura organizativa capaz de
responder a principios de desarrollo social y cultural
junto a mecanismos de autofinanciamiento y administración de los recursos generados por diferentes
medios con la explotación adecuada del patrimonio
recuperado. Tiene como objetivo fundamental la
rehabilitación del Centro Histórico conciliando el rescate y fortalecimiento de los valores culturales con el
desarrollo socioeconómico, siempre bajo la óptica de
mantener el carácter residencial, mediante un proceso
autofinanciado y criterio integrador de los recursos
disponibles y rentabilidad económica.
Esta tarea se realiza bajo la óptica de conservar los
valores patrimoniales tangibles e intangibles, las características arquitectónicas y tipológicas, así como la
heterogeneidad funcional y social que caracterizaron
al territorio y que le otorgaron el carácter de centralidad que ha conservado a lo largo de su historia.
La revitalización integral del Centro Histórico es un
proceso inseparable del desempeño de la economía de
esta parte de la ciudad. El desarrollo de una economía
local dinámica, tecnológicamente avanzada y con alto
nivel de autosustentabilidad, no sólo es compatible
con la restauración y conservación de la zona, sino
que resulta indispensable como garantía de la recuperación. Actualmente se cuenta con la capacidad
para desarrollar un fuerte programa sociocultural y
económico, en virtud de fomentar el desarrollo humano en su concepto más abarcador.
La obra social, relacionada con la elevación de la
calidad de vida de la población residente, se vincula
directamente a la cultura que se inserta en la comunidad. Preservar, exponer y divulgar el patrimonio
tangible e intangible principalmente mediante acciones con la comunidad que mejore su vida espiritual
utilizando diferentes vías que contribuyen al conocimiento y disfrute de ese patrimonio.
erados rebasan los 11000, impulsando la economía
y beneficiando prioritariamente a la población local.
Se trabaja directamente con el gobierno municipal
garantizando el apoyo financiero. Hay un programa
sistemático de atención especializada a grupos vulnerables conjuntamente con instalaciones de excelencia
especializadas para esos fines, y se han concertado
criterios empresariales para el desarrollo del sector
terciario que garantizan la sostenibilidad del proceso.
El éxito fundamental radica en haber construido la
base económica de sustentación de la propuesta, que
le permite ser sustentable en el tiempo, dinamizadora
de la economía local y promotora de la calidad de vida
de la población.
EDRA39
Keynote
Presentations
“Todo árbol grande y frondoso vive de lo que tiene
debajo”. Eusebio Leal
Uno de los mayores logros ha sido la consolidación
de un amplio programa cultural distribuidos en sus
cincuenta y cuatro instalaciones, dirigido a promocionar la cultura cubana, a la vez que enlazan los
componentes de otras nacionalidades y culturas que
tienen su espacio en este sitio.
Aún cuando son incontables los méritos alcanzados, también están los retos que debemos enfrentar,
principalmente cuando el deterioro está presente en
la lucha contra el tiempo y los desastres naturales, que
dejan su huella cada año, al perderse partes o edificios
valiosos del fondo construido. Alcanzar los niveles
adecuados de vida para una población que ha devenido por decenas de años en arrastrar las ausencias de
condiciones materiales y espirituales, luchar con las
mejoras de las infraestructuras ya obsoletas, buscar
cada día una mayor revitalización de la economía
local, estudiar las oportunidades que ofrecen los
campos internacionales para la inserción de nuevos
proyectos económicos, nuevas tecnologías que minimicen los altos costos de la restauración.
Es necesario destacar que el modelo de gestión
aplicado ha logrado incrementar paulatinamente los
ingresos anuales que repercuten de forma inmediata
en los programas inversionistas. Los empleos gen-
Asumiendo Diferencias / Definiendo Acciones Invited Papers
& Presentations
11
Gobernanza y desarrollo
local, nuevo camino para
la sustentabilidad
Governance and Local Development, New
Way to Sustainability
Dr. Alfonso Xavier Iracheta Cenecorta
(Consejo Mundial Asesor de UN-HABITAT, El
Colegio Mexiquense / Architect of Universidad
Autónoma del Estado de México) Mayo de 2008
Invited Papers
& Presentations
• La política que va más allá del gobierno y los
partidos políticos para incluir a la sociedad.
• La democracia representativa y participativa
como elemento consubstancial de la gobernanza.
• La participación social como un valor.
• La vida urbana como proyecto comunitario.
De esto trata este breve texto; ofrecer una reflexión
sobre estos principios que se deben rescatar para
dar pasos más firmes a favor de una gobernanza
democrática que tenga en las autoridades locales verdaderos agentes de desarrollo humano.
- Alfonso Iracheta
INTRODUCCIÓN
EDRA39
Cuando se propone que los gobiernos locales son
Keynote
los
organizadores colectivos del desarrollo humano
Presentations
en las ciudades, se está aludiendo a una función poco
desarrollada en la administración pública: El gobierno
local como líder de los esfuerzos de la comunidad; el
gobierno local como promotor / gestor de mejores
condiciones de vida para la población.
El gobierno local –municipal- como líder real; es
decir, reconocido por su comunidad, para organizar,
promover y gestionar acciones que permitan elevar
los niveles de desarrollo de la sociedad, implica de
entrada, un reconocimiento a que el proceso para
acceder al poder y la forma en que se actúa desde el
gobierno, tienen bases democráticas, en el sentido de
que cuentan con un amplio reconocimiento y legitimidad por parte de los actores sociales locales y que el
sostenimiento en el poder se debe fundar en el ‘buen
gobierno’.
Si se parte de la base que la responsabilidad y sentido esencial del gobierno local es el desarrollo, en el
sentido de proceso, para que la comunidad eleve de
manera sistemática y permanente sus capacidades y
calidad de vida; para que los beneficios del desarrollo,
se distribuyan de manera justa y equilibrada entre
los miembros de una comunidad; para que la relación
entre sociedad y naturaleza / territorio, sea lo más
equilibrada posible y cercana a la sustentabilidad, se
reconocerá que debe cumplir con una serie de principios de orden político, entre los que destacan:
1
• La gobernanza como modelo socio-político11.
Como nos recuerda Aguilar, Luis, 2006: Gobernanza y gestión
pública. FCE. México. (pp. 35-36 ), gobernanza fue originalmente
12
1. Cinco revoluciones que están cambiando
las formas de vida y el gobierno en el mundo
1.1. Globalización de los mercados y las economías.
Las sociedades nacionales enfrentan retos monumentales cuando intentan armonizar los procesos de
invasión de los mercados mundiales en las estructuras
económicas locales y tradicionales.
La apertura comercial en casi todos los países y
la reducción de barreras arancelarias, ha dejado en
claro que los grandes actores con mayor capacidad
de decisión sobre políticas de desarrollo dentro de las
naciones, no son siempre sus gobiernos sino los organismos financieros multilaterales, las grandes empresas
trasnacionales e inclusive los personajes que dominan
la economía.
Si partimos de la premisa que la mayor parte (en calidad y en cantidad) de los intercambios económicos
ocurren en las ciudades y que entre estas predominan
las metrópolis y/o regiones urbanas, es dable suponer
que los grandes actores que dominan los sectores de la
economía globalizada, cada día se interesan más por
lo que ocurre en estas ciudades, porque son las arenas
para la acumulación y la productividad.
una expresión antigua que denota la acción y efecto de gobernar o
gobernarse y que, a partir de 2001, en el Diccionario de la Lengua
Española, se define como arte o manera de gobernar que tiene el
objetivo de alcanzar un desarrollo económico, social e institucional
duradero, promoviendo un sano equilibrio entre el Estado, la
sociedad civil y el mercado en la economía. “Se trata del paso de la
democracia como doctrina de forma de gobierno a la democracia
como gobierno con capacidad gubernativa” (p.39).
En consecuencia, las estructuras socio-espaciales,
las condiciones de gobierno local, la calidad de vida
y la oferta de servicios, se convierten en elementos
estratégicos de decisión para ubicar o no inversiones
que provienen de espacios externos a la ciudad.
Si las metrópolis y las regiones urbanas se conforman por municipios (o equivalentes), como
jurisdicciones político-administrativas con amplia
autonomía y libertad de acción, debería suponerse que,
siendo parte de un todo mayor –la metrópoli- serán
capaces de generar acuerdos inter-pares para promover el desarrollo y la inversión en la metrópoli. Es
decir, que cooperarán.
La realidad en buena parte de los países y regiones,
es que los gobiernos locales compiten entre sí para
atraer inversiones y empleo, porque no se alcanza a
percibir con claridad el significado que tiene el todo
con relación a cada uno de sus elementos. El papel de
la realpolitik es fundamental, porque los atavismos
de los partidos políticos se traducen en aislamiento y
competencia, independientemente que se compartan
partes de un todo integrado, social – económica – territorial y ambientalmente, más no institucionalmente.
Desde otra perspectiva, es claro que las actividades
productivas modernas y más competitivas se asientan
en las grandes ciudades, provocando procesos de convivencia –en ocasiones productiva y en otras de explotación- en relación con las actividades económicas
tradicionales.
Surge lo que nos adelantó desde la década de 1980
Milton Santos2; la coexistencia de 2 grandes circuitos
económicos: el moderno de alta tecnología y globalizado con el tradicional de baja productividad y tecnología. En los países subdesarrollados o emergentes,
la tendencia a la acumulación en el sector moderno a
costa, aunque sea parcialmente, del sector tradicional
es parte del modelo socio-económico.
La multitud de servicios urbanos de baja renta y
productividad permiten un incremento en la renta de
quienes los reciben, como es el caso de los servicios
domésticos, de mantenimiento, comercio informal,
entre otros, que son proveídos por trabajadores informales y de baja capacitación, a las familias y empresas
con mayor capacidad de acumulación.
2
Santos, Milton, 1990: Metrópolis corporativa fragmentada:
o caso de São Paulo, Novel Secretaría de Estado da Cultura, São
Cuando más de la mitad del empleo generado anualmente en las grandes ciudades del mundo subdesarrollado es de origen informal (carece de los beneficios
sociales y laborales básicos, no paga impuestos y
ocupa espacios públicos en las ciudades, entre otras
características), tiende a profundizarse la brecha entre
ambos circuitos de la economía urbana.
El resultado, desde la óptica territorial, es una
ciudad que, por una parte, permite la sobre posición
de ambos circuitos como condición para que funcione
la economía; es decir, comparten espacios en las áreas
de la ciudad donde radican los grupos de medio y
alto ingreso y en las zonas de concentración de las
actividades productivas modernas y, por la otra, la
separación espacial de los espacios habitacionales, con
lo cual la urbe se fractura, porque segrega claramente
por estrato de ingreso a los grupos sociales en barrios, colonias y distritos claramente identificables y,
también, porque la sociedad y el gobierno tienden a no
atender las necesidades socio-espaciales de estos sectores tradicionales y de baja renta, porque los escasos
recursos públicos se dirigen a elevar la competitividad
urbana como base para atraer más recursos e inversiones al conjunto de sectores ‘modernos’.
El papel del gobierno local resulta entonces central.
Los gobiernos locales deben comprometerse con el
desarrollo integrado, bajo el principio que una ciudad
menos desigual y fracturada es más productiva y más
competitiva y, especialmente, menos injusta socialmente.
¿Cómo compensar las acciones de los gobiernos
orientadas, por una parte, a otorgar facilidades a las
inversiones ‘modernas’ y, por la otra, a la promoción
de la economía globalizada, con las necesidades de los
sectores que siendo mayoritarios, han sido relegados
de las oportunidades del desarrollo?
Es esta la pregunta central para un gobierno local
que debe orientarse a alcanzar el liderazgo en la promoción del desarrollo integrado por encima de solo
proveer servicios básicos urbanos.
1.2. Transformación del conocimiento, la educación
y las telecomunicaciones
Las actividades económicas y sociales modernas y
de mayor productividad, se asocian al desarrollo del
conocimiento –humanístico, científico y tecnológico- ,
Paulo, Brasil.
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porque es su fuente primordial de avance y transformación.
Estas actividades se localizan en las grandes ciudades porque en estas se concentran las instituciones
de educación e investigación; igualmente, porque
son los nodos de comunicación, especialmente telecomunicaciones, con el resto del territorio nacional e
internacional.
La metrópoli, como sede del conocimiento y de la
información y como emisora y receptora de las comunicaciones, adquiere el papel más importante en los
procesos de acumulación económica y de desarrollo
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adquieren responsabilidades fundamentales en la promoción y desarrollo del conocimiento, la información
y las comunicaciones.
Conforme avanzan en las grandes ciudades los
programas de desarrollo de la educación y de la
investigación académica; los de vinculación del
conocimiento con la producción y con el desarrollo
social; los de crecimiento de los medios y sistemas
de información y de difusión de esta de manera más
abierta, transparente y plural, más rápido se acercan
estas a ser parte de las redes info-globales.
Sin embargo, sin una transformación de la educación, sin la democratización y pluralización de las
telecomunicaciones, no hay posibilidad alguna de
democracia y gobernanza urbana y por, ello, de desarrollo.
Igualmente desde el gobierno local, no basta
promover el desarrollo del conocimiento y la comunicación entre los actores sociales; desde dentro, la
aportación y manejo de información pertinente y
de calidad y la oferta de conocimiento sobre la ‘cosa
pública’ que es legitimado por los actores sociales,
es la fuente de las buenas decisiones y del avance
democrático. Por ello, el desarrollo de nuevas estructuras institucionales para el desarrollo de sistemas de
información, como los Observatorios, debe ser cuidadosamente considerado en las políticas públicas.
1.3 Las nuevas formas de la política
En la mayor parte de las grandes ciudades, el gobierno local no tiene ni los recursos ni la capacidad
14
política y de gestión para resolver todas las necesidades de su comunidad. Una explicación importante
sobre el deterioro de las grandes metrópolis en el
mundo subdesarrollado, es que sus gobiernos no se
han desarrollado a la par que las condiciones de la
economía, el conocimiento y las comunicaciones. Por
ello, se aprecian ciudades que amplían sus capacidades para vincularse a los mercados globales y sin
embargo, sus gobiernos no logran atender todos los
problemas y necesidades que la metropolización
implica.
Contrario sensu, los gobiernos locales que han
entendido sus limitaciones y que han creado nuevas
condiciones y espacios participativos para decidir
sobre los asuntos públicos, avanzan de manera
paralela a la economía y sociedad metropolitanas. Las
condiciones principales que ubican a estas últimas en
el campo de las ciudades globales y a las otras en el de
las megaciudades, son variadas; las más importantes
son:
• La reducción sistemática de la desigualdad
económica y la pobreza dentro de la ciudad.
• La elevación sistemática del nivel académico de la
población.
• El desarrollo y modernización de los nodos de
comunicaciones y transportes (desde las telecomunicaciones hasta la movilidad de las personas dentro
de la ciudad (trenes y sistemas BRT) y con el exterior
(aeropuertos).
• La reducción de la inseguridad ciudadana y
comunitaria.
• El cumplimiento de un proyecto urbanístico de
largo plazo y que es compartido por la sociedad y la
persistencia de disciplina en el crecimiento y ordenamiento territorial y ambiental.
Un ingrediente principal para avanzar o no desde
el gobierno local en estas materias, es la concepción
de la política y la administración pública que ejercen
las autoridades, que en estricto sentido se ubica en
dos grandes tendencias: la que pretende recuperar el
carácter y la naturaleza pública de la administración
gubernamental y la que se orienta a recuperar las
capacidades administrativas del gobierno; gobierno
frente a gerencia.
La primera, pretende recuperar el carácter público
del gobierno que no es otra cosa que un verdadero
servicio civil a favor de la comunidad, con transpar-
encia, honestidad, pluralidad y la exigencia de que los
ciudadanos y sus organizaciones sean parte deliberante de la cosa pública. Por su parte, la segunda, pone
el acento en los procesos administrativos, la eficiencia
y eficacia del gobierno y la calidad de los servicios,
de manera que la acción conjunta con la ciudadanía
permita generar valor agregado a los activos comunitarios.
En buena parte del mundo urbano y particularmente en las grandes metrópolis de América Latina,
conforme se agotó el modelo desarrollista y se
enfrentó el colapso fiscal, político y administrativo de
formato autoritario, las sociedades se movieron hacia
el otro extremo y se asumieron posiciones pesimistas
sobre las capacidades del gobierno al grado que predominó la apreciación que buena parte de las tareas
del gobierno podían ser mejor resueltas por agentes
extra-gubernamentales, como los mercados y las
organizaciones de la sociedad (Aguilar, op.cit, 35). Por
ello, se llegó a afirmar (ibid, 36), que la mejor administración pública era la menor administración y que la
mejor política pública era la política de los negocios.
Este modelo es resultado de las transformaciones
de la política mundial; desde el final de la década de
1970, se impuso en el mundo occidental el modelo
económico que privilegia al mercado y restringe la
acción del Estado; posteriormente, a partir del fin
de la de 1980, se extingue la ‘guerra fría’ y se intenta
imponer a nivel global un nuevo modelo político unipolar fundado en el american way of life.
Una característica de esta forma ‘neoliberal’ de
hacer política, ha sido la irrupción de los actores de
la economía globalizada, especialmente los empresarios y las organizaciones empresariales, en el control
y orientación de las políticas públicas, si no es que en
el gobierno directamente, con la consecuente transformación de las bases conceptuales de la política
pública:
• Más libertad de acción de los agentes privados en
la economía y menos restricciones y normas gubernamentales para su operación.
• Criterios de planificación gubernamental basados
en los esquemas ‘estratégicos’ de las empresas privadas.
• Mayor participación de los actores sociales en
la ‘cosa pública’, primordialmente los miembros del
llamado sector privado.
• Privatización de empresas y organismos estatales
y reducción sistemática del tamaño y papel del Estado
en múltiples materias.
• Traslado al mercado y a las organizaciones sociales de funciones tradicionalmente públicas, ante la
supuesta falta de recursos fiscales para su desarrollo:
vialidades, sistemas de transporte urbano, manejo de
residuos sólidos, sistemas de agua y alcantarillado;
una parte de la seguridad pública, entre otras.
• Transformación del ciudadano en ‘cliente’,
‘usuario’ y ‘consumidor’ del gobierno y, con ello, la
incorporación de sus necesidades y aspiraciones para
decidir los rumbos de la acción pública.
Igualmente ocurre con los enfoques de planificación
del desarrollo y del ordenamiento territorial. Como
avanza y se asienta el modelo neoliberal en la política
pública, la definición de ‘las reglas del juego’; es decir,
la planificación como acuerdo socio-político para
resolver los problemas de la comunidad y para poner
en valor los recursos y aprovecharlos a partir de un
proyecto compartido y legitimado, tiende a desdibujarse, dejando en manos de las fuerzas del mercado
las decisiones de distribución de las inversiones y
acciones de desarrollo local, entre los sectores de la
economía y la sociedad y entre los territorios.
El resultado en la mayor parte de los países de
América Latina ha sido, por una parte, el crecimiento
muy acelerado de los espacios de la modernidad
y la globalización, especialmente en las grandes
ciudades y, contradictoriamente, la persistencia y
el agudizamiento de la desigualdad socio-espacial,
confirmando la tendencia a la fragmentación de los
territorios.
Desde la política –la de los políticos y la de los
empresarios- la búsqueda de nuevas formas de
planificación que recuperen la responsabilidad del
estado de orientar, ordenar, conducir, facilitar y
controlar los procesos sociales y espaciales, ante la
crisis de gobernabilidad que enfrentan las ciudades, es
una necesidad sentida que empieza a generar algunos
resultados. Ya sea el Estatuto da Cidade de Brasil o la
Ley 388 de Colombia o el surgimiento de un conjunto
de Institutos Municipales de Planeación con enfoque
participativo e integral en México, son evidencias de
un cierto fracaso de la política ‘de empresarios para
empresarios’ (Fox dixit)3.
3
Fox, Vicente, 2000: Discurso de Toma de Posesión
de la Presidencia de la República Mexicana, 1 de nov. De
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Si bien existen principios del mundo empresarial
que pudieran aplicarse al dominio del gobierno, siguiendo a Harvey4, no es posible simplemente trasladarlos de un dominio al otro, sin haber antes especificado las reglas de traslado. Al predominar en estos
traslados, procesos un tanto mecánicos y acríticos, se
han tenido entre otras consecuencias, la tendencia a
convertir en clientes y consumidores a quienes son
ciudadanos. ¿Cómo se resuelve la exigencia de pago
a precios internacionales de mercado de los servicios
urbanos básicos, a una población a la que el precio de
su única mercancía: la mano de obra, se le controla,
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¿Cómo se resuelve la contradicción de gobiernos
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locales que pretenden mantener posturas verticalistas
y autoritarias, como producto de la historia reciente
de sus naciones, cuando carecen de recursos, fuerza
política y legitimidad para gobernar?
¿Cómo se sostiene un modelo mercantil de política
pública, cuando buena parte de la sociedad está
excluida de los beneficios del mercado y cuando este
tiende a generar una ciudad fragmentada desde lo
social y lo espacial?
Para enfrentar estas cuestiones, se requiere de la
concertación con los actores sociales para definir y
comprometer un proyecto de ciudad para el largo
plazo. Y esto significa, reconocer a los ciudadanos
como entes políticos con capacidad de organización
y decisión sobre los fenómenos y problemas que les
aquejan y, también reconocer, que la autoridad local se
debe preparar para la gobernanza democrática, lo que
implica:
• Tener la sensibilidad política para recuperar el
enfoque público y comunitario de la política.
• Tener el conocimiento de los procesos socio-espaciales y sobre las capacidades sociales para desarrollar nuevos caminos e instrumentos de planeación y
gestión de políticas públicas.
• Tener las herramientas (información, instrumentos…) para enfrentar la complejidad de los
fenómenos socio-espaciales y desarrollar las capacidades de gestión social.
2000, Méx. DF.
4
Harvey, David, 1992: Social justice, postmodernism
and the city. International Journal of Urban and Regional
Research. E.U.
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• Hacer de la práctica democrática y la gestión concertada el día a día, lo que significa dejar atrás, poco
a poco, el modelo político vertical y autoritario y de
muy baja participación efectiva de los actores sociales
en las decisiones de políticas públicas.
1.4. Las expectativas sociales
Una consecuencia lógica de un modelo político y social fundado en el mercado como motor y guía de las
decisiones públicas, que fomenta y apoya la economía
moderna y globalizada y que sostiene buena parte
de su aparato en los procesos de publicidad e información en los medios de comunicación de masas, es
la tendencia a construir expectativas en la población
sobre sus posibilidades de tener lo que los políticos y
los gobiernos prometen y lo que los mercados ofrecen.
Si la lógica del desarrollo se sostiene en dos pilares:
el mercado moderno y global y la comunicación en
tiempo real, la población se encuentra atrapada en un
mundo de expectativas.
¿Qué pasa cuando los ciudadanos menos favorecidos
encuentran que su nivel de vida y su capacidad de
compra se reducen? ¿Qué pasa cuando el conflicto,
por el espacio, por los recursos, se ubica en el centro
de las relaciones sociales? ¿Y cuando los medios de
comunicación, la política y el mercado, han creado
expectativas sociales que no se cumplen?
Lo que ocurre es que tiende a dispararse la inconformidad social como resultado de la persistencia de
la desigualdad y la pobreza, especialmente dentro de
las ciudades. Estas, se han convertido en un grave
riesgo para la democracia y la participación social en
América Latina. Por ello, crece la “participación” violenta en las ciudades y se amplían las brechas entre los
modelos políticos dominantes y los que generan las
redes y organizaciones sociales contestatarias.
1.5. Los cambios territoriales y ambientales
Las profundas transformaciones reseñadas en
la economía, el conocimiento, la comunicación, la
política y las expectativas sociales, tienen que materializarse en el territorio y el ambiente de una manera
peculiar, dando pie a una transformación más: el patrón de ocupación territorial y el consumo ambiental.
Como producto de la diversidad de posibilidades
que tienen las empresas para instalarse (y des-instalarse) en casi cualquier país y ciudad y como resultado
de la reducción de barreras entre naciones, la movilidad física de la población y las inversiones ha alcanzado cifras y dinámicas no conocidas en el pasado.
El mundo enfrenta el siglo XXI como el de las
migraciones. Millones de personas buscan oportunidades de desarrollo en otras latitudes, proceso fomentado fuertemente por las economías dominantes, sus
gobiernos y sus medios de comunicación.
El resultado es, por una parte, que las corrientes migratorias se están redirigiendo en muchas regiones del
mundo hacia los mercados más dinámicos, ahí donde
se crean los empleos o, cuando menos, están dejando
las naciones más atrasadas y emproblemadas políticamente; por la otra, que los volúmenes de emigrantes
son muy numerosos y la velocidad de emigración
es muy alta5, dando pie a actitudes contra-globales
en muchas naciones, destacando los EUA y diversos
países europeos.
Territorialmente, la movilidad de población en el
mundo, impacta los patrones de ocupación del territorio, especialmente en las grandes ciudades, creando
nuevos espacios y nuevas formas de cultura urbana; al
tiempo, reproduciendo actitudes políticas de rechazo
por la inconsistencia de las sociedades más desarrolladas que, por un lado, requieren de trabajadores de
otras latitudes y, por la otra, cultural y socialmente los
rechazas, permitiendo el resurgimiento de manifestaciones fascistas en Europa y EUA, principalmente6.
Un segundo impacto de los procesos de globalización de los mercados y los flujos de toda natu5
Un ejemplo paradigmático es México, que ha ‘exportado’
del orden de medio millón de mexicanos a los EUA por año a
partir de 2000 y que en 2008, las remesas de dinero que envían
los migrantes a sus familias en México, rebase los 25 mil millones
de dólares, conformándose en la segunda fuente de divisas del
país, solo después del petróleo. Otros ejemplos relevantes como
la emigración nor-africana a Europa (especialmente España),
derivada de las pésimas condiciones socio-económicas y políticas,
ponen en aprietos al modelo global, que cada vez reconoce con más
apremio la necesidad de facilitar el flujo de dinero entre países y
contradictoriamente, restringir el flujo de personas entre naciones.
6
Las reacciones en España ante la presencia creciente de
población sahariana o latinoamericana, hace recordar los peores
momentos del fascismo franquista; igualmente, las reacciones
en EUA, del gobierno federal y los estatales, así como de la
sociedad, que se traduce en muros, grupos caza-migrantes y otras
aberraciones o la creación de guetos en la periferia de París y otras
ciudades europeas para población emigrada de Asia y África, son
evidencias de los profundos cambios que la globalización está
teniendo en los territorios.
raleza, es la urbanización, especialmente en países de
desarrollo relativo o subdesarrollo. La urbanización
avanza aceleradamente y la población y las actividades productivas y sociales tienden a aglomerarse
en grandes regiones urbanizadas, porque en estas se
dan las condiciones –externalidades y economías de
aglomeración- para atraer los recursos y las inversiones del exterior.
Por ello, la Red de Ciudades Globales es cada día
más extensa e incluye más sectores y actividades.
También destaca la competencia entre ciudades por
ofrecer mejores condiciones para que empresas y ciudadanos eleven su productividad y calidad de vida.
Las que tienden a ganar, son aquellas que cuentan
con un proyecto o una visión para el largo plazo, y
que lo están construyendo desde sus espacios locales
con el concurso de sus ciudadanos; las que tienden a
perder, son aquellas que persisten en el desorden, la
desigualdad, la baja movilidad y la insustentabilidad.
Las evidencias indican7 que una responsabilidad
fundamental en estos procesos recae en los gobiernos
locales, que se convierten en los actores principales
del desarrollo.
Se debe destacar que, como avanza la urbanización,
igualmente la concentración de población y actividades en grandes regiones metropolitanas, implicando nuevos problemas que involucran directamente
a sus gobiernos locales. Es el caso de la coordinación
metropolitana ya que el gobierno y la administración
de las regiones metropolitanas exigen una clara coordinación entre autoridades locales (frecuentemente de
diferentes partidos políticos).
Finalmente, el incremento de la producción en todos
los sectores de la economía, las crecientes capacidades
para distribuir bienes y servicios y para ubicar en
cualquier país y ciudad las fuentes de producción,
de acuerdo con cálculos de mercado e las empresas
trasnacionales, ha tenido como efecto un consumo
7
Experiencias exitosas en diversas regiones del mundo, apuntan
a esfuerzos basados en gobiernos locales fuertes, democráticos y
con proyectos claros, donde la participación ciudadana es un valor
real porque aporta corresponsablemente , no solo recursos, sino
capacidades para decidir y realizar proyectos de interés comunitario.
Las visiones de largo plazo y su cumplimiento independiente de
partidos políticos, es evidencia de los caminos a recorrer para las
ciudades que aún no logran definir concensuadamente un proyecto.
Ya sea Barcelona, Curitiba, Porto Alegre, Pórtland, Bogotá, Medellín,
entre otras muchas, la característica es que la autoridad local cuenta
con la fuerza política y el respaldo ciudadano para diseñar y ejecutar
una proyecto integrado en el largo plazo.
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acelerado e los recursos naturales y la exacerbación de
los problemas ambientales en el mundo.
En muchos países, especialmente los menos desarrollados, los recursos se están agotando y el ambiente
se está deteriorando a niveles de conflicto, porque no
solo carecen de reglas adecuadas para la protección
ambiental, sino que tienden a flexibilizarlas para que
las inversiones internacionales se instalen en sus territorios, al margen de los impactos ambientales que
significan8.
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2. Nuevos principios para el gobierno de los
territorios
Ante los profundos cambios que están ocurriendo a
nivel mundial y que afectan directamente las comunidades locales, se impone una reflexión sobre las bases
conceptuales que soportan a los gobiernos locales. Los
cambios en la economía y en la forma de hacer negocios avanzan de manera muy dinámica; igualmente,
las transformaciones en las ciudades son muy apreciables y, sin embargo, buena parte de las ideas que
sostienen las políticas públicas y la administración
pública son lentamente cuestionadas y peor aún,
transformadas, porque los actores de la realpolitik
(partidos políticos y gobiernos) siguen concentrados
apenas en la versión electoral de la democracia y no en
sus contenidos esenciales.
2.1. La gobernanza como modelo socio-político
Gobernar es orientar y conducir las acciones de
la colectividad y para ello, se requiere de la acción
pública entendida no solo como la acción del gobierno, sino también la de la sociedad en un sentido de
complemento, en el que un actor es interdependiente
del otro.
Esto es así, porque hoy el Estado ha perdido su
carácter monolítico, tiende a fragmentarse en agencias
8
Ejemplos sobran. Una parte importante de los desarrollos
turísticos con capitales internacionales se están orientando a las
playas y costas del mundo tropical, donde el riesgo de destrucción
de manglares y la primera duna de las costas se está convirtiendo en
realidad. El incremento de impactos negativos por huracanes u otros
desastres ‘naturales’ es una evidencia de los cambios ambientales
producto de las presiones económicas globales. De igual manera
ocurre con procesos industriales ‘sucios’ que no siendo aceptados
en sociedades desarrolladas, se trasladan a los países donde con tal
de incrementar la inversión extranjera (y la local), se flexibilizan las
normas ambientales.
18
y organismos diversos, en racionalidades parciales,
en intereses y perspectivas en ocasiones encontradas;
igualmente, la sociedad civil no solo se fragmenta
por razones de clase social, sino que se bifurca en
intereses, se diferencia, se pluraliza cada vez más, en
ocasiones se atomiza en una gran diversidad de preferencias, de grupos, de necesidades y de convicciones9.
El resultado es que la acción pública se debe construir
colectivamente y no solo como producto del Estado.
Entender y aplicar esto resulta central cuando
se quiere construir un modelo de administración
pública que tenga como ingredientes fundamentales
la participación organizada y corresponsable de la
sociedad para construir, con el gobierno, un modelo
más adecuado a las circunstancias de la modernidad;
que atienda las contradicciones socio-espaciales y
las limitaciones estructurales del Estado como gran
hacedor de la acción pública y que eleve sustancialmente la calidad y los resultados de la acción pública y
del ejercicio de los recursos fiscales.
En este sentido, la gobernanza como modelo
socio-político se caracteriza porque pone en valor los
recursos y las capacidades locales de un territorio. La
idea es que el gobierno democrático debe acreditar
más que solo el adecuado conteo de votos; debe ser un
agente capaz de dirigir, orientar, conducir los destinos
de una comunidad y hacer bien las cosas; es decir,
gobernar bien y ofrecer resultados apreciables que
resuelvan los problemas socio-espaciales.
2.2. La Política que va más allá de la administración
pública y los partidos políticos
El debate sobre la administración pública tiende
a poner el acento en las dos grandes orientaciones
reseñadas antes: el rescate de lo público o el énfasis
en la administración / gerencia. Lo que está claro, es
que ambas perspectivas ponen el acento en la participación del ciudadano en las deliberaciones de las
cuestiones que conciernen a la administración pública
y al gobierno.
Con ello, se reconoce que hacer política no es un
asunto de políticos profesionales solamente y no se
restringe a los espacios tradicionalmente consagrados
para ello; el gobierno y los partidos políticos.
Hoy, como producto de las transformaciones en
todas las esferas de la vida social, especialmente la ir9
Cabrero, Enrique, 2005; Acción pública y desarrollo local,
FCE, México, DF, pp. 19.
rupción del conocimiento y las comunicaciones como
palancas del poder y del desarrollo, todas las tribunas
y todos los espacios permiten ‘hacer política’.
Por ello, la política está también en la sociedad y en
sus organizaciones. Los ejemplos más representativos
ocurren en las tribunas de la academia, en las organizaciones sociales comprometidas con asuntos de la
sociedad (ambientalistas, filántropos) y en la gestión
de proyectos y acciones comunitarias, que mezclan
visiones de advocacy planning y advocacy action, con
gestión más instrumental de proyectos y acciones de
interés social.
La idea es que la administración pública no puede
reducirse más a solo el conjunto de organizaciones,
agencias, instrumentos y recursos que maneja el
gobierno, que deja fuera a las organizaciones sociales
y los ciudadanos de la posibilidad de incidir en las
decisiones y orientaciones que tienen que ver con
la provisión de bienes y servicios públicos, con la
planificación de la economía y el territorio e inclusive,
convertirse mediante organizaciones sociales y/o
privadas, en actores de la administración pública con
efectos reales en las decisiones públicas.
2.3. La Democracia representativa y participativa
como principio consubstancial de la gobernanza
Si en efecto se reconoce que las nuevas tendencias
de la administración pública moderna, claramente
apuntan a la participación de la sociedad y a las
posibilidades de asociación público-privada y públicosocial para enfrentar las múltiples carencias de la
sociedad, los procesos democráticos requieren necesariamente extenderse a la búsqueda desde la política
de nuevos caminos para la atención de las necesidades
sociales fundamentales: seguridad, empleo digno y
bien remunerado, elevación de la calidad de vida, acceso universal a la educación, la alimentación, la salud,
la vivienda, respeto a las condiciones del entorno
ambiental, cuando los modelos vigentes solo han profundizado las contradicciones sociales y exacerbado la
fragmentación socio-espacial.
Implica que la democracia debe convertirse en
fuente de creación de ciudadanía; debe ofrecer herramientas para que exista corresponsabilidad entre actores sociales cuando se trata de desarrollar acciones
o proyectos e interés comunitario; debe permitir y
promover la gestión compartida, entre sociedad y go-
bierno y entre actores sociales, de proyectos y acciones
de atención a las necesidades sociales.
En síntesis, debe otorgar legitimidad política,
especialmente a las acciones del gobierno, lo que
implica revalorizar la política creando nuevas formas
de relación gobierno – sociedad, en las que el buen
gobierno y la entrega de resultados tangibles, medibles
y pertinentes a las necesidades sociales, por una parte,
y la participación corresponsable y asociada de los
ciudadanos y sus organizaciones en las decisiones
de la administración pública, por la otra, conforman
dos ingredientes fundamentales que ya no pueden ser
soslayados.
2.4. La Urbanización como proyecto
El año 2007 fue declarado por ONU-HABITAT el
momento en que la población mundial mayoritariamente se convierte en urbana porque más de la mitad
se asientan en ciudades.
Resulta claro que el gobierno y la administración
pública actual, son diseñados desde y para la ciudad,
aunque lamentablemente persisten en la mayor parte
de los países de bajo desarrollo relativo masas de
habitantes en el medio rural, prácticamente al margen
de las oportunidades que ofrece la acción de gobierno
y la aplicación de los recursos públicos.
La tendencia es entonces a crecientes procesos de
aglomeración de la población en ciudades y particularmente en grandes regiones urbanizadas, integradas
por conjuntos de jurisdicciones político-administrativas de orden local y poli-céntricas, cuyos gobiernos
deberán crear nuevas condiciones para acordar
visiones integradas y de largo plazo para cada ‘pedazo
de territorio’ cuyo conjunto sea una verdadera visión
de totalidad.
Enfrentamos entonces un proceso de urbanización
acelerado e irreversible, que permite saber que en el
futuro próximo la mayor parte de los habitantes serán
ciudadanos en el sentido territorial del término; también, que como resultado de la lentitud de gobiernos
y administración pública para adaptarse a la realidad
socio-espacial, existirán múltiples problemas para
gobernar y administrar esos grandes conglomerados,
especialmente si persisten visiones de política partidistas y de gobiernos verticalistas y autoritarios.
¿Cómo hacer del proceso de urbanización un
proyecto conciente y conducido por la sociedad y su
Invited Papers
& Presentations
EDRA39
Keynote
Presentations
gobierno? ¿Cómo reducir la incertidumbre que provoca una urbanización incontrolada e inconciente de
la que el gobierno es un actor social poco responsable
y eficaz, especialmente en el ámbito local?
Pareciera ser que el camino más claro es hacer de la
ciudad el soporte territorial de la gobernanza; en otras
palabras, aprovechar la densidad de las relaciones sociales y la necesidad de actuar en concierto sociedad y
gobierno para que las decisiones de la administración
pública se conduzcan bajo principios de gobernanza
democrática organizada desde los territorios.
Implica reconocer a la participación social como
Invited Papers un valor y un medio para una mejor ciudad y para
& Presentations
un proyecto de desarrollo local. Se fundamenta en la
búsqueda de cohesión socio-espacial que es perteEDRA39 nencia, tolerancia, reconocimiento a las diferencias,
Keynote
Presentations búsqueda de nuevo conocimiento, acuerdo de objetivos comunes.
Igualmente, se fundamenta en la revisión y modernización de las estructuras, instrumentos y procesos
públicos del gobierno, para reconstruirlos de manera
que la asociación pública-social y pública-privada sea
realmente un modelo participativo que tenga como
principio la atención de las necesidades de la comunidad y su territorio.
2.5. El gobierno local es clave para la gobernanza
democrática
Cuando las presiones que enfrentan las grandes
ciudades provienen de la necesidad de involucrar a
sus economías y su sociedad en procesos globales y de
concentrar sus apoyos a las actividades urbanas más
modernas, existe la tendencia a prestar menor atención a los problemas de la población local, especialmente la de menor ingreso.
Sin embargo, es precisamente el gobierno local el
más apto para determinar qué, cuándo y cómo involucrar a las ciudades en procesos globales, porque tiene
la mayor proximidad socio-espacial con los actores
sociales de la ciudad y porque ningún fenómeno del
desarrollo local le es ajeno.
Por ello, es necesario preparar a las autoridades
locales para que, además de la gestión de sus responsabilidades tradicionales relacionadas con la provisión
de los servicios públicos, la planeación territorial y la
seguridad pública, asuman los retos que derivan de la
sociedad globalizada, lo que implica necesariamente
20
crear las condiciones para un desarrollo participativo,
integrado y con visión de largo plazo.
El enfoque participativo la obliga a propiciar la
gestión relacional con todos los actores sociales para
alcanzar compromisos de desarrollo local para la acción. Implica construir desde la política, un liderazgo
capaz de organizar a los actores sociales para actuar;
repartir roles y responsabilidades de manera concertada y no tanto dirigir las acciones y proyectos de la
sociedad, concertar los contenidos en las materias,
sectores y áreas del territorio; es decir, el qué e igualmente, el cuándo y con qué de las grandes decisiones
para el desarrollo. En síntesis, debe promover la
organización y la gestión compartida con los actores
sociales como base del progreso, lo que implica: desarrollar el sentido de comunidad, ganarse la legitimidad
política a partir de un ‘buen gobierno’, promover y
apoyar el desarrollo del conocimiento y la educación
para elevar la calidad del capital humano.
El enfoque integrado del desarrollo, obliga a las
autoridades locales a buscar procesos de planificación
que en un solo esfuerzo integren las políticas, estrategias y proyectos de desarrollo socio-económico, con
las visiones territoriales y ambientales del desarrollo. El significado de este enfoque es que la ciudad
– metrópoli se asume como una totalidad y por ello, el
enfoque territorial/ambiental del desarrollo se convierte en el hilo conductor del proceso de planeación,
haciendo que los ‘sectores’ –de la economía y del
desarrollo social- reconozcan las necesidades territoriales como la guía de sus procesos de planificación
(dentro y fuera del gobierno).
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The following selection of papers
showcases the broad scope of fields that
characterize environmental design
research. Issues and concerns about
environment and behavior relationships
in diverse societies are emphasized in these
texts. These papers focus upon a wide
array of place types, concepts, methods
and theories; all which contribute to
advancing research within the field of
environmental design. Underlying each
of these different approaches is the need
and desire for less formulaic options
that are a) conducive to contemporary
social, cultural, economic and political
arrangements; b) representative of a
diverse group of environments, such as
office space, public space, production sites,
and neighborhoods, among others; and
c) demonstrative of both quantitative and
qualitative methods. Each of these papers
offers an insightful view of larger social
and economic challenges and their effect
on specific sites. These papers each focus
upon a different avenue of environmental
design, yet all illustrate how environmentbehavior research is beneficial in both
understanding and improving our world
through linking differences and defining
actions.
22
EDRA39 wishes to thank the following
paper reviewers:
Beatriz Rodriguez, Elviria Saínz Sanchez, Luis
De le Llave, Keith Diaz Moore, Habib Chaudhury, Nana Kirk, Peter Hecht, Robert Ryan, Arza
Churchman, Patricia Taylor, Victoria Chanse,
Kapila Silva, Vicente Mantero, Stephan Kaplan,
Susan Rowley, Dennis Doxtater, Robert Riley,
Jack Nasar, Andrew Kaufman, Ann Devlin, Donovan Finn, Marie Alice L’Heureux, Gary Scott
Danford, Lena Sorensen, John Zeisel, Mahbub
Rashid, Perver Baran, Lynn Paxson, Lubomir
Popov, Lynda Schneekloth, Robert Shibley, Cherie
Peacock, David Green, Rachel Kaplan, Debajyoti
Pati, Kunio Funahashi, David Seamon, Nisha
Fernando, Joongsub Kim, April Allan, Ingrid Stefanovic, Joseph Juhasz, Shauna Mallory Hill, Guy
Newsham, Andrew Alden, Rula Awwad-Rafferty,
Dina Battisto, Debarati Majumdar, Catharine
Ward Thompson, Daniel Stokols, Lynne Dearborn, Saif Haq, Sudeshna Chatterjee, Andrew
Kaplan, Michael Murtha, Umut Toker, Lorraine
Maxwell, Saundra Murray Nettles, Georjeanna
Wilson-Doenges, Mary Alice Torres-MacDonald,
Robert Gifford, Janetta McCoy, Meldrena Chapin,
Nancy Cheng, Darcy Varney, Marcie Benne,
Bettye Rose Connell, Mardelle Shepley, Lee-Anne
Milburn, Helen Wooley, Jena Ponti, Henry Sanoff,
Peter Lippman
18th & 19th Century
Sustainable Design
Technologies in the Eastern
U.S.
Tecnologías del diseño sostenible de los siglos
décimo octavo y decimonoveno en el este de
Estados Unidos
by Lisa Tucker (Virginia Tech)
Abstract
A survey of historic buildings in the eastern part of
the United States provides an excellent overview of
environmental design practices that were once in use.
This paper will look at one plan type, the single-pile,
center-hall plan (also known as the I-house), as constructed in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries in
Virginia. Multiple examples show that local craftsmen
and builders followed a series of vernacular practices
that responded to the local climate and terrain. These
can be divided into three basic categories: plan design,
materials use, and building construction. This tripartite system led to natural ventilation, cooling in the
summer, heating in the winter and the use of locally
available materials that were plentiful. Many examples
of the I-house type and accompanying outbuildings
from across the rural landscape demonstrate self-supporting and self-contained complexes that maximized
location specific features.
This paper looks to eco-cultural vernacular solutions found within traditional architecture, specifically the I-house type, and then examines how this
sort of information can inform new green building
rating systems that are predominantly eco-technical.
These traditional building strategies include a system
of integrated technologies such as vernacular day
lighting and ventilation strategies, plan organization, porch placement and more as a readily available and regionally responsive solution to material
and construction deficits in the construction of new
homes. Using LEED for new homes (LEED NH) and
other sustainable house building guidelines created
to inform the design of new homes, this research will
demonstrate how traditional, vernacular practices
can enhance new and technological approaches to
home building in order to better meet current needs.
Shortcomings of some technologically-based sustainable design guidelines with relationship to site specific
building adaptations will also be addressed in this
paper. The I-house, a predominant eighteenth and
nineteenth century house form, provides a possible
source for meaningful methods of solving location
specific challenges inherent in home design and construction.
Introduction
A survey of historic buildings in the eastern part of
the United States provides an excellent overview of
environmental design practices that were once in use.
This paper will look at one plan type, the single-pile,
center-hall plan, as constructed in the eighteenth and
nineteenth centuries in Virginia. Multiple examples
show that local craftsmen and builders followed a
series of vernacular practices that responded to the
local climate and terrain. These can be divided into
three basic categories: plan design, materials use, and
building construction. This tripartite system led to
natural ventilation, cooling in the summer, heating in
the winter and the use of locally available materials
that were plentiful. Multiple examples of the I-house
type and accompanying outbuildings from across the
rural landscape demonstrate self-supporting and selfcontained complexes that maximized location specific
features.
The call for sustainable practices within the design fields today—including the construction of new
homes--often focuses on the use of new technologies,
or what Simon Guy and Graham Farmer have called
an “eco-technic” approach, to solve the problems
humans have created with regard to natural resources.
In their article “Reinterpreting Sustainable Architecture: The Place of Technology” (2001) Simon Guy and
Graham Farmer provide six different frameworks for
how people approach sustainable building design. The
six typologies are as follows: eco-technic, eco-centric,
eco-aesthetic, eco-cultural, eco-medical and ecosocial. Each type considers one area of emphasis to be
of predominant concern.
Integrated technology and a scientific approach
to design and building characterize the Eco-technic
approach to sustainable architecture. Just as tech-
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nology has created many of today’s environmental
woes, it can be used to solve the problems we face
as well. An Eco-centric approach emphasizes harmony with nature and its systems. The Eco-aesthetic
paradigm calls for a new understanding of ecological
knowledge and an expanded consciousness about
nature. Vernacular local traditions highlight the Ecocultural method of architecture. Eco-medical stresses
a nontoxic emphasis focused on health and well-being
while Eco-social involves community participation
to achieve an organic, decentralized and democratic
architecture.
This paper looks to eco-cultural vernacular solutions found within traditional architecture, specifically the I-house type, and then examines how this
sort of information can inform new green building
rating systems that are predominantly eco-technical.
These traditional building strategies include a system
of integrated technologies such as vernacular day
lighting and ventilation strategies, plan organization, porch placement and more as a readily available and regionally responsive solution to material
and construction deficits in the construction of new
homes. Using LEED for new homes (LEED NH) and
other sustainable house building guidelines created
to inform the design of new homes, this research will
demonstrate how traditional, vernacular practices
can enhance new and technological approaches to
home building in order to better meet current needs.
Shortcomings of some technologically-based sustainable design guidelines with relationship to site specific
building adaptations will also be addressed in this
paper. The I-house, a predominant eighteenth and
nineteenth century house form, provides a possible
source for meaningful methods of solving location
specific challenges inherent in home design and construction.
Background
This paper was inspired by approximately four
years of survey work conducted in Virginia as a
consultant to the Department of Historic Resources.
The author surveyed hundreds of historic buildings—
alone and with other consultants—in the following
locales: Cumberland County, Falls Church, the City
of Norfolk, the City of Virginia Beach, Williamsburg,
and Roanoke County—representing a cross section of
24
the state. The knowledge acquired as an architectural
historical and surveyor was later put to use when
learning about and applying sustainable design practices.
Figure 1: Map of Virginia showing survey locations from www.
dhr/virginia.gov
That there is an overlap between Historic Preservation and Sustainable Design has been frequently
acknowledged over the past five years. Articles have
appeared in the Journal of Interior Design, the APT
Bulletin and other venues. Most of the focus has been
on building reuse. While the materials use and retention of an existing building are considered sustainable strategies within the design world, little study
of historic building forms as a source for additional
sustainable lessons has been conducted and incorporated into everyday practice of residential construction in the U.S.
Figure 2: Henry Glassie, House Type 14 from Folk Housing in
Middle Virginia
This research takes a single form, the single-pile,
center hall plan house form, and examines the way in
which it was traditionally built across rural Virginia
to respond to the specific climatic needs of the region.
The I- house as it has come to be known is a predominant form of vernacular domestic architecture
throughout Virginia. Henry Glassie’s classic study,
Folk Housing in Middle Virginia (1975), chronicled
the plan types he found in Middle Virginia. Of the
164 houses he surveyed in this region of the country,
Glassie found house Type 14 (a typical “I” house) to be
in the majority with 33% of the dwellings falling into
this category. House 14 (2/3) was a variation on type
14 and accounted for an additional 10% of the houses
surveyed. The two-room and four-room house forms
comprised 93% of the house designs. The two-room
house consisted of two rooms on the first floor while
the four-room had two rooms above on the second
floor as well.
Glassie’s research demonstrates the frequency of the
single pile, hall-parlor plan I-house in middle Virginia. Recent reconnaissance survey work conducted
across Virginia and documented within the online
database, Data Sharing System, of the Department
of Historic Resources supports Glassie’s research
(VDHR, 2008).
Traditional Environmental Features
Plan Design
There are several traditionally derived environmental features inherent in this particular plan type.
The single-pile arrangement allows for windows to
be located across from one another in all rooms thus
promoting cross ventilation. The central doors at
both front and back also allow for cross ventilation. A
feature common to many eighteenth and nineteenth
century houses built in Virginia is a south-facing
front door. This placement allowed for sun in the
winter to warm the front door that could also be
shaded through the use of deciduous trees and a front
porch in the summer. A small portico or entry porch
would often provide additional protection from the
elements.
Materials
By necessity the majority of houses constructed
in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries in Virginia
were made of locally available materials. While there
are some notable high-style exceptions, this applies to
most of the houses surveyed. Local materials included
stone quarried near the site, trees felled on the
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Figure 3: typical I-house plan
property, and hand made bricks manufactured from
the Virginia red clay that was abundant. Local sand
and oyster shells were used within the mortar. Oftentimes, faux painting was used to simulate marble
and exotic woods on the interior. Natural pigments
provided the standard palette of colors for wall and
trim paint. Builders mixed plaster on site using locally
available lime and horsehair to be used on the interior
walls. Builders planed locally harvested heart pine for
use as flooring.
Building Construction
In the two-story version of the house, the central
stair hall acts as a ventilation shaft during the summer
drawing heat from the first floor. Transom windows located above doors facilitate this process. End
chimneys, associated with this plan type in Virginia,
provided heat and thermal mass to hold the heat generated by the fires within. Composed of brick or stone,
these large masonry masses extended to the roof
and provided an excellent source of insulation to the
interior of the home as well as a way of holding heat
during the winter. Single-pile plan arrangements allowed natural day lighting to penetrate into the entire
depth of a room thus providing additional warmth
in the winter. The front porch provided shielding to
these same rooms during the summer months.
Prior to the standardization of dimensional
lumber, builders used local wood in variable lengths.
Heavy timber framed houses and later balloon framed
houses featured high ceilings. High ceilings provided
a place for heat to rise in the summer and allowed for
the use of interior and exterior door transoms. The
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interior and exterior transoms facilitated air movement within the home during the summer months.
During the winter months, beds often featured
curtains designed to encapsulate the heat around the
homeowners.
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Figure 4: Typical I-House Features
By necessity, houses were placed in close proximity
to water sources. Some properties included cisterns
to capture rainwater as well. Homeowners placed
kitchen gardens to the rear of the house along with
summer kitchens for cooking. This arrangement resulted in reduced heat build up during the summer as
well as a reduced danger of fire. Other appurtenances
on the building site often included ice houses, spring
houses, smoke houses, corn cribs and out houses. The
entire complex was designed to be self-sustaining for
long stretches of time.
Literature Review - Empirical Studies
To date little empirical research has been conducted to quantify ecological features of extant
historic buildings. In a 1998 article, “Energy Simulation of Historic Buildings: St. Louis Catholic Church,
Castroville, Texas,” Anat Geva used a computer
program to simulate the historic conditions of a
church in Texas both with and without mechanical
interventions. Using a program, ENER-WIN, to run
simulations, Geva identified non-mechanical energy
conservation strategies. “The case study of St. Louis
Catholic Church indicated that major improvements
in thermal comfort can be accomplished through
natural ventilation. Reopening of the windows eased
26
the discomfort of summer heat and humidity and
decreased energy consumption.” (Geva, 41) Although
several authors have pointed to this type of approach
and provided normative research to indicate that historic buildings often provide efficient and sustainable
solutions to specific locales, little empirical research
exists, making Geva’s study an important beginning.
Geva and others have also conducted similar computer simulations for vernacular single-family houses,
house museums, Greek Revival Houses and other
buildings in various climatic conditions.
The rise of the use of Building Information
Modeling (BIM) in architectural practice provides a
useful tool for modeling historic buildings. Multiple
software programs are now available which allow
practitioners to model buildings three-dimensionally
and to make decisions regarding the building envelope, mechanical systems and many other building
related decisions in a three-dimensional computer
model prior to actual construction. This same software could easily be used to determine the ecological
efficiency of an existing historic structure prior to
making alterations to the building in the name of
energy efficiency. Sun angles could be tested as could
room depth to see if these features are in fact maximized in the design of historic houses. This would
also provide a rich database for new building design,
particularly with regard to locally appropriate solutions for single-family houses.
Sustainable Design Framework for Historic Buildings
Several authors have written about sustainable
design, sustainable architecture, green design and
related topics. A few authors have tried to define what
these terms mean, and they clearly mean different
things to different people. Guy and Farmer’s article
mentioned above provides a useful framework for
contending with the large body of resources on the
subject in an attempt to provide clarity to the many
differing positions towards sustainability as they
relate to buildings.
By and large, the most prevalent approach to sustainable design among practitioners is eco-technic
which can be quantified using scientific testing. This
approach relies heavily on governmental policy and
is founded in a scientific approach to problem solving.
Environmental management by existing institutions
Guy and Farmer’s Logic
Source of Environmental Knowledge
Technologies
Eco-technic
Technological and scientific
Integration of global concerns into conventional building strategies
Eco-centric
Systemic ecology
Autonomous
Metaphysical holism
Renewable
Recycled
Intermediate
Eco-aesthetic
Eco-cultural
Sensual postmodern
Pragmatic new
Science
Nonlinear organic
Phenomenology
Local low-tech
Cultural ecology
Commonplace
Vernacular
Eco-medical
Medical
Passive non-toxic
Clinical
Natural tactile
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Eco-social
Sociology and social ecology
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Flexible
Participatory
Appropriate locally managed
Table 1: (Based on Table 1 from “Reinterpreting Sustainable Architecture” by Guy and Farmer)
is considered sufficient to solve any problem with the
world environment. The LEED Rating system and
other sustainable design rating systems tend to follow
this model. Points are assigned, energy is measured,
and materials are weighed. Energy reduction, material recycling, and water conservation all take place
within an existing system of design and construction
without any radical rethinking of how we do things.
This can be contrasted with the eco-centric
approach that asks us to consider our core values
with relationship to the planet. The current state
of the world is thought to be far beyond science’s
ability to fix things. According to Guy and Farmer
“This rhetoric generates a viewpoint in which nature
becomes viewed as fragile and where natural equilibrium is easily disrupted.” (Guy and Farmer, 143.) The
logic underlying this approach to sustainable design
aligns closely with the original foundations of historic
preservation in the United States and still represents
the viewpoint of some preservationists: it is morally
correct and our duty to “save” historic buildings. This
approach contrasts with eco-technic logic where one
might classify the Secretary’s of the Interior’s Standards, section 106 work, and historic tax credit legislation.
Eco-cultural logic invokes phenomenology and
the need to belong to a specific time and place. Local
traditions, vernacular architecture and local climate
inspire this type of bioregionalism. This underscores a
major component missing from many green-building
rating systems. Local climates, local materials and
local labor are all realities of construction. Traditional,
local practices, as argued in this paper, provide answers for how to contend with the regional demands a
specific locale, its climate and its people.
Eco-medical approaches focus on the health of
the building’s occupants and users. Indoor air-quality,
access to day lighting, individual control within the
interior environment and other health and welfare
related issues fall under this domain. From an historic
preservation perspective the primary eco-medical
concerns are the removal or encapsulation of lead and
asbestos as environmental toxins frequently found in
historic buildings.
Sustainable Preservation Work
When mapping these frameworks onto Sustainable-Preservation work, three emerge as perhaps the
most relevant: eco-technic, eco-centric, and ecocultural. The combination of these three underlying
logics provides a holistic approach to this form of
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practice. It also parallels, albeit informally, the logic
underlying vernacular house forms. These forms are
subject to building codes and other legislation as they
have developed over time, they are reflective of our
personal belief and passions about how we want to
live, and they reflect the indigenous culture of a given
location.
Eco-cultural features of the single pile, central
hall plan house include all of the traditional ecological
features mentioned above. Local materials, high ceilings, cross-ventilation, and careful siting with regard
to water, prevailing winds and sunlight all exemplify
an adaptation of the house form to a specific location.
Figures 5 and 6: Features of the I-House
As regards traditional ecological features, current
green rating systems such as LEED NH have been
slow to integrate eco-cultural concerns into their
frameworks. The goal of a single rating system for all
has tended to look to a more generic and scientificbased solution to sustainable house design instead of a
site specific, regionally responsive solution.
28
Overview of LEED Rating System for New Homes
and Other Green Building Guidelines for Home Construction
LEED for New Homes (LEED NH Version 1.11a)
includes eight categories under which points may be
achieved: Innovation and design process, Location
and linkages, Sustainable sites, Water efficiency, Energy and atmosphere, Materials and resources, Indoor
environmental quality, and Awareness and Education
for a total possible points of 130. All eighteen pre-requisites are required to even be considered for certification. To be certified, a project must also accumulate
at least 45 points. Sixty points are required for Silver
Certification, 75 for Gold, and 90 for Platinum Level
certification.
Of the 130 available points, only 4 points are
available for innovative/regional design. While these
four innovative/regional design points were added to
the newest LEED NH Rating System (1.11a) no technologies or strategies for achieving these points have
yet been included in the rating manual document.
The majority of the LEED points fall into the energy
and atmosphere category, 38 points (20%) of the
points. Sustainable sites accounts for 21 points (16%);
Indoor environmental quality for 20 points (15%);
Materials and resources for 14 points (11%); Water efficiency 15 points (11.5%); Location and linkages for 10
points (8%) and Awareness and education for 3 points
(2%).
LEED NH is not alone in its emphasis on an
eco-technic approach to sustainable homes. The
emphasis on energy efficiency and working within the
existing regulatory structure also characterizes the
U.S. Department of Energy’s Green Building Guidelines: Meeting the Demand for Low Energy, ResourceEfficient Homes (2004) and New Home Construction:
Green Building Guidelines (2002) developed for
Contra Costa County, California. The overview introductory page of the Department of Energy guidelines
document acknowledges “This book is intended to
be national in scope, and as a result, the construction
information and many of the example details do not
fit all climates or circumstances. The Contra Costa
County Guidelines include a section on building
site but this section does not address home orientation. Section B, site, does address recycling job waste,
donating unused materials, installing drip irrigation,
and minimizing disruption to existing plants and
trees (Contra Costa, 18).
How to Amend Green Building Rating Systems to
Reflect the Lessons of Historic Building Strategies
The LEED NH Rating System and other generally
applicable green building systems for home design
and construction would benefit from the infusion
of vernacular, regional-based solutions to building
construction. A section could easily be added devoted
to regional variations. For example, solar orientation
of the building, placement of the house with respect
to the prevailing winds and its proximity to a water
source, and other site features could be added to the
site section of the guidelines. Credit or points could
also be awarded for the use of a historic building or
other existing home, as is done in other LEED Rating
Systems. Window placement and size, door placement,
the use of transoms and other interior features that
support natural ventilation might be awarded points
when included as well. By adding a section for local
solutions, LEED NH and other such rating systems
would result in the creation of homes that were even
more sustainable and reflective of the local community in which they are constructed.
respond to the very specific needs of various regions
of the country.
Notation: During the final revisions of this paper, LEED NH
2008 was released. Under “Innovation and Design” 1.5, Building
Orientation for Solar Design has been added. For this, a project
receives one point out of the 136 total possible points.
References:
Contra Costa County.(2002). New Home Construction: Green Building Guidelines. Berkeley California:
Celery Design Collaborative.
Geva, A. (1998) “Energy Simulation of Historic
Buildings: St. Louis Catholic Church, Castroville,
Texas. APT Bulletin, 29:1, 36-41.
Glassie, H. (1975). Folk Housing in Middle Virginia.
Knoxville: The University of Tennessee Press.
Guy, S. & Farmer, G.(2001) “Reinterpreting Sustainable Architecture: The Place of Technology,” Journal
of Architectural Education 54:3, 140-148.
USGBC. (2007). LEED for New Homes Version 1.11a
Green Building Rating System. Retrieved from www.
usgbc.org November, 2007.
Virginia Department of Historic Resources. (2008).
Data Sharing System. Retrieved from http://www.
hrdss.state.va.us/DSS/jsp
Summary
Clearly, historic homes provide a legacy of environment appropriate strategies developed overtime in
specific locations from which green building rating
systems might benefit. These regional practices illustrate the accumulated knowledge of local solutions
that stand the tests of time. Additional empirical research studies, such as that conducted by Geva, would
make normative historic design practices quantifiable
and more likely to be integrated into a point-based
system such as LEED NH. The sustainability movement in its current iteration stresses the need to save
the planet. One very important element in this mission is to learn from those who have long interacted
with the local ecology, climate, and materials. The
LEED NH Rating System and others like it provide
an excellent starting point for a more sustainable
approach to houses. If it were expanded to include regional solutions, it could make an even bigger impact
on the home building industry in the United States. A
“one size fits all” approach is overly general and fails to
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Designing For Addiction
Recovery: Reflections from
an Architectural Case
Diseñando para la recuperación de la adicción:
reflexiones de un estudio de caso arquitectónico
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Brian Schermer, Caitlin Boyle, Emi Kiyota,
Matt Jaroz (University of Wisconsin –
Milwaukee) and Newton D’Souza (University of
Missouri – Columbia)
This paper discusses and architectural case study that
affords a unique opportunity to better understand how
physical places are implicated in addiction recovery.
The Milwaukee Alano Foundation is a club and drop-in
center for recovering alcoholics. As the owners of a historic, but rundown residence, the members sought assistance from the authors to renovate the building. The
authors proceeded to conduct scenario planning, assessment of organizational and architectural fit, pre-design
programming, and schematic design. These activities
paralleled, in a very real sense, the kind of critical selfinventory and removal of character defects associated
with addiction recovery. In addition, while places can
support and enhance recovery through instrumental
and symbolic mean, they can also play a dual role as
both the object and instrument of recovery. In other
words, people recovering from substance abuse, as suggested by this case study, may seek to rehabilitate their
physical setting in order to rehabilitate themselves. The
case study also suggests that ownership and control over
places for recovery can be a critical factor in recovering
from substance abuse.
This research stems from an architectural project for
the Milwaukee Alano Foundation, a nonprofit group
that serves as a meeting, social support, and gathering
place for recovering alcoholics. The work, which was
conducted by the authors through their affiliation
with the Nonprofit Pre-Design Assistance Center at
the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, consisted of
pre-design services and schematic design to help the
organization renovate the historic home that they own
and occupy. As a design case study, it affords a unique
30
opportunity to better understand how physical places
are implicated in addiction recovery.
While places can support and enhance recovery
through instrumental and symbolic mean, they can also
play a dual role as both the object and instrument of
recovery. In other words, people recovering from substance abuse, as suggested by this case study, may seek
to rehabilitate their physical setting in order to rehabilitate themselves. At the same time, undertaking a project
like this is also a potential source for organizational dissension and possibly detrimental to the group cohesion
that is critical to their collaborative treatment efforts.
While this case is atypical, it does provide a unique way
to think about how places that might be utilized and
leveraged in the service of recovery from alcohol and
substance abuse.
This paper discusses current conceptions of place and
recovery in the literature, followed by a discussion of
the case, and then concludes with reflections about what
the case study suggests about places for recovery.
Literature Review
While there is an extensive design research literature
on the role of health care settings as it relates to healing,
notions about how to design places for recovery have yet
to be developed.
Studies of addiction recovery often begin by addressing questions like what is addiction? How is it
treated? And, to a lesser extent, where does recovery
happen? The place of recovery is not explicitly pursued
further than basic categories like “hospital” and “residential,” though the interrelationship among addiction,
treatment, and place is apparent (Landry). The fact that
the place of recovery is seemingly taken for granted may
be problematic. Each theoretical conception of addiction and the terminology employed to discuss addiction treatment can indicate powerful assumptions that
translate into the physical setting of recovery.
Canter and Canter (1979) categorize six therapeutic
models: custodial, for example prisons, in which the
individuals and the community are separated from one
another; medical, in which the patients are unhealthy
and are taken to a place to be treated; prosthetic, in
which physical or mental deficits are compensated, for
instance by handrails or ramps, or social prostheses
such as care-givers; normalization, which aims to
prevent the dependence of prostheses, including group
homes in which people retain autonomy and control;
enhancement, for example, playgrounds for handicapped children and simplified wayfinding for Alzheimer’s patients, in which normal may be too optimistic
a goal; and, individual growth model, which aims to
help people grow to their full potential, implying that
therapy and therapeutic milieu can change over time
with developmental changes.
With regard to recovery from substance abuse, Landry
(1996) associates the term “treatment setting” with the
“level of treatment intensity” and categorizes four main
treatment types that imply specific place types: hospitalization (hospitals, residential treatment (group homes,
correctional facilities), intensive outpatient treatment
(clinic, counseling office), and outpatient treatment
(club, drop-in center).
The physical setting in which these approaches occur
communicates the expected roles of persons within it,
and the intensity of the treatment/approach/place. One
clear example of this relationship between approach
and setting is the medical treatment in a clinic. In this
instance, addiction is considered a physical dependence.
The clinic is a sterile place where a doctor can treat and
cure the symptoms. This is an impersonal, objective
approach.
In contrast, if addiction is considered the manifestation of some deeper set of problems or instabilities that
a person is facing, the treatment will be very different.
Unlike the medical approach, in this scenario, the cause
is not as tangible, but is a complex web of mental conflict, for which the addiction is a coping mechanism. In
order to address the patient’s needs, the treatment will
be personalized, involving counseling that focuses on
resolving underlying issues rather than the drug abuse
itself.
There are alternative holistic approaches and combinations of the above-mentioned techniques. Alternative
medicines offer one such example. Wesa and Culliton
(2004) , for example, discuss the need to create an “optimal healing environment,” although the conception of
the physical environment is not well developed beyond
providing space for such activities such as meditation,
yoga, and gardening .
The Oxford House group home model for recovering
alcoholics offers a more concrete connection between
recovery and a place of healing, while also emphasizing
the importance of a larger group support. In an assess-
ment of Oxford Houses in the United States, Ferrari,
et al (2006) note that every room in the homes they
assessed is personalized (residents had hung pictures
on the wall), the houses are well-maintained, and they
blend in with their surrounding neighborhoods. These
facts, combined with interviews of former residents and
other observations, led the authors to conclude that a
sense of home was one of the most important qualities
for a recovery environment. This merging of sense of
community, collective construction of non-dependent
patterns of living, and physical setting is significant to
the discussion of environments for recovery.
The twelve-step model associated with Alcoholics
Anonymous articulates sequential stages of recovery.
These include acknowledging one’s powerlessness and
turning to a higher power for assistance, conducting
a “moral inventory” of one’s deficiencies, and seeking
to remove all one’s “defects of character.” Twelve-step
programs expect participants to “surrender” to the
group. The story-telling tradition at Alcoholics Anonymous meetings is as much a reminder for “old-timers”
as an act of progress for new members (Nowinski, 1992).
This relationship between people at different stages of
recovery is an important part of group recovery settings.
This treatment approach takes place in a wide range of
settings, including clubs and drop-in centers like the
Milwaukee Alano Foundation as well as in more ad hoc
meeting spaces (church basements, community centers,
and even former taverns).
Consulting Case Study
Milwaukee Alano Foundation has been a social gathering place for recovering alcoholics since 1947. It is are
the oldest “club” of its type in the U.S. Members meet to
share their experiences, strengths, and hopes with each
other about their common goal of achieving and maintaining a life free from the use of alcohol and drugs.
Alano is loosely connected to Alcoholics Anonymous
international, and adheres to the well-known twelvestep program for recovery described in AA’s “Big Book.”
The members, who elect a nine-member board from
among their ranks, wholly manage the organization.
They are from every rung of the socio-economic ladder,
from poor inner city dwellers to wealthy members of
Milwaukee’s power elite.
Alano occupies a handsome but rundown, historic
residence on Milwaukee East Side neighborhood.
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Though it has many distinct architectural features,
the building has fallen into disrepair and subjected
to poorly executed and ill-conceived adaptations and
decorating efforts over the five decades that it has been
in the foundation’s possession. Ironically, the building
was built by one of Milwaukee’s yeast barons in the late
1800s. In 1955, he yeast baron’s daughter, who was a
recovering alcoholic, gifted to the house to the organization. Fifty years later, Alano members began to raise
funds to restore the building to its original condition
and to expand the range of services to its members.
residence.
such as job training, computing classes, and relationship counseling.
Jack informed us that raising enough funds would
not be a problem. Alcoholism, he explained, does not
discriminate according to socio-economic status. There
would be plenty of wealthy members who would be
willing to pay for it. The Directors had recently voted
to establish a five-member Board of Trustees to oversee
fundraising. They were looking to the authors for assistance in establishing a budget and documentation that
they could use to solicit donations.
We approached the planning for foundation as both
an organizational and architectural intervention, following a three-stage process that they utilize in working
with other nonprofit organizations: (1) scenario planning to explore alternative organizational futures; (2)
assessment of organizational and architectural fit to see
if likely scenarios could be easily accommodated by the
building; and (3) development of an strategy and architectural program to specify the scope and nature of the
project. For this case, we were also able to work collaboratively with a design team from the UW-Milwaukee’s
Institute for Historic Preservation to develop schematic
plans from which Alano could obtain construction estimates and also use renderings to solicit donor funds.
Throughout the pre-design programming process, we
attempted to provide a means for members to question their assumptions, and where appropriate, to point
out issues that would need to be addressed in order to
manage internal conflicts.
Over the years, the house has served as a comfortable, if disheveled place for members to congregate for
the dozens of AA meetings that are held each week. In
addition to AA meetings, the building also serves as
a drop-in center that provides camaraderie and social
support for members, especially new ones, who might
otherwise relapse.
Our involvement, through UW-Milwaukee’s Nonprofit Pre-Design Assistance Center, with Alano began
with an email from Jack (AA member typically maintain anonymity by using first names only), who served
on Alano’s Board of Directors, asking for assistance.
Although the Board of Directors did not know where
to start, they did have a vision of what they wanted to
achieve: to restore the residence as fully as practicable
and to expand their offerings of services and programs,
Scenario planning
We pointed out that while the vision of a restored
property and full array of services might be ideal, there
were perhaps other less rosy scenarios that might unfold.
We raised the possibility that fundraising might proceed too slowly to implement big plans for a long time
to come. What would happen if the building required a
major repair, or worse, a fire? Might it be wise, we asked,
to sell the building, establish a trust and relocate to a
more manageable setting?
In a different vein, we learned that not all the members support the renovation. There are some who are
quite comfortable with the current rundown condition,
or at least are concerned about the place becoming too
stodgy and self-conscious for their liking. This tension
suggested other unhappy scenarios that we shared with
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Figure 1. Milwaukee Alano Foundation’s historic, but rundown
32
the members. Even if the funds could be raised and
the building could be restored, might the renovation
create a rift between those who supported renovation
and those who supported the status quo. Additionally,
would Milwaukee Alano Foundation be able to support
its programs and afford the upkeep? Might the foundation need to establish a new executive director position
to oversee the property and operations, instead of the
current on-site manager who was paid $450 per week.
In short, we tried to point out where their plans might
go off track, and that even though their vision was a
compelling, sometimes architectural clients are not
always in a position to create the reality they seek. Nevertheless, the Board of Directors wanted to proceed.
Assessment of organizational and architectural fit
Mindful of the importance of this property to the
organization, we felt it important to encourage the
members to consider how the building could be used
to support and enhance Alano’s activities and programs, and more specifically as an aid in recovery. As
we delved into the issues, we learned that architectural
changes would also necessitate operational and organizational adjustments in order to achieve the image
envisioned by the members. We prepared a document
called “Decisions, Decisions” to facilitate discussion
about several critical organizational issues that need to
be addressed before architectural and engineering plans
could be drawn. These included:
Accessibility: Membership to Alano is advertently
barred to people with mobility impairments because
requires traversing several step from either the front
porch or back stairs. To serve people who use wheelchairs and to accommodate members as they become
older, renovation to the property will require elevator
access to all four levels of the house.
Smoking: Many members are addicted to tobacco and
are heavy smokers., The smell in the building is overwhelming and health hazards associated with second
hand smoke, however, is overwhelmingly negative for
many non-smokers, to the point where it deters some
people from joining. Alano will need to ban smoking or
restrict it to certain areas. Designating smoking areas
will necessitate investment in some kind of air filtration
system to mitigate the impact on others.
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Figure 2. Seating Area at Building Entry
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Figure 3. Existing Interior Coffee Bar
Building image: From the exterior, the building
appears rundown, with peeling paint that covers the
stonework and original cream colored brick, sparse
landscaping, and a rusting fire escape. Plastic patio
chairs and crude benches are placed on the front porch
and a patch of concrete in the front. The interior is
furnished with a hodgepodge of mismatched built-ins,
cast-off furniture, wall colors, as well as a plethora
of posters and announcements that clutter the walls.
There are also two features that are deemed inappropriate by some members because they serve as cues for
addictive behaviors: video games consoles in the front
foyer, and a grill and counter with barstool seating on
the first floor that conveys the image of a greasy spoon
diner, if not a tavern. Alano needs to determine type of
image they wish the interior to convey, whether it being
true to the original style of the home, an contemporary
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coffee bar with club chairs, upscale hotel or some other
appropriate image.
Activities and programs: Much of the socializing occurs in bar counter area where members sit around the
counter and enjoy conversation. Alano also sponsors
special events like dinner, lectures, musical performances, and game nights. However, they may not be
able to provide activities for people in different generations, background, and intentions. Variety of activities
and program can be expanded to serve the needs of diverse population, including cooking classes, teen lounge,
physical exercise, meditation, and gardening.
Pre-design program
We attempted to frame the critical design issues associated with specific rooms, using room data sheets
and annotated plans. For each room, we described: (1)
current conditions and uses, including critical flaws and
sources of organizational conflict (2) new uses and ways
in which the design of the space can their common goal
of achieving and maintaining a life free from the use
of alcohol and drugs (3) Design considerations about
layout, furnishings, and signs; (4) preliminary plans to
illustrate various design suggestions and considerations.
The current bar and grill area provides a useful
example. We included a description of this setting’s current use as a place for food preparation, eating, smoking
cigarettes and chatting with others. We also pointed out
some members view the bar as a smoky, dingy hangout
for former barflies, which is all too close in character to
the kind of settings they are seeking to avoid. We suggested that this room, which was once an elegant dining
room with built in cabinetry, fireplace, and a built-in
ceramic planter, could be transformed into a friendly
coffee shop that offers a cozy atmosphere and a variety
of seating choices. The existing counter will be removed,
and replaced, perhaps by a coffee bar that is compatible
with the existing woodwork.
34
Figure 4. Interior Plan Elements of Interest
Schematic design
The schematic design addressed the handicapped
accessibility and fire egress through the addition of an
elevator and stair tower. Because of the historic nature of the property and the surrounding area, it was
deemed that the only feasible option would be to locate
this tower at the rear of the building. Landscaping and a
new walkway along the south façade would link the rear
entrance to the front. This new construction, along with
upgrading mechanical and fire safety systems, restoration of floors, walls, plaster, and sandblasting paint off
the brick façade, was estimated to cost approximately
$1.8 million.
Discussion
The Milwaukee Alano Foundation case, though
unique, is significant because, unlike traditional clinical
settings, or even the Oxford House group home model,
the members own and have complete control over their
place of recovery. The choice to channel their energy in
the direction of restoration suggests that such ownership might be a heretofore overlooked factor. Common
ownership and control over a place of healing may
provide a means to facilitate group identity and cohesion. It may be a rallying point for members that may
strengthen the organization, and in turn facilitate the
recovery process.
We began our consultation with the assumption that
the rehabilitation of Alano’s property would serve the
instrumental function of supporting and enhancing
the organization activities, as a powerful symbol of the
organization, and perhaps as a concrete metaphor for
rehabilitation and recover to which the members could
aspire.
Yet, we also mindful that the project might also
exacerbate organizational tensions between those who
find comfort in the building as is and those who seek
to restore it. Since group cohesion is so important to
the twelve-step process, and because the rehabilitation
might be destructive to that cohesion, it raises the question of whether there is something is more important
than just a good metaphor.
Upon reflection, we see our process of scenario planning, assessment of organizational and architectural
fit, pre-design programming, and schematic design, as
parallel to and complementary to AA’s steps for recover.
By pointing out alternative scenarios to the organizational and architectural future sought by Alano,
we were in effect underscoring that sometimes that
architectural projects unleash forces that are beyond
our power to control.
Our investigation of building problems, from peeling
paint to the acrid cigarette smell, to the lack of accessibility, constitute, in a sense, the kind of “fearless moral
inventory” that AA requires of its members. Our report
is as much a record of neglect and abuse on the part of
Alano in caring for their building and addressing the
needs of its members, as it is a list of issues to address in
design.
The architectural program and subsequent schematic
design, in that same sense, are an attempt to remove
what AA terms all those “defects of character.” If
implemented, they would restore the moral character
of the building and by extension the foundation and its
members.
For the champions of the restoration project, the
building is both object and instrument of recovery.
Their effort to restore the building—to champion the
project through the board of directors, to sell the idea
to the members, and to raise a hefty sum in order to
achieve it—is propelled by the same force that drives
individual members through the twelve-step process.
In a very real sense, the members seek to rehabilitate
the building as part of rehabilitating themselves. The
renovation itself has the urgency on a moral imperative,
and in a sense, has been the focus of a recovery process
that is very much parallels the addition recovery of the
membership.
As of this writing, the members have possession of
the architectural program and the schematic plans, and
they have been deliberating what to do next. They have
yet to raise the necessary funds and put the project out
to bid. Hence, we cannot know at this time whether the
process and final product will be a boon or a bane to
Alano. But, as long as the members owns and occupies
the house, even if it is never fully restored, it will serves
as a reminder, much like the stories of old-time members, or even as old-timer itself, that beneath the flaws
there is a pure, unadulterated self waiting for recovery.
References
Canter, S. and Canter, D. (1979) “Building for Therapy,”
Designing for Therapeutic Environments. Chichester,
England: John Wiley & Sons, 1-28.
Ferrari, et. al. (2006) Creating a home to promote
recovery: the physical environments of Oxford House.
Journal of Prevention and Intervention in the Community, volume 31 (1/2), 27-39.
Landry, Mim. U.S. Department of Health and Human
Services (1996) Overview of Addiction Treatment Effectiveness (DHHS Publication No. SMA 96-3081).
Rockville. MD: National Clearinghouse for Alcohol and
Drug Information.
Mercer, Delinda. (2000) Description of an addiction
counseling approach. Approaches to Drug Abuse Counseling (NIH Publication No. 00-4151). Bethesda, MD:
National Institute on Drug Abuse.
Nowinski, Joseph and Stuart Baker. (1992) The
Twelve-Step Facilitation Handbook. New York: Lexington Books.
Schaub, Bonney and Richard Schaub. (1997) Healing
Addictions: The Vulnerability Model of Recovery. New
York: Delmar Publishers.
Wesa, Kathleen and Patricia Culliton. (2004) Recommendations and guidelines regarding the preferred
research protocol for investigating the impact of an Optimal Healing Environment on patients with substance
abuse.” Journal of Alternative and Complementary
Medicine, volume 10, Supplement 1, S-193-S-199.
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The Effects of Commercial
Signs on Users’ Sense of
Visual Quality in Historic
City Centers of Different
Urban Contexts
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Los efectos de muestras comerciales en el sentido
de los usuarios de la calidad visual en los centros de
ciudad históricos de diversos contextos urbanos
Adriana Portella (University College London,
United Kingdom)
ABSTRACT
This paper focus on the relationship between visual
quality of the built environment and commercial
signage in historic city centres. It identifies the physical
aspects of commercial signs and buildings that should
be taken in account in the development of a general
approach to control commercial signs in historic city
centres of different urban contexts. This study suggests that while some visual preferences are influenced
by users’ urban contexts, others can be universals and
applied to define general urban design principles. This
study explores whether user perception and evaluation
of the number of commercial signs and the percentage
of building facade coverage by these media has some
influence on (i) user satisfaction with commercial street
facades, (ii) user perception and evaluation of order,
color variation and complexity, and (iii) user feeling of
pleasure and interest in relation to the appearance of
commercial streetscapes in historic city centres. The
findings (i) show that there are common visual preferences among users from different countries, and (ii)
suggest that these can be applied to develop a general
approach to control commercial signs in historic city
centres.
1.0 INTRODUCTION
This study concerns the problem of visual pollution in historic city centres. “Visual pollution” is an
established expression commonly used in countries of
North, Central and South America. It is usually given to
unattractive visual elements of a streetscape; commonly
36
cited examples are billboards, commercial signs, litter,
graffiti, telephone lines and poles. In this paper, this expression concerns the degradation of the visual quality
of historic city centres caused by commercial signs
displayed on building facades and in public spaces.
It is often said that historic city centres have being
damaged by the uncontrolled display of commercial
signs on the streetscape (Figure 1). This phenomenon is
evident in contemporary urban settings in many countries, and it is not new as the literature demonstrates
(Cullen, 2000; Passini, 1992; Nasar, 1988a; Ashihara,
1983; Herzog, Kaplan & Kaplan, 1976; Rapoport &
Hawkes, 1970). Many researchers have already analysed
this problem and explored the negative consequences
that it can have on user perception and evaluation of
commercial street facades (Portella, 2006a, 2006b, 2003;
Klein, 2000; Nasar & Hong 1999). Despite the fact that
the problem is well described and familiar to many,
there is a lack in the literature of any evidence which
might relate the physical aspects of commercial street
facades with perceptions and evaluations of users from
different urban contexts; and which could allow clear
conclusions to be drawn about the universality of this
relationship.
This paper recognizes that other studies have already
proved that user visual preferences for street scenes can
differ among people from distinct backgrounds and
urban contexts (Coolican, 2004; Oliver, 2002; Golledge
& Stimson, 1997; Bartuska &Young, 1994; Lang, 1988;
Lynch, 1960). What this paper proposes is that, as
argued by Nasar (1988b), some visual preferences are
common to the majority of users independent of their
backgrounds and urban contexts, and these common
views can be applied to develop a general theory to control commercial signs in historic city centres. In light
of this issue, this study seeks to: (i) contribute to the
understanding of which physical aspects of commercial
signs and buildings should be taken in account in the
development of a general approach to control commercial signs in historic city centres in different urban contexts, and (ii) inform the debate about the distinction
between universal and individual visual preferences,
thus helping to inform better urban design principles
to guide development control of advertising and facade
treatment. Seeking common views among users from
different case studies and countries, the objective of
this study is to understand whether user perception and
evaluation of the number of commercial signs and the
percentage of building facade coverage by these media
has some influence on (i) user satisfaction with commercial street facades, (ii) user perception of order,
color variation and complexity, and (iii) users’ feelings
of pleasure and interest in relation to the appearance
of commercial streetscapes in historic city centres.
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(A)
(B)
(C)
Figure 1. Example of visual pollution in historic city centres of different countries: (A) Pelotas in Brazil, (B) Madurai in India, and (C) Lisbon
in Portugal (Source: author).
2.0 CASE STUDIES AND METHODOLOGY
The case studies were selected in order to cover a variety of aesthetic aspects that can be present in different
historic city centres. The main criteria used to select
countries to allow a comparison among user preferences were: (i) a country where a national approach to
help local authorities to guide and control commercial
signs in historic city centres is applied in practice, and
(ii) a country where there is no national approach to
control commercial signs leaving local authorities
with the responsibility to develop commercial signage
controls, and to decide whether these controls are
necessary in historic city centres. England and Brazil
were chosen because they satisfy these criteria, respectively. Three historic cities were defined as case studies:
the city centre of Oxford in England, as an example of
a city where a national commercial signage approach is
applied, and the city centres of Gramado and Pelotas
in Brazil. In the first Brazilian city, commercial signage
controls are applied by the City Council, whereas in
the second city these controls have never been applied
(Table 1 and Figure 2).
Having chosen these three case studies, two commercial streets in each city centre were selected representing
typical streetscapes. Ideally, to ensure maximum
realism the users from the two countries would observe the same streets in situ. However, because of the
impracticality of bringing users from England to Brazil
and vice versa, the experiment was based on color
photo-simulations, which were shown to residents in
Oxford, Gramado and Pelotas (Figure 3). As already
discussed by other researchers, methods using stimuli
such as color photos and photo simulation are scientifically valid (Sommer & Sommer, 2002; Stamps, 2000;
Sanoff, 1991; Rosenthal & Rubin, 1986; Light & Pillemer,
1984).
The responses of two user groups were analysed:
professionals (architects, urban designers, civil engineers, and planners) and lay people. The respondents
were randomly selected through articles published in
local newspapers inviting people to participle of the
survey. A total of 361 people contacted the researcher
to answer a questionnaire (114 users from Oxford, 120
users from Gramado, and 127 users from Pelotas). The
questionnaire comprised of 28 close-questions and 8
open-questions was designed to identify users’ visual
preferences for six commercial street facades. A
focus group discussion in each case study was also
organized (20 participants in each city) in order to
better understand the reason for some of users’ visual
preferences. Participants were also invited to the focus
group through local newspapers. The photo simula-
tions of the six commercial street facades were printed
out in a poster size A1 and showed to the respondents
when the research questionnaire was being completed
(Figure 3). Non-parametric statistical analysis was
carried out to analyze the data (Howitt, 2005; Sommer
& Sommer, 2002; Howell, 1997; Siegel, 1988; Rowntree,
1981).
CASE STUDIES
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OXFORD CITY
CENTRE (ENGLAND)
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MAIN DIFFERENCES
• Commercial signage controls are applied in order to preserve the historic character of buildings and public
spaces.
• Result: commercial street facades ordered in terms of commercial signs and buildings and characterized by
preserved historic buildings.
GRAMADO CITY
CENTRE (BRAZIL)
• Commercial signage controls are applied as a tool to reinforce the manufactured image of the city promoted
by the City Council as the “Brazilian Switzerland”. This image is mainly represented by contemporary buildings
known in Brazil as “Neo-Bavarian”.
• Result: commercial street facades ordered in terms of commercial signs and buildings and characterized by a
manufactured character.
PELOTAS CITY
CENTRE (BRAZIL)
• Commercial signage controls exist but not applied.
• Result: commercial street facades disordered in terms of commercial signs and buildings and characterized by
historic buildings harmed by these media.
Table 1. Main differences among the streetscapes in the city centres of Oxford, Gramado and Pelotas (Source: fieldwork 2007).
(A)
(B)
(C)
Figure 2. (A) Oxford city centre in England, (B) Gramado city centre in Brazil, (C) Pelotas city centre in Brazil (Source: fieldwork 2007)
3.0 FINDINGS
3.1 Preliminary Findings
Before discussing the results from user perception and
evaluation of the number of commercial signs and the
percentage of building facade coverage by these media,
it is useful to mention those commercial street facades
chosen as the best and the worst streets in terms of
appearance by respondents from the three case studies.
This study asked the respondents from each case study
to rank the streets from 1 (users like the most) to 6
(users like the least).
Taking into account responses of users from the whole
sample, Oxford, Gramado and Pelotas, the results show
38
that the commercial street facades located in Pelotas
city centre, where commercial signage controls exist
but are not applied and where the historic character is
strongly damaged by shopfront and window displays,
were ranked as the worst streets in terms of appearance (streets 5 and 6). In addition, the street facades
located in Oxford case study, where commercial signage
controls are applied in order to preserve the historic
character of buildings and public spaces and preserved
historic buildings characterize the streetscape, were
ranked as the best streets in terms of appearance
(streets 1 and 2). Moreover, as predicted by Kaplan and
Kaplan (1982) and Lang (1987), user familiarity with
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Figure 3. Technique applied to take the photographs to make the photo-simulations and the poster attached to the questionnaire showing the commercial street facades selected in each case study (Source: fieldwork 2007).
the streetscape and symbolic meanings attributed
to buildings influenced on some users’ preferences,
but this influence has been demonstrated as complex
rather than positive or negative. The findings of this
study suggest that user familiarity with a particular
streetscape and symbolic meanings attributed to
buildings can influence users’ preferences: street 3,
located in Gramado city centre, was ranked as the best
street by residents in Gramado who, in a focus groups
discussion, mentioned that the historical and cultural
importance of some of the buildings influence their
satisfaction with this street (Table 2).
Differences between perception and evaluation of
users from Oxford, Gramado and Pelotas were also
found: (i) street 1 (located in Oxford) and street 5
(located in Pelotas) were evaluated more positively by
users from Oxford than by users from Gramado and
Pelotas; (ii) streets 3 and 4 (located in Gramado) were
evaluated more positively by users from Gramado
than by users from Oxford and Pelotas; (iii) street
6 (located in Pelotas) was evaluated more positively
by users from Pelotas than by users from Gramado;
(iv) street 2 (located in Oxford) was evaluated more
positively by users from Pelotas than by users from
Oxford and Gramado. This study does not identify the
factors that result in those differences, but it suggests
that, in the cases which residents prefer the streets
from their cities, user familiarity with the streetscape
and symbolic meanings attributed to buildings can be
influencing user responses.
Furthermore, similarities and differences between
lay people and professionals were found. Taking into
account responses of users from the whole sample,
the results show that the commercial street facades
located in Gramado, where commercial signage is ordered and the streetscape is built to promote a manufactured image of the city, tend to be popular with
lay people more than with professionals. Professional
preferences tend to be higher with the streets located
in Oxford and Pelotas, while lay people preferences
tend to be higher with the streets located in Gramado.
At the same time, similarities between both these
groups were verified: street 1 has the highest user
evaluation, while street 6 has the lowest user evaluation; and streets 4 and 5 are placed in fourth and fifth
places, respectively, by both these user groups. When
responses of users from the case studies of Oxford
and Pelotas were analysed, two common tendencies
were found between lay people and professionals: lay
people tend to evaluate street 3 most positively, while
professionals tend to evaluate street 6 most positively.
Common views between these users groups were
also identified in Oxford and Pelotas: lay people and
professionals from Oxford classified street 1 as the
best and street 6 as the worst streets in terms of appearance, while both these users groups from Pelotas
mentioned street 2 as the best and street 5 as the worst
streets in terms of appearance. In Gramado, both
users groups agreed that street 6 was the worst street
in terms of appearance, however street 3 was men-
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tioned as the best street by lay people, while professionals indicated street 1.
Based on these findings, the following tendencies
were verified in more than one case study: according
to the majority of users (lay people and professionals),
(i) commercial street facades where commercial
signage controls are applied and preserved historic
buildings characterize the streetscape are ranked as
the best streets in terms of appearance (streets 1 and
2), and (ii) commercial street facades where commercial signage controls have not been applied and
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historic buildings are harmed by commercial signs
are ranked as the worst streets in terms of appearance
(streets 5 and 6). The findings also show that users
who prefer commercial street facades characterized by
preserved historic buildings do not sympathize with
commercial streets characterized by contemporary
buildings designed to create a manufactured image of
the city. Moreover, streetscapes characterized by a mix
of historic and contemporary buildings seem to have
a positive effect on user perception and evaluation of
commercial street facades.
Street 1: High Street in Oxford city centre.
Street 2: Cornmarket Street in Oxford city centre.
Street 3: Borges de Medeiros Avenue in Gramado city centre.
Building 1
Building 3
Street 5: General Osorio Street in Pelotas city centre.
Street 6: Sete de Setembro Street in Pelotas city centre.
Table 2. Commercial street facades chosen as the best (streets 1, 2 and 3) and the worst (streets 5 and 6) streets in terms of appearance.
40
3.2 Main Findings
Looking for common perceptions and evaluations
among users from the different case studies, three hypotheses were tested:
(i) there is no relationship between user perception
and evaluation of the number of commercial signs and
user satisfaction with the commercial street facades;
(ii) the higher the user satisfaction with commercial
street facades, the lower the user perception and evaluation of the percentage of building facade covered by
commercial signs; and
(iii) the higher the user perception and evaluation of
the number of commercial signs and the percentage
of building facade covered by these media, the less
pleasant, the more interesting, the less ordered, the
more colorful, and the more complex the commercial
street facades.
3.2.1 Hypothesis One: There is no relationship between user perception and evaluation of the number of
commercial signs and user satisfaction with the commercial street facades
When responses of users from the whole sample (361
users) was analysed, the results show that there is no
relationship between user perception and evaluation of
the number of commercial signs and user satisfaction
with the appearance of streets 1, 2 and 3.
However, taking those streets classified as the worst
streets in terms of appearance, the following relationship was identified: the higher the user perception and
evaluation of the number of commercial signs, the
lower the user satisfaction with the commercial street
facade (street 5: Spearman, rho= - 0.35, p=0.01; street 6:
Spearman, rho= - 0.33, p=0.01). Street 5 has the lowest
number of commercial signs compared to the other
streets in the sample but it has the highest percentage
of building facade covered by these media (11.31% of
the streetscape = 79.97m²). At the same time, street 6
has the second highest number of commercial signs
compared to the other streets in the sample, and the
second highest percentage of building facades covered
by these media (9.11% of the streetscape = 93.34m²). In
this regard, this study suggest that user satisfaction is
influenced by the percentage of building facades covered by commercial signs rather than by the number of
shopfronts and window displays.
When the responses of users from Oxford, Gramado
and Pelotas were analysed individually, there is no rela-
tionship between user perception and evaluation of the
number of commercial signs and user satisfaction with
streets 1 and 3. On the other hand, taking into account
users from Pelotas, the following relationship is found
when street 2 was analysed (Spearman, rho= - 0.33,
p=0.02): the higher the user perception and evaluation
of the number of commercial signs, the lower the user
satisfaction with the commercial street facade. Street 2
has the second lowest number of commercial signs compared to the other streets in the sample but the highest
percentage of building facade covered by these media
(5.62% of the streetscape = 54.56m²) when compared to
street 1 (2.70% of the streetscape = 34.60m²) and street
3 (3.48% of the streetscape = 30.54m²). In this regard,
the percentage of building facade covered by signs
seems to (i) increase user perception and evaluation of
the number of commercial signs, and (ii) influence user
satisfaction with the appearance of street 2.
A significant relationship was also found between user
perception and evaluation of the number of commercial
signs, and user satisfaction with streets 5 and 6 when responses of users from Oxford (Street 5: Spearman, rho=
- 0.48, p=0.01; Street 6: Spearman, rho= - 0.40, p=0.01)
and Pelotas (Street 5: Spearman, rho= - 0.32, p=0.01;
Street 6: Spearman, rho= - 0.38, p=0.01) were analysed.
The results show that: the higher the user perception
and evaluation of the number of commercial signs, the
lower the user satisfaction with the commercial street
facades. In this regard, as explained before, this study
suggests that user satisfaction has been influenced by
the percentage of building facade covered by commercial signs rather than by the number of these media. If
the number of shopfronts and window displays was
affecting user satisfaction with the appearance of
commercial street facades, a correlation between these
variables should be found when street 1 was analysed
(street 1 has the highest number of commercial signs),
and not when street 5 was analysed (street 5 has the
lowest number of commercial signs).
Considering these results, the hypothesis “there is no
relationship between user perception and evaluation of
with the commercial street facades” was verified when
streets 1 and 3 were analysed. Although this hypothesis
was not supported by the results from streets 2, 5 and 6,
the findings suggest that user perception and evaluation
of the number of commercial signs can be influenced
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by the percentage of building facade covered by these
media. In addition, it is relevant to note that the commercial street facade chosen by the highest number of
users as the best street in terms of appearance (street
1) has the highest number of commercial signs (46
signs) compared to the other streets in the sample;
while one of the two commercial street facades chosen
as the worst street in terms of appearance (street 5)
has the lowest number of commercial signs (25 signs)
compared to the other streets in the sample. These
findings just help to support the Hypothesis One.
3.2.2 Hypothesis Two: The higher the user satisfaction with commercial street facades, the lower the
user perception and evaluation of the percentage of
building facade covered by commercial signs
Taking into account responses of users from the
whole sample (361 users), there is a relationship between user satisfaction with commercial street facades
and user perception and evaluation of the percentage
of building facade covered by commercial signs. This
relationship was found when street 2 (Spearman,
rho=-0.27, p=0.02), street 5 (Spearman, rho=-0.35,
p=0.001) and street 6 (Spearman, rho=-0.35, p=0.001)
were analysed. Taking into account responses of
users from each case study, a relationship between
those variables was also found when responses of
users from Pelotas in relation to street 2 (Spearman,
rho=-0.21, p=0.01), and responses of users from
Oxford, Gramado and Pelotas in relation to streets
5 and 6 were analysed (Oxford - street 5: spearman,
rho=-0.54, p=0.001; street 6: rho=-0.65, p=0.001; Gramado - street 5: spearman, rho=-0.21, p=0.02; street
6: rho=-0.21, p=0.02; and Pelotas - street 5: spearman,
rho=-0.28, p=0.002; street 6: rho=-0.20, p=0.03). In
all these cases, the following tendency was verified:
the higher the user perception and evaluation of the
percentage of building facade coverage by commercial
signs, the lower the user satisfaction with the commercial street facades.
In this regard, the hypothesis “the higher the user
satisfaction with commercial street facades; the lower
the user perception and evaluation of the percentage
of building facade covered by commercial signs” was
verified. It is relevant to note that the street chosen by
the highest number of users as the best street in terms
of appearance (street 1) has the lowest percentage of
building facade coverage by commercial signs (2.70%
42
of the streetscape = 34.60m²). On the other hand, the
street chosen by the highest number of users as the
worst street in terms of appearance (street 6) has the
second highest percentage of building facade coverage
by these media (9.11% of the streetscape = 93.34m²).
These findings help to confirm the hypothesis, and
they also show that what influence user satisfaction
with commercial street facades is the percentage of
building facade coverage by commercial signs rather
than the number of shopfronts and window displays.
In addition, the results have shown that street 2,
which has the highest percentage of streetscape covered by commercial signs (5.62% of the streetscape =
54.56 m²) and the highest square meter of commercial
signs per street meter (0.68 m2/m) when compared
to streets 1 and 3, was perceived and evaluated by
the majority of users from each case study as having
“small” or “very small” percentage of building facade
coverage by commercial signs. On the other hand,
almost the majority of respondents from each city
indicated that: (i) street 1, which has only 2.70% of the
street facade coverage by this media (34.60 m²) and
0.31 m² of commercial signs per linear street meter,
and (ii) street 3, which has the lower percentage of
street facade covered by commercial signs (3.48%
of the streetscape = 30.54m²) than street 2 and only
0.25m² of commercial signs per linear meter of street,
have moderate percentage of building facade coverage
by commercial signs.
Taking into account the physical characteristics of
streets 1, 2, and 3, one plausible explanation for these
results is the localization of shopfronts on building
facades. This analysis suggests that when almost all
shopfronts are located in similar places on different
buildings (base, body or coronation), user perception
and evaluation of the percentage of building facade
covered by commercial signs decreases. This may
happen because these media are concentrated in one
zone of building facades, living the others clean of
signs. This is the main difference between the commercial signage in street 2 and in streets 1 and 3. In
street 2, almost all shopfronts are aligned and located
on the top part of ground floor of every building
facades, while on streets 1 and 3 there is more variety
regarding this aspect (Figure 4).
Figure 4. The majority of shopfronts are located on the top part of the ground floor of every building facade living the other zones of these buildings
free of signs (Source: fieldwork 2007).
Analyzing streets 5 and 6, the majority of
respondents from each case study agreed that the
percentage of building facade coverage by commercial
signs is “very much” or “a lot” in both these streets.
These results can be related to the following aspects:
(i) street 5 has the highest coverage of building
facade by commercial signs (11.11% of the streetscape
= 79.97m²) compared to the other streets in the
sample, and 0.85m² of commercial signs per linear
street meter; and (b) street 6 has the second highest
coverage of building by commercial signage (9.11%
of the streetscape = 93.34m²) compared to the other
streets in the sample, and the highest square meter
of commercial signs per street meter (1m²/m). In this
regard, this study suggest that a minimal amount of
9% of a street facade coverage by commercial signs,
and a minimal amount of 0.85m² of commercial signs
per linear street meter can increase user perception
and evaluation of the percentage of building facade
coverage by these media, and, consequently, decrease
user satisfaction with the appearance of commercial
street facades.
3.2.3 Hypothesis Three: The higher the user perception and evaluation of the number of commercial
signs and the percentage of building facade covered
by these media, the less pleasant, the more interesting,
the less ordered, the more colorful and the more complex the commercial street facades
Taking into account responses of users from the
whole sample, the following tendency was found:
the higher the user perception and evaluation of
the number of commercial signs, the less pleasant
(verified in relation to street 1), the more interesting
(verified in relation to streets 1 and 6), the less ordered
(verified in relation to streets 1, 2 and 6), the more
colorful (verified in relation to streets 1, 2, 5 and 6),
and the more complex (verified in relation to street
1) the commercial street facades. In addition, the
same tendency was verified when user perception and
evaluation of the percentage of building facades coverage by commercial signs was analysed: the higher
the user perception and evaluation of the percentage
of building facade coverage by commercial signs, the
less pleasant (verified in relation to street 6), the more
interesting (verified in relation to street 5), the less
ordered (verified in relation to streets 1, 2, 3, 5 and
6), the more colorful (verified in relation to streets 1
and 2), and the more complex (verified in relation to
streets 1 and 3) the commercial street facades (Table
3).
Analyzing responses of users from each case
study, the following results were found: the higher
the user perception and evaluation of the number
of commercial signs, the less pleasant (verified with
users from Gramado), the less ordered and the more
complex (verified with users from Oxford) street 1.
In addition, taking into account the streets classified
as the worst streets in terms of appearance, similar
tendency was verified: the higher the user perception
and evaluation of the number of commercial signs,
the less pleasant (verified with users from Gramado
in relation to street 5 and with users from Pelotas
in relation to street 6), the more interesting (verified
with users from Oxford in relation to street 5), the less
ordered (verified with users from Oxford in relation
to street 5 and with users from Oxford, Gramado
and Pelotas in relation to street 6), the more colorful
(verified with users from Gramado and Pelotas in
relation to street 5 and with users from Pelotas in
relation to street 6), and the more complex (verified
with users from Pelotas in relation to street 5) the
commercial street facades (Table 4).
Analyzing user perception and evaluation of
the percentage of building facades coverage by
commercial signs, the same tendency was found:
the higher the user perception and evaluation
of the percentage of building facade coverage by
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commercial signs, the less ordered (verified with users
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from Oxford in relation to street 1) and the more
complex (verified with users from Oxford in relation
to streets 1 and 2) the commercial street facades
chosen as the best streets in terms of appearance.
Focusing on the streets chosen as the worst in terms
of appearance, the following results were verified:
the higher the user perception and evaluation of
the percentage of building facades coverage by
commercial signs, the less pleasant (verified with
users from Oxford and Pelotas in relation to street 6),
Variable C:
Variables
User perception
and evaluation of
>x<:
Pleasant
Variable A: User perception and evaluation of the number of
commercial signs.
Interest
Order
Color
Complexity
Variable B: User perception and evaluation
of the percentage of
building façade covered
by commercial signs.
the more interesting (verified with users from Oxford
in relation to streets 5 and 6), the less ordered (verified
with users from Oxford in relation to street 5 and with
users from Pelotas in relation to street 6), the more
colorful (verified with users from Pelotas in relation
to streets
5 and users from Pelotas in relation to street 6), and
the more complex (verified with users from Oxford
and Pelotas in relation to street 6) the commercial
street facades (Table 4).
THE WHOLE SAMPLE (N=361 users)
Street 1
Street 2
Street 3
Street 5
Street 6
N=153 users
N=74 users
N=106 users
N=149 users
N=169 users
none
none
none
none
none
none
none
none
none
none
rho= 0.18,
p=0.02
rho= 0.22,
p=0.004
rho= - 0.22,
p=0.004
rho= 0.28,
p=0.001
none
none
none
none
rho= - 0.31,
p=0.001
rho= -0.18,
p=0.02
rho= - 0.46,
p=0.001
rho= 0.17,
p=0.03
rho= 0.31,
p=0.001
rho= - 0.34,
p=0.003
rho= 0.36,
p=0.002
Pleasant
none
none
none
none
rho= - 0.22,
p=0.004
Interest
none
none
none
rho= - 0.21,
p=0.01
none
rho= - 0.42,
p=0.001
rho= 0.25,
p=0.002
rho= - 0.34,
p=0.003
rho= 0.36,
p=0.002
rho= - 0.23,
p=0.02
rho= - 0.18,
p=0.05
rho= - 0.20,
p=0.009
none
none
none
rho= 0.25,
p=0.002
none
rho= 0.25,
p=0.01
none
none
Order
Color
Complexity
Legend: Bold = Moderate Correlation.
Table 3: Spearman correlations found between user perception and evaluation of the number of commercial signs (variable A) and the percentage
of building facade coverage by these media (variable B) and user perception and evaluation of pleasant, interest, order, color variation and complexity (variable C) – the whole sample.
The findings show that the number of commercial signs
and the percentage of building facade coverage by these
media influence on user perception and evaluation of
order, color variation and complexity and on user’s feelings
of pleasure and interest in relation to the appearance of
commercial street facades. The results also show that this
influence is verified when analyzing the commercial street
facades classified as the best and the worst streets in terms
of appearance where the percentage of building facade
coverage by commercial signs is different. Taking into
account that user perception and evaluation of the number
of commercial signs can be influenced by the percentage
of street facade coverage by these media, these outcomes
44
suggest that to increase user perception and evaluation
of pleasure and order, the percentage of building facade
coverage by commercial signs should be controlled. At the
same time, this control will decrease user perception and
evaluation of color variation and complexity, what can be
positive factors in historic city centres streetscapes. According to the literature, too high color variation and complexity can provoke chaos and decrease user satisfaction
with the appearance of street facades. In addition, if users
are bombarded with high levels of commercial signage and
building variation, they will experiment saturation losing
the enjoyment of variety, and becoming insensitive to this
succession without order (Weber, 1995; Nasar, 1988).
Variable C:
Streets
OXFORD
GRAMADO
PELOTAS
N = 114 users
N = 120 users
N = 127 users
Pleasant
none
rho= - 0.39, p=0.01
none
Order
rho= - 0.29, p=0.01
none
none
Complexity
rho= 0.45, p=0.01
none
none
Pleasant
rho= 0.53, p=0.002
none
none
Order
none
none
rho= - 0.30, p=0.02
User perception and
evaluation of >x<:
Street 1
Variable A: User
perception and
evaluation of the number
Street 5
of commercial signs.
Street 6
Street 1
Street 3
Variable B: User
perception and
evaluation of the
Street 5
percentage of building
façade covered by
commercial signs.
Street 6
Color
rho= 0.41, p=0.02
rho= 0.29, p=0.003
none
Interest
rho= -0.26, p=0.04
none
rho= -0.30, p=0.04
Color
rho= - 0.40, p=0.001
none
none
Complexity
rho= 0.37, p=0.003
none
none
Order
rho= - 0.31, p=0.008
none
none
Complexity
rho= 0.28, p=0.001
none
none
Complexity
rho= 0.57, p=0.001
none
none
Pleasant
rho= 0.38, p=0.03
none
none
Interest
rho= - 0.38, p=0.03
none
none
Order
rho= - 0.51, p=0.003
none
none
Color
none
none
rho= 0.29, p=0.02
Pleasant
rho= 0.34, p=0.008
none
rho= - 0.32, p=0.03
Interest
rho=-0.38, p=0.002
none
none
Order
none
none
rho= - 0.49, p=0.001
Color
none
none
rho= 0.43, p=0.003
Complexity
rho= 0.27, p=0.04
none
rho= 0.40, p=0.006
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There is no correlation when user perception and evaluation of the number of commercial signs was analysed in relation to streets 2 and 3. There
is no correlation when user perception and evaluation of the percentage of buildings facade coverage by commercial signs was analysed in relation to street 2.
Legend: Italic = Moderate Correlation. Bold = Strong Correlation.
Table 4: Spearman correlations found between user perception and evaluation of the number of commercial signs (variable A) and the percentage of
building facade coverage by these media (variable B) and user perception and evaluation of pleasant, interest, order, colour variation and complexity
(variable C) – case studies of Oxford, Gramado and Pelotas.
4. CONCLUSION
One of the main conclusions of this study is that:
(i) commercial street facades, where a national approach to help local authorities to guide and control
commercial signs in historic city centres is applied in
practice and preserved historic buildings characterize
the streetscape, are ranked as the best streets in terms
of appearance by users from the different case studies.
At the same time, (ii) commercial street facades,
where commercial signage controls exist but are not
applied and the streetscape is harmed by shopfronts
and window displays are ranked as the worst streets
in terms of appearance by users from the different
case studies.
The evidence presented in this paper suggest that
a general approach to control commercial signage
in historic city centres is fundamental in promoting
commercial streets evaluated positively by users from
different urban contexts. In the development of this
approach, user familiarity with particular streetscapes
and symbolic meanings attributed to buildings should
be taken into account as both these factors influence
on user perception and evaluation of commercial
streetscapes. This study has also demonstrated that
this approach should take in account the following
issues: (i) users who prefer commercial street facades
characterized by preserved historic buildings do not
like commercial street facades comprised of contemporary buildings designed to create a manufactured
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image of the city, and (ii) streetscapes characterized
by a mix of historic and contemporary buildings can
positively influence user evaluation of commercial
street facades.
This investigation has also shown similarities
between lay people and professionals in terms of
perception and evaluation suggesting that common
views between different users groups can be applied
to develop a general commercial signage approach.
Taking into account responses of users from the whole
sample, the commercial street facades chosen as the
best (street 1) and the worst (street 6) streets in terms
of appearance by lay people were the same as those
indicated by professionals. On the other hand, the
findings have demonstrated that commercial street
facades where commercial signage is ordered and the
streetscape is characterized by a manufactured image
tend to please more lay people than professionals. This
result can explain one of the reasons that makes Gramado, in Brazil, such a popular and successful tourist
destination from the point of view of people from
several parts of this and other countries. This has also
underlined the fact that public spaces which are seem
negatively by design professionals, for example, can be
attractive places for lay people. In this study, the professional group tends to sympathize with commercial
street facades characterized by ordered commercial
signs and historic heritage.
The findings have shown that user perception and
evaluation of the percentage of building facade covered by commercial signs have a significant influence
on user satisfaction with the appearance of commercial street facades. On the other hand, there is no relationship between user perception and evaluation of
with the appearance of commercial street facades. In
addition, this study has indicated that user perception
and evaluation of the number of commercial signs is
influenced by the percentage of street facade coverage
by these media. In this regard, this paper suggests that
user satisfaction is influenced by the percentage of
street facade covered by commercial signs and not by
the number of shopfronts and windows displays. The
evidence also show that the higher the user perception and evaluation of the percentage of building
facade coverage by commercial signs, the lower the
user satisfaction with the appearance of commercial
46
street facades. Taking into account responses of users
from the whole sample (361 users), it is relevant to
note that (i) the street chosen by the highest number
of users as the best street in terms of appearance has
the lowest percentage of building facades coverage
by commercial signs, and (ii) the street chosen by the
highest number of users as the worst street in terms
of appearance has the second highest coverage of
building facades by commercial signage. These findings have reinforced the idea that what influences user
satisfaction with the appearance of commercial street
facades is the percentage of building facade covered by
commercial signs. Moreover, this study has indicated
that when almost all shopfronts are located in similar
zones of different building facades in a street facade,
user perception and evaluation of the percentage of
building facades covered by these media decrease.
This study suggests that a general approach to control commercial signs in historic city centres should
instigate the development of polices to control the
percentage of streetscape facade coverage by shopfronts and window displays and the location of these
signs on building facades; these both factors influence
satisfaction of users from different urban contexts.
This approach should also take into account that a
minimal amount of 9% of a streetscape coverage
by commercial signs and a minimal amount of 0.85
square meters of these media per linear street meter
are evaluated negatively by users from the different
case studies. Furthermore, this study also suggests
that: the higher the user perception and evaluation of
of building facades coverage by these media, the less
pleasant, the more interesting, the less ordered, the
more colorful, and the more complex the commercial street facades. In this regard, this investigation
has indicated that this general approach to control
commercial signage should focus on the control of
the percentage of building facades coverage by commercial signs in order to increase user perception and
evaluation of pleasure and order in commercial streets
of historic city centres. Consequently, this control can
lead to a decrease in user perception and evaluation of
color variation and complexity, which when too high
can affect negatively the visual quality of commercial
streets.
In conclusion, this investigation has identified
common patterns of visual preferences among individuals from different urban contexts and distinct
user groups (lay people and professionals). A possible future stage of this investigation might be the
application of the same methodology in other case
studies and countries in order to verify whether the
same universal preferences would be found. If these
findings can be found consistently among users from
other urban contexts, then urban design principles
that incorporate user perception and evaluation of
of building facades covered by these media can be addressed as theoretical concepts. These concepts could
be applied to develop a general approach to control
commercial signs in historic city centres of different
urban contexts in order to promote commercial street
facades evaluated positively by people from distinct
countries.
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environment: functioning in an uncertain world. New
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(Visual quality of commercial city centres and
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48
Environmental Evaluation
of Hospital Waiting Rooms:
Relationships of psychoenvironmental variables
Patricia Ortega-Andeane and Cesareo EstradaRodriguez (School of Psychology, Universidad
Nacional Autonoma de México)
According to some theories (Canter and Canter,
1979), physical environment can play a decisive role in
the effective functioning of hospitals, since it can help
promote patient recuperation and staff activity and offer
a comfortable, secure, and well-attended stay for users.
In order for environmental characteristics to function
for and not against therapeutic work, it is necessary to
pay attention not only to architectural design but also to
psychological concepts, which can define the difference
between a positive and a negative environment. In this
sense, Environmental Psychology has generated substantial information to improve the design of hospitals,
supported by systematic findings, which analyze and
evaluate the interaction of human relationships between
environment and behavior.
Rubin and Owens (1995), as well as Ulrich and
Zimring (2004), have reviewed studies on the impact
of physical environment in hospitals and reached the
conclusion that most studies accept the hypothesis
that environmental effects on patient health do exist.
They emphasize the importance of further research
in this field to suggest environmental improvements,
which may favor patient recuperation. On the other
hand, Shumaker and Pequegnat (1989) maintain that
environmental organization and hospital design can
directly affect patient recuperation or the well-being
of users in two ways: one is the obstruction of effective
and immediate provision of healthcare, since, from the
patient’s point of view, the hospital layout interferes
with the movements necessary for prompt healthcare;
this is supported by the results reported by Reizenstein, Grant, and Simmons (1986) and Shumaker and
Reizenstein (1982). On the other hand, physical features
such as deficient lighting, excessive noise, inadequate
localization of medical equipment, or large distances
between related areas can indirectly hinder immediate
attention and create a stressful environment for users.
Stress can be defined as the “condition manifested by
a specific syndrome which consists of all non-specific
modifications indicated within a biological system”
(Selye, 1956, p. 54). However, this definition does not
discriminate between psychological and physiological
responses to stress. Various investigators (Baum, Singer
and Baum, 1981; Evans and Cohen, 1987; Evans, 2001)
have emphasized the psychological variables of stress
and define it as “unpleasant physiological and psychological reactions to new stimuli which are demanding
and frequently persistent” (Ittelson, Proshansky, Rivlin,
and Winkel, 1974, p. 298).
For Lazarus and Folkman (1984), stress is any demand or threat that seriously challenges the person’s
adaptive abilities. Threat intensity of any potential stress
source depends on primary appraisal, in other words
the subject’s interpretation of the situation, as well as
secondary appraisal, or evaluation of the subject’s own
abilities and resources to cope with a potential stressor.
Such interpretation is a function of the overall context
within which the event occurs; it includes aspects of the
individual’s physical, social, and psychological environment (previous experiences with a given stressor, motivation, attitudes, etc.) and transactions among these
three factors (Stokols and Shumaker, 1981).
Responses to a stressful event may be behavioral,
physiological, and cognitive, and isolated or combined.
The efficiency of a coping strategy depends on the
context within which stress occurs and the individual’s
ability to execute it (Shumaker and Reizenstein, 1992).
Constant exposure to stress can deteriorate the organism’s physical and psychological resources (Selye, 1973).
Patients can also become highly vulnerable to stress
because their coping resources are diminished. As
Folkman, Schaefer, and Lazarus (1979) point out “...a
sick, tired, fragile, or somehow weakened person has
less energy to cope” (p. 29). Coping resources are also
diminished because of role dependency or because
persons find themselves in unknown environments
that depersonalize them and do not offer possibilities to
control either themselves or the surrounding environment in which specific physical factors can represent
obstacles to recovery. It is, then, extremely important to
reduce the environmental influences that cause stress,
which will otherwise jeopardize the process of convalescence or even prolong the patient’s illness. Stressing
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factors of the physical environment at healthcare facilities can be classified, based on the theoretical assertions of Reizenstein, Grant, and Simmons (1986), in
four fields: physical comfort, social contact, symbolic
meaning, and wayfinding. The present study refers
only to the factors that interfere with users’ physical
comfort, among them humidity and noise.
A major factor in the physical environment is
air temperature, which is closely related to relative
humidity and air movement: at the same temperature, humid, stagnant air is perceived as being much
warmer than dry, moving air. When heat is excessive,
physiological regulatory mechanisms are weakened
and it becomes impossible to keep internal temperature within normal limits. Symptoms are uneasiness,
weakness, nausea, and in their most severe form heat
shock. Other symptoms include asthenia, characterized by easy fatigue, substandard physical and
mental performance, irritability, loss of appetite, and
insomnia. When heat levels are above 25ºC, people
become uncomfortable, irritable, and, after prolonged
exposure, fatigued (Bell and Greene, 1982).
Noise is another environmental stress-causing
factor. Noise is defined as unwanted sound characterized by its intensity, frequency, periodicity, and
duration. Other important characteristics include
predictability, source, and controllability. High noise
levels (above 90 decibels) have been shown to increase
catecholamine levels, blood pressure, heart rate, and
skin conductance. Some research on noise shows that
when subjects are instructed to reduce noise levels,
cognitive effort decreases, as well as epinephrine and
heart rate levels (Evans, 2001).
Acute exposure to noise under laboratory conditions
produces stress, tension, and annoyance. Some studies
have found that aggression and hostility increase
when the subject is exposed to noise, particularly if
his anger or aggression has been aroused previously
(Cohen and Spacapan, and Rule and Neasdale, cited in
Evans and Cohen, 1987). Noise seems to interfere with
the ability to differentiate features of people who play
an important role in the individual’s interpersonal
relationships, such as his best friend, for example.
Unpredictable or uncontrollably high noise levels
frequently cause a decrease of altruistic behavior or an
increase of aggression. Some evidence mentions that
constant exposure to noise leads to greater suscepti-
50
bility of learned egotism or lack of solidarity (Rotton,
Olsewski, Charleston, and Soler and Cohen, cited in
Evans and Cohen, 1987).
In the case of patients in waiting rooms
(McLaughlin, 1976), the waiting period can affect the
expectations of the treatment they are about to receive.
For visitors, the waiting period may vary from minutes to hours, in which they can be intensely bored or
anxious. The size of the waiting room must therefore
be planned considering the size of the expected population and anticipated waiting times. McLaughlin
recommends spacious waiting rooms, with mobile
furniture, which can easily be adapted to different
circumstances. Thus, places to rest, talk, or be private
can be created. Visual privacy can be achieved with
small barriers or flowerpot stands. Acoustic privacy
can be achieved by moving the furniture and with a
carpet to muffle conversations.
As described, physical environment plays an
important role in preventing and diminishing stress
producing factors at healthcare facilities. In this area,
systematic results are needed to prove the existence of
these stressing agents, which will in turn allow the application of preventive or reparatory measures which
may not entail great expense but will represent great
benefits for institutions, patients, and users.
Based on the foregoing remarks, we propose to
identify relationships between environmental conditions such as humidity and noise prevalent in hospital
waiting rooms, waiting time before medical consultation, and perceptions of stress and exhaustion in
patients waiting for medical consultation in three
waiting rooms at a public general hospital.
Method
Site: Three waiting rooms: Room 1 is the hospital’s
largest waiting area, measuring 118.80 square meters.
It has 79 chairs divided by a corridor in two sections; on the right side there are 40 chairs for patients
waiting for their first consultation, who, for this
reason, have to first pass into the emergency ward; on
the left side there are 35 chairs for patients with prior
appointments in the outpatient ward.
Waiting room 2 is a corridor with 48 chairs lined up
on either side; it measures 66.24 square meters and
is where patients wait to pass into consulting rooms
1 through 7 in the outpatient ward. This corridor has
windows facing a garden on the hospital grounds
fronting the street. However, because the windows are
positioned high in the wall they do not provide a view
of the exterior, but offer only greater natural lighting
and ventilation.
Waiting room 3 is a corridor with 13 chairs arranged facing consulting rooms 8 through 15; it measures 52.92 square meters. It does not have natural
lighting and is the internal access for people going
to the hospital’s administrative offices. Sample: 253
women of ages ranging from 15 to 79 (x = 32.16), with
educational levels of 24% (61 Ss.) with primary school,
35% (88 Ss.) with secondary school, 28% (70 Ss.) with
high school, 9 % (22 Ss.) with university degrees, and
3% (8 Ss.) with no formal schooling.
Measuring instruments and equipment:
The Environmental Evaluation Scale (Ortega, 2002)
was used to measure evaluation and perception of
physical and socio-environmental factors, which consists of 35 pairs of opposite adjectives separated by six
optional answer spaces. A factor analysis of principal
components was used with Varimax rotation, which
explains the 43% variance with four factors. The total
reliability of the scale was obtained with the Cronbach’s Alpha reliability coefficient, and was 0.89. For
this study the factor known as Physical Evaluation
was used with five bipolar pairs: cold-hot, silent-noisy,
suffocating-cool, stifling-ventilated, tired-rested,
which had an Eigen value of 1.49, explaining the 4.6%
variance in the Environmental Evaluation Scale with
0.57 reliability.
The Stress/Activation Adjective Check List developed by King, Burrows, and Stanley (1983) was translated and adapted to Spanish for the present study.
Consists of 20 adjectives with a four-option answer
scale: yes, certainly, maybe so, not sure, and not at all.
Again, a factor analysis of principal components was
conducted with Oblimin rotation, obtaining four factors with Eigen values greater than 1, which explain
the 59% total variance. The factors are: I Stress, II
Activation, III Exhaustion. For the present study we
considered only the factors of stress and exhaustion.
The total reliability obtained using Cronbach’s Alpha
was 0.56. A Realistic Digital sonometer was used to
measure ambient noise. A Brüel & Kjäer interior climate meter was used to record humidity.
Procedure
Self reporting instruments were applied in the
waiting rooms to patients who agreed to participate
during outpatient ward service hours, and they were
asked how long they had waited before their medical
consultation. In parallel to this application, direct
readings were taken at 30 minute intervals with the
noise and humidity meters in all three waiting rooms.
Results
For a description of the environmental conditions
that characterize the hospital waiting rooms studied,
Figure 1 shows the intensity of environmental noise
recorded (in decibels or dBA) with an average value
of 59.5 dB(A) in a range of 55.17 dB(A) to 67.0 dB(A).
These readings were taken over the course of a week
between the hours of 8:00 and 2:30 p.m. We can
observe a noise level of approximately 55-57 decibels
at 8:00 a.m., which increases from 10:00 a.m. to noon
with levels over 60 decibels, reaching approximately
67 decibels at around 10:30 a.m. and remaining above
60 decibels until the end of outpatient consulting
hours.
Figure 1. Mean environmental noise level in dB A in hospital
waiting rooms.
Figure 2 shows mean levels of environmental
humidity in the three waiting rooms; according to
applicable standards, values of 50% to 60% are considered pleasant; the readings obtained in the waiting
rooms occasionally fall below 50%, resulting in a lowhumidity or dry environment, especially at the end of
consulting hours.
As regards environmental humidity, the average
was 47.7% in room 1, 55.2% in room 2, and 53.8% in
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room 3. Analysis of the variance revealed differences
between the groups (F2,215 = 154.4,
p = .000); on applying Scheffe’s test, we found significant differences between the average environmental
humidity in rooms 1 and 2 (p<.000) and between
rooms 1 and 3 (p < .000).
Figure 2. Mean values of air humidity readings in
waiting rooms during outpatient consulting hours.
Waiting times reported by patients before receiving
their medical consultation were in a range of 20
minutes and 4 hours and 30 minutes (x = 1 hour 28
minutes, DE = 1 hour); it is pertinent to mention that
there are an average of 38 people in these rooms with
between 8 and 62 people waiting for consultation,
added to the fact that the waiting rooms are enclosed
spaces with no natural or artificial ventilation.
In order to determine the relationships between the
perception of physical evaluation of the room and
the corresponding physical evaluation, analyses were
conducted with Pearson’s Correlation Coefficient for
the factor physical evaluation of the room and the
environmental variables of noise and humidity, as
well as with the factors of stress and exhaustion and
waiting time, obtaining the results shown in table 1.
PHYSICAL EVALUATION OF THE ROOM
HUMIDITY r = .309
p = .00
NOISE r = -.177
p = .03
STRESS
r = -.193
p = .01
EXHAUSTION r = -.186
p = .01
WAITING TIME
r =- .136
p = .05
Table 1. Correlations between variable if physical evaluation of the
waiting room and levels of humidity, noise, stress, exhaustion, and
waiting time before patients went in for their medical consultation
in a public general hospital.
Graph 3 shows averages for the factor “physical
evaluation” in the three waiting rooms; an analysis of
52
variance detected significant differences (F2, 209 = 5.98,
p= .00), identifying by means of Scheffe’s test (p < .002)
a better physical evaluation in room 2 (with natural
lighting and ventilation) than in rooms 1 and 3.
Graph 3. Average perception of physical evaluation by
type of waiting rooms.
In other words, when patients evaluated their environment positively there were objectively observable
optimum physical conditions of humidity and lower
noise levels; at the same time, they reported a low level
of stress and exhaustion and shorter waiting times
before their medical consultation in the public general
hospital for women.
CONCLUSIONS
Based on the results obtained and in the context of
environmental research with a preventive orientation, we find that, using the theoretical assumptions
of Environment-Individual Fit Theory (Kaminoff and
Proshansky, 1982), which emphasizes the concept of
maximum fit, (when the individual achieves her goals
with a maximum of support and minimal interference from the physical environment) and the opposite
(with minimal fit people receive a minimum of support and maximum interference from the environment), given that in our study we can identify conditions in which the physical environment does not
support patients’ needs or requirements during their
stay in waiting rooms.
This lack of behavior-environment fit causes
emotional states of stress, added to an institutional
system that fails to adequately support the pursuit
of goals. More specifically, measurement of physical
variables presents environmentally differential conditions: in relation to type of waiting room, room 1 has
the poorest lighting and the lowest level of humidity,
whereas room 3 lacks windows and has a low level
of humidity. In general, all three have inadequate
conditions, with humidity and noise levels that exceed
acceptable standards during peak hours.
Also, as regards perceptions of physical evaluation,
waiting rooms are considered hot, noisy, suffocating,
stifling, and tiring, especially in relation to the place
patients waited and the time they had to wait. In other
words, the evaluation of waiting rooms was worse
when patients had to wait in an area used for transit
to other parts of the hospital, which was consequently
noisier and lacked adequate ventilation, and when
they had to wait longer, resulting in more acute perceptions of stress and exhaustion.
In conclusion, environmentally deficient spaces
produce negative differential evaluations compared
with those that are environmentally better equipped
or enhanced. Similarly, the social system that supports a punctual (on schedule) medical consultation is
important. In other words, perceptions of stress and
the resulting exhaustion are accompanied by a negative evaluation of the physical conditions of places
that fail to satisfy the needs of their principal users, in
other words patients. The importance of considering
waiting time coincides with the findings reported by
Ortega and Aguilar (2003) in the sense that models for
evaluating the quality of healthcare like that proposed by Donabedian (1993a, 1993b) should include
the human components of a system to achieve total
quality, and in particular those that allow providers to
offer prompt and punctual attention. Similarly, Frenk
(2003) underscores the importance of considering
objective indicators such as waiting time before provision of medical services in institutional healthcare in
order to raise the quality of healthcare in Mexico.
The results of the present investigation coincide
with the findings reported by Ortega, Reidl, Lopez,
and Estrada (2000) in the sense that environmental
conditions influence the spatial perception of hospital
waiting rooms, and strengthen the validity of the
previous results by measuring environmental conditions objectively add through self reporting in settings
with different socio-environmental characteristics
and considering patients’ waiting time, and observing
an increase in objective environmental indicators
(noise and humidity), underscoring the importance of
considering in the environment both human aspects
and interior climate, noise, and waiting time before
consultation, all of which directly influence spatial
perception with the resulting impact on physical
well being, considering, moreover, the physical and
emotional vulnerability typical of the principal users
of any hospital: its patients.
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Job Satisfaction
and Organizational
Commitment in Alternative
Officing
La satisfacción del trabajo y el compromiso
organizacional en la alternativa laboral
Seunghae Lee (Purdue University, Indiana)
1. Introduction
Technological advances and economic and social
changes have freed employees from traditional office
settings, allowing them to work in non-traditional environments. The new workspaces, although taking many
forms, both in and away from their corporate locations, are generally being referred to under the generic
or umbrella phrase “alternative officing.” Increasingly,
organizations in both the public and private sectors are
considering or actually implementing non-traditional or
alternative officing strategies. U.S. General Services Administration (USGSA, 2007) defined alternative officing
as nontraditional workplace arrangement.
The positive perception that alternative officing benefits employees and their organizations with high employee morale, productivity, flexibility and low turnover
rate is widespread and generally accepted (Kurland &
Bailey, 1999; O’Connell, 1996; Whiting, 1997; Gittleman,
Horrigan, & Joyce, 1998; Lovelace, 2000; Wilkes, Frolick,
& Urwiler, 1994). However, there is a very limited
number of studies that show the specific factors that
serve as positive or negative roles on perceptions and
behaviors of employees who work under alternative
officing.
The purpose of this research is to empirically examine
the relationship between various factors in alternative
officing and employees’ attitudes such as organizational
commitment and job satisfaction in an effort to test
anecdotal assumptions about the relationship.
2. Literature Review
2.1. Alternative officing
When developing an alternative officing strategy, organizations consider specific alternative officing choices
within two general types –onsite or offsite alternative
work arrangements (Froggatt, 1998; Robertson, 1999).
This study investigated both types of alternative officing
strategies.
Despite the reported benefits of alternative officing,
studies have suggested a number of challenges related
to alternative officing, including resistance to change,
reduced communication, employees’ feelings of social isolation, and the costs of additional information
technology, furniture, and equipment (Davenport &
Pearson, 1998; Wilkes et al., 1994; Joice, 2000). A survey
on alternative officing showed more than 50 percent of
the organizations indicated that poor organizational
support was the greatest obstacle to successful alternative officing (Piskurich, 1996).
2.2. Job Satisfaction
Locke (1976) defines job satisfaction as “a pleasurable
or positive emotional state resulting from the appraisal
of one’s job or job experiences.” Borgatta & Ford (1970)
indicate that to provide more satisfaction for employees,
it is important for organizations to find ways to motivate employees through organizational restructuring.
One of the frequently studied topics in job satisfaction is its relationship to office environment (Zalesney
& Farace, 1988). It is assumed that the dimensions and
characteristics of alternative officing would affect job
satisfaction because they would benefit employees in
many ways, including providing a balance between
work and life situations as well as flexibility.
Job satisfaction research with respect to alternative officing is in the beginning stages. Whiting (1997)
measured employee job satisfaction and organizational
commitment in a traditional work environment and
in an alternative office after they moved into it from a
traditional one. The results showed that employee job
satisfaction and organizational commitment did not
decrease after they moved into an alternative office. A
private consulting firm conducted another study, which
indicated that more than half of the companies implementing alternative officing reported higher job satisfaction among employees than they had experienced
before implementing it (Caldwell, 1997).
Numerous have suggested that organizational commitment is related to job satisfaction (Mossholder &
Bedein, 1983; Rousseau, 1985; Bateman & Strasser, 1984;
Mathieu & Hamel, 1989; Morris & Steers, 1980). Good,
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Page, Jr., and Young (1996) reported that job satisfaction
works as a mediator in the relationship of organizational commitment and its antecedents.
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2.3. Organizational Commitment
Studies have found that organizational commitment is related to employees’ absenteeism, intention to
leave, and turnover (Ko, Price, & Mueller, 1997). This
linkage from organizational commitment to employees’
withdrawal behaviors has attracted organizational
researchers’ attention as organizations will achieve the
advantage if they can manage these withdrawal behaviors (Colbert & Kwon, 2000).
Mowday, Steers, and Porter (1979) define organizational commitment as “the relative strength of an
individual’s identification with and involvement in a
particular organization.” Recently, there have been a
significant number of studies on organizational commitment (Mowday, Porter, & Steers, 1982; Allen &
Meyer, 1990). The increased interest in organizational
commitment has resulted in developments of theory as
well as research tools. Organizational commitment has
several layers of concepts in its construct, which makes
a measurement of organizational commitment harder
and more complicated (O’Reilly, Sr. & Chatman, 1986;
Herscovitch & Meyer, 2002).
To resolve this complexity, Meyer, Allen, and
colleagues (Meyer and Allen, 1984; Meyer, Allen, &
Gellatly, 1990; Meyer, Bobochel, & Allen, 1991; Meyer,
Allen, & Smith, 1993) developed a multifaceted tool
with several dimensions of commitment. Their multifaceted tool includes three dimensions of commitment: affective, continuance, and normative. Affective
commitment refers to an emotional attachment to the
organization, such that employees remain because they
want to do so. Continuance commitment is based on an
employee’s perception about the cost of leaving. In other
words, employees continue employment because they
feel they have to do so. Normative commitment reflects
a perceived obligation to maintain membership in an
organization.
Although research on the impact of alternative
officing to organizational commitment is rare, it is
assumed that alternative officing influences employees
to be more motivated and committed to the organization. Studies have supported this possibility, showing
that alternative officing reduces employee turnover rate
56
and absenteeism and improves employees’ productivity
(Van Horn & Storen, 2000).
2.4. Perceived Organizational Support
Organizational support is considered as an important
factor in achieving a successful and effective alternative
officing (Gittleman et al., 1998; Frogatt, 1998). Also, it
will play an important role in employee job performance considering that they are in a new type of work
environment and so would experience difficulties that
they would not have to cope with in a traditional work
environment.
Employees personify the organization and expect care
for their well-being from the organization when they
commit themselves to the organization. The employeeorganization relationship is reciprocal in nature and
perceived organizational support is based on such a
nature (Laschinger, Purdy, Cho, & Almost, 2006).
Eisenberger, Huntington, Hutchson, and Sowa
(1986) found that a positive relationship exists between
perceived organizational support and organizational
commitment. Shore and Wayne (1993) used a different
method than Eisenberger et al. (1986) to study the relationship between perceived organizational support and
organizational commitment. They focused on perceived
organizational support and organizational commitment
as antecedents of employee behavior, studying such
factors as organizational citizenship and impression
management and found that perceived organizational
support was a better predictor of organizational citizenship and impression management than was organizational commitment.
3. Methods
3.1. Subjects
The population of this study consisted of employees
who work one day or more per week in alternative offices including home offices, hoteling, satellite offices,
telework centers, free-address offices, and shared offices.
Self-employed workers are not considered as part of the
population group in this study. Employees in different
organizations of private and public sectors were invited
to participate in an Internet survey. One hundred
seventy employees participated in the survey, and one
hundred forty-eight completed responses were used in
the data analyses.
3.2. Variables
3.2.1. Perceived organizational support
The nine-item short form of the Survey of Perceived
Organizational Support (SPOS; Rhodes, Eisenberger, &
Armeli, 2001) was used to measure perceived organizational support. (Cronbach’s alpha= .92). The survey
included questions such as (a) “My organization really
cares about my well-being,” (b) “My organization
strongly considers my goals and values,” (c) “My organization shows little concern for me,” (reverse coded).
Hypothesis: Employees’ perceived organizational
support is significantly related to job satisfaction and
organizational commitment in alternative officing.
3.2.2. Alternative officing experiences
Four items were presented to determine the level
and nature of employees’ experiences with alternative
officing. The subjects were asked to indicate if participating in alternative officing was voluntary or not. Subjects were asked to indicate by percentage the average
work time they spend in their alternative offices per
week among five choices: 1% to 20%, 21% to 40%, 41% to
60%, 61% to 80%, and 81% to 100%. Tenure in alternative officing was asked to indicate among four choices:
less than 1 year, 1 year to 2 years, 3 year to 5 years, and
over 5 years. The tenure related questions were derived
from the study by Lease (1998). Tenure with the company was defined in this study as ‘time working at that
particular company’ and tenure with job was defined as
‘time working at a particular job.’ Subjects were asked to
indicate how long they have been with the job and the
company. The choices for both questions are less than 2
years, 2 to 5 years, 6 to 10 years, 11 to 20 years, and over
20 years.
Hypothesis: Employees’ alternative officing experiences including having multiple alternative offices,
voluntary participation in alternative officing, work
time percentage in alternative offices, and tenure with
alternative officing are significantly related to job satisfaction and organizational commitment in alternative
officing.
3.2.3. Employment characteristics
Four items were identified to measure individual
employment characteristics. Subjects were asked to indicate the number of hours they work per week among
five choices: less than 20 hours, 20 hours to 30 hours,
31 hours to 40 hours, 41 hours to 50 hours, and over 50
hours. Job types in this study included clerical, managerial, professional, sales, and other.
Hypothesis: Employees’ employment characteristics
including work hours, job type, tenure with job, and
tenure with organization are significantly related to job
satisfaction and organizational commitment in alternative officing.
3.2.4. Organizational commitment
Examination of Eigenvalues, scree plot, and factor
loadings all indicated a two factor solution of organizational commitment: affective commitment and
continuance commitment (Cronbach’s alpha= .92 for
affective commitment and .93 for continuance commitment). Affective commitment was measured with six
items that were originally used by Rhodes, Eisenberger,
and Armeli (2001) and Meyer, Allen, and Gellatly (1990)
developed the tool and Rhodes et al. (2001) modified
it into a short form. The previously reported reliability
from Meyer and Allen was .86. Continuance commitment was tested with the 8-item measurement tool
from Meyer, Allen, and Gellatly (1990). The previously
reported reliability for the scale was .82. Respondents
were asked to indicate their agreement using a 5-point
Likert-type scale (strongly disagree=1 to strongly
agree=5). Hypothesis: Job satisfaction is a mediator
between independent variables and organizational commitment.
3.2.5. Job satisfaction.
A six-item version of the Michigan Scale of Facetfree Job Satisfaction was modified from Sundstrom,
Town, Rice, Osborn, and Brill (1994). Using the current
data, the internal consistency reliability (i.e., Cronbach’s
alpha) of .90 was found.
4. Results and Discussions
4.1. Correlations (see Table 4-1)
Employees who reported more perceived support
from their organizations reported more emotional commitment to their organizations. Employees with more
than one alternative office locations reported more
continuance commitment to their organizations. In this
study, when employees reported that they spent more
time in alternative offices, they reported higher job
satisfaction.
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Employees with longer working hours reported more
affective commitment with their organizations and
employees who worked with their organization longer
reported higher affective commitment and job satisfaction. In addition, employees who had higher satisfaction
with their job reported more affective commitment.
Variables
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Perceived organizational support
Having multiple alternative office
Voluntary participation
Work hours in alternative office
Tenure with alternative officing
Work hours
Job type
Tenure with job
Tenure with organization
Job satisfaction
Affective commitment
*p < .05; **p < .01, ***p<.001
Job
Satisfaction
.636***
.116
.055
.254*
.123
.066
.043
.032
.221*
Affective
Commitment
.637***
-.046
.009
.143
.172*
.179*
.049
.156
.383***
.634***
Continuance
Commitment
.029
.361***
.071
.070
.041
.031
-.056
.001
.061
.093
-.164
Table 4-1. Correlations between Variables
4.2. Multiple Regression Analyses and Path Analyses
4.2.1. The relationship between perceived organizational support and employees’ organizational commitment and job satisfaction (see Model 1 in Table 4-2)
The variables that showed significant correlations with
dependent variables were used for regression analyses.
The findings suggested that employees’ perceived organizational support was a significant predictor of job
satisfaction and affective commitment. This result is
consistent with prior research that suggested organizational support is positively related to affective organizational commitment (Eisenberger et al., 1990).
It was suggested from previous research that organizational support is one of the most important factors
for successful alternative officing (Gittleman et al.,
1998; Bergsman, 1995; Frogatt, 1998). Employees may
consider the opportunity to be in alternative officing as
their organizations’ efforts to support them, and this
perception will make them feel satisfied with their job
because they may assume that the benefit comes from
having the job. Employees may also feel emotional attachment to their organizations.
58
4.2.2. The relationship between alternative officing
experiences and employees’ organizational commitment
and job satisfaction (see Table 4-2)
In this investigation, having multiple alternative
offices was positively correlated to continuance commitment. One explanation is that having more than
one alternative office location gives more options to the
employees and they feel that it would be hard for them
to leave the organization because of the benefits they get
from those flexibility. On the other hand, it is interesting to find that it did not affect employees’ emotional
attachment to their organizations (affective commitment) or satisfaction with their jobs.
4.2.3. The relationship between employment characteristics and employees’ organizational commitment
and job satisfaction (see Table 4-2)
Tenure with organization had positive impact on
employees’ affective commitment (Model 2). It may
be because employees who worked in their organizations for a longer time stayed with their organizations
because they feel more affective attachment to their
organizations.
Variables
Model 1
Job
Satisfaction (ß)
F-Value=11.40***
.60***
-.07
.14
.11
-.01
.08
Work hours
*p < .05; **p < .01, ***p<.001
Model 2
Affective
Commitment(ß)
F-Value=14.41***
.60***
- .01
-.01
.10
.09
.23**
Model 3
Continuance
Commitment(ß)
F-Value=2.47*
.05
.40***
-.05
.10
.07
-.01
Notes: ß = standardized betas
Table 4-2. Multiple Regression Analyses in Direct Models
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4.2.4. The mediating effect of job satisfaction from
predictor variables to organizational commitment (see
Table 4-3)
Job satisfaction showed partial mediating impact
from perceived organizational to affective commitment.
Employees’ greater perceptions of perceived organizational support resulted in their stronger affective attachment to their organizations. In addition, employees who
perceived more support from their organizations also
felt more satisfaction with their jobs, and this satisfaction eventually led to loyalty and attachment to their
organizations.
On the other hand, job satisfaction affected the
relationship between perceived organizational support
and continuance commitment by fully mediating. These
results indicate that when employees perceive more support from their organizations, they feel more satisfied
with their jobs, reducing a feeling of entrapment to their
organizations (Shore and Tetrick, 1991). The results on
this mediating effect of job satisfaction from a predictor
Variables
Model 4
Affective Commitment(ß)
F-Value=15.33***
Work hours
Job Satisfaction
*p < .05; **p < .01, ***p<.001
variable to continuance organizational commitment
is interesting and worth attention. Job satisfaction did
not show any correlation with continuance commitment (see Table 4-1). However, job satisfaction showed
a negative effect on continuance commitment in its
regressional analysis with perceived organizational
support in the analysis model (see Model 5 in Table 4-3).
The perceived organizational support did not have any
effect on the continuance commitment in the model
(see Model 5 in Table 4-3). The perceived organizational
support showed positive effects on job satisfaction in
its regressional analysis (see Model 1 in Table 4-2). This
path analysis shows the complete mediating effect of job
satisfaction from perceived organizational support to
continuance commitment. It indicates that even though
employees perceive supports from organizations, if they
do not feel satisfied with their job, it would not decrease
their feeling of entrapment with their organizations.
.40***
.01
-.05
-.06
.10
.20**
.33***
Notes: ß = standardized betas
Model 5
ContinuanceCommitment(ß)
F-Value=3.08**
.24
.38***
-.01
.14
.07
.02
-.32*
Table 4-3. Multiple Regression Analyses in Indirect Models (with job satisfaction in the Model)
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4.3. Limitations of Study
The findings obtained are clearly preliminary and
need replication –especially with larger samples from
a more diverse setting in terms of different industrial
types, alternative officing types, and geographic locations. In addition, a different method could be used to
collect data from more diverse samples such as mail
surveys, interviews, or telephone surveys to reduce bias
due to limitations from the Internet survey method that
did not include employees who chose not to participate
in an electronic survey.
Next, this study uses employees’ self-reports to
measure both the independent and dependent variables,
which increases the risk of shared-method variance.
Hence, future studies may want to consider using multiple sources for data collection (e.g., company records
of job tenure, or employer reports of organizations support).
5. Conclusion
In conclusion, it is clear that employees’ perceived
organizational support plays an important role in the
commitment process, helping to explain how employees’ perceived organizational support influences job
satisfaction, and eventually, affective commitment and
continuance commitment. Also, the results indicated
that employees’ tenure with alternative officing and
their work hours were positively related to organizational commitment. Having multiple alternative office
locations was positively related to continuance commitment. Tenure with organizations was positively related
to affective commitment and job satisfaction.
The results not only contribute to an understanding
of the organizational commitment process based on the
empirical study, but also provide practical implications
for managers. Future research designed to address the
limitations of this study should provide an even greater
understanding of organizational commitment.
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OVERVIEW&contentId=15261&noc=T
Zalesny, M. D. & Farrace, R. V. (1988). Job function,
sex, and environment as correlates of work perceptions
and attitudes. Journal of Applied Social Psychology, 18,
179-202.
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Outdoor Space for Aging:
Environmental Assessment
and Survey of Assisted
Living Residents and Staff
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have been found to value outdoor space, and it is likely
that even moderate amounts of time outdoors may
potentially improve physical health and psychological
well-being.
Espacios abiertos para la vejez: contribución
ambiental y la perspectiva de los residentes y el staff
asistidos
PROJECT ABSTRACT
OUTDOOR SPACE is an important component of
residential care settings, and may potentially benefit
the health and quality of life of aging residents. However, the usability of outdoor space depends largely on
appropriate architectural design: where are the outdoor
spaces located, how do they connect with indoor circulation routes, and how does the building envelope help
shape the spaces? This study explored usable outdoor
space from the perspective of assisted living residents
and staff (N = 1490) at 68 randomly selected facilities,
located in three climatically diverse regions of the U.S.
Written surveys and videotaped interviews documented
outdoor usage and preference for specific environmental features. An environmental assessment tool
was developed to evaluate the main outdoor spaces and
indoor-outdoor transition zones at each facility. Results
found that outdoor usage was significantly correlated
with residents’ physical activity levels, overall health,
and satisfaction with the environment.
PROBLEM STATEMENT
Why do older residents need outdoor space?
Recent research has found that spending time
outdoors can have significant health benefits for older
adults. Improvements in mood, sleep patterns, and
hormone balance may be associated with outdoor usage,
partly due to increased physical activity, exposure to
bright outdoor light, and contact with nature elements
(Babyak et al., 2001; Rodiek, 2006). For example, a large
study in Tokyo found better health and significantly
increased longevity in older adults with better access
to outdoor green spaces (Takano et al., 2002). Seniors
62
Figure 1. Usable outdoor space can provide connectivity between
buildings.
Why is outdoor space often under utilized?
In spite of known benefits and apparent interest in
going outdoors, it is widely reported that many outdoor
areas at existing facilities are under utilized (Cutler &
Kane, 2005; Kearney & Winterbottom, 2005). While elderly residents have been found to highly value outdoor
access, they may be discouraged from going outdoors
by poor facility design and layout. With little or no
increase in cost, the senior housing industry could encourage outdoor usage by using evidence-based design
principles in planning outdoor space. Unfortunately,
few studies have attempted to measure the relationship
between outdoor space design, and subsequent usage
by residents and staff. The following example shows
how direct field observation helps us better understand
residents’ needs and preferences:
“A story that illustrates this issue involves housing in
an Eastern city. The architect concerned with noise
and fumes from traffic along an adjacent street sited the
building away from this potentially annoying source.
(An enclosed courtyard was created that)…included
bench seating and other activities. Residents, however,
found the street activity far preferable to the passive,
deadly inactivity of the courtyard. Every day residents
would carry light aluminum chairs around the building
and position them to take full advantage of the activity
along the heavily trafficked street away from which the
building had been carefully oriented.” (Regnier 1985,
p. 4)
PURPOSE OF THIS STUDY
Main objectives
This study focused on learning more about seniors’
needs for outdoor access, so that future facilities may
be designed to encourage optimal use of the outdoors,
in order to potentially benefit residents’ health and
quality of life. A major goal was to complete a more
comprehensive examination than was previously
available on this topic. Specific objectives were:
- Assess a large number of facilities and residents in
diverse climates
- Develop an objective tool that could be used to
evaluate outdoor environments
- Examine how design affects outdoor usage and
environmental satisfaction
- Develop strategies for applying evidence-based
principles to design projects
This preliminary report provides descriptive findings and correlations between outdoor usage and
satisfaction with 1) resident demographic factors, and
2) resident assessment of outdoor features and qualities, as well as correlations between staff and resident
surveys.
Figure 2. Outdoor areas can support multiple behavioral goals:
security, autonomy, social interaction, contact with nature.
METHODS: ENVIRONMENTAL ASSESSMENT
TOOL
Creating a valid instrument
A focused literature review was conducted on
published best-practice design guidelines and recent
research in the fields of gerontology, therapeutic
landscape design, and environmental design for aging,
based on relevance to this topic. From this review, an
annotated matrix of specific design recommendations
was developed, which was compared and correlated
to develop themes. After cross-referencing and
combining the design elements that appeared most
frequently, several main categories emerged as being
most important. These were then organized into
seven categories according to the behavioral motivation or “affordances” provided for residents, rather
than by different types of environmental elements
(Figure 2 exemplifies this approach). This would allow
future studies to compare outcomes from environmental interventions with the behavioral goals that
have been established for the overall well-being of
older adults. While many of the published guidelines used for reference were based on practitioner
experience of designers and care providers rather
than scholarly studies, the high levels of agreement
between widely different sources helps to validate this
information source and the resulting environmental
assessment instrument. See Regnier (2002) for a comparative overview of behavioral goals compiled from
multiple sources.
Creating a reliable instrument
After repeated pre-testing and revision, teams of
evaluators visited different long term care facilities,
and used the instrument to evaluate the outdoor space
and indoor-outdoor connections. Inter-rater reliability testing on the seven domains was surprisingly
high, even when evaluators were included with no
prior knowledge or experience in this field. Intraclass correlation coefficients (ICC) were well above .90
on many of the separate principles and overall ratings,
with a mean overall correlation of .93 (correlation
of .70 is often considered minimally reliable; higher
scores are considered good).
Seven Principles of Outdoor Space for Aging
Based on analysis and categorization in the literature review and matrix, the following “seven principles” were developed as the main elements included in
the assessment instrument. Data were also collected
on several other potentially relevant issues at the
facility-wide level (e.g., outdoor activity programs,
children’s playgrounds, policies toward pets, staff attitudes toward residents’ outdoor usage, ambient light,
and noise levels in outdoor spaces). The underlying
assumption is that all the environmental principles
are hypothesized to encourage and support outdoor
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usage by residents. The principles are described below
in terms of the features/ qualities they would have in
ideal circumstances:
1. CONTACT WITH THE WORLD BEYOND THE
FACILITY: This outdoor area provides contact with
the larger world residents have left behind, by creating
opportunities to watch and/or interact with people,
elements, and/or activities beyond the facility – this
may include mail deliveries, nearby roads, etc.
2. INDOOR-OUTDOOR CONNECTION: This
outdoor area is extremely easy to see and reach, because the doorway is very visible and convenient from
the main indoor places where residents spend time.
Comfortable transition zones are located both inside
and outside the doorway, making it easy to linger near
the doorway.
3. FREEDOM, CHOICE, and VARIETY: This
outdoor space tends to foster a sense of freedom in
residents. The physical environment supports their
autonomy and independence by providing a variety of
locations, activities, focal points, views, seating, etc.,
that allow residents to choose among alternatives.
4. COMFORTABLE AND ACCESSIBLE: Residents
have little difficulty navigating and using this outdoor
area in comfort, because it is designed and maintained with their diminished physical, functional,
sensory, and cognitive abilities in mind.
5. ENJOYMENT OF NATURE: This outdoor area
allows residents to view, enjoy, and relate to a variety
and abundance of nature elements, especially those
found to be preferred by older adults, such as flowers,
greenery, trees, water, and wildlife.
6. PLACE TO BE ACTIVE: This outdoor space
provides well-landscaped, safe, and comfortable walkways. It may also provide places for feasible activities
such as games, stretching/ exercise stations, swimming, etc.
7. SAFE AND SECURE: This outdoor area allows residents to feel safe and secure while outdoors,
especially in terms of the risk of falling, because it is
designed and maintained to minimize elements that
may be hazardous or dangerous.
64
Figure 3. Resident getting exercise on outdoor walkways
Conducting environmental assessments
At each facility, the most heavily-used outdoor
areas were identified and evaluated separately, using
a checklist. Evaluators used a scale from 1-10 to rate
sets of sub-principles (total = 63) listed under each
of the seven main design principles (these scores
were later averaged to obtain the overall rating for
each principle, in each of the outdoor spaces). Two
trained research assistants independently completed
the assessments; their scores were averaged for the
final ratings. The same two individuals conducted
the environmental assessments at all facilities and
regions throughout the study, to reduce confounding
factors. Assessments were scheduled at the times of
year determined to have the most favorable weather
conditions for each region, according to recent NOAA
weather records (National Ocean and Atmospheric
Administration, 1997-2007), in order to increase the
likelihood of resident outdoor usage during the study.
No assessments were conducted in extreme conditions
such as rainstorms or weather that was locally considered unseasonable.
METHODS: RESIDENT AND STAFF SURVEYS
Developing appropriate questionnaire forms
The pencil-and-paper survey forms were designed
specifically with the needs of older adults in mind, so
they would be easy to understand and respond to, and
not have so many questions they would be fatiguing.
The typeface, questions, and response formats were
pre-tested extensively with residents in non-participating facilities; all were revised several times to
make the survey as clear and effortless as possible for
residents. Staff surveys were designed to be completed
very quickly. The final surveys had 44 questions for
residents, and 40 for staff; both included optional
write-in response categories.
Choosing regions and facilities
Of the ten largest “megapolitan” areas currently
emerging in the U.S., three were identified as having
the greatest comparative diversity of climate: ‘Gulf
Coast’, ‘Midwest’, and ‘Cascadia’ (Lang & Dhavle,
2005; Fovell & Fovell, 1993). As assisted living facilities are more prevalent in urban areas (Hawes, 2003),
this study was conducted in the largest city at the core
of each of these megapolitan areas: Houston, Chicago,
and Seattle (see Figures 4, 5). This provided examples
of: a warm-winter climate with very hot summers
(Houston), a moderate-summer climate with very cold
winters (Chicago), and a year-round mild-temperature
climate with high levels of rainfall (Seattle).
Recruiting facilities, residents, and staff
Within each region, a two-hour driving diameter
was established that included the majority of assisted
living facilities found in that vicinity. From this area,
the participating facilities were randomly selected
from the state list of all registered assisted living facilities with resident capacity of 50 or greater. Facilities were recruited by telephone, with a participation
acceptance rate of about 70%. About 15% of participating facilities were not-for-profit; the remainder
were for-profit. A randomized selection process for
individual participants was pre-tested and determined to be unfeasible within the constraints facilities
typically operate under, so residents and staff were
recruited directly by facility administrators. About
80% of participating residents, and 90% of staff, were
women. Staff were recruited from all levels, in fairly
equal numbers. The average resident age was 84, and
the average staff age was 44. A team of research assistants traveled to each facility, and helped residents
fill out survey forms as needed.
Figure 4. Primary emerging megapolitan regions in different
climates (Lang & Dhavale 2005)
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Figure 5. Cities used in this study: Houston, Chicago, and Seattle
ANALYSIS AND RESULTS
Data preparation and analysis
Surveys were coded during data entry to protect the
confidentiality of responses. Environmental assessments and surveys were aggregated into a database, so
individuals and facilities could not be identified. Descriptive statistics were prepared using SPSS software,
and correlational analyses used Spearman rho and
Pearson correlation coefficients.
Survey highlights
The surveys indicated that residents and staff had
strong interest in using outdoor space at their residential communities, with about 95% of both categories
indicating they cared about spending time outdoors.
About 65% of residents said that spending time
outdoors made them feel “better than before”, and a
surprising 95% of staff reported feeling better after
being outdoors. Over 80% of residents preferred to do
their walking “mostly outdoors” or “half indoors/ half
outdoors”, but about 40% reported that walkways and
outdoor areas were either “not very well-designed” or
“partly well-designed” for seniors.
Residents’ survey results compared with their outdoor
usage
The factors that were found to be associated with
levels of outdoor usage are shown in Table 1, with the
higher numbers showing stronger correlation.
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It was found that residents who spent more time
outdoors:
• Had better self-reported health
• Reported being more physically active
• Did more walking just for the sake of exercise
• Had family/ visitors who also used the facility
outdoor areas
It was found that residents who spent less time
outdoors:
• Were more concerned about the possibility of
falling
• Said that outdoor areas were hard to see and reach
• Reported being more bothered by smoking
Residents who went outdoors more often also
reported that they stayed out longer, and were more
satisfied with the outdoor spaces. Those who had
lived at the facility longer, reported spending less time
outdoors, but levels of outdoor usage were not found
to be associated with gender, age, or the number of
ADL’s (Activities of Daily Living) they needed help
with. Residents with poor vision or a history of
serious falls reported less outdoor usage than others,
but the difference was not significant. Those who had
spent more time outdoors in childhood were found
to spend more time outdoors at their facility, and also
had greater satisfaction with the outdoor areas.
Demographic and preference variables associated with resident outdoor usage
Frequency of
Variable
Tenure
Self-reported health status
Childhood experience of outdoor use
Care about outdoors
Feelings from being outdoors
Satisfaction with outdoors
Family stay duration
Frequency of family outdoor usage
Physical activity
Walking frequency
Walking duration
Duration of outdoor
Satisfaction with
outdoor usage
usage
outdoors
-.172(**)
.159(**)
.119(*)
.379(**)
.351(**)
.279(**)
.060
.263(**)
.350(**)
.283(**)
.301(**)
-.123(*)
.060
.064
.322(**)
.344(**)
.302(**)
.188(**)
.173(**)
.141(*)
.200(**)
.340(**)
.025
.140(*)
.167(**)
.217(**)
.168(**)
1.000
.125(*)
.281(**)
.105
.088
.211(**)
Frequency of
Duration of outdoor
Satisfaction with
outdoor usage
.120(*)
.096
-.074
-.100
.096
.089
-.165(**)
-.060
usage
.060
.023
-.040
-.012
.138(*)
.051
-.192(**)
-.063
outdoors
.389(**)
.248(**)
.117(*)
-.180(**)
.299(**)
.238(**)
-.053
-.070
Residents’ opinions on outdoor space associated with resident outdoor usage
Variable
Well-designed for seniors
Walkways well-designed
Amount of greenery
Lack of access/ visibility
Comfort of outdoor areas
Adequate seating
Worried about falling
Bothered by smoking
Table 1. Significant associations of variables with outdoor satisfaction and outdoor usage (by frequency and duration)
** Correlation is significant at the 0.01 level (2-tailed).
* Correlation is significant at the 0.05 level (2-tailed).
NOTE: Responses were ordinal (3-point to 9-point scales), and treated as continuous variables for this preliminary analysis.
66
Residents’ statements on how they felt after going
outdoors
A strong majority of residents reported experiencing
positive effects from spending time outdoors. Sample
comments include statements that they typically felt:
• “invigorated, refreshed, more alive”
• “I can breathe better”
• “4-5 years younger”
• “feel like I have helped my health”
• “clearer, in contact with God”
What residents liked least about the outdoor areas
Residents described many elements they found less
than satisfying in outdoor areas; most of these fell
into the categories addressed in the environmental assessment, and further layers of analysis will determine
how closely researcher’s assumptions aligned with
residents’ opinions. Typical comments included:
• “not enough comfortable chairs”
• “not enough shady areas for sitting”
• “not too conducive to walking”
• “places are usually full”
• “not enough area close to the entrance”
• “wish there was a flower garden”
What residents would like to add to existing outdoor
areas
While many residents were satisfied with existing
conditions, a surprising number made suggestions
for improvement, when asked if they “could add one
thing, what would it be?” Most suggestions related to
one or more of the environmental assessment principles; typical comments included saying they would
like to see:
• “comfortable chairs for individual needs”
• “a place we can feed the birds and ducks”
• “large tree/ ample shade”
• “more area for family members to barbecue or
have fun”
• “more benches to sit outside with friends”
• “more places with awning overhead, to allow us to
stay out but protected”
Comparing resident and staff outdoor usage
Staff members reported going outdoors nearly as
often as residents, but stayed a shorter time. Figures 6
and 7 show the relative differences between staff and
residents, in terms of how often they went outdoors,
and how long they stayed there. It was somewhat surprising to see how often staff used the outdoor spaces;
however, they did not stay out as long as residents,
presumably due to work pressures.
Compare resident and staff outdoor usage
"How OFTEN do you use the outdoor spaces?"
Compare resident and staff outdoor usage
"How long do you usually STAY outdoors?"
25
Percentage
Percentage
30
20
15
10
5
0
never
seldom
or almost
never
every
month
tw ice a
month
Resident outdoor usage
every
w eek
2-3 per
w eek
every
day
35
30
25
20
15
10
5
0
more
than
once a
day
zero
Staff outdoor usage
5
about 15 about 30 about 45 about
minutes minutes minutes minutes one hour
or less
Resident outdoor usage
about
one &
half
hours
tw o
hours or
more
Staff outdoor usage
Figure 6. Comparing resident and staff usage: How OFTEN they go
Figure 7. Comparing resident and staff usage: How long they STAY
outdoors
outdoors.
Staff confirmation of residents’ levels of outdoor usage
In addition to collecting information about the staff
themselves, staff surveys were used to confirm the selfreported responses of residents. Although self-reports
are often considered to be of questionable accuracy, the
staff reports of how often residents went outdoors and
how long they stayed, in most cases closely mirrored
what residents themselves had reported (see Figures 8
and 9).
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35
30
25
20
15
10
5
0
seldom
or almost
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every
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tw ice a
month
Resident self-reported usage
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40
30
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Com pare resident and staff perception of resident outdoor usage:
"How long do RESIDENTS usually STAY outdoors?"
Percentage
Percentage
Compare resident and staff perception of resident outdoor usage:
"How OFTEN do RESIDENTS use the outdoor spaces?"
every
w eek
2-3 per
w eek
every
day
more
than
once a
day
Staff report of resident usage
zero
5 minutes about 15 about 30 about 45 about
or less minutes minutes minutes one hour
Resident self-reported usage
about
one &
half
hours
tw o
hours or
more
Staff report of resident usage
Figure 8. Comparing resident and staff perceptions of HOW
Figure 9. Comparing resident and staff perceptions of HOW LONG
OFTEN residents go outdoors
residents STAY outdoors
DISCUSSION
Limitations of the study
This study had numerous limitations, some of which
could be corrected in further studies, and some of
which are characteristic of the populations and issues being explored. It was found to be unfeasible
to randomly select either residents or staff, as the
process even without randomization was somewhat
burdensome to administrators assisting with the
project. As the main level of environmental analysis
is at the facility-wide level, even the relatively large
sample of 68 facilities is not sufficient to overcome
the effects of confounding variables that certainly
exist. By choosing the larger urban areas, this study
represents more affluent facilities and residents than if
it had been conducted in rural areas and small towns.
Finally, although strong correlation was found that
linked outdoor usage to better health and higher
physical activity levels, this does not determine the
direction of causality. Further analysis of this data
at the individual level will make it possible to control
for individual variables such as age, health, functional
ability, poor vision, and history of falling; this may
yield more conclusive results on the association between environmental factors and outdoor usage.
Future research directions
An intervention study could be designed, based
on these findings, to help determine the direction
of causality: “Does better health lead to increased
outdoor usage, or does increased outdoor usage lead
to better health?” The causality likely operates in both
directions, and a well-constructed study could help
strengthen theory on this topic. Behavior-mapping
could be conducted as a further confirmation of the
68
levels, types, and locations of usage reported in this
study. It would be worthwhile to extend the present
study to other residential facility types, different
climates, and non-urban areas. Further research on
the role of the outdoors for staff health and well-being
would also be valuable, especially with current and
projected staffing shortages.
Application to practice
A chief advantage of this study is that the principles
are intended to be applied directly to practice settings,
by both providers and design practitioners. After
extensive layers of factor analysis, the environmental
assessment instrument will be revised to reflect the
design elements that are most significant in affecting
levels of outdoor usage and satisfaction with outdoor
space. From this, a useful and practical checklist will
be revised and made available to the industry. To
assist in disseminating this information, a multimedia
educational program currently under construction will also be made available, to present the most
important principles in an easily-applied format. By
making it easier and faster to obtain evidence-based
information, this educational tool will facilitate applying research to actual design situations. Because
the principles presented will be based on the documented needs and desires of residents, application of
these principles is expected to increase outdoor usage
in assisted living settings. This in turn may lead to
potential benefits for residents, such as improved
mood and hormone balance, higher levels of physical
activity, and better sleep patterns. It may also produce benefits in market appeal and occupancy levels
for assisted living providers. Design practitioners may
benefit from greater client satisfaction, and increased
market share afforded by specialized knowledge in
this topic.
CREDITS
Funding and assistance
This project was supported by SBIR Grant #
R44AG024786 from the National Institute on Aging.
The content is solely the responsibility of the authors
and does not necessarily represent the official views
of the National Institute on Aging or the National Institutes of Health. The author is also grateful to the assisted living organizations that provided access to their
communities, to the many residents and staff members
who took their time to participate in this study, and
to the colleagues and research assistants whose ideas,
time, and efforts made this study possible.
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Cutler, L. J., & Kane, R. A. (2006). As great as all
outdoors: A study of outdoor spaces as a neglected
resource for nursing home residents. In S. Rodiek & B.
Schwarz (Eds.), The Role of the Outdoors in Residential
Environments for Aging (pp. 29-48). New York: The
Haworth Press, Inc.
Fovell, R. and Fovell, M. (1993). Climate Zones
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Hawes, C., Phillips, C., Holan, S., & Sherman, M.
(2003). Assisted Living in Rural America: Results from
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Science Center.
Kearney, A. R., & Winterbottom, D. (2006). Nearby
nature and long-term care facility residents: Benefits and design recommendations. In S. Rodiek & B.
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Haworth Press, Inc.
Lang, R. and Dhavale, D. (2005). “Beyond Megalopolis: Exploring America’s New “Megapolitan” Geog-
raphy.” Accessed online February 5, 2007 10:00 am
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Martin, J. L., Marler, M. R., Harker, J. O., Josephson,
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nonpharmacological intervention improves activity
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(1997-2006). Climatological Data Annual Summary;
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ncdc.noaa.gov/pub/orders/966FD87E-80BD-4691E629-FD144FF034A2.PDF
(1997-2006). Climatological Data Annual Summary;
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Regnier, V. (2002). Design for Assisted Living:
Guidelines for Housing the Physically and Mentally
Frail. New York: John Wiley and Sons.
Regnier, V. (1985). Behavioral and Environmental
Aspects of Outdoor Space Use in Housing for the
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University of Southern California.
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Percibiendo la escala
de restauración (PRS):
diferencias por edad y sexo
en adolescentes y adultos
mexicanos
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Perceived Restorativeness Scale (PRS): Differences
by Age and Sex in Mexican Adolescent and Adult
Samples
Joel Martinez Soto and Montero y Lopez-Lena
(Universidad Nacional Autonoma de México)
Existe consenso respecto a que el estudio de los escenarios y experiencias restaurativas favorece el entendimiento de las relaciones saludables entre las personas
y su entorno. La “percepción de restauración ambiental”
alude a las propiedades percibidas de los escenarios que
contribuyen al ajuste psicológico mediante la mitigación
de la fatiga mental y el estrés (Coles & Keshavarz, 2006).
De acuerdo con la teoría de la restauración de la
atención-TRA (Kaplan y Kaplan, 1989), cuatro componentes del entorno dan cuenta de su valor restaurativo:
Estar Alejado, Fascinación, Extensión y Compatibilidad.
Estar Alejado se refiere a un cambio de escenario y
experiencia de la vida cotidiana. Extensión se refiere a
las propiedades de conexión y Alcance en los entornos.
Fascinación se relaciona con la capacidad de los ambientes para sostener involuntariamente la atención, sin
demandar esfuerzo alguno. Por último Compatibilidad
implica el grado de ajuste entre las características de
los escenarios y los propósitos e inclinaciones de las
personas.
Los componentes restaurativos del entorno han sido
evaluados por la Escala de Percepción de RestauraciónPRS (Hartig, Kaiser & Bowler, 1997; Hartig, Korpela,
Evans & Garling, 1997). La escala identifica las características de restauración que ofrece un escenario.
La percepción y preferencia por la naturaleza pueden
diferir de acuerdo con una multitud de variables relacionadas con el sujeto en cuestión, entre ellas edad, sexo,
antecedentes culturales, experiencias pasadas, motivos y
70
la rutina diaria e intereses específicos de los individuos
(Rohde & Kendle, 1994).
Varios estudios han evidenciado experiencias restaurativas en niños, adolescentes y adultos (Korpela &
Hartig, 1996; Wells, 2000; Korpela et al., 2001, 2002;
Wells & Evans, 2003). Korpela & Hartig (1996) en una
muestra de estudiantes universitarios de Finlandia (
=25 años), encontraron que los componentes restaurativos que tuvieron mayor peso en la descripción de un
escenario fueron Coherencia y Compatibilidad. Korpela, Hartig, Kaiser & Fuhrer (2001) trabajaron con
una muestra de estudiantes de EE.UU ( =20.8 años) y
encontraron que los componentes de Compatibilidad y
Estar Alejado eran los factores con mayor peso en la caracterización de los ambientes restaurativos. Hallazgos
semejantes fueron encontrados por Herzog, McGuire &
Nebel (2003).
Las investigaciones anteriores coinciden en que el
factor de Compatibilidad es un componente de mayor
peso en la caracterización de las experiencias restaurativas, lo cual no sucede con los demás factores de la PRS.
En Italia, Scopelliti & Giuliani (2004) en un estudio
con 67 sujetos, (n = 23 jóvenes, = 27.5 años; n = 22
adultos, = 41.6 años y n = 22 adultos mayores, =
68.4 años) sugirieron que los cambios en los ciclos de
vida de las personas pueden impactar la percepción
que se tenga sobre los componentes restaurativos. Los
autores referidos encontraron que Compatibilidad fue
el componente con mayor presencia en la descripción
de las experiencias restaurativas de los adultos mayores,
en tanto que el componente de Estar Alejado fue más
importante en la caracterización de las experiencias
restaurativas de los jóvenes y adultos en contraste con
los adultos mayores. Con respecto al sexo, no se encontraron diferencias estadísticamente significativas en la
caracterización de las experiencias restaurativas.
A pesar de los hallazgos descritos, se cuentan con
escasos estudios (e.g. Korpela, 1992; Bagot, 2004) sobre
el peso que las personas asignan a los componentes
restaurativos en diferentes etapas de su vida, por ello
se considera pertinente hipotetizar posibles diferencias
en la percepción de las características restaurativas del
ambiente en función de la edad. En consecuencia, en el
presente estudio se exploraron las posibles diferencias
en función de la edad y del sexo de los sujetos, en los
puntajes obtenidos en la versión mexicana de la PRS,
denominada en lo sucesivo como EPRA (Escala de
Percepción de Restauración Ambiental).
Método
Sujetos
Los participantes fueron contactados a través de un
curso de capacitación para acreditar el nivel de estudios medio superior. Participaron 109 sujetos (hombres, n = 33 y 76 mujeres, n = 76; con = 24 años)
ordenados en 3 grupos de comparación (ver Tabla 1).
Grupo
Edad
n
%
Adolescentes
14-18
43
39.4
Adultos jóvenes
20-29
37
33.9
29
26.6
Adultos
30-52
Tabla 1. Grupos de comparación
Instrumento
La EPRA constó de 26 ítems escalares de 11 puntos
(T. Hartig, comunicación personal, 14 de febrero,
2006) con opciones de respuesta 0= Nada y 10=
completamente agrupados en 7 dimensiones: (1) Estar
Alejado-EA (5 ítems), (2) Fascinación-FA (5 ítems), (3)
Coherencia-COH (4 ítems), (4) Alcance-ALC (4 ítems),
(5) Compatibilidad-COM (5 ítems), (6) Preferencia
Ambiental-PA (2 ítems) y (7) Familiaridad-F (1 ítem).
Cabe señalar que para documentar las posibles diferencias de los puntajes de la EPRA en función de la
edad y sexo de los sujetos, se consideraron como factores las cinco primeras dimensiones en tanto que las
dos últimas (PA y F) se manejaron como indicadores
de la percepción ambiental. De acuerdo con Nunally
y Bernstein (1995) ninguna de estas dimensiones
puede considerarse como factor ya que sólo cuentan
con 2 y 1 reactivo respectivamente. Con el propósito
de evaluar los escenarios descritos por los sujetos, se
les solicitó que escribieran al final del cuestionario el
nombre del lugar que ellos habían imaginado como
restaurativo. Con base en esta instrucción fue posible
obtener 2 categorías que clasificaron a dichos lugares.
En un estudio previo, Martínez-Soto y Montero
(2007) obtuvieron para los 5 primeros componentes
de la EPRA índices de consistencia interna de moderados a altos: COH, α= .70; COM, α= .75; EA, α= .76;
FA, α= .81 y ALC, α= .81; lo que permitió usar este
instrumento con muestras mexicanas.
Procedimiento
Se acudió al salón de clases donde se encontraban
los sujetos. Se solicitó permiso tanto a los maestros
como a los sujetos para que contestaran la EPRA. Una
vez obtenido la aprobación, se procedió a entregar
un cuestionario que constaba de 3 reactivos sobre
características sociodemográficas (edad, sexo y escolaridad), los 26 ítems de la EPRA y la petición sobre
el lugar al que el sujeto aludía en el espacio “Lugar
descrito_________”. La aplicación de los cuestionarios fue colectiva y tuvo una duración de 15 minutos
en promedio.
A diferencia de otros estudios sobre restauración
psicológica que han evaluado las propiedades restaurativas de una serie de escenarios predefinidos (e.g.
diapositivas con fotografías), el presente estudio se
centró en aquellos escenarios que las personas imaginaron como restaurativos. Con ello se asume que a)
fueron seleccionados escenarios con mayor preferencia ambiental y b) los escenarios elegidos variaron
en su potencial restaurativo (Korpela & Hartig, 1996).
Las instrucciones que se les dieron a todos los
sujetos fueron las siguientes: Estamos interesados
en saber cómo usted experimenta/entiende/percibe
cuando está en un lugar. Para ayudarnos a entender
su experiencia le presentamos a continuación las
siguientes oraciones. Estas oraciones pueden ser usadas
para describir diferentes lugares. Por favor, lea cuidadosamente cada oración y pregúntese: “¿Qué tanto esta
oración describe mi experiencia en este lugar?” Por
favor, tenga en cuenta la gente, cosas y actividades que
ocurren simultáneamente en el lugar que está evaluando cuando elija su respuesta.
Una vez aplicados los cuestionarios se les agradeció
a los maestros y alumnos su participación.
Resultados
Con base en las respuestas ante el ítem “Lugar descrito_____________” se identificaron dos tipos de
escenarios: 1) naturales ( n = 46, 56.8%) y construidos
( n = 35, 43.2%). Lo anterior coincidió con estudios
previos en relación con la preferencia de las personas
por escenarios naturales vs. construidos (e.g. Launman,
Garling, & Stormark, 2001; Herzog, Black, Fountaine &
Knotts, 1997). Se calcularon coeficientes de correlación
Pearson para observar si existía o no relación entre
los puntajes totales de la EPRA (restauración total) de
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ambas categorías de escenarios (naturales y construidos)
y el factor de Preferencia Ambiental. Se encontró una
asociación directa, moderada y significativa entre los
puntajes de preferencia y restauración total (rp =.75; p <
.01). Lo anterior sugiere que los lugares elegidos por los
sujetos son escenarios con características restaurativas.
Resultados similares fueron encontrados por Purcell,
Peron & Berto (2001).
Para conocer la existencia de diferencias estadísticamente significativas de las subescalas en función de
los grupos de edad se realizó un análisis de varianza
con comparaciones post hoc (método de Scheffé). Se
encontró que los componentes FA (F= 5.444; gl 2, 106;
p < 0.05) y ALC (F= 5.523; gl 2, 106; p < 0.05) tuvieron
mayor peso en la restauración para los adolescentes
(FA,
= 8.44; ALC, = 7.98) que para los adultos
jóvenes (FA, = 7.04; ALC, = 6.45). Asimismo,
COM (F= 3.690; gl 2, 106; p < 0.05) y ALC (F= 5.523; gl
2, 106; p < 0.05) fueron significativamente más importantes para los adolescentes (COM, = 8.35; ALC,
= 7.98) que para los adultos (COM, = 7.15; ALC, =
6.47). Como puede apreciarse en la Tabla 2 no existieron diferencias estadísticamente significativas entre
los tres grupos de edad en los componentes de Coherencia y Estar Alejado.
Como puede observarse en la Figura 1 el grupo de
adolescentes obtuvo los promedios más altos de los tres
grupos en lo que respecta a cuatro de los componentes
de la EPRA, FA ( = 8.44) seguido de COM ( =
8.35), ALC ( = 7.98) y EA ( = 7.60). Adicionalmente, las tendencias en las puntuaciones escalares medias pueden sugerir patrones interesantes a considerar.
Después de los adolescentes, los adultos fueron quienes
presentaron una ligera tendencia a obtener promedios
más altos en 3 componentes COH ( = 7.81), FA ( =
7.69), y AL ( = 6.47). Finalmente, los adultos jóvenes
fueron quienes presentaron una ligera tendencia a
obtener promedios más altos en 2 componentes COM (
= 7.38) y EA ( = 6.76).
El hecho de que los adolescentes presenten mayores
puntuaciones en la EPRA sugiere un mayor interés y
sensibilidad de estos hacia su entorno, particularmente
a aquellos escenarios con mayor potencial restaurativo.
Respecto a la valoración de los componentes de la
EPRA en función del sexo, se encontraron diferencias
estadísticamente significativas en las cinco dimensiones (ver Tabla 3).
Componentes
Grupos de edad
N
Media
Desv. estádar
Fascinación
Adolescentes
Adultos jóvenes
Adultos
43
37
29
8.44cb
7.04a
7.69
1.58
2.04
2.10
Compatibilidad
Adolescentes
Adultos jóvenes
Adultos
43
37
29
8.35ab
7.38c
7.15
1.71
2.23
2.21
Coherencia
Adolescentes
Adultos jóvenes
Adultos
43
37
29
7.49aa
7.07a
7.81
1.67
1.94
1.60
Estar Alejado
Adolescentes
Adultos jóvenes
Adultos
43
37
29
7.60aa
6.76
6.72a
1.73
2.35
2.55
Alcance
Adolescentes
Adultos jóvenes
Adultos
43
37
29
7.98b
6.45dc
6.47
1.79
2.64
2.57
Tabla 2. Diferencias estadísticamente significativas encontradas entre los grupos de edad y los componentes restaurativos
Nota: La letra a significa no diferencias entre grupos. Las letras b, c, y d son diferencias estadísticamente significativas entre grupos de cada
componente con p < .05 en la prueba de post-hoc de Scheffé.
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Grupos de edad
Adolescentes
Fascinación-FA
Estar alejado-EA
Compatibilidad-COM
Adultos jóvenes
Coherencia-COH
Alcance-ALC
Adultos
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Figura 1. Puntuaciones medias en cada uno de los cinco factores de la EPRA del grupo de adolescentes
( n = 43), adultos jóvenes ( n = 37) y adultos ( n = 29).
El hecho de que los adolescentes presenten mayores puntuaciones en la EPRA sugiere un mayor interés y sensibilidad de estos hacia su entorno, particularmente a aquellos escenarios con mayor potencial restaurativo.
Respecto a la valoración de los componentes de la EPRA en función del sexo, se encontraron diferencias estadísticamente significativas en las cinco dimensiones (ver Tabla 3).
Componente
Fascinación
Compatibilidad
Coherencia
Estar Alejado
Alcance
Sexo
N
Media
Desv. estándar
t
Hombre
Mujer
33
76
7.01a
8.09b
2.18
1.78
-2.685, gl =107, p<.05
Hombre
Mujer
33
76
6.40a
7.38b
2.42
1.85
-2.260, gl =107, p<.05
Hombre
Mujer
33
76
6.81a
7.71b
1.98
1.59
-2.280, gl =107, p<.05
Hombre
Mujer
33
76
6.40a
7.38b
2.50
2.01
-2.165, gl =107, p<.05
Hombre
Mujer
33
6.25a
2.62
76
b
2.25
7.42
-2.368, gl =107, p<.05
Tabla 3. Diferencias estadísticamente significativas entre hombres y mujeres en los componentes restaurativos
Nota: Las letras a y b en las medias son diferencias estadísticamente entre los grupos de cada componente con p < .05
en la prueba post-hoc de Scheffé.
M
H
M
Fascinación-FA
H
Estar alejado-EA
M
Dimensiones EPRA
Compatibilidad-COM
Coherencia-COH
H
Alcance-ALC
M
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H
0
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Figura 2. Puntuaciones medias en cada uno de los cinco factores de la EPRA del grupo de mujeres-M (n = 76) y hombres-H (n = 33).
Como puede verse en la Figura 2 el grupo de mujeres
mostró un promedio más alto en las puntuaciones de
las cinco subescalas las EPRA (ver Figura 2).
En resumen, los adolescentes obtuvieron las mayores puntuaciones en los componentes de la EPRA
al compararse con los jóvenes adultos y adultos. Las
características restaurativas de los ambientes fueron
percibidas con menor intensidad por los adultos
jóvenes y adultos. Las características restaurativas de
los ambientes fueron percibidas diferencialmente en
función de la edad que tenían los sujetos. Asimismo se
encontraron diferencias significativas entre hombres y
mujeres en la EPRA. La explicación de estos hallazgos
son abordados en la siguiente sección.
Discusión
Los resultados obtenidos confirman la hipótesis del
presente estudio y sugieren que la EPRA puede diferenciar los componentes restaurativos en función de la
edad y sexo de los sujetos. La presente investigación
incluyó a un grupo de adolescentes que mostraron un
mayor patrón de variabilidad en la caracterización de
las experiencias restaurativas (e.g. Korpela, 1992) al
compararse con un grupo de adultos jóvenes y adultos.
El hecho de que los adolescentes presenten mayor
variabilidad en sus puntuaciones de la EPRA al
contrastarse con adultos jóvenes y adultos constituye
74
un aspecto relevante para el estudio de los ambientes
restaurativos y su impacto en otras áreas de la psicología (e.g. psicología del desarrollo). La adolescencia
es una época en la que el individuo se hace cada vez
más consciente de si mismo, busca un estatus como
individuo, valora las relaciones de grupo, se desarrolla físicamente e intelectualmente y busca el control
y consolidación de sus valores (Horrocks, 1993).
Korpela (1992) señala que los adolescentes asisten a
lugares que son de su preferencia para experimentar
sensaciones de control, libertad de expresión y escape
de presiones sociales, así como también para relajarse,
calmarse y clarificar sus mentes después de eventos
emocionalmente adversos. Todos ellos aspectos que
involucran cambios en las emociones y cogniciones
características de la restauración psicológica (Korpela,
Kytta & Hartig, 2002). Lo anterior sugiere que los
ambientes restaurativos pueden ser contribuyentes en
la consolidación de la identidad y desarrollo físico y
mental del adolescente.
Respecto a los adultos jóvenes y adultos, una posible
explicación para la poca variabilidad de las puntuaciones en la EPRA puede deberse a lo señalado por
Iso-Ahola, Jackson & Duhn (1990) con respecto a que
la búsqueda de novedad y experiencias crece constantemente de la niñez a la adultez y declina con la
adultez tardía.
En el presente estudio no se encontraron diferencias
significativas en ninguno de los componentes de la
EPRA entre el grupo de adultos jóvenes y adultos. Lo
anterior contrasta con Scopelliti & Giuliani (2004)
quienes hallaron que el componente Estar Alejado fue
más importante en las experiencias restaurativas de
los adultos jóvenes vs. los adultos.
Dentro del grupo de adolescentes, la dimensión que
tuvo mayor peso en las experiencias restaurativas fue
Fascinación ( = 8.4), seguida de Compatibilidad (
=8.3), Alcance ( =7.9), Estar Alejado ( = 7.6) y
por último Coherencia ( = 7.4). De acuerdo con la
teoría de la restauración de la atención-TRA (Kaplan y
Kaplan, 1989) el mayor rasgo que distingue a los ambientes con mayor potencial para promover reflexión es
el tipo de Fascinación que ellos evocan (Herzog, Black,
Fountaine & Knotts, 1997). Estos resultados sugieren
que para los adolescentes un escenario restaurativo es
aquel que evoca en mayor grado un entorno que posibilita la reflexión y por ende un ajuste con sus propios
intereses y actividades.
Para los adultos jóvenes la dimensión que tuvo
mayor peso fue Compatibilidad ( =7.3), seguida de
Coherencia ( = 7.0), Fascinación ( = 7.0), Estar
Alejado ( = 6.7) y Alcance
( = 6.4). Ello
parece indicar que para un adulto joven, un ambiente
restaurativo es aquel que transmite un ajuste entre las
características del ambiente y los propósitos e inclinaciones personales (Kaplan, 1995).
Por otra parte, en los adultos la dimensión con
mayor peso fue Coherencia ( = 7.81), seguida de
Fascinación ( = 6.7), Compatibilidad ( = 7.1),
Estar Alejado ( = 6.7) y Alcance ( = 6.47). Estos
hallazgos sugieren que para los adultos un ambiente
restaurativo es aquel que se percibe con mayor riqueza
y coherencia.
Con respecto a las diferencias encontradas entre
hombres y mujeres, la presente investigación difiere
de los hallazgos reportados por Scopelliti & Giuliani
(2004) quienes no encuentran diferencias por sexo en
la caracterización de los componentes restaurativos.
Sin embargo, los resultados sugieren un posible rol
diferencial en la percepción de las características restaurativas de los escenarios por parte de las mujeres.
Aunque no es un aspecto muy estudiado aun, dicha
diferencia podría explicarse en alguna medida por
lo señalado por Stamps (1996, 1999), Strumse (1996)
y Regan & Horn (2005) con respecto a la diferencia
de variables demográficas (entre ellas el sexo) en la
preferencia de las personas por la naturaleza. En
este sentido, el presente estudio encontró una ligera
tendencia de las mujeres (55 %) a elegir escenarios
naturales vs. construidos (45%) como restaurativos.
Cabría destacar la propensión de las mujeres a cuidar
su entorno (Davidson & Freudenburg, 1996) como
una posible explicación de una mayor sensibilidad
hacia el mismo.
Dentro del grupo de las mujeres el factor con mayor
peso en las experiencias restaurativas fue Fascinación
( = 8.0) seguido de Coherencia, ( = 7.7), Alcance
( = 7.4), Compatibilidad ( = 7.3) y Estar Alejado
( = 7.3). En el caso de los hombres, el factor con
mayor peso fue Fascinación ( = 7.0), Coherencia
( = 6.8), Compatibilidad ( = 6.4), Estar Alejado
( = 6.4) y por último Alcance ( = 6.2). Ambos
grupos coincidieron en que dos de las cualidades
de mayor peso en la descripción de las cualidades
restaurativas fueron Fascinación y Coherencia. Es
importante señalar la similitud en las puntuaciones
promedio de Compatibilidad y Estar Alejado tanto
para el grupo de mujeres como para el grupo de hombres. En términos de la TRA (Kaplan y Kaplan, 1989)
los resultados indican que para ambos grupos, los escenarios con mayor cualidad restaurativa son aquellos
que promueven la Fascinación en diferentes grados.
Una posible explicación para las diferencias encontradas en las puntuaciones de hombres y mujeres con
respecto al componente de Fascinación quizás tenga
que ver con el tipo de escenarios restaurativos elegidos
tanto por hombres como por mujeres. Herzog, et al.
(1997) señalan que existen tres tipos de escenarios con
diferentes grados de fascinación: 1) escenarios que
evocan fascinación suave (e.g. escenarios naturales
ordinarios), 2) escenarios que son bajos en fascinación
pero altos en demandas de la atención dirigida (e.g. escenarios urbanos y 3) escenarios altos en fascinación
(e.g. escenarios deportivos). Por lo tanto, parecería
ser que las cualidades restaurativas de los escenarios
seleccionados por las mujeres son lugares con altas
cualidades restaurativas como los escenarios naturales
(Herzog, et al., 1997). A su vez estos resultados coinciden con Regan y Horn (2005) quien encontró que las
mujeres más que los hombres, referían a la naturaleza
como un lugar para desestresarse y relajarse.
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Al igual que otras investigaciones (Korpela & Hartig,
1996; Korpela, et al., 2001; Herzog, et al., 2003) los
resultados obtenidos coinciden en que Compatibilidad es uno de los factores clave en la expresión de los
ambientes restaurativos.
Si bien los hallazgos encontrados ratifican la hipótesis planteada, es pertinente identificar algunas limitaciones. Por ejemplo, el estímulo presentado para ser
evaluado como ambiente restaurativo no fue heterogéneo; ello implicó que cada sujeto evocara, mediante
la imaginación, un ambiente particular y lo evaluara.
Si bien el empleo de la imaginación pudiera representar
una limitación en el presente estudio, existen exitosos
antecedentes en la literatura especializada. Al respecto
Korpela, Hartig, Kaiser & Fuhrer (2001) y Staats &
Hartig (2004) emplearon la imaginación activa para
evaluar ambientes restaurativos. Particularmente en
México Martínez-Soto y Montero (2007) emplearon
el recurso de la imaginación como referencia para
una descripción ambiental. En una muestra de 260
estudiantes universitarios, los autores referidos encontraron que la EPRA discriminó entre dos categorías
formuladas por los sujetos (escenarios naturales y
construidos) y tres subescalas (Fascinación, Estar Alejado y Alcance). Lo anterior ratifica las propiedades
de validez discriminante de la EPRA aún empleando
recursos visuales no predeterminados.
Otra de las posibles limitaciones del presente
proyecto, fue el no haber incluido muestras de edades
extremas (ej. niños y adultos). En razón de que la tarea
a desarrollar en la evaluación de la restauración ambiental suponía un proceso de abstracción por parte de
los sujetos, se consideró que dicho proceso sería más
funcional a partir de la adolescencia hasta la adultez
(Piaget, 1952). Por ello el rango de edades cubierto se
consideró como el óptimo.
Los ambientes restaurativos son catalizadores del
desarrollo cognitivo (Berto, 2005) y físico (CooperMarcus & Barnes, 1999) dentro de todo el ciclo
vital de las personas, asimismo son escenarios aun
soslayados que pueden promover la salud mental
(Maller, Townsend, Brown & St. Leger, 2002). En
México y Latinoamérica son escasas las investigaciones empíricas sobre escenarios restaurativos. El
presente estudio constituye un punto de partida en
Latinoamérica para estudiar con un instrumento
validado y confiabilizado en población mexicana,
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aquellas características de los escenarios que permiten
a las personas alcanzar sus capacidades potenciales,
y con ello contribuir a la creación de políticas de
impacto significativo en la salud individual, pública y
ecológica.
En resumen se ratificaron las cualidades psicométricas de la EPRA en población mexicana. Se
documentaron las diferencias en la evaluación de los
escenarios en función de la edad y sexo y se evidenció
la relevancia de la restauración ambiental como un
tópico que merece mayor investigación dentro del
contexto latinoamericano.
Referencias
Bagot, K. (2004). Perceived restorative components;
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Berto, R. (2005). Exposure to restorative environments helps restore attentional capacity. Journal of
Environmental Psychology, 25, 249-259.
Coles, R. & Keshavarz, N. (2006, Junio - Julio). The
restorative potential of local urban environments-The
impact of green infrastructure on the health and well
being of local residents. In K. Nilsson & B. Nielsen
(Eds.) Urban forestry for human health and wellbeing.
Documento presentado en la reunión COST-E39
Research Conference y ASEM Second Symposium on
Urban Forestry, Copenhagen, Dinamarca.
Cooper-Marcus, C. & Barnes, M. (1999). Healing
gardens. Therapeutic benefits and design recommendations. NY, EE.UU.: John Wiley & Sons.
Davidson, D. & Freudenburg, W. (1996). Gender
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Physical Form and Social
Activities: A Case Study in
Belo Horizonte
Forma física y actividades sociales: un estudio de
caso en Belo Horizonte
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Paula Barros (Oxford Brookes University,
United Kingdom)
Introduction
A major goal in contemporary urban design is to
develop people-friendly gathering open spaces as part of
the strategy to regenerate existing urban centres (Isaacs,
2000; Southworth, 2005; Yang & Kang, 2005). However,
questions regarding the effectiveness of some design
proposals illustrate a need for more research in how
physical form influences people’s experience and use of
urban places.
Belo Horizonte, the first planned city in Brazil, as
many other cities in the world, has suffered from a lack
of people-friendly open spaces. The importance of creating a more aesthetically pleasing and engaging urban
landscape was acknowledged by the public authorities
and design professionals in the 80’s (Brandão, 1998). In
the year 2004, as part of a strategy to regenerate the historic centre of Belo Horizonte, the city’s public administration created the programme Centro Vivo.
Centro Vivo aims to repair the inner city through
small increments in a manner that best promotes the
piecemeal regeneration of the area. Since the elaboration of the programme, several projects have already
been implemented. However, despite of the public sector’s efforts in generating a more people-friendly settlement, questions regarding the effectiveness of some design solutions illustrate a need for more research in how
physical form influences people’s use of urban places. In
this regards, Moughtin (2003) pointed out that despite
of squares’ significance, there are too many examples
around the world of recent plaza design which generate
spaces described as an empty desolate place surrounded
by underutilized buildings or as a busy traffic island.
Given this background, it is vital to consider the
formal configurations of squares and how they attract
people to use them. Recognizing the need for more
78
research in how physical form influences people’s use
of urban spaces and being aware of the growing interest
in pedestrian-orientated urban design, this study is
placed to study people’s use of urban squares in order to
generate theoretical concepts and guidelines to physical
design of people-friendly urban environments.
Background
Space morphology studies involve examining the relationships between the different elements of the urban
fabric. According to the focus of the research, distinct
relationships are emphasized. Morphological analyses
focus on the analyses and explanation of the fundamental urban geometric character at a variety of scales.
Tricart (as cited in Rossi, 1982, p.48) defined three distinct scales to analyze the urban form: the “scale of the
street”, consisting of the solids and voids that surround
the built area; the “scale of the district”, including a
cluster of blocks with similar attributes; and the “scale
of the entire city” which is made of a group of districts.
The division of the urban form in its elementary
components reflects the designers’ creative process, who,
on a daily basis, “divides to conquer” (Macedo, 2002).
Nevertheless, like all research in urban form, morphological elements needs to be identified and analyzed,
either separately or in relation to each other. For the
purposes of this study, the form of square is defined
as an arrangement of the following morphological
elements: building, street, vegetation, open space and
urban furniture.
Building is the element which defines the urban form
and is defined by it. Street moulds the square’s shape
and links the various spaces and parts of the city. It
is very resistant to processes of urban transformations. The vegetation in the urban structure organizes,
defines and contains spaces. By open space is meant
urban spaces other than streets and green areas. Urban
furniture involves all the elements which are perceived
as three-dimensional objects by a walking observer in
the urban fabric, such as kiosks, bollards, fountains,
sculptures.
Focusing on the classical environment-behaviour
studies, Lynch (1960) and Gehl (1987) adopted sciencebased approaches to establish a connection between
human activities and physical form. Gehl’s work is
about everyday activities and their demands on the built
environment. Through observation studies of public life
questions about how and when the space is used were
answered. Interviews were applied to answer questions on who were the users and how they felt about
public space.
Gehl (1987) defined three categories of outdoor activities: necessary, optimal and social. The former category includes those activities which are more or less
compulsory, such as going to work. Optimal activities
are all activities that take place only under favourable
exterior conditions, such as sunbathing, and social activities are those that depend on the presence of other
people in the open spaces. Thus, social activities are
indirectly supported whenever necessary and optimal
activities take place in the public spaces.
As far as the stationary activities in open urban
spaces are concerned, Gehl (1987) verified that where
a real staying function takes place, the problem of
finding a pleasing place to stand arises. According
to survey in Ascoli Piceno, Italy, and at the University of Aberdeen, Scotland “…the preferred stopping
zones (…) are found along the borders of the spaces
or at the edges of spaces within the space” (Gehl, 1987,
p.151). In this regards, Gehl (1987) argued that this
preference is due to the fact that the edge of a space is
where one’s back is protected and it is the zone which
provides the best opportunities to surveying the space.
Arguing that what really matters is not the study
of city’s physical forms in itself, but the study of how
its inhabitants perceive them, Lynch (1960) defined
five elements of the city which appear to be basic to
its “imageability” for the purposes of spatial orientation and navigation. “Paths” were defined as channels
along with people moves; “edges”, as linear elements
that are not used as paths, they are boundaries, lateral
references; “districts” as areas of the city that share
common characteristics; “nodes” as primarily junctions into which people can enter and “landmarks” as
external point-references to people.
This investigation of people’s image of their city
showed that certain elements in the urban landscape
figured in some people’s images, but that other elements present in the townscape typically did not. In
this respect, it is important to recognize the selective nature of our perception. In other words, things
available to our senses may be perceived more than
others and some not at all. In addition, the ways of
perceiving vary between cultures, within culture and
over time (Rodaway, 1994).
Nevertheless, research has consistently demonstrated that the landmarks, elements which singled
out of the surrounding environment, are often used
as reference points in descriptions of spaces (Isaacs,
2000). It has been said that the feeling of ‘here I am’
matters because it gives us a sense of well-being. An
extension of this, as a person ability to know their
position by distinguishing here-ness from there-ness,
features Cullen’s (1960) book, The Concise Townscape.
This work acknowledges that this sense of position,
the instinctive and continuous habit of the body to
position itself to the environment should be a factor in
the design of places. In other words, the known here
and the unknown there should be exploited in the
process of designing spaces.
Given this background, it becomes evident that the
experience of open urban spaces routinely encountered influences people’s quality of life. In fact, “that
human experience has particular spatial implications
is well consolidated in environmental psychology”
(Thwaits, 2001, p.246). From the preceding it may be
said that locations which have a higher probability of
engendering a sense of here-ness may be more used
because they are more likely to provide uplifting experiences. From the ideas presented above, another level
of hypothesis emerges: besides micro-climate and
social issues, the design of landmarks and the relationships between them and the others morphological
elements of the space do influence people’s preference
for using some zones within it.
Case Study Method
The main theoretical proposition is examined
by means of analyses of three formally quite different squares situated in the historic core of Belo
Horizonte: Raul Soares Square, Liberty’s Square and
Station’s Square. Raul Soares Square’s circular shape is
moulded by a curved street which encircles the space.
The square’s green area defines a central open space
around a fountain as well as straight and curved paths
symmetrically disposed. The square’s floor finish,
mosaic, unifies, give scale and decorate the space. The
streets, vegetation, paths and floor finish define all together a biaxial symmetrical configuration. The buildings which frame this square are very heterogeneous
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in form, scale and style. The element which keeps the
whole together is the square’s fountain, which is very
likely to be an external point-references to people who
walk through the space.
The Liberty’s Square is an important civic square
in Belo Horizonte. The palm trees, symmetrically
disposed in relation to the square central longitudinal axis and equally spaced, subdivide it into three
smaller entities. These three singular spatial units are
tied together by a street which defines the Liberty’s
Square rectangular form.
The two rows of palm trees enclose a linear central
spatial entity directed towards the main façade of the
governor’s palace, a richly decorated building. The
visual attributes, symbolic importance and visibility
of this building are likely to hold it as a reference element in people’s description of the space. The unique
floor finish of this space in cobble stone reinforces its
singularity.
This square is also characterized by two other
rectangular spatial entities, symmetrically disposed
in relation to the square’s longitudinal axis. Both of
these secondary spaces are characterized by gardens
symmetrically disposed in relation to their respective
longitudinal central axes. Their gardens define open
spaces as well as straight and curved paths. These
secondary spatial unities are surrounded by a row of
palm trees in one of their sides and by buildings of
different styles and heights in the other three sides.
In both of these two secondary spatial entities, it
is not a special building, but their furnishing, which
actually defines their visual rhythm. From all casestudy sites, Liberty’s Square is the one where the
“serial vision” effect is best experienced. It is thought
that the distinctive physical attributes and visibility of
the urban furniture in these secondary spaces, such as
the water fountain, may guarantee them the status of
landmark elements.
Finally, the Rui Barbosa’s Square can be interpreted
as a complex of squares visually connected, but physically separated by the Andradas Avenue. This study
focuses on the study of the square known as Station’s Square. This spatial unity is dominated by the
Station’s building, a magnificent construction. This
rectangular space is surrounded in one side by the
Station’s building and in the other three by streets.
Focusing on the square’s floor finishes, blocks of con-
80
crete is the predominant material used to cover the
esplanade.
The two fountains are placed in equal proximity to
the square’s corners and at equal distances from the
sculpture in its centre. All together, these three centres induce the sense of an axis perpendicular to the
main axis of the Station’s building. The two rows of
post lights and the alameda of trees help towards the
segregation of the square’s space because they accentuate the density of the square’s perceived periphery.
From the preceding, it becomes clear that these
squares were chosen to be the case-study sites of this
research because as they present differing typomorphological characteristics, they seem to be cases
able to provide valid and challenging tests to the main
theoretical proposition. Thus, if it is verified that the
congregation zones within them hold in common the
hypothesized physical quality, the external generalizability of the research findings will be expanded.
Having analyzed the morphological attributes of
the case-study sites (see figure 01), it seems fitting to
test the hypothesis which emerged from the literature
review: besides micro-climate and social issues, the
design of landmarks and the relationships between
them and the others morphological elements of the
space do influence people’s preference for using some
zones within this space. The place-centered mapping
was used to collect data due to the fact that it is very
efficient in gathering knowledge of people’s use of
space.
Through this method awareness of repetitive activities in identifiable environments is gained. An observation instrument was constructed to obtain (a) types
of social stationary activities; (b) particular locations;
(c) postures; (d) gender of subjects. The dimension of
the case study sites and number of users motivated
a combination of 12 human observers and photos
(Sommer & Sommer, 2002).
From 728 observations certain conclusions have
been reached which describe the way in which the
case-study sites are used. The SPSS for frequency
counts was used to describe and analyze the reduced
observational data (see figure 02) and the Mapinfo for
the construction of the behavioral maps, two dimensional representation of space which locates each of
the observations and represents the group size of
each cluster - the smallest circle represents only one
person .
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Figure 01. From left to right: Raul Soares Square, Station’s Square and Liberty’s Square.
Through this method awareness of repetitive activities
in identifiable environments is gained. An observation instrument was constructed to obtain (a) types of
social stationary activities; (b) particular locations; (c)
postures; (d) gender of subjects. The dimension of the
case study sites and number of users motivated a combination of 12 human observers and photos (Sommer &
Sommer, 2002).
From 728 observations certain conclusions have been
reached which describe the way in which the case-study
sites are used. The SPSS for frequency counts was used
to describe and analyze the reduced observational data
(see figure 02) and the Mapinfo for the construction of
the behavioral maps, two dimensional representation of
space which locates each of the observations and represents the group size of each cluster - the smallest circle
represents only one person.
It was found that among the users of the squares
men generally account higher percentage. More men
were performing stationary social activities in each
of the settings than did women. Data observed in the
case-study sites show talking and observing as primary
activities. Indications are that while Raul Soares Square
lends itself more for solitary activities than for social
interaction, Liberty’s Square and Station’s Square are
the opposite.
At Station’s Square (see figure 03) the central sculpture
obtained the highest occupancy rate, at Liberty’s Square
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Figure 02. Observational analysis
(see figure 04) the highest occupancy rate was in the
edge of the central alameda and at Raul Soares Square
the highest occupancy rate was around the fountain
(see figure 05). If we consider the open spaces within
Liberty Square, the seating around the circular fountain can be categorized as a congregation zone as well
as the bandstand. It was verified that these case-study
sites have zones which are popular whilst others are not.
Besides environmental and social issues, it is vital to investigate how the physical form of these spaces attracts
people to use them.
Conclusions and Discussions
Apparently, the findings of the systematic and
unobtrusive observation seem to contradict the result
of the study of preferred areas for stays developed by
Gehl. This research verified that people prefer to be at
the edges of the spaces. From this study, Gehl (1987)
argued that “events grown from inward, from edge
toward the middle of public spaces” (p.152).
Several explanations for this preference were highlighted in Gehl’s seminal book, Life Between Build-
82
ings: Using Public Space. It was argued, for example,
that the edge of a space provides the best opportunity
for surveying it, while one is less exposed than being
in the middle of a space. In this circumstance the
personal territory is reduced to a semi-circle in front
of s/he, situation which diminishes the possibility of
an undesired invasion of personal territory. In the
edges people observe while remaining unobserved
and feeling protected.
If compared with the inner areas of the Brazilian
squares, the ‘edge effect’ failed in all case-study sites.
In fact, the opposite phenomenon seems to take place:
gathering grows inwards. However, a closer look will
demonstrate that the edge effect also seems to take
place in the spatial unities within the case-study sites
which are not featured by focal points within them,
such as the central “corridor” in the Liberty’s Square,
and in those whose landmarks do not afford seating,
like the water fountain in one of Liberty’s Square
secondary spatial unities.
Concluding, besides micro-climate and social issues,
the behavioral density was highest in zones which of-
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Figure 03. Social stationary activities located on Station’s
Square site plan.
Figure 04. Social stationary activities located on
Liberty’s Square site plan.
Figure 05. Social stationary activities located on Raul Soares Square site plan.
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fered a good view towards the spaces’ focal points and
in the memorable elements which afforded secondary
seating and views towards others visual references.
Landmarks seem to function as a magnet for social
activities.
Without disregarding the limitation, including the
restriction to one culture, the uncontrollable variables
and ultimately, the testability of the hypothesis itself,
from the results of this research some support can be
found regarding the relationship between physical
urban form and use of public open spaces. The results
sustain the hypothesis that besides micro-climate and
social issues, the design of landmarks and the relationships between them and the others morphological
elements of the space do influence people’s preference
for using some zones within this space.
Given this background, it is important to hint some
design implications within today’s context, suggestive
of alternative paths for future research. In this respect,
it may be said that the design of gathering open spaces
should be conceived bearing in mind the interplay
between landmarks elements, vistas and seating. In
this regards, an attempt is made to exemplify how this
general principle may guide different types of urban design solutions : (A) landmark objects may be designed
as a multifunctional element which affords seating; (B)
the configuration of the space may affords views from
the landmarks elements towards other focal points; (C)
spaces may be punctuated by a landmark element and
comfortable seating at its edge; (D) landmark objects
may be designed to afford a panoramic view towards
other landmarks elements.
It is important to bear in mind that an artistic attention needs to be paid to physical interventions because
urban design is a practical art as well as being about the
aesthetics of the urban environments. The sensation
of here-ness may be further accentuated through the
use of artistic design solutions (Cullen, 1960). If several
open spaces in modern cities are ugly and oppressive,
and get people down, designers should bear in mind
the aesthetics possibilities for making them otherwise.
Finally, it is relevant to highlight that although this
research focused on the visual qualities of places, it is
well appreciated that the perception of space involves
inputs from all senses. Therefore, the establishment
of a sense of place is also moulded by auditory, olfactory, thermal and tactile sensations. Therefore, further
84
investigations on how the intentional orchestration of
all these sensory layers may affect people’s preference
and behaviour are much needed.
References
Brandão, C. A. L. (1998). A cena contemporânea.
In L. B. Castriota (Ed.), Arquitetura da modernidade
(pp.231-261). Belo Horizonte: Editora UFMG.
Cullen, G. (1960). The concise townscape. Oxford: The
architectural Press.
Gehl, J. (1987). Life between buildings: using public
space. New York: Van Nostrand Reinhold Company.
Lynch, K. (1960). The image of the city. Cambridge:
MIT Press.
Macedo, A. C. (2002). Ensaio: o espaco urbano por
partes. Sinopses, 38, 11-16.
Moughtin, C. (2003). Urban design: street and square.
Oxford: Architectural Press.
Rodaway, P. (1994). Sensuous geographies: body, sense
and place. London: Routledge.
Rossi, A. (1982). The architecture of the city. Cambridge: The MIT Press.
Sommer, R., & Sommer, B. (2002). A practical guide
to behavioral research: tools and techniques. 5th ed. New
York: Oxford University Press.
Southworth, M. (2005). Reinventing main street:
from mall to townscape mall. Journal of Urban Design,
10, 151-170.
Thwaites, K. (2001). Experiential landscape place:
an exploration of space and experience in neighbourhood landscape architecture. Landscape Research, 26,
245-255.
Yang, W., & Kang, J. (2005). Soundscape and sound
preferences in urban squares: a case study in Sheffield.
Journal of Urban Design, 10, 61-80.
Scale of Electric Power
Consumption at Home:
A Mexican Proposal
energía intensiva y de aparatos de conservación de la
energía (Reddy, 2004).
Para entender los patrones de consumo que estén
ligados a la protección del medio se ha estudiado la conducta pro-ambiental (CPA). Ésta es entendida como el
“conjunto de acciones intencionales, dirigidas y efectivas
Escala del consumo eléctrico en el hogar: una
que influyen para responder a requerimientos sociales
propuesta Mexicana
individuales que resultan de la protección del medio”
(Corral, 2001: 40). En los estudios sobre CPA se han
Claudia Garcia-Landa and Maria Montero y
incluido variables como los valores (Corraliza y Martín,
Lopez-Lena (Universidad Nacional Autonoma
2000; González, 2002), la motivación (Corral, 1996;
de México)
De Young, 1996), las competencias (Corral, 1996), las
habilidades (Bustos, 2004) y la austeridad (Corral y PihActualmente en la Ciudad de México el consumo pro- neiro, 2004; De Young, 1996), entre otras que ayudan
a explicar, de manera parcial, la CPA en rubros como
medio de energía eléctrica (EE) por vivienda es de 270
agua, reciclaje de basura y energía en general.
kWh por bimestre, equivalentes a $450 pesos [$41 USD
En investigaciones sobre estilos de vida se ha comaproximadamente] (Gobierno del Distrito Federal, 2007;
probado
que las personas con características austeras
Luz y Fuerza del Centro, 2007). El impacto económico
tienden a actuar en favor del cuidado del ambiente
por servicio de EE es diferencial en los hogares. De este
(Corral
y Pihneiro, 2004; De Young, 1996; Iwata 1999,
modo, puede representar desde el 15% hasta el 30%
2006, Lastovicka, et al. 1999). En seis estudios Lasdel ingreso familiar (Gobierno del Distrito Federal,
tovicka et al. (1999) hallaron un asociación negativa
2007). Ante ello, las medidas de control que presentan
significativa entre frugalidad y consumo compulsivo (r
los usuarios varían desde la instalación de “diablitos”
=
-.25, p < .05). Corral y Pihneiro (2004) notaron una
(tomas irregulares de EE, Comisión Federal de Elecrelación positiva entre austeridad y consumo de agua
tricidad, 2007) hasta el uso, en menor medida, de focos
(r
= .18, p < .005). Por su parte, Iwata (2006) encontró
o electrodomésticos ahorradores de EE (Comisión
una correlación positiva y significativa entre el consumo
para el Ahorro de Energía, 2007). Desde la perspectiva
ambientalmente responsable y el estilo de vida sencillo
ecológica social y dentro del contexto mexicano, el
(r = .33, p < .05). La evidencia empírica indica que el
estudio del consumo de EE en el hogar representa un
consumo austero es una variable importante para la
problema escasamente estudiado que requiere un aborCPA en el consumo de agua, en la reducción del condaje multidisciplinario para derivar opciones viables y
sumo y en la compra de productos. Hasta el momento
eficientes.
no se identificó evidencia empírica con respecto al
En la Ciudad de México existe un patrón de consumo
para la EE en las viviendas, que está en función del equi- consumo austero y el consumo de EE en el hogar.
Debido a la falta de un instrumento sobre consumo
pamiento, el clima, los hábitos y la hora del día, princiaustero de EE en el hogar, en este estudio se desarpalmente. El 35% del consumo de energía eléctrica en
rolló una escala para medirla. Dicha escala se diseñó
las viviendas se utiliza en iluminación, el 30% en refrigcon base en la curva de satisfacción social que plantean
eración, el 25% en entretenimiento y el 10% en diversas
Domínguez y Robin (1992), que explica la relación entre
actividades (Ramos, 1998; Ramos, 2003).
el gasto de dinero y la satisfacción que el consumidor
El patrón de consumo de EE en los hogares está
recibe por el consumo de un bien o servicio.
determinado por la luz del día (Ramos, 1998) y por el
La Figura 1 muestra la relación entre el consumo
estilo de vida de los usuarios (Leonard-Barton, 1981;
(gasto de dinero) y la satisfacción del consumidor mediReddy, 2004). En la Ciudad de México el consumo
ante cuatro fases:
mayor se hace por las mañanas antes de las 10 horas y
1. Supervivencia: satisfacer las necesidades básicas,
por las noches, desde las 19 hasta las 24 horas (Ramos,
psicológicas y espirituales con el consumo a nivel físico.
2003). El estilo de vida de los consumidores de EE se
Consumo necesario para la vida.
caracteriza por el uso de la iluminación, de aparatos de
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2. Confort: existe una relación positiva entre dinero
y satisfacción buscando la comodidad.
3. Lujo: Creencia de que no hay suficientes comodidades por lo que busca la satisfacción con “pequeños”
lujos que implican suntuosidad.
4. Derroche: el disconfort se puede aliviar con algo
externo, haciendo uso indiscriminado de las cosas.
5. De esta manera, la curva de satisfacción explica
cómo la persona atiende sus necesidades a partir de su
relación con el consumo de bienes y servicios que lo
ubican en diferentes estilos de vida.
Papeles
Seleccionados
proporcionará al ambiente el consumo mesurado de
EE en el hogar sin perder comodidad. El consumo
austero de EE en el hogar se verá reflejado tanto en la
adquisición y uso de aparatos eléctricos, como en la
manifestación de conductas específicas. Por ejemplo,
apagar la luz cada vez que se sale de una habitación y
desconectar aparatos que consumen EE sin realizar su
función principal (v. gr. microondas, TV, estéreo).
El consumo austero influye en los patrones de consumo del individuo. Conocer si el consumidor actúa a
favor o en contra del cuidado del ambiente será tarea
de los estudiosos de la CPA. Asimismo, es necesario
entender estos patrones que caracterizan tanto a los
consumidores que tienen un estilo de vida austero
como a aquellos que llevan una vida llena de lujos
y derroche. Por ello, el objetivo de este estudio fue
documentar las características psicométricas de una
escala para el consumo racional de la EE en el hogar
“CREE”.
Método
Figura 1. Curva de satisfacción (Domínguez y Robin,
1992: 24)
Esta curva muestra que el consumo austero se ubica
en el continuo de confort donde el individuo limita su
consumo de bienes y servicios sin perder comodidad.
Un estilo de vida basado en la simplicidad y el consumo frugal de los recursos permite que el individuo
consuma para tener confort evitando degradar, en
menor medida, las existencias naturales (Constanza,
Daly y Bartholomew, 1999; Johnson, 1978).
Una manera de consumir sin degradar los recursos
de la tierra puede ser explicada por el consumo
austero. El estilo de vida del consumidor austero se
caracteriza por la moderación en la adquisición y en
el uso de bienes económicos y servicios de manera
ingeniosa para lograr metas a largo plazo (Lastovicka,
et al. 1999).
De esta manera, la CPA es una meta a largo plazo
ya que los individuos muchas veces no observarán las
ventajas que su conducta produce de manera inmediata. Esto sucede en el caso de los beneficios que
86
Muestra
Se entrevistaron a 159 amas de casa residentes de
la unidad habitacional Rinconada del Sur ubicada
al sur de la Ciudad de México, con rango de edad
de 20 a 81 años (media de 37.3 años). Con respecto a
escolaridad, el 16% estudió primaria, el 28% secundaria, el 17% carrera técnica, el 22% preparatoria y el
17% licenciatura. El 46% reportó un ingreso familiar
mensual menor a los $ 3,000 pesos ($273 USD), el 33%
un ingreso entre $3,000 y $6,000 pesos (entre $273 y
$546 USD), el 15% entre $6000 y $10,000 pesos (entre
$546 y $909 USD) y el 2% entre $10,000 y $20,000
pesos (entre $909 y $1818 USD).
La figura 2 muestra que la mayoría de las amas de
casa encuestadas están en un rango inferior al promedio pagado por bimestre en la Ciudad de México.
Ellas pagan en promedio al bimestre $225 pesos
equivalentes a $20.45 USD. En este caso se tomó en
cuenta la mediana debido a la dispersión de valores y a
la distribución sesgada de la muestra.
Instrumento
Se construyó una escala con 69 reactivos sobre consumo racional de EE en el hogar de acuerdo a la curva
de satisfacción que plantean Domínguez y Robin
NC
4
1
1
1500
2
1
2
pago bimestral en m.n. por consumo de EE
800
2
2
550
4
3
4
1
450
4
1
380
1
320
1
270
1
1
240
5
10
2
6
2
1
2
200
4
175
1
2
1
1
2
2
1
0
0
Papeles
Seleccionados
2
1
1
1
70
Refereed
Full-Papers
7
1
78
10
2
2
1
89
18
5
3
140
100
9
2
7
2
4
6
8
10
12
14
16
18
20
amas de casa
Figura 2. Pago bimestral en m.n. por consumo de energía eléctrica.
(1992). La mitad de los reactivos estaban redactados en
forma positiva y la otra mitad en forma negativa. Los
69 reactivos fueron escalares de 5 puntos (1 = nunca,
5 = siempre). Como primer paso para documentar
la validez de constructo en este estudio se reportan
datos preliminares del análisis factorial exploratorio y
de la validez convergente. Para la validez convergente
se utilizó la escala de austeridad de agua de Corral
y Pihneiro (2004) con 8 reactivos y puntajes que van
del 1 (totalmente en desacuerdo) al 4 (totalmente de
acuerdo).
Procedimiento
La aplicación individual del instrumento se llevó
a cabo con las personas que cumplían con las características de inclusión (ser amas de casa y vivir en la
unidad habitacional). Se tuvo una reunión previa con
los administradores de la UH para obtener su permiso
para acceder a la UH. Se pidió a las participantes que
contestaran con la mayor veracidad posible, asegurando la confiabilidad de sus respuestas.
Resultados
Con el fin de realizar el análisis factorial exploratorio (Nunnally y Bernstein, 1995) se siguieron tres
pasos: discriminación de reactivos, análisis factorial
de reactivos con cargas factoriales iguales o mayores
a .40 y estimación de consistencia interna tanto de los
factores como del total de la escala.
Para la discriminación de reactivos se consideraron los resultados de tres métodos: la prueba t, la
distribución de frecuencias 70-30 y las correlaciones
inter-reactivo mayores de .30. Se obtuvo la estructura factorial mediante el método de componentes
principales con rotación varimax. Para seleccionar los
reactivos se consideró un valor eigen de 1 o superior y
una carga factorial mínima de .40.
En el análisis factorial exploratorio se incluyeron
los reactivos que discriminaron, por lo menos, en dos
de los métodos aplicados. Los resultados arrojaron 5
factores con el 43.06% de la varianza explicada. En la
Tabla 1 se incluyen los nombres de los cinco factores
identificados, un ejemplo de los reactivos agrupados
en cada factor y se muestra que la media de Consumo
por Desconocimiento es ligeramente superior a la
de Consumo Eficiente y Contaminación. Así mismo,
hay una mayor dispersión en Consumo por Desconocimiento. También se señala que se produjeron valores
alfa de .67 o mayores consideradas como moderadas.
Tabla 1. Media, desviación estándar y consistencia interna de los factores que conforman la escala CREE.
Factor
Refereed
Full-Papers
Papeles
Seleccionados
Lujo (ej. “uso de la cafetera
tanto para preparar café
como té” )
Derroche (ej. “acostumbro
dormirme con la TV encendida” )
Consumo por Desconocimiento (ej. “en casa, todos
los aparatos eléctricos están
enchufados permanentemente” )
Consumo Eficiente (ej. “me
aseguro de cerrar bien el
refrigerador cada vez que
saco algo” )
Contaminación (ej. “dejo el
refrigerador abierto hasta
que termino de acomodar
todas las cosas”)
Media
DE
Alfa
1.61
.697
.79
1.75
.763
.66
3.01
1.24
.78
1.96
.891
.67
1.95
.761
.67
En la Tabla 2 se presentan los resultados de las correlaciones entre los cinco factores de la escala CREE.
La asociación baja pero significativa entre Lujo y Consumo por Desconocimiento sugiere que los consumidores no instruidos usan EE de una manera parecida
a los de Lujo porque no saben que desperdician EE. La
asociación baja y no significativa entre Lujo y Consumo Eficiente parece indicar que el consumidor eficiente empleará para su confort EE y que en ocasiones
aumentará su consumo. La asociación baja entre Derroche y Consumo Eficiente parece sugerir que quien
hace uso de la EE de manera eficiente pocas veces la
desperdiciará pero que la gente al buscar confort en
ocasiones consumirá un poco más de dicho recurso.
88
La relación positiva y significativa entre Lujo y
Derroche era esperada ya que ambos hacen uso
indiscriminado de EE. La relación significativa y
positiva entre Lujo y Contaminación y entre Derroche
y Contaminación puede sugerir que el consumidor
ostentoso tiende a contaminar más. La asociación
positiva y significativa entre Derroche y Consumo
por Desconocimiento parece indicar que los consumidores ignoran que algunos aparatos consumen EE
sin realizar su función principal; es decir, derrochan
esta energía sin percatarse de esto. La relación positiva
y significativa entre Consumo por Desconocimiento
y Consumo Eficiente sugiere que algunas personas
pueden consumir de forma eficiente sin estar conscientes de esto. La asociación significativa entre
Consumo Eficiente y Contaminación parece indicar
que aunque el consumidor sea austero siempre habrá
un grado de contaminación por el uso de EE.
Tabla 2. Correlaciones entre los cinco factores de la escala CREE.
L
D
CD
CE
C
Factor
Lujo
--- .411** .180* .148
.427**
Derroche
.306** .156
.459**
Consumo
.194* .301**
por desconocimiento
Consumo
.184*
eficiente
Contaminación
* p < 0.05 ** p < 0.01.
La validez convergente se obtuvo mediante la comparación entre la escala desarrollada y la escala criterio (Corral y Pihneiro, 2004) en donde se encontró
una correlación positiva que sugiere una convergencia
aceptable (Tabla 3).
En el análisis factorial exploratorio se identificaron cinco dimensiones en la escala CREE con alfas
moderadas. Las tendencias de asociación entre estas
dimensiones son positivas de bajas a moderadas. Los
resultados de la validez convergente ratificaron la
estructura multidimensional propuesta para la CREE.
Por lo anterior, se puede asumir factiblemente que el
cuestionario generado - CREE – es un instrumento
válido y confiable para medir consumo austero de EE
en hogares mexicanos.
Tabla 3. Resumen de escalas con sus factores exploratorios, correlaciones y valor de consistencia interna.
Escala
Factor exploratorio
Corral y Pinheiro, 2004,
Austeridad
Austeridad agua
García- Landa y Montero,
CREE
Consumo
energía eléctrica
Validez
Convergente
Confiabilidad
α = .80
r = .164
Discusión
Los resultados parecen indicar que la escala “CREE”
cumple con las características psicométricas que
permiten su uso en población mexicana. A partir del
análisis factorial exploratorio se pudieron identificar
cinco dimensiones para el consumo racional de EE en
el hogar.
Respecto a la confiabilidad de la escala propuesta, los
coeficientes de consistencia interna en las cinco dimensiones parecen indicar que la CREE es un instrumento
confiable (Kerlinger y Lee, 2002).
El instrumento, con base en la curva de la satisfacción
social, apoya la idea de que el consumo eficiente está
determinado por la satisfacción social que el individuo tenga con respecto a bienes y servicios. Además,
dimensiona el consumo racional como un componente
equivalente a la austeridad (De Young, 1996; Iwata,
2006) ya que ambas nociones hacen énfasis en el uso
mesurado de recursos.
Los instrumentos sobre consumo austero hasta ahora
desarrollados y probados en investigaciones anteriores
(Corral y Pihneiro, 2004; Iwata, 2006; Lastovicka, et al.
1999) presentan escalas monotónicas. Éstas permiten
evaluar el fenómeno de manera unidimensional. El desarrollo de la escala CREE, con una concepción multidimensional, permitió documentar aspectos a favor del
consumo austero (Consumo Eficiente y Consumo por
Desconocimiento), y en contra (Lujo, Derroche, Contaminación). Es claro que una conceptualización multidimensional del consumo austero facilita por una parte,
enriquecer la teoría respecto a la austeridad aplicada al
consumo de EE, y por otra parte, abre la posibilidad de
derivar intervenciones específicas basadas en las dimensiones relevantes del consumo de EE.
Adicionalmente, el consumo austero visto de manera
multidimensional permite conocer la satisfacción social
α = .84
del consumidor y en alguna medida entender lo que
Lastovicka et al. (1999) plantean como la satisfacción
general con la vida.
Las dimensiones de Consumo Eficiente y Consumo
por Desconocimiento integran el uso de aparatos
eléctricos que caracteriza a los estilos de vida de los
consumidores de acuerdo con Reddy (2004). Es decir,
los consumidores con estilos de vida austero evitarán
comprar aparatos eléctricos que son baratos pero que
consumen más EE, asimismo, harán un uso apropiado
de los que tengan en casa. Este estilo de vida no solo se
ve reflejado en el consumo de EE sino en el consumo de
otros recursos (Iwata, 2006). Por otra parte, estas dos
dimensiones se ubican en lo que Domínguez y Robin
(1992) llaman confort. El consumidor usa la EE para
satisfacer sus necesidades básicas y obtener bienestar
evitando el uso irracional de recursos.
Las dimensiones Lujo y Derroche corresponden a
las dos últimas fases de la curva de la satisfacción en
donde el consumidor aumenta el uso de EE sin obtener
satisfacción. Es decir, a mayor consumo menor satisfacción (Domínguez y Robin, 1992). Esto es característico
de los estilos de vida con dirección externa, en donde los
individuos consumen como respuesta a la presión de
pares y a la preocupación de las impresiones que ellos dan
a otros (Mitchell y MacNulty (1981).
La asociación entre consumo eficiente y lujo y derroche es similar a la encontrada por De Young (1996)
sobre la satisfacción intrínseca y su baja relación con el
lujo. Esto refleja que el consumo austero tiene su base en
la satisfacción del consumidor la cual se ve reflejada en
los patrones de consumo.
Es importante continuar trabajando las características psicométricas de la escala CREE para aumentar la
correlación positiva de moderada a alta. No obstante, la
CREE proporciona riqueza empírica y validez ecológica
Refereed
Full-Papers
Papeles
Seleccionados
Refereed
Full-Papers
Papeles
Seleccionados
a la curva de la satisfacción de Domínguez y Robin
(1992).
Con base en la multidimensionalidad documentada
de la CREE, en los índices de consistencia interna
asociados a cada uno de los factores que constituyen
la escala referida y a la positiva convergencia que el
instrumento mostró en relación con el cuestionario
elegido como criterio, se puede asumir que la CREE
es un instrumento válido y confiable factible de ser
usado en población mexicana.
Referencias
González, A. (2002). Valores, actitudes y conductas
proambientales en estudiantes peruanos. En V. Corral
(Coord.) Conductas Protectoras del Ambiente. Teoría
investigación y estrategias de intervención (165-183).
México: CONACYT RM Editores. Unison
Iwata, O. (1999). Perceptual and behavioral Correlates of a Voluntary Simplicity Lifestyle. Social
Behavior and Personality, 27 (4), 379-386.
Iwata, O. (2006). An Estilo de vidaaluation of Consumerism and Lifestyle as Correlates of a Voluntary
Simplicity Lifestyle. Social Behavior and Personality,
34 (5), 557-567.
Bustos, J. M. (2004) Modelo de conducta pro
ambiental para el estudio de la conservación de agua
potable. Tesis de Doctorado. Facultad de Psicología,
UNAM.
Comisión para el Ahorro de Energía (2007). Cómo
ahorrar energía. Recuperado el 10 de octubre de 2007,
de http://www.conae.gob.mx/ahorroenergia
Comisión Federal de Electricidad (2007). Preguntas
más frecuentes. Recuperado el 10 de octubre de 2007,
de http://www.cfe.gob.mx
Constanza, R., Daly, H. y Bartholomew, J. (1999).
Goals, agenda and policy recommendations for
ecological economics. En: Ecological economics. New
York: USA: Columbia University
Corral, V. (1996). Un modelo estructural de reuso y
reciclaje en México. La Psicología social en México, VI,
423-437.
Corral, V. (2001). Una introducción al comportamiento pro ambiental. España: Resma.
Corral, V. y Piheiro, J. (2004). Aproximaciones al
estudio de la conducta sustentable. Medio Ambiente y
Comportamiento Humano, 5 (1y2), 1-26.
Corraliza, J. y Martin, R. (2000). Estilos de vida,
actitudes y comportamientos ambientales. Medio Ambiente y Comportamiento Humano, 1 (1), 31-56.
Domínguez, J. y Robin, V. (1992). Your money or
your life. USA: Penguin Books.
De Young, R. (1996). Some psychological aspects
of reduce consumption behavior. Environment and
Behavior, 28 (3) 358-409.
Gobierno del Distrito Federal (2007). Programa
de Energía. Recuperado el 02 de octubre de 2007, de
http://www.gdf.gob.mx/pestilo de vidaacm
90
Social Practices, Free Time
and Leisure Urban Spaces
at el Barrio del Parral,
Puebla, Mexico
Prácticas sociales, espacios para descanso urbano y
tiempo libre en el Barrio del Parral, Puebla, México
Javier Guevara, Eduardo Lugo, Juan Marquez,
and Roberto Yescas (Universidad Popular
Autonoma del Estado de Puebla)
INTRODUCCION
El Centro Histórico de la ciudad de Puebla posee una
serie de espacios públicos de diferente jerarquía y área de
influencia. Algunos de ellos, como el Paseo Bravo, tienen
un rango de influencia a nivel de toda la ciudad así como
una oferta de actividades múltiples que permiten un uso
intenso y diverso a lo largo del año.
Sin embargo, los espacios públicos dentro del Centro
Histórico, pero particularmente en los Barrios son limitados tanto cualitativa como cuantitativamente, lo que
actualmente provoca que los habitantes realicen actividades de tiempo libre en zonas inadecuadas y peligrosas.
La investigación se realizará en el Barrio del Parral, en
el centro histórico. El centro histórico ha sido asociado,
precisamente en algunos de sus barrios, a delitos como
pandillerismo, narcomenudeo y contrabando. La perspectiva de un tiempo libre sano y de espacios adecuados
puede dar un sentido de pertenencia al lugar, así que la
preocupación que subyace a la investigación es la formulación de programas que impliquen tanto la satisfacción de una necesidad social, como la evaluación de las
características de los inmuebles existentes para proponer
elementos de equipamiento y vivienda que favorezcan,
promuevan y enriquezcan la dinámica social, recreativa y
económica del Barrio
La relevancia de intervenir en el espacio público de barrios es evidente y marca una tendencia mundial vigente
como estrategia para fortalecer la apropiación y conservación de éstos.
El espacio público tiene que ser entendido no sólo como
el espacio abierto (calles, plazas, jardines) sino también
como aquellos elementos de equipamiento que permitan
el enriquecimiento de la vida cotidiana y el empleo del
tiempo libre de los habitantes así como de aquellos que
signifiquen oportunidades de mejora de sus condiciones
económicas.
La investigación propone cuatro fases y dos líneas simultáneas y de mutua implicación. Las fases transitan del
diagnóstico a las propuestas y las líneas de investigación
operan en un inicio autónomamente, pero con relación a
la otra línea, para finalmente fusionarse con propuestas
integradas en la última fase.
Como se afirmó, las líneas de investigación, y que intervendrán en una primera fase autónomamente pero bajo
preocupaciones comunes son, por un lado, el análisis
urbano, la evaluación de los diferentes espacios públicos
que se encuentran dentro de la zona y como éstas influyen en el tipo e intensidad de uso que se presentan en
ellos; por otro, las tendencias “gruesas” del modo de vida
de sus habitantes, sus relaciones sociales (predominantemente vecinales), el rol de vecino, la organización social
y el consumo del tiempo libre. Esta primera fase es la
conceptualización de las concomitancias sociales, arquitectónicas y ambientales existentes en el barrio del Parral.
La segunda fase es el diagnóstico-pronóstico urbano y
psicosocial. Consiste en la definición de requerimientos
y oportunidades de intervención de la unidad barrial, los
espacios abiertos y de los inmuebles para la dotación de
equipamiento, y, por otro lado, a la localización de las
tendencias “finas” en el consumo del tiempo libre, las
relaciones vecinales, emergencia del rol vecinal y tipificación de las formas de organización social.
La tercera fase es el análisis y proyección de las alteridades reciprocas, que se materializan en estrategias urbanísticas y en un acercamiento a la dimensión espacial
de las prácticas sociales: locus de influencia y proyección
de escenarios.
Finalmente, la fase cuatro en donde se formulan
propuestas fusionadas (la fusión social-espacial) para establecer estrategias que permitan conformar un sistema
de espacios públicos que intensifique el uso y apropiación del barrio y la zona por diferentes tipos de actores
externos e internos.
Las dos líneas de investigación abordan el diseño
urbano y el análisis del modo de vida en cuatro fases.
Intervienen en “paralelo” (autónomamente) para diagnosticar, pero interactúan, hasta formular dos propuestas
fusionadas, integradas en una visión común: la fusión de
reciprocidades socioespaciales.
Refereed
Full-Papers
Papeles
Seleccionados
OBJETIVO GENERAL
Refereed
Full-Papers
Papeles
Seleccionados
Conceptualmente el proyecto gira en torno a un
doble eje, por un lado el espacio edificado y por otro
una compleja trama social. Este eje se expresa en las dos
líneas de investigación: diseño urbano y el análisis del
modo de vida.
El barrio es un lugar físico y es un lugar social, es el
contexto de una determinada vida social, es su marco
pero también su expresión. La entidad física y la entidad social existen bajo una permanente fusión.
Esa fusión, de ninguna manera se da siempre de la
misma forma y en los mismos ritmos. En el vecindario
emergen los modos de vida bajo influencias asimétricas,
comparten sus planos espacial y temporal con otras
significaciones, de tal manera que el modo de vida no
es determinado por su entorno físico, sino condicionado
bajo una lógica de concomitancias.
Para analizar las concomitancias de la dimensión
espacial y del modo de vida en el barrio del Parral, será
necesario revisarlos cada uno por sus propios componentes, para después analizar sus implicaciones, su
fusión.
El objetivo entonces, consiste, por un lado, en
diagnosticar el equipamiento p/el tiempo libre y la
recreación y, por otro, el modo de vida, para formular
propuestas que integren ambos elementos, orientadas
a incrementar la calidad de vida y el bienestar social
en los habitantes del barrio del Parral.
El modo de vida hace referencia a las distintas formas
personales y colectivas en que los seres humanos organizan su vida cotidiana, y puede ser analizado a través
de sus propios componentes: soporte material, sistema
de relaciones y simbolización.
Para cumplir el objetivo general, es decir, diagnosticar y proponer, es necesario desagregar algunos de los
componentes del modo de vida: Se realizará un análisis
intensivo para indagar las prácticas sociales asociadas
al consumo del tiempo libre, y, funcionalmente, también se realizará con el rol del vecino, las relaciones
vecinales, la organización social de los habitantes del
barrio y los adultos mayores.
Mientras que en los primeros casos (organización, rol,
relaciones vecinales) se desvelará el tejido social que
subyace al consumo del tiempo libre, en segundo, la
tercera edad, se trata de un asunto de énfasis, ya que los
centros históricos concentran una fuerte población de
la tercera edad.
92
Los contenidos sociales en el modo de vida son las
prácticas sociales, las formas en que los habitantes del
barrio establecen relaciones entre si, el grado de intensidad de las relaciones y las demandas que socialmente
se imponen entre si los vecinos. El contenido social del
modo de vida puede definirse también por los atributos
que componen el rol de vecino en un lugar concreto,
con condiciones sociales y materiales de existencia que
le dan el contenido utilitario a toda relación vecinal.
El desarrollo de la investigación “Prácticas sociales
y equipamiento para el tiempo libre y la recreación
en el Barrio del Parral”, se deriva de la propuesta de
intervención del eje 3 del Plan Municipal de Desarrollo
2005-2008 dentro de las líneas para la recuperación
del espacio público mediante la rehabilitación de los
barrios antiguos del centro histórico y recuperación
de espacios públicos con calidad con fines recreativos,
culturales y turísticos dentro del Centro Histórico, y se
propone la zona del Parral y su área de influencia con
la intervención de 16 manzanas definidas en el sentido
oriente-poniente de la calle 3 a la 13 Sur y en sentido
norte-sur de la Av. 3 a la 11 Poniente.
Este estudio forma parte de la delimitación del
Centro Histórico y de su zona protección. Por su ubicación se encuentra comunicada por vías importantes
dentro de la red vial de la ciudad como lo son: la Av. 9,
11 y 13 Sur las cuales son el paso de un gran número de
rutas de transporte público y privado, así como otras
vialidades de comunicación, el tránsito que circula es
constante, lo que repercute en un gran movimiento en
la zona.
De acuerdo a la dinámica urbana del centro histórico,
esta zona presenta las características de disminución de
usos habitacionales dando paso a los usos mixtos y terciarización de actividades, localizando equipamientos
importantes en los rubros de educación, salud, espacios
recreativos, parques y abasto.
OBJETIVOS ESPECIFICOS
Como se argumentó, la investigación es aplicada y
multidisciplinaria; por tanto, los objetivos específicos
responden a exigencias urbanísticas y sociales por un
lado, y a las exigencias producto de su recíproca auque
asimétrica alteridad. Se trata de los objetivos específicos
resultado de la confluencia entre estas. Los objetivos
son los siguientes:
1. Identificar y evaluar las características físicas y
ambientales de los diferentes espacios públicos
que se encuentran dentro de la zona y como éstas
influyen en el tipo e intensidad de uso que se presentan en ellos.
2. Identificar las prácticas sociales en el consumo del
tiempo libre de los habitantes del barrio, localizando las regularidades según grupos sociales, de
edad, género y familia.
3. Diagnosticar el perfil gerontológico del barrio
(soledad, satisfacción con la vida, y con el propio
proceso de envejecimiento y calidad de vida).
4. Localizar las asociaciones voluntarias o grupos
secundarios que actúan en el barrio, y realizar una
tipología y diagnóstico primario de éstos.
5. Establecer estrategias que permitan conformar un
sistema de espacios públicos que intensifique el uso
y apropiación del barrio y la zona por diferentes
tipos de actores externos e internos.
6. Definir estrategias de intervención a partir de evaluar las características sociales, físicas, ambientales
y urbanas del contexto del Barrio para identificar
sus relaciones funcionales y sociales con el Centro
Histórico y con el resto de la ciudad.
7. Analizar y evaluar las características de los inmuebles existentes para proponer elementos de
equipamiento y vivienda que favorezcan, promuevan y enriquezcan la dinámica social, recreativa y
económica del Barrio.
8. Proponer un programa de actividades de ocio y
tiempo libre que propicien la sana convivencia, la
vida activa y la salud mental y física de los habitantes del barrio del Parral según grupos sociales,
de edad, género y familia.
ANTECEDENTES
Los grandes problemas urbanos que padecen nuestras ciudades han dejado de ser preocupación exclusiva de la arquitectura. En el segundo cuarto del siglo
pasado y en las décadas finales del mismo, se generó un
intenso debate que generó dos grandes interpretaciones
del fenómeno: por un lado llamada Escuela de Chicago,
y, en la década de los años setenta, la escuela crítica
europea.
Ambas escuelas representan otra lectura de los
problemas urbanos, ya sea por la necesidad de incorporar a los actores directos, los ciudadanos, ya sea por
la necesidad de realizar una lectura bajo la variable
producción.
El análisis del modo de vida en la perspectiva de la investigación contempla el crecimiento de la ciudad y con
esto la aparición de nuevos escenarios urbanos, el uso
diferenciado del suelo y su constante mutación, para
aproximarse a la emergencia y diversificación de estilos
de vida sujetos a las nuevas condiciones sociales.
Sin embargo, en uno de los principales componentes
del debate en las llamadas “ciencias de lo urbano”,
desde la sociología estructural se impugnó tal orientación, bajo el reproche de “la ideologización en el
estudio de la ciudad”, (lo que ha sido definido como el
análisis de la sociedad urbana). Durante muchos años
“se sesgó e incluso devaluó el acercamiento a la cultura
urbana al promover a ésta como producto meramente
ideológico. La crítica demoledora a la Escuela de
Chicago, centró la mirada de los investigadores en el
estudio del consumo de bienes colectivos y en el papel
de la ciudad como instancia para la reproducción de la
fuerza de trabajo. Fue a partir de la reflexión y problematización sobre temáticas locales no abordadas desde el
paradigma estructural, como reaparecen en escena los
nombres de Simmel, Park y Wirt, vinculados a situaciones de interacción social, vecindario, modos de vida
urbanos, etcétera” (Sevilla y Aguilar, 1996)
Efectivamente, la perspectiva de análisis de los
procesos sociales urbanos bajo un modelo dicotómico,
reduce no sólo la variable independiente (en este
caso, el contexto urbano), reduce también la variable
dependiente (el comportamiento y las cogniciones).
Además de presentarla tajantemente al arbitrio de
la función de la primera, al disociar un aspecto de la
realidad social, ignora la multiplicidad de elementos en
el entorno, así como sus interconexiones como posibles
agentes de influencia. Esto es, compartimos la crítica
a la eventualidad de una interpretación reduccionista,
pero compartimos también los hallazgos empíricos
que demuestran la existencia de regularidades sociales
en contextos específicos, lo cual nos remite a la idea de
homogeneidad.
La urbanización, dice Wirth (citado por Basolls, et al,
1988), ya no se limita a definir el proceso por el cual las
personas se ven atraídas por un lugar llamado la ciudad,
e incorporadas a su sistema de vida. Se refiere también
a esa acentuación acumulativa de las características
distintivas del modo de vida que se asocia con el crec-
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imiento de la ciudad, y finalmente, con los cambios en
la dirección de los modos de vida reconocidos como
urbanos. “La masificación de los procesos sociales
fundamentales se expresa espacialmente con la introducción de una nueva traza urbana, un equipamiento
comercial y nuevas formas de utilización del tiempo
libre” (Rosales, 1996, p 90).
Si bien la investigación no se resguarda en la Escuela
Ecológica de Chicago, si apelará a sus principales hallazgos, tomando como al sujeto como hilo conductor
de nuestra indagación.
Así que para definir estrategias de inserción de los
habitantes, se requiere la dotación de espacios públicos
y de equipamiento que se conviertan en otro atractivo
para re-habitar las zonas centrales.
Las calles son otro de los espacios públicos que como
en la mayoría de las zonas de la ciudad no han recibido
la atención, no sólo en términos de imagen urbana o
vías de comunicación, sino también como elementos
de interacción social, de mejoramiento de la calidad
ambiental y como albergue básico de actividades
públicas cotidianas. El Barrio se ve influido por el
funcionamiento vial del centro de la ciudad donde este
es un punto de encuentro de diferentes modalidades de
transporte, principalmente sobre la avenida 11 NorteSur. Esto es a la vez una fuente de problemas pero también un espacio de oportunidad para conectar el barrio
y sus espacios así el exterior.
JUSTIFICACION
El espacio público es el medio por el que nos percatamos de las actividades urbanas, donde se expresan
las condiciones de calidad de vida y bienestar de los
habitantes de un vecindario o barrio, por lo que desarrollar estrategias que favorezcan su rescate repercutirá
en la calidad de la ciudad en su conjunto.
La relevancia de intervenir en el espacio público de
barrios es evidente y marca una tendencia mundial
vigente como estrategia para fortalecer la apropiación y
conservación de los barrios.
El espacio público tiene que ser entendido no sólo
como el espacio abierto (calles, plazas, jardines) sino
también como aquellos elementos de equipamiento que
permitan el enriquecimiento de la vida cotidiana y el
empleo del tiempo libre de los habitantes así como de
aquellos que signifiquen oportunidades de mejora de
sus condiciones económicas.
94
Normalmente, las intervenciones urbanas se han
centrado casi exclusivamente en los espacios de mayor
jerarquía ya sea por su historia o dimensiones; sin embargo, los espacios a nivel de barrio son los que tienen
una relación más directa con los habitantes, y por lo
tanto son los que tienen mayor peso en la definición
del grado de satisfacción con su ciudad y su entorno.
Estos espacios son los que por el contacto cotidiano y
las actividades que albergan favorecen o dificultan el
establecimiento de redes sociales y vínculos del habitante con su entorno, pero al mismo tiempo, el contacto
cotidiano los vuelve invisibles.
Es evidente que en todos los proyectos de intervención urbana, la población prefiere que se priorice la satisfacción de sus necesidades urbanas básicas (dotación
de servicios, bacheo, transporte), y que normalmente es
lo que las autoridades dan prioridad. Sin embargo, resulta imprescindible que los planteamientos tengan una
visión integral que no sólo visualice lo evidente, sino
que permita realizar una lectura integral del espacio
urbano y sus habitantes que permita definir estrategias
que tiendan al desarrollo integral de la persona y la
ciudad.
La escala de barrio en términos de estudio e intervención permite una lectura de una unidad manejable que
se debe convertir en la unidad de planeación y gestión
del espacio público para favorecer el seguimiento,
control y participación de los habitantes ya que sus
intereses se verán directamente afectados.
Otro de los planteamientos que orientan la propuesta
es la idea de la necesidad y oportunidad de conformar
un sistema de espacios públicos, tanto abiertos como
cerrados, de tal forma que se establezca una red de
actividades y oportunidades de desarrollo tanto en lo
individual como en lo colectivo. Este sistema interno
tendría la posibilidad de ser un nodo dentro de un
planteamiento más amplia a nivel del Centro Histórico
como de toda la ciudad de tal forma que favorezcan
la creación de vínculos entre diferentes sectores de la
ciudad lo que creará oportunidades de fortalecimiento
social y económico, así como la mejora de la calidad
ambiental y paisajística del entorno.
Además de las proposiciones orientadas al desarrollo
urbano, se formularán otras más, que tienen que ver
con el desarrollo social de los habitantes del barrio, por
grupos sociales (edad, género, familia), lo cual, por su
impacto social justifica la intervención.
Como grupos sociales por edad están: infantes,
jóvenes y adultos mayores, por género, la mujer. Finalmente la familia. A estos agrupamientos se agragan
las llamadas sociopatías, asociadas generalmente a
fenómenos de la ciudad (drogadicción, violencia sexual,
alcoholismo, etc.).
METODOLOGÍA
La investigación es multidisciplinaria y aplicada. En
el primer caso porque la complejidad de la realidad
demanda lecturas múltiples, y esto sólo es posible si
nos apegamos a una propuesta paradigmática omnicomprensiva, que reconozca otras interpretaciones del
mismo fenómeno, otras lecturas complementarias a la
propia. Con respecto a su carácter aplicado, el problema
central, afirma Torregrosa (1996), es el “para qué del
conocimiento, la finalidad a la que puede dedicarse, los
usos que de él pueden hacerse, y las utilidades que de él
pueden derivarse”.
La aplicación de esta orientación se traduce en la
necesidad de desarrollar una investigación orientada
a la solución de problemas y desde lecturas múltiples
pero articuladas, así como la búsqueda de interlocutores cuya propiedad es su papel protagónico en los
procesos implicados.
El diseño de la investigación se desarrolla en cuatro
fases y dos líneas de investigación. Las dos primeras
fases transcurren bajo una dinámica propia, así, la
conceptualización de las concomitancias sociales-espaciales-ambientales en el barrio del Parral (fase I), tiene
como propósito la realización de un primer diagnóstico
sobre las principales tendencias sociales y espaciales
del barrio, para pasar al Diagnóstico-Pronóstico (fase
II), que reportará los componentes finos y proyectará
requerimientos y oportunidades de intervención.
El análisis y proyección de alteridades recíprocas (fase
III) es el primer acercamiento directo entre las líneas
de investigación. Por un lado se desplegarán estrategias
para el ordenamiento urbano, proyección de la potencialidad de inmuebles, y la conformación de un sistema
de espacios; y por otro se incursionará en la dimensión
espacial de las prácticas sociales, como locus de influencia y proyección de escenarios. Se hará una doble
lectura: la dimensión social del espacio, y la dimensión
espacial de su ocupación.
Finalmente, las propuestas: fusión de reciprocidades
socioespaciales es la lectura conjunta para la present-
ación de la propuesta conceptual de espacios públicos
claves y programas sociales específicos. Las fases son
las siguientes:
Fase I: Conceptualización de las concomitancias
social-espaciales-ambientales en el barrio del ParralInventario y recopilación de información urbanística.
a. Levantamiento e inventario de elementos urbanos y arquitectónicos existentes (se realzará
esto principalmente).
b. Análisis de las características físicas, urbanas
y ambientales del barrio, en los siguientes
rubros:
1.
Antecedentes de planeación: revisión
de planes, programas y normativa vigente aplicable al estudio.
2.
Aspectos naturales: condicionantes
micro-climáticas, contaminación, vegetación.
3.
Aspectos urbanos: redes de infraestructura, usos del suelo, densidades, predios
baldíos y edificaciones desocupadas,
estado de conservación de inmuebles,
sistema vial, transporte, equipamiento,
estacionamientos.
4.
Aspectos históricos urbanos y arquitectónicos: Identificación y catalogación de inmuebles históricos dentro
del barrio, análisis de la historia urbana
del barrio, análisis de la evolución de la
traza.
5.
Espacio público urbano: características
de los espacios abiertos, actividades,
patrones e intensidad de uso, estado de
conservación.
6.
Paisaje Urbano: Imagen urbana, características tipológicas y compositivas
de edificaciones y traza.
Observación Extensiva: Diagnóstico psicosocial del
modo de vida en el barrio.
a. Diagnóstico de las relaciones vecinales en el
barrio (lugar, formalización, frecuencia, intensidad, y contenido de las relaciones vecinales).
b. Diagnóstico del rol prototípico del vecino del
Parral (perfil predominante del rol, de acuerdo
al tipo de familia, estatus socioeconómico,
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profesión y edad).
c. Localización de principales regularidades en
el consumo del tiempo libre de los habitantes
del barrio, según grupos sociales (género y
edad).
d. Localización general de las asociaciones voluntarias (grupos secundarios, actores directos
en la vida local) en el vecindario, referidas por
los habitantes).
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Metodología
• Elaboración de una muestra bietápica con los grados
pertinentes de profundidad, teniendo como universo
a todos los habitantes del barrio del Parral y tomando
como unidad de análisis la familia-vivienda.
• Adaptación del instrumento “Diagnóstico del modo de
vida” (Guevara, 2003) basado en las categorías:
a. soporte material.
b. prácticas sociales.
c. significación social.
• Generación de sub-instrumentos enfatizando los siguientes campos:
a. Relaciones vecinales.
b. Rol del vecino.
c. Consumo del tiempo libre.
d. Grupos secundarios en el vecindario (asociaciones voluntarias.)
• Aplicación de instrumentos (capacitación, trabajo de
campo, codificación y captura y reporte).
Fase II: Diagnóstico-Pronóstico
Diagnóstico-Pronóstico urbano
a. Definición de requerimientos y oportunidades de intervención de la unidad barrial.
b. Definición de requerimientos y oportunidades de intervención en los espacios abiertos.
c. Definición de requerimientos y oportunidades de intervención en inmuebles para dotación de equipamiento.
Observación Intensiva: Diagnóstico-Pronóstico Psicosocial
a. Reporte de las regularidades específicas de las
relaciones vecinales en el barrio de acuerdo a
atributos, y, correlación de relaciones vecinales con variables activas (sociales, espaciales,
ambientales).
b. Definición del rol de vecino asociado a demandas de tiempo libre; y a las tendencias predominantes de la organización social.
96
c. Reporte del consumo específico del tiempo
libre de los habitantes del barrio mediante técnicas intensivas.
d. Localización específica y tipificación de las
asociaciones voluntarias en el vecindario mediante observación intensiva.
Metodología
• Para relaciones vecinales y rol del vecino, aplicación de
entrevista semiestructurada mediante tres instrumentos
diferentes a diferente población: género, edad, familia.
• Para organización social, entrevista semiestruc turada
a informantes clave, aplicación de cuestionario taxonómico de las Asociaciones Voluntarias (Guevara, 2006).
• Observación directa.
• Para tiempo libre, observación-participación, entrevista
semiestructurada, grupos focales (Guevara y Rodríguez,
2006).
• Para tercera edad, Cuestionario “detección de perfil
gerontológico”
Fase III: Análisis y proyección de alteridades recíprocas (social y espacial, predominantemente)
Estrategias urbanísticas
a. Ordenamiento urbano y demanda social
b. Aprovechamiento y reciclaje de inmuebles
para dotación e incorporación de equipamiento y espacios públicos.
c. Conformación de un sistema de espacios abiertos intra-barrial y su relación con el resto del
Centro Histórico
d. Gestión del espacio público
La dimensión espacial de las prácticas sociales.
a. Locus de influencia (interacción entre la conducta del individuo y su ambiente).
I. Espacio y organización social
II. El entorno (físico y social) del tiempo libre.
III. Las relaciones vecinales y el barrio como
lugar.
b. Proyección de escenarios
I. Educación-recreación para infantes.
II. Tiempo libre según género.
III. Tiempo libre según edad.
Metodología
A partir de la categorización (soporte material, prácticas
sociales y significación social) de buscarán agrupamien-
tos, según variables significativas (tipo de familia, escolaridad; consumo, volumen y contenido del tiempo libre;
frecuencia, intensidad, localización y formalización de
las relaciones vecinales, etc.).
Los análisis de conglomerados (“clusters”) son técnicas
para la exploración de datos. Esa exploración tiene como
objetivo ver si pudiera hacerse alguna subdivisión en grupos o “clusters”.
Entre los algoritmos que más se utilizan se encuentran
los llamados algoritmos de agrupamientos.
• Análisis de conglomerados (“clusters”)
• Subdivisión en grupos o “clusters”.
El resultado de los agrupamientos permite localizar escenarios, los cuales deberán explorarse mediante la aplicación de instrumentos de observación intensiva:
• Para tiempo libre, observación-participación, entrevista semiestructurada, grupos focales (Guevara y
Rodríguez, 2006).
• Para organización social, diagnostico grupal.
• Para gerontología, dinámica grupal, grupos focales.
Fase IV: Propuestas: fusión de reciprocidades socioespaciales
a. Desarrollo de la propuesta conceptual del sistema
de espacios públicos y programas sociales.
b. Desarrollo de la propuesta conceptual de espacios
públicos claves y programas sociales específicos.
Metodología.
Seminario-taller: Lectura transdisciplinaria del Parral:
escenarios posibles.
El desarrollo de estudio se realizará con base en información digital usando software de Sistemas de Información Geográfica de tal forma que se pueda integrar
a la base de datos de planeación y proyecto del Ayuntamiento de la ciudad.
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Ruiz Carrillo Edgardo (2004) Lo cualitativo en la
investigación y su actualidad. Psicología para América
Latina No. 2, agosto.
Sánchez, E. (1998). Participación comunitaria para
la solución de problemas ambientales: Un marco
explicativo de su continuidad en el tiempo. En J.
Guevara, A. M. Landázuri y A. Terán (Coordinadores).
Estudios de psicología ambiental en América Latina.
México: Benemérita Universidad Autónoma de
México, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México,
Instituto Mexicano de Investigaciones Psicosociales,
Consejo Nacional de Ciencia y Tecnología
Sánchez, E, y Wiesenfeld E. (2000). El
construccionismo como otra perspectiva metateórica
para la producción del conocimiento en psicología
ambiental. En Temas selectos de Psicología Ambiental,
Guevara J, y Mercado S. UNAM, GRECO, Fundación
Unilibre.
Sevilla, Amparo y Aguilar Díaz M. Ángel (1996).
Estudios recientes sobre cultura urbana en México,
Plaza y Valdés-INAH, México.
Torregrosa José R. (1996) Concepciones del aplicar,
en Psicología Social Aplicada, Alvaro, Garrido,
Torregrosa, Mc. Graw Hill.
Tryon R.C. (1955), Identification of Social Areas by
Cluster Analysis, Berkeley.
Valera, Sergi. (1999). Espacio privado, espacio
público: Dialécticas urbanas y construcción de
significados. TXT Public Art Observatory Project.
Universidad de Barcelona.
Wildner, Kathrin. (1998). EL Zócalo de la ciudad
de México. Un Acercamiento Metodológico a la
etnografía de una plaza. En: Rodríguez Kuri, Ariel
(ed). Anuario de Espacios Urbanos: Historia, Cultura,
Diseño. UAM Azcapotzalco. México..
Wirth L. (1988). El urbanismo como modo de vida.
En: Bassols, M, Donoso, R, Massolo A, Méndez A,
compiladores, (1988), Antología de Sociología Urbana,
UNAM, México.
Stair and Elevator Design
and Their Influence on
Daily Exercise and Social
Equality
Diseño de escaleras y elevadores y su influencia en el
ejercicio diario y la igualdad social
Phillip G. Mead, Jon Inui, Paul Baril, Stephen
Springer, Jeremy Mitchell, Joshua Devereaux,
Rebecca Stephens, Laura Harris, Rob Brier,
Samantha Garlow, Nate Tunnell, Orson Badger
and Andrew Stohner (University of Idaho
Department of Architecture and Interior Design)
ABSTRACT
The rise in obesity has prompted the medical community to encourage moderate forms of exercise such
as stair climbing and neighborhood walking. When
integrated into daily routines, research has shown that
stair climbing appears to raise intermittent moderate
exercise. In this study, building design factors are
examined that can potentially increase stair use. This
study also examines issues of social justice and equality
of access to stairs and elevators. Design factors include
the stair and elevators:’ visual access from main circulation paths, stair placement in relation to nearby elevators; the impact of slow speed hydraulic and high speed
traction elevators and building height. The study’s
most significant finding was that some elevators do not
always have to be out of sight from main circulation
paths and stairs to encourage moderate stair exercise.
This means that social equality is maintained while
exercise for the able bodied is encouraged. Four case
study buildings with stairs ranging from two to five
stories at two adjacent universities with two different
types of elevators were examined. Stair/elevator combinations were chosen for their visual accessibility, travel
convenience and aesthetics.
INTRODUCTION
High obesity rates have prompted health organizations to encourage short, moderate forms of exercise
spaced throughout the day. Stair use, when integrated
into daily routines, appears to raise intermittent mod-
erate exercise (Dunn et al..) leading to weight loss and
increased bone density. (Bronwell et al…) As a result,
subsequent studies have focused on ways of increasing
stair travel in existing buildings by using promotional
signs or banners. (Anderson et al…, Kerr et al…) or by
providing, artwork and music in fire stairwells. (Boutelle, et al…)
These previous studies did not investigate stair and
elevator design factors that promoted stair use while
maintaining social equality for those who are unable to
use stairs. Additionally, because these studies enticed
users to use the stairs through signs, artwork and
music, basic building design factors were not taken into
account as to stair and elevator placement in relationship to each other and circulation paths as well as the
aesthetic design of both elevator and stair. Therefore,
in this study, the following factors were initially investigated:
• Stair placement in relation to nearby elevators
• The stair and elevators’ visual access to main circulation paths
• Building height
• The aesthetics of the stair shape and journey These investigations were guided by the thought that
highly visible stairs accompanied by obscured elevators
encourage high stair use and thus encourage exercise,
but do not encourage social justice. Conversely, hidden
or obscured stairs with highly visible elevators lower
stair use and discourage exercise, but encourage social
justice. This hypothesis was generally supported with
one unanticipated exception…the incorporation of a
hydraulic elevator. As this study will demonstrate, elevators do not always have to be out of sight from main
circulation paths and stairs to encourage stair use and
exercise.
CASE STUDY METHOD
Buildings from two neighboring institutions of
higher learning: Washington State University (WSU)
and the University of Idaho were compared. Of the
two campuses, the University of Idaho is less populated
and consists primarily of three to four story buildings
with slow moving hydraulic elevators. Nine miles away,
Washington State University’s student population is two
times larger with buildings that are three to eight stories
which use high speed traction elevators. It was originally thought that Washington State’s taller buildings
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with faster elevators would encourage less elevator use
which did not always prove true. Between the two
campuses, four buildings were investigated ranging
from two to five stories. Stair/elevator combinations were chosen for their visual accessibility, travel
convenience and aesthetics. Buildings with grand
staircases with inconspicuous elevator placements
were selected for each campus. Additionally, buildings with fire stairs containing views to the outside
with conspicuous elevators were also investigated on
each campus. Three of the four buildings were more
public while one was occupied mostly by students and
instructors from one department. Of the four case
studies, two sets of stairs at WSU and Idaho were fire
escapes while the other two buildings had grand stair
cases. Initial studies were carried out in the winter
and summer of 2005 with additional studies carriedout in the fall of 2006.
Stair use was recorded for only those heading in
the upward direction because of the higher degree of
physical exertion while the elevator use was recorded
for both those going up and down because of the
difficulty in discerning where elevator users where
coming from. Therefore, the stair use percentages are
conservative. Observers consisted of one architecture professor and his architecture and interior design
students in their third through fifth years of study.
Washington State University Lighty Student Services
Building
This four story building offers a variety of services
from new student orientation to routine bill payments.
Building users range from older staff to new high
school graduates. The building was chosen because
of its two dominating grand stairs which act as focal
points in two large four story interior courtyards.
Additionally, two high speed traction elevators are
hidden between the two main interior courts. The
east interior court is brightly lit by a Kal Wall skylight
while the west court is dimmer with smaller skylights.
Because the two stairs are clearly visible from the interior courts and the elevators are not obviously placed,
it was thought that stair travel would overwhelm
elevator use.
The hypothesis was correct in that 88% chose to
use the stairs in the upward direction over the elevator. For those who chose to travel two or more sto-
100
ries up, it was found that 61% used the stairs over the
elevator. This data also suggests that a high speed
traction elevator does not always encourage elevator
use and that if it is not obviously in the view of main
travel, the elevator will not always be used.
The study took place during the summer on
a Thursday, Friday and Monday where 192 people
were tracked. Roughly an equal number of younger
students and older faculty/staff were counted. Nine
observation periods lasted for ½ hour segments for
all times of day. Because there was only one observer,
the stairs and elevators were examined separately at
different times of the day.
Figure 1. WSU Lighty Student Services Center East Court
Figure 2. WSU Lighty Student Services 2nd Floor Plan
Contributing Factors and Discussion for 61-88 % Stair Use
High stair use was attributed to:
• The stairs are in plain sight next to the surrounding
four story courtyard circulation. One stair is next to a
popular snack bar eating area.
• High speed elevators are not immediately apparent
from the main circulation paths or interior courts.
• Students are easily oriented upon entering the
building because upper floor destinations are spotted
from across the interior courts. Appropriately, the
stairs fall within the visual path of most of the upper or
lower floor destinations.
• Both stair journeys provide pleasant and dynamic
views of either the interior courts or of the outdoors.
• The stairs are well daylighted.
Consistent with the following case studies, the clear
visibility of the stairs in combination with the visual
inaccessibility of the elevators accounts for the much
higher stair use.
• The hydraulic elevator is slow.
• Only a story and a half are traversed.
• The stair is wide and inviting.
Of the four case studies, this stair rates the highest
use. Although the stair encourages exercise, the obscure elevator placement is not socially justified.
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University of Idaho Commons Grand Staircase
This stair/elevator combination was chosen because
of the stair’s high use. The stair is a story and a half and
is adjacent to a highly used interior lunchroom court.
When seen on a broader campus scale, this stair acts as
a critical bridge that links two major parts of the university through the building itself. The adjacent elevator
on the other hand is geared more to those who work
Figure 3. University of Idaho Commons Stairway
within. It is slow and has poor visibility because it hides
behind the grand stair. It was found that most of its
users were the kitchen staff who use it for transporting
Washington State University Carpenter Hall
supply carts up three stories to cater meeting rooms.
This five story building was chosen because it was
Predictably, studies found that the stair’s 97% use
thought that the prominent placement of the high
overwhelms the elevator’s 3% use. These percentages
speed elevator in combination with the partially hidden
are based on the observations of 243 people traveling
stairs would generate high elevator use. An additional
up the stairs and elevator on five separate occasions
incentive to use the elevator is that the school adminduring the weekdays at ½ hour intervals in the morning, istration is located on the fifth floor. The hypothesis
afternoon and evening.
was supported by observations found on the first floor,
but on the second floor, the high speed elevator had less
influence.
Contributing Factors and Discussion for 97% Stair Use
On the first floor it was found that 57% chose to use
The high stair use is attributed to the following:
the
elevator over the stairs. The observations exam• The stair-path on the building’s main circulation is
ined a total of 91 users traveling up on non-studio days
connected to a main campus arterial.
(Tuesday
and Thursday) in the early morning, noon
• The elevator is out of sight of the main circulaand late afternoon for two periods of one hour and one
tion path and interior court and thus is inconveniently
period
of one half hour.
placed for those who are forced to use the elevator due
to an infirmity.
Observations on the second floor yielded significantly higher stair results because the elevator is placed
out of sight from the main circulation path which
probably accounts for its low 17% usage. Second floor
observations of 119 students going in the upward
direction occurred on both studio and non-studio days
(Thursday and Friday) with four one hour observations
and one 1/2hr observation. Early morning, noon and
late afternoon times were covered.
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Figure 4. Carpenter Hall at WSU 2nd Floor
Figure 5. Second Floor Plan
102
Contributing Factors and Discussion for 43 – 83%
Stair Use
Second Floor: 83% stair use is attributed to:
• The stairs are in close proximity to, and are clearly
visible to the studios and main hall
• The elevator is out of sight and away from the
main circulation space.
Since the second floor did not have an inconspicuous place to observe stair and elevator use, the mere
presence of the student observers may have increased
the stair use. Although exercise appears to be encouraged on the second floor, it does not appear that social
justice is served because the elevator is not clearly
displayed in the hall.
First Floor: 57% elevator use is attributed to:
• The elevator is in clear sight of the main circulation hall and small building café
• The stair is not in sight of the café or most of the
main circulation hall.
• The building is five stories high with the school
administration located on the fifth floor.
• The elevator is high speed.
Although social justice is served, exercise is not
encouraged because the stairs are not in clear sight of
the main gallery space.
University of Idaho Main Library Stair
This four story building was chosen because of its
highly visible elevator which is close to a fire stair.
Since the elevator is prominently displayed at the end
of the main circulation axis and the fire stairs are partially hidden, it was predicted that most people would
choose the elevator. This hypothesis proved false on
two separate observation periods.
The first study period found 65% stair use over the
elevator’s 35%. Observations were restricted to the
first floor at the main point of decision between taking
the elevator or stair. However, a follow-up study
yielded even higher percentages (74%) for upward stair
travel. This study differed from the first in that all
the floors’ entry “points of choice” for either stair or
elevator were tracked from one outdoor location. The
second study also proved useful for finding-out how
many people traversed up two or more floors. Here it
was found that 60% chose to climb two or more floors
rather than use the elevator.
For the previous spring study, both the stair and
elevator count totaled 320 for those traveling up.
Observations occurred on nine separate occasions
during weekday mornings and afternoons. For the
following summer study, both the stair and elevator
count totaled 43 for those traveling up one or more
floors. For those traveling up two or more floors, the
count totaled 25. These observations were taken on
three separate weekdays in the late afternoons in one
hour periods. The afternoon was selected because it
was thought that higher elevator use would occur due
to the afternoon heat and work fatigue. No such correlation was found.
Figure 6. The windows on the library tower allow observation on all four floors
Figure 7 University of Idaho Library Elevator Lobby
Shows close elevator and stair proximity
Contributing Factors and Discussion for 60-74% Stair
Use
Higher stair use was attributed to:
• A slow hydraulic elevator
• The stair fire doors are left open making the stairs
more visible when approaching the elevator.
• A pleasant stair journey
This study demonstrates that a slow moving hydraulic elevator encouraged people to take the stairs
instead of the elevator. Students were often observed
to push the elevator button, wait 3 or so seconds, push
the button again, then proceed up the stairs. From
this it can be surmised that the stairs appeared to be a
more convenient route than the elevators. Of the four
buildings, this case study demonstrates a workable
balance between the opportunity to exercise for those
who have the ability to walk up stairs while offering
social justice for those who have no other choice but
to use the elevator. Social equality is nearly achieved
because the elevator is highly visible and very accessible from the main circulation routes.
CONCLUSION
From all four case studies, it appears that three
dominant factors increase stair use and thus encourage exercise.
• Slow hydraulic elevators, even when prominently
placed can encourage stair use for the able, and conveniently serve the needs of those who are unable to use
stairs.
• If the stairs are in plain sight next to well
trafficked circulation and activity areas, then the
stairs will be well used.
• Elevators that are mostly out of sight of the main
circulation and main interior space are not as well
used as stairs that are within sight of the same areas.
Social justice is not served for those not able to use
stairs.
Although no conclusive evidence was found, the
following factors may have influenced high stair use:
• Low rise buildings two to four stories in height
probably have lower elevator use because the stairs
offer a quicker path.
• Stair journeys that have pleasant and interesting
journeys probably generate a higher use.
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From the point of view of social equality, the most
significant and surprising finding is that a hydraulic
elevator prominently displayed next to a equally visible stairway in a university setting has a high impact
on increased stair use and can thus better encourage
exercise for the able, while still serving those who are
unable to use the stairs. Further studies examining
the relationship of demographics and stair/elevator
design might be conducted to find the impact of
planning elements on different age and gender groups.
Additionally, since this study focused on two to five
story low-rise buildings, future stair use studies on
buildings five to seven stories tall could yield different results. Additionally, a space syntax analysis of
the four buildings could yield further insights into
increased stair use with elevator placements that serve
social equality.
REFERENCES
Anderson, RE, Franckowiak SC. Snyder, J. Bartlett, SJ. Fontaine, KR. (1998) Can inexpensive signs
encourage the use of stairs? Results from a community intervention. Annuals of Internal Medicine. 129,
363-369
Boutelle, K. Jeffery, R. Murray, D. and Schmitz, K.
(2001) Using signs, artwork and music to promote
stair use in public building, American Journal of
Public Health, Vol 91, No 12
Bronwell, K. Stunkard, A. Albaum, J. (1980) Evaluation and modification of exercise patterns in the
natural environment. American Journal of Psychiatry,
137: 1540-1545
Dunn, A. Andersen, R. Jakicie, J. (1998) Lifestyle
physical activity interventions: history, short and
long-term effects, and recommendations, American
Journal of Preventative Medicine, 15: pp. 398-412
Kerr, J., Eves, F. Carroll, D. (2001) Encouraging
stair use: Stair-riser banners are better than posters.
American Journal of Public Health, Vol 91, No 8
104
Una mirada del habitante
en el espacio de la vivienda
de interés social
Take a Look at the Inhabitant of the Space in the
Social Interest House
Ana Rosa Velasco-Avalos and Adolfo Amador
(Universidad Michoacana de San Nicolas de
Hidalgo)
PRESENTACIÓN
En el proceso de la historia, la relación del hombre con
su espacio artificial fue más amable, y en ocasiones terapéutica. Los espacios y las cosas construidas por él fueron
el resultado de un esfuerzo personal, de la fidelidad de
sus manos para interpretar el dictado de su mente, el
empleo de sus posibilidades tecnológicas. El resultado
de la imaginación incipiente era sus propios proyectos y
realizaciones; constituían su propiedad, su autoconstrucción, su identificación con los cuales se adueñaba, se
apropiaba, personificaba y comprometía en la relación
vivida y constante entre el autor y su obra.
Construyó y con ello cambió su espacio y le impuso su
escala, lo edificó de acuerdo a sus necesidades, costumbres y creencias; estableció su orden en el espacio y las
cosas para identificarse con su entorno natural; “Interpretó su espacio cotidiano, aprendiendo a aprender con
sus asombrados ojos, con sus manos, con todo su cuerpo,
aprendiendo a construir, aprendiendo a descubrir las
regularidades de su universo cotidiano material, que
después se convertirían en las leyes del futuro científico”1.
Tomando las ideas de Von Roehrich2, podemos
imaginar que puede llegar a existir un lenguaje emocional de enlace entre el habitante y su arquitectura; por
tanto la arquitectura, de manera general y en lo particular, debiera generar emociones en quien vive el espacio
cotidiano, a la vez de formar imágenes por la percepción
de los espacios cotidianos y del entorno urbano, en un
ambiente integral.
1
VON ROEHRICH G., Ernesto R.- “Psicología del hombre prehispánico”.- INFORMAVIT No. 21.- Revista INFONAVIT.- marzo
1999.- sección ESPACIO URBANO.- Gerencia de administración del
Patrimonio inmobiliario.- México
2
VON ROEHRICH G., Ernesto R.- “Psicología… ob.cit.
A pesar de la identificación de éstos valores como
pautas deseables para la obra arquitectónica, la práctica actual de la arquitectura no ha logrado retomar la
expresión coherente de los valores conceptuales que engloben tanto al edificio como a sus ocupantes; parece ser
que en el lenguaje profesional del arquitecto ha perdido,
dentro de la globalización, las referencias semióticas que
permitían establecer una correlación con la “naturaleza
humana” o con las “necesidades humanas”; en lo práctico
del proceso de evaluación para la obra arquitectónica,
estas categorías no figuran en las bases de apreciación
como pertinentes en el método aplicado habitualmente;
donde el sistema es interno y lo que determina el éxito
o el fracaso de una obra es el juicio de los colegas; la
opinión y la experiencia del público/usuario/habitante
quien cotidianamente hace uso del espacio, quedan relegados del comentario final.
LA CONSTRUCCIÓN DE MODELOS
La arquitectura no es un hecho aislado, no un objeto físico sordo, sabe explicitar desde sus formas una
fruición3; su lenguaje está dado también en el significado
fruitivo4 de sus elementos. La influencia es recíproca
entre la evolución simultánea de los valores y comportamientos de los grupos, y de la obra edificada y la influencia que el espacio ejerce a la vez sobre ellos. Los hechos
físicos consisten en lo edificado, en los espacios naturales
modificados, son a la vez los comportamientos, el uso que
se hace del espacio arquitectónico. El desarrollo psicológico es un proceso de crecimiento de tipo dinámico
e interrelacionado. Los factores socio/culturales deber ser
considerados como influencias “condicionantes” que conceden un margen para el desarrollo individual y con las
que dos personas no se relacionan de la misma manera;
no existen dos personas que compartan exactamente las
mismas condiciones de conducta o que participen de las
mismas experiencias de un comportamiento.
La interacción con sus ambientes
Ambiente significa las referencias comunes entre la
arquitectura, considerando los espacios de la vivienda, de
los edificios, de la ciudad, de las formas del paisaje transformado por el hombre; la cultura de la ciudad tal como
se estratifica en la vida cotidiana y en la memoria de los
3
Del lat. Froitionem; placer intenso. Sentir gran placer. Disfrute.
Gozo
4
Placentero. Del ámbito de las sensaciones gratas. Gozoso. Recreativo.
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espacios; sus elementos serán la referencia a un conjunto unitario de problemas, necesidades, demandas
y objetivos tocantes a la misma materia cultural, aún
cuando a veces las técnicas empleadas sean distintas.
Interesa para este concepto una extensión del análisis
arquitectónico, hasta el punto de rozar los valores artísticos, los significados en cuanto a cultura social; sede
que es a la vez condición y expresión de la sociedad
articulada de clases. Interpretación de significados
y valores que reflejan la vida cotidiana, costumbres,
tradiciones y vivencias que se transforman en valores
de significado, a la par que los espacios que se habitan.
El hombre que percibe la arquitectura le otorga
sus conceptos psicológicos, cambia el simbolismo de
acuerdo a su percepción individual, y el arquitecto
deberá considerarlo. Se presentan variables en cada
caso que tienen mucho que ver con el medio ambiente,
las percepciones en cada persona tienen una interpretación individual, por tanto son subjetivas; asignamos
valores de diferente manera a los objetos y éstos quedan
relacionados en el tiempo y el espacio por la manera en
que les otorgamos significados La semiótica ayuda a la
interpretación de los lenguajes de las cosas, interviene
en los mensajes de cada cultura, y establece valores generales para la sociedad y la religión; ejerce el valor de
un ordenamiento de ideas y de mensajes; codifica e interpreta. La simbolización que los objetos tienen lo que
comunica e informa, se extiende al lenguaje del usuario,
quien percibe la abstracción de los significados. En las
palabras de Norberg Schultz, podemos explicar que: “El
mundo entonces se interpreta como la posibilidad de
expresar los valores de belleza en una forma particular
de interpretación personal ante el mundo, como un
afán de hacer manifiestos sus valores y su expresión. A
lo largo de la historia, las culturas han aprovechado las
características de la percepción y del simbolismo para
adueñarse de su entorno y expresar su arte. La arquitectura, como producto humano, es una manifestación
paralela de símbolos, fenómenos y creencias; la percepción es una reproducción del mundo y la interpretación
para la creación artística; el arte es una abstracción de
elementos esenciales, mismos que permiten la reestructuración de nuevas formas, objetos, fenómenos”.5
La ergonomía es el resultado de la integración de
diversas disciplinas clásicas como la biología, la psi5
NORBERG-SCHULTZ, Chistian.- (1998).- Intensiones en Arquitectura.- colección G.G. REPRINTS, Barcelona: Ed. Gustavo Gili,
S.A.
106
cología, la ingeniería y la fisiología, que unidas tienen
la finalidad de estudiar las interrelaciones hombre/
máquina, la adecuación entre las dimensiones y
capacidades del ser humano y las máquinas que éste
construye para que le ayuden; consideradas entre ellas
a muebles y espacios habitables. En el campo de la
psicología ambiental, el concepto se extiende hasta la
relación en sí, tales como espacio personal, aglomeración, intimidad, adecuación al medio, aislamiento;
pretende llegar más allá de la compatibilidad con el
diseño del medio, estudiando los cambios en la gente
que vive rodeada por ese medio. Algunos de estos
criterios de compatibilidad son universales y presentan
resultados uniformes en las diversas relaciones entre
el hombre y el medio ambiente, como pueden ser:
comodidad térmica, eficacia de la iluminación, reacción ante el ruido, intrusión visual en la evaluación del
paisaje urbano. Comprender estos factores y juzgarlos
en calidad nos permite pasar del nivel de la experiencia
práctica al establecimiento de la teoría.
La lectura del espacio
Al analizar las condiciones psicológicas que determinan la percepción del individuo como comprensión
del mundo, y al relacionar los elementos de simbolismo
con la sociedad y la cultura, pueden llegar a establecerse
parámetros muy claros sobre las condiciones que a la
vez determinan la forma de interpretar y de adueñarse
de la arquitectura, como individuo y como grupo social.
El ser humano posee crecientes posibilidades para
adoptar diversos modos de vida; no es una organismo
con capacidades fijas; el desarrollo de la conducta es
un proceso histórico estrechamente vinculado a las
circunstancias socio/culturales en que ocurre, éstas se
consideran factores que “condicionan” el desarrollo
psicológico. Los sistemas integradores de la sociedad
son la base para el desarrollo y el mantenimiento de
una conducta social, los cambios fundamentales en
los sistemas van acompañados de modificaciones en la
práctica social; traducido al campo de la creación arquitectónica, diremos que la expresión espacial percibida
por el sujeto tendrá repercusiones importantes sobre
el condicionamiento de su conducta, su experiencia
psicológica y la forma de entender su núcleo social;
el equilibrio simbólico del medio ambiente donde el
sujeto participa le permitirá establecer juicios de valor y
permanecer dentro de sistemas sociales constituido por
vivencias identificables y compartidas.
La asimilación del medio ambiente a través de percepciones y sensaciones nos deja un conocimiento en
el sistema nervioso central. El espacio se percibe por
los sentidos, se analiza por la mente, se registran en la
memoria, se identifica con el habitante, se asimila o se
desecha en función de los valores que se han detectado
y de su correspondencia con las expectativas del propio
individuo. En medio de la enervante tensión en que
vive el habitante de las ciudades, la idea de enriquecer
sus experiencias cotidianas a través de la diversidad
de expresión vivencial de su medio ambiente adquiere
significados importantes, dado que existe la capacidad
de producir emociones en el individuo que mejoren su
calidad de vida y que a la vez permitan que se integre
a su grupo social con el ánimo de pertenencia, al
compartir objetivos comunes: el mejoramiento de su
entorno y la identificación con su espacio cotidiano.
No es posible estudiar seriamente la arquitectura sin
tener en cuenta el marco del cual surgió; es decir, el
simbolismo y la visión del mundo y del cosmos. Por
lo mismo “nunca podremos entender la arquitectura
griega sin referirla a la aproximación de los griegos al
mundo natural y al hombre en cuanto individuo. Pero
no puede decirse lo mismo de la arquitectura romana,
la universalidad empezó con ella y a la par una organización radicalmente nueva del ritmo de la vida
urbana; la concentración del aquí y ahora apareció entonces por primera vez con una globalidad asombrosa.
Nunca se habían erigido edificios públicos a una escala
tan generosa como los construidos por los emperadores
romanos para la plebe; su finalidad no era sólo el esparcimiento, sino también el descanso físico”.6
Cuando el ambiente es monótono el organismo se duerme, si es demasiado caótico, se sobreexcita; mediante
el proceso de la comunicación estética el arquitecto,
el diseñador, el artista, manifiestan emociones; éstas
perdurarán por generaciones a pesar de las diferencias
socioculturales, económicas, políticas, de la esfera
humana. El entorno representa las formas de vida, simboliza los logros y las aspiraciones, comunica el sentido
de pertenencia y cuidado, expresa hacia el exterior la
vida interna de sus habitantes. Son condiciones que
deberían quedar ligadas desde el momento de plantear
6
GIEDION, Sigfried.- La arquitectura, fenómeno de transición.
(Las tres edades del espacio en arquitectura).- 1ª. edición castellana,
1969-Barcelona, España: Ed. Gustavo Gili, S.A. de C.V..-
un esquema proyectual. El arquitecto, diseñador de
espacios para la vida del hombre, no debe pasar por alto
las características de los usuarios, ni de los elementos
que formarán parte de un ambiente urbano específico.
El razonamiento sobre el espacio, visto como relación
hombre/ambiente, significa retomar los valores sobrentendidos de contenidos de vida; significados metodológicos que van más allá de los conceptos de espacio
físico o estético. El problema quedaría establecido en la
búsqueda de formas para construir una trama de relaciones espaciales entre individuo y ambiente que sean
significativas para el proceso social y a la vez ofrezcan
una posibilidad de verificación práctica y objetiva.
“Esto conduce a la pregunta de si pueden existir, o no,
forma y espacio como cosas objetivas, descriptibles,
prescindiendo de la relación entre ellas y de éstas hacia
quien las percibe, al respecto se han dado, dentro de la
arquitectura, distintas interpretaciones del concepto de
espacio”.7
Retomando las experiencias de Piaget8 con respecto a
sus estudios de la capacidad cognitiva y la inteligencia,
podemos afirmar que son construcciones individuales
que elabora el individuo para adaptarse al medio social
y físico; así, explicamos que en ellos se identifican dos
procesos que caracterizan a la evolución y adaptación
del psiquismo humano a su entorno: la asimilación
y la acomodación. Ambas son capacidades innatas
que por factores genéticos se van desplegando ante
algunos estímulos en muy determinadas etapas o
estadios del desarrollo; la asimilación permite la
interiorización de un objeto o un evento nuevo a una
estructura comportamental y cognitiva preestablecida;
la acomodación consiste en la modificación de la
estructura cognitiva o del esquema comportamental
para acoger nuevos objetos y eventos que hasta el
momento eran desconocidos. Si bien sus estudios se
centran en las capacidades de interpretación dentro
del proceso evolutivo infantil, estos fenómenos se
pueden apreciar en los comportamientos adultos
ante un momento de crisis, donde se busca encontrar
nuevamente el equilibrio (por esto en la epistemologia
genética de Piaget se habla de un equilibrio fluctuante),
produciendo modificaciones en los esquemas
7
CERASI, Maurice.- La lectura del ambiente.- ob.cit.
Jean William Fritz Piaget (* Neuchatel, Suiza 9 agosto 1896 Ginebra, 16 septiembre 1980). psicologo experimental,filosofo,
biologo, suizo; creador de la epistemologia genetica y famoso por
sus aportes en el campo de la psicologia evolutiva sus estudios sobre
la infiancia y su teoría del desarrollo cognitivo.
8
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cognitivos anteriores, incorporándose las nuevas
experiencias.
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LAS NECESIDADES DEL HABITANTE
Si el objetivo de la arquitectura es la construcción de
espacios habitables para el desarrollo de las actividades
del individuo, será entonces el espacio interno su esencia; incluyendo la dimensión del tiempo como factor
en la figuración de imágenes, considerando que la
morada humana requiere de desplazamientos y recorridos para su contemplación y su uso, lo que significa
multitud de puntos de vista a través del tiempo. Este
concepto espacial implica, en su sentido más amplio,
que no es condición determinante que el espacio cuente
con techumbre, en consecuencia los patios, jardines,
terrazas, balcones, portales, son espacios descubiertos
que dan forma a la obra arquitectónica, le dan carácter,
la identifican, la limitan y la enriquecen.
Retomando de la psicología general, las explicaciones
que Swartz construye, podemos asumir de igual forma
que “ninguna sociedad es totalmente homogénea, la
organización social de cualquier grupo humano incluye
subgrupos de personas identificados por normas de
conducta social limitada, más o menos similares. En
una sociedad desarrollada la heterogeneidad es mucho
más obvia, se encuentra altamente estratificada, entre
estos aspectos destacan: ocupación, edad, sexo, color de
piel, raza, lugar de residencia, credo, que determinan
el agrupamiento de las personas en clases sociales
baja, media y alta, constituyendo además, dimensiones
expresivas de la organización social”.9
Estas cualidades diversas en grupos, forma y atribuciones, también han llevado a la creación de diferentes
espacios para la vida cotidiana. Un ejemplo concreto
es lo que sucede entre las necesidades habitacionales de
las familias de limitados recursos y las políticas de vivienda, que ofrecen cada vez menos posibilidades para
incorporarlos a programas habitacionales oficiales; la
acción habitacional tiene efectos importantes en lo que
a producción de vivienda se refiere, entendida como la
que produce el Estado para satisfacer la demanda de
los sectores de menor ingreso, y las posibilidades de
que ella pueda orientarse hacia la atención real de los
objetivos. Aunado a ello, actualmente se identifican
“familias” integradas por una persona o dos personas,
que pueden o no ser pareja; que aún subsisten núcleos
familiares donde los abuelos y los tíos forman parte
de éste y que requieren de condiciones específicas
de intimidad e independencia; que la familia común
aún esta formada por una pareja con 2 ó 3 hijos, no
necesariamente del mismo sexo –que por supuesto no
serán niños toda la vida- y que requieren de su propio y
privado espacio.
Estos matices, que parecieran sutiles, se han dejado
de lado para fabricar un esquema de vivienda en serie,
impersonal, modulada, con carácter comercial, para
ser ocupada por familias de diversa estructura social,
justificando los procesos de producción en masa, sin
atención individual y sin posibilidad de expresión
humana independiente, con el argumento de que será
mucho más barata la fabricación y por ende, accesible a
un mayor número de personas.
Se hace evidente, entonces, que si bien las decisiones
económicas que adoptan los organismos gubernamentales inciden en el diseño de los espacios habitables,
creando vivienda “económica” en conjuntos habitacionales, no debieran ser la primordial justificación dentro
del diseño; si atendemos a que el habitante acepta
su espacio y se relaciona con éste en función de su
vivencia, de su percepción y de su interpretación, como
procesos psico-sociales que le permitirán más adelante
“formar parte” del grupo de individuos que habita en
sus inmediaciones.
Las necesidades generales, arquitectónicas y las
actividades humanas se encuentran entrelazadas en
múltiples formas, sin una precisa delimitación; la función de habitar reducida a los actos de la vida orgánica
diaria incluye otras situaciones que son derivadas,
como: descanso, alimentación, aseo; a su vez identifican
actividades cotidianas: dormir, leer, comer; y se hacen
manifiestas las necesidades arquitectónicas relativas a
aislamiento, o al acomodo de los equipos domésticos y
mobiliario. “La importancia de las costumbres, como
factor generador de necesidades arquitectónicas radica
tanto en la constante repetición de actos por cumplir
satisfactoriamente, como en el hecho de que revelan
caracteres de identidad; estas costumbres pueden ser
individuales o colectivas y en ambos casos expresan
actos tomados con libertad. La significación de la costumbre se hace manifiesta por la repetición, si los actos
9
SWARTZ, Paul.- Psicología. El estudio de la conducta.- 5ª. Reimpresión en español.- 1976, LOPEZ Dura, Juan (Trad.) C.E.C.S.A..
México: Cía. Editorial Continental.
108
se ejecutaran sólo una vez no determinarían necesidades de espacios”.10
Los espacios de la vivienda de interés social
El modelo de conjunto habitacional ha permitido que
la población de limitados recursos tenga acceso a una
vivienda segura, y la tipología permite abatir los costos
del suelo urbano y del proceso de construcción; pero se
hace manifiesto que las necesidades de los habitantes de
estos espacios requieren de una propuesta que efectivamente responda a sus necesidades como individuos,
como familia y como grupo social característico.
La Unidad habitacional se ha conformado, entonces, como una nueva manifestación de la vida en
vecindad; las clases trabajadoras con un mejor nivel
socioeconómico se alejan del centro de las ciudades, se
instalan en las periferias, alejados de los grupos asentados en las vecindades del centro de la ciudad. Dentro
de estos espacios urbanos, la vivienda se presenta en
un esquema limitado en espacios privados, sin posibilidades reales de crecimiento en ningún sentido; la
identificación de propiedad se entiende hacia el interior,
“la relación al exterior se hace presente por ventanas y
puertas; vida en común desde los balcones, en los andadores, en los accesos, en elevadores y escaleras”.11
Desde tiempos remotos ha sido la vivienda una
forma de expresión hacia el grupo social al cual se
pertenece, tamaño, forma y color; los materiales que la
conforman y las características de su ubicación dentro
del espacio urbano/social y dentro del solar mismo han
comunicado a los habitantes las condiciones de vida de
sus ocupantes. Las formas de la propiedad han evolucionado desde tierras comunales hasta la propiedad
privada; y ésta a su vez, ha variado de significación
con el transcurso del tiempo; ha representado el status
social, la cultura, poder, seguridad, resguardo, cobijo,
tradición y la formación de una familia. “Espacios
donde vamos construyendo y viviendo partes fundamentales de nuestra historia... convirtiéndose en una...
percepción indisoluble de lo simbólico, de lo físico y de
lo material”.12
10
YAÑEZ, Enrique.- (1989) Arquitectura: teoría, diseño, contexto.1ª. reimpresión.- México: Noriega Editores.- Ed. Limusa.
11
AGUILA o SOL.- Programa TV.- Canal 11 TV IPN.- “Por vivir
en quinto patio”.- México 1998.
12
Romero Fernández, Gustavo.- El habitar, la arquitectura y la
vivienda.- Ponencia.- Congreso Internacional “Ambito Latinoamericano. El habitar: una orientación para la investigación proyectual”.UNAM.- Facultad de Arquitectura.- México 1999
Los recursos y el financiamiento son una parte de los
aspectos que determinan las condiciones de producción
de vivienda, (y las formas de acceso a ella) constituyendo a la vez los obstáculos más difíciles de superar
para quienes perciben limitados recursos, representando la síntesis más clara de la concepción errada
que las autoridades tienen del problema de vivienda en
la actualidad. El análisis de estas condiciones ha permitido detectar un grado de hacinamiento muy grave,
alcanzando hasta una ocupación promedio de 3.7
personas por habitación; fenómeno que tiene relación
con las pocas alternativas que ofrecen los prototipos
de programas de interés social, donde no se brindan
opciones acordes a la gran diferenciación demográfica
que caracteriza a las familias trabajadoras. El grado de
hacinamiento, a su vez, produce serios conflictos en
la vida cotidiana, los cuales se ven agravados por los
problemas a partir de la superposición de usos de los
espacios comunes.
Actor y habitante del espacio
Desgraciadamente la historia de los conjuntos habitacionales no ha resultado lo exitosa que se suponía;
por lo general, lo masivo de la vivienda y el anonimato
que ello propicia, la carencia de espacios públicos de
escala individual, las dificultades de convivencia entre
los diferentes estilos de vida de sus habitantes, así como
los problemas administrativos y de mantenimiento,
han propiciado conflictos entre sus ocupantes, y en
algunos casos el abandono de la vivienda. Tradición,
cultura, oficio, ocupación, nivel social, son factores que
determinan las necesidades de creación de espacios
específicos al interior de la vivienda; de igual manera, la
integración del núcleo familiar determina el tamaño y
la cantidad de los espacios requeridos.
Este proceso de vivencia del espacio adquiere características especiales en cuanto a su forma y a su intensidad, se constituye en la “expresión arquitectónica que
rebasa el contenido de su forma; se habita y se incluye
una pared biográfica con que se construye el lugar que
habitamos y que nos habita”. La forma esquemática de
la multiplicación de vivienda en el espacio urbano, se
transforma en el “crecimiento vertical donde se apiñan
las aventuras, las frustraciones y las ilusiones; se aleja
de ser una simple comunión de la vivienda para conformar el ser de la existencia cotidiana”.13
13
AGUILA o SOL.- Programa TV.- Canal 11 TV IPN.- “Por vivir
en quinto patio”.- México 1998.
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Los conjuntos habitacionales fueron pensados para
personas de la clase obrera asalariada con el propósito
de abrir la posibilidad de dotarlos de vivienda cercana a sus sitios de trabajo; pretendieron atender a
una demanda urbana, a una necesidad social, a una
condicionante constitucional. El diseño no ha conseguido responder a todas las necesidades del habitante
que la ocupa, incluyendo sus necesidades orgánicas
y psicológicas, emocionales y espirituales, sociales e
individuales; sin menoscabo de ninguna, sin relevancia
de otra, sin condicionantes económicas.
Las viviendas construidas no han logrado sacudirse
el estigma de “más económicas” y el resultado ha
generado espacios habitablemente inadecuados para
las necesidades humanas, pareciera que el valor del
diseño de vivienda se ha perdido dentro del caos de
la economía y que las propuestas de edificación nada
tienen que ver con los sujetos a quienes dará cobijo.
La elección de materiales y de sistemas constructivos
no la hace más decorosa; tal vez más higiénica, quizá
más segura, pero por sí mismas no ofrecen beneficio
significativo que debieran cumplirse en una propuesta
de diseño. Los espacios se convirtieron en condiciones
mínimas, donde la luz y el aire no tienen cabida, las
oportunidades de convivencia se transformaron en
condición de roce continuo por la necesidad de privacidad, los espacios se vieron reducidos hasta límites
donde los muebles lo abarcan casi totalmente, sin
oportunidad para el movimiento, sin previsión para el
guardado y acomodo de los enseres cotidianos.
Incorporamos aquí algunas de los aspectos relevantes
de la teoría de Vigotsky,14 donde se explica la idea
fundamental sobre el desarrollo humano en términos
de interacción social; este desarrollo consiste en la
interiorización de instrumentos culturales (v.gr. el
lenguaje) que inicialmente no nos pertenecen, sino que
pertenecen al grupo humano en el cual nacemos, que
son transmitidos como productos culturales a través
de la interacción social. La idea y la presencia del “otro”,
toma un papel importante en esta construcción. A
través de estos estudios podemos complementar las
14
Lev Semyónovich Vigótsky, también transcrito como Vigótski
(en ruso Лев Семёнович Выготский) (12 de noviembre de 1896 (5
de noviembre en el antiguo calendario ruso) – 11 de junio de 1934,
psicologo beilorruso, uno de los más destacados teóricos de la psicologia del desarrollo y claro precursor de la neuropsicología soviética
de la que sería máximo exponente el médico ruso A.R.Luria. Su
obra fue descubierta y divulgado por los medios académicos del
mundo occidental en ladecada de 1960.
110
explicaciones de la vivencia cotidiana desde el núcleo
de familia, el entorno y la cotidianeidad de la vivienda
de interés social; donde, si bien identificamos con
cierta uniformidad las condiciones económicas del
grupo humano, los valores sociales se forman y definen
a través de la convivencia en grupo, al interior de la
vivienda como familia y tradición, hacia el exterior por
las condiciones de diseño impuestas que provocan el intercambio de manera intensa, dado el estrecho espacio
interior destinado a la convivencia.
RECUPERANDO VALORES PARA EL HABITANTE
El diseño de la vivienda y los espacios que le son adyacentes, entonces, debiera corresponder con conciencia
a las condiciones socioculturales que lo generan, pero
con honor hacia su propio objetivo: brindar protección
y abrigo a la familia, atender a sus necesidades físicas,
biológicas, psicológicas y espirituales, integrarla al
grupo social respetando su individualidad, manifestar
en sus formas los valores propios y comunicarse con el
entorno por la expresión de sus valores colectivos.
Antes Luis Barragán, años después Tadao Ando, han
hecho hincapié en la necesidad de atender a las necesidades del espíritu dentro de la concepción de una obra
arquitectónica, “la magia, el encanto, el sortilegio” que
puedan encontrarse dentro de los espacios diseñados
atienden a estas necesidades, que nada tienen que ver
con los problemas y las crisis económicas, por ser parte
de la espiritualidad del ser humano; sin embargo las
condiciones de globalización por las que atravesamos,
nos conducen hacia la despersonalización de la vivienda; otrora significación de solidez familiar y posición
social, se ha convertido en un espacio sin identificación
individual, donde pareciera que cualquier persona debiera atender a sus muy diversas y variadas necesidades
en función de muchos otros valores no considerados e
intencionalmente sacrificados en busca de la economía
dentro de la construcción de la vivienda.
El arquitecto ha resultado afectado por este proceso manifiesto de la crisis económica, aunque no
es el responsable de las carencias y las limitantes
económicas por las que atravesamos, si es parte de su
labor la búsqueda de formas y sistemas que aplicados al
diseño puedan aportar valores significativos para dar
cuidado a la vivienda construida en masa para atender
a multitudes que se caracterizan por su individualidad.
Si bien es cierto que los arquitectos no son del todo
responsables por esta situación, sí pueden incidir de
forma importante para modificarlo, con su actuación
profesional como diseñadores de proyectos de interés
social, en la elaboración de los planes de edificación, en
la formulación de leyes y reglamentos, en la docencia, y
sobre todo en la crítica que edifique sobre el error, corrija y permita el crecimiento a partir de las experiencias
vividas.
La vivienda construida en colectividad, casas en
conjuntos, edificios departamentales, unidades habitacionales; constituyen esquemas de diseño predeterminado donde el espacio urbano, el clima, la geografía, el
hábitat, el entorno y otros valores culturales y sociales
de alto grado de simbolismo han quedado relegados.
Al redefinir la vivienda construida bajo esquemas de
interés social, justificada su presencia como demanda
social y limitado el diseño por razones económicas, se
establecen las bases para identificar un proceso activo,
marcado por las necesidades del grupo social y caracterizado para llegar al entendimiento de la compleja
realidad en que el individuo vive y convive, conoce y
crea, mismo que no podrá constituirse como un estado
final e inequívoco; sino como un proceso de avance y
retroceso que permita identificar “las condiciones y los
mecanismos del cambio gnoseológico”. 15
En el término experiencia espacial, se abarcan las
vivencias que involucra la vida en un ámbito urbano, en
su sentido más amplio de las estéticas funcionales, de
las personales a las políticas. Para que se produzca, es
necesario que interactúen dos entidades de características distintas:
• El espacio, en cuanto a su ámbito construido o
virtual
• El sujeto que lo percibe, generando en él una serie
de estímulos que le permitan recrear, comprender y en
definitiva, vivir dicho espacio.
La vivienda de interés social, construida en modulación repetitiva y continua, desde su origen quedó
caracterizada por las condiciones socio- económicas
en forma predominante, y los conjuntos habitacionales
fueron tipificando a poco las condiciones de vida de
sus ocupantes; los espacios comunes centraban las
actividades y los espacios privados, por su proximidad
entre sí, compartían iguales forma, función, moda e
incluso color. A partir de estos cambios en las formas
de vida urbana, el diseño de los espacios internos de
la vivienda se ha ido caracterizando por la integración
de áreas para el uso de una familia formada por 4 ó 5
miembros, repitiéndose indiscriminadamente en cada
uno de las propuestas urbanas, estableciendo con ellos
una tipología de forma y modo, de época y técnica, de
modelo económico más que social; de condiciones
monetarias más que humanas, y de esquema de “modernidad” –entendido como aplicación de tecnologíasmás que cultural.
El interés, la actitud del individuo influye en la
percepción e incluye simbolismos en los grupos de los
objetos; las expectativas del hombre proponen un orden
en las cosas, pero se presentan en la cultura cuando se
tienen valores comunes y experiencias anteriores; sirve
de retroalimentación hacia la valoración de símbolos
en el esquema del hombre, tiene como propósito el
establecimiento de un orden. La transmisión de valores
artísticos y la interpretación del mundo tienen que ver
con la calidad del grupo humano en cuanto a su evolución; el mundo primitivo era mágico, el mundo actual
busca la verdad científica.
Entonces, se propone revalorar el uso de los espacios
de la vivienda a partir de la experiencia del habitante,
permitiendo sus aportaciones como conclusiones y construcciones a partir del aprovechamiento de su espacio
desde lo cotidiano, de la solución a sus demandas, de la
atención a sus necesidades; el espacio
usado, explica Muntañola16, debe transmitir a quien lo
vive una condición poética profunda, la arquitectura
entonces podrá valorarse simultáneamente desde el
origen del diseño en sí y del uso representativo; así,
encontraremos que el espacio puede definirse como
resultado de una elaboración cultural del habitante
mismo.
15
TUDELA, Fernando.- (1985) Conocimiento y diseño.-Universidad Autónoma Metropolitana –Xochimilco.- Coord. de Extensión
Universitaria.- colección Ensayos Diseño.- México: MultidiseñoGráfico SA.
16
Muntañola Thornberg, Josep., (2001) Arquitectura e interpretación dialógica.- Edicions de la Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya,
SL. Barcelona: Edicions UPC.
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Violencia Doméstica:
Mensajes Dentro del
Espacio Arquitectónico
Domestic Violence: Messages within the
Architectural Space
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Adolfo Gomez-Amador (Universidad de Colima,
México)
El documento reporta parte de los resultados de una
investigación, realizada a partir de 2001, con la finalidad
de encontrar la correlación entre patrones de conducta
violenta y su entorno arquitectónico y tomando a 12
casas unifamiliares de la ciudad de Colima como unidades de análisis: 5 casos sin violencia y 7 con violencia
en diferentes grados.
Se establece un procedimiento de análisis de la disposición de los objetos colocados sobre los muros en
los espacios de mayor importancia para los habitantes,
para ello se define un concepto de orden y a partir de
esto se consideró que la respuesta perceptiva es una
tarea compleja, en donde la composición implica la idea
de agrupamiento ordenado. En ese sentido, se identificaron los ejes de composición de cada objeto colocado
sobre las paredes del espacio principal de las viviendas
estudiadas.
Para efectuar el proceso de análisis se tomaron en
cuenta diversos criterios, en función a tres categorías
básicas: el espacio, los elementos y los principios compositivos. Los elementos compositivos se analizaron
ateniéndonos a principios y leyes de la percepción
identificados experimentalmente entre 1975 y 1995 por
diversos autores.
En el documento se presentan los esquemas de composición analizados y los resultados de dicho análisis. Se
encuentra que en las casas sin violencia no existe correlación entre el número de objetos y el total de ejes compositivos, pero los datos son muy compactos en ambas
variables. En tanto que en las casas donde sí se detectó
violencia, la correlación entre el número de objetos y el
total de los ejes compositivos es perfecta (r = 0.99).
La correlación entre el Índice de Profusión y el de
violencia muestra que los objetos compositivos integrados en el índice se correlacionan con las variables de
112
violencia siguiendo una función polinómica, en la que
las viviendas sin violencia presentan valores intermedios, las viviendas en las que se presentaron eventos de
violencia psicológica e intimidación, muestran valores
bajos y las viviendas que padecieron abuso físico y
sexual presentan valores altos. Esta asociación arroja
una alta correlación (r = 0.92): los casos estudiados
presentan una clara tendencia a ser profusos cuando las
agresiones afectan cuerpo y mente; y escasos cuando el
abuso es emocional. En el estrato medio se ubican las
viviendas de familias pacíficas.
Se concluye que los habitantes que conducen con
violencia su relación familiar extienden a diversos ámbitos su incapacidad de orden, y esta se expresa también
sobre la composición de los objetos ornamentales sobre
los muros.
El presente trabajo forma parte de una extensa investigación sobre violencia doméstica realizada en la ciudad
mexicana de Colima, cuyo propósito fue identificar los
elementos y condiciones de las viviendas que pudieran
estar correlacionados al modo en que sus habitantes
acostumbran resolver sus problemas, ya sea de manera
pacífica o violenta. El proyecto se desarrolló en dos
fases. En la primera (agosto 2001 a abril 2002) se integró
en forma aleatoria una muestra de 100 viviendas localizadas en toda la ciudad, que incluía ejemplos de todos
los estratos socioeconómicos. En cada una de las viviendas se practicó una encuesta para encontrar aquellos
casos en los que hubiere ocurrido un evento de violencia
en los seis meses previos. La encuesta fue diseñada y
validad por INEGI (1999).
A partir de las respuestas obtenidas se establecieron
dos grupos: casos (en donde hubo un evento de violencia) y testigos (en donde no los hubo). De ellos se
seleccionaron nuevamente de forma aleatoria los casos
de estudio que se reportan en este documento: 5 viviendas no asociadas a eventos de violencia y 7 viviendas
en donde se registró algún evento violento. En ellas
se investigaron durante la segunda fase del proyecto
(agosto 2002 a diciembre 2006) diversos atributos del
entorno arquitectónico con los que se construyeron
indicadores de habitabilidad como el uso y la función de
las habitaciones, el hacinamiento, los recorridos interiores, la adaptación al clima, el uso de ciertos colores y la
forma de ordenar muebles y objetos decorativos, cuyos
resultados presentaron correlaciones de moderadas a
significativas con el fenómeno de la violencia doméstica.
junto con otros investigadores, ha fundamentado
una hipótesis similar: los ambientes que producen los
individuos alrededor de ellos mismos, como oficinas
y alcobas, son abundantes en información sobre sus
personalidades, sus habilidades, valores, y estilos de
vida. Con esta hipótesis pretenden demostrar, por
ejemplo, que los cuadros que una persona selecciona
para colgar en sus paredes, los libros que escoge para
leer, y la manera en que coloca los objetos que llenan
el espacio a su alrededor, reflejan aspectos de su personalidad y valores.
Gosling con base en teorías Interaccionistas, plantea
que los individuos también seleccionan y producen
ambientes físicos que reflejan y refuerzan todo lo que
ellos son. Para ello han formulado un modelo que
explica cómo los individuos pueden impactar el ambiente alrededor de ellos y, a su vez, cómo los ambientes
físicos pueden servir como almacenes de expresión
individual:
El hallazgo más relevante lo constituye la evidencia
de que cada persona tiene una particular forma de
interactuar con el entorno, así como una manera característica para relacionarse con los demás, las cuales
parecen ser reflejo una de la otra.
En este documento se reportan los resultados respecto del modo en que las personas colocan objetos,
ya sean decorativos o utilitarios, sobre los muros del
espacio de uso colectivo más importante de su casa.
La hipótesis era que esa manera de hacerlo, debía
estar asociada al estatus de violencia de cada familia,
y por lo tanto podría tomarse como un referente que
expresa una forma particular de conducta. En el otro
sentido de la interacción bidireccional habitantehábitat, hábitat-habitante, el aspecto del ambiente resultado del grado de organización de los objetos que lo
ocupan, podría ser considerado como una condición
de riesgo secundario.
Samuel D. Gosling (2002) del Departamento de
Psicología de la Universidad de Texas en Austin,
Mecanismo
Disposición
subyacente
Manifestación
conductual
Indicio o evidencia
conductual
Demandas de identidad dirigidas
a sí mismo
Sentimental
Colecciona recuerdos
Guijarros de su playa
favorita
Demandas de identidad dirigidas
a otros
Socialmente
responsable
Vota en las elecciones
Boleta de votante
Indicio de la conducta interior
Consciente
Organiza sus
pertenencias
Espacio de trabajo
organizado
Indicio de la conducta externa
Busca experimentar
sensaciones
Va a esquiar a la nieve
Esquíes de nieve en la
habitación
Tabla 1. Fragmento del modelo conceptual de Gosling et alt. (2002)
Así, siguiendo ese mismo razonamiento teórico, podemos plantear que el patrón que cada quién formula
para seleccionar y organizar los objetos de su entorno
más inmediato, es un hecho que expresa en buena
medida su personalidad, su apego o desdén al orden,
su racionalización del espacio, etc. Esa disposición que
expresa una voluntad manifiesta, es un signo –referente
semiótico– que expresa una cultura, una cosmovisión
y la manera en que el individuo modela su entorno e
interactúa con él.
Un método para decodificar esos signos del entorno
particular de las personas (Personal Living Space Cue
Inventory) que está en desarrollo por el propio Gosling
y otros investigadores, plantea una serie de valoraciones
hechas por diversos observadores –jueces o codificadores, les llaman– que registran los objetos, las formas
de organizarlos y colocarlos, las rutinas que se identifican a través de todo ello, entre otros ítems, y luego
los categorizan, jerarquizan, depuran e interpretan.
(Gosling, Craik, Martin, & Pryor, 2005)
Una de los retos que se propuso en la realización del
presente proyecto, fue reducir lo más posible la valoración personal, y por lo tanto subjetiva, en las tareas
de registro de los datos que habrían de permitirnos
después hacer los ejercicios de correlación e interpretación. De hecho, para poder hacer tales rutinas de correlación se debían tener datos cuantitati
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vos, lo más objetivos posible. Por eso se decidió desarrollar un método propio que materializara en índices
concretos y numéricos la forma de disponer objetos
sobre los muros de las viviendas, en vez de basarse en
juicios de valoración provenientes de observadores.
Para ello fue necesario retomar principios de la Gestalt, que se preocupa fundamentalmente de problemas
perceptuales, así como del cognoscitivismo que elabora
a partir de algunos de los principios Gestalt una teoría
psicológica completa que interpreta a los conocimientos
como una síntesis de formas y fondos captados en las
percepciones. Estas a su vez son relativas, individuales e
influidas por la historia, actitud y motivación individuales.
A pesar de que el núcleo de la Gestalt gira en torno
a la percepción, su alcance se extiende a otros campos
de la Psicología, enfatizando el análisis dinámico y
la relación de los elementos en su estructura total, de
acuerdo al principio de que "el todo es más que la simple
suma de sus partes". El cognoscitivismo por su parte se
preocupa de la manera en que las personas se conocen a
sí mismas, a su entorno y cómo se relacionan con él. En
ese proceso, la comprensión que se tenga del ambiente
(pasado, presente, futuro y realidad concreta e imaginaria), estructura su espacio vital. El cognoscitivismo
también define a la inteligencia como la capacidad de
los individuos a responder en situaciones actuales, anticipándose a las posibles consecuencias.
La escuela Gestalt ha formulado diversos principios y
leyes a los que responden los patrones de percepción en
la integración de las formas más estables, congruentes y
sencillas que sea posible dentro de un arreglo visual determinado. Llaman a éste proceso ley de la pregnancia,
la cual establece que en toda experiencia perceptiva posible de estímulos diversos, particulares y simultáneos,
será preferentemente percibido aquel que encaje más
cerca del concepto de "buena figura" que tiene formado
el receptor. (Van der Helm, 2000). Afirma también que
la organización del arreglo visual en objetos perceptivos
siempre será tan regular, sencilla y simétrica como
lo permitan las condiciones predominantes. (Stanley,
2001). Según esta ley, la percepción tiende a completar
imágenes incompletas de acuerdo a la interpretación
que el observador tiene del mundo. Esta tendencia intencional -dirigida a un fin- frecuentemente es considerada la ley principal de la Gestalt.
114
Así pues, se procedió al análisis de los arreglos visuales que forman los objetos colocados sobre las paredes
de las viviendas estudiadas, con apoyo en las siguientes
leyes de la organización de la forma, subsidiarias todas
ellas de la de pregnancia: (Goldstein, 1988) (Stanley,
2001)
• Ley de la Simplicidad, o cierre, la cual establece que
todo patrón de estímulos ha de verse de manera que la
estructura resultante sea lo más simple posible y que
cuando un espacio está rodeado por un contorno tiende
a percibirse como una figura.
• Ley de la Similitud que expresa que los elementos
similares tienden a agruparse.
• Ley de la Continuidad: los puntos que al conectarse dan lugar a líneas rectas o a una curvatura suave
tienden a agruparse perceptivamente, y las líneas
tienden a verse de forma que sigan el recorrido más
suave posible.
• Ley de la Proximidad: los elementos próximos entre
sí tienden a agruparse y a percibirse como una unidad.
• Leyes de la relación figura-fondo demostradas por
Edgar Rubín: (Forgus, 1978) la figura es más reconocible
y permanente que el fondo y las formas simétricas por
reflexión especular o por rotación se perciben como una
sola figura.
La idea era encontrar índices de orden en la manera
de agrupar los objetos, los cuales se pudieran someter
a un proceso de correlación estadística con el estatus
de violencia de los ocupantes. El índice de orden debía
expresar la sencillez o complejidad del arreglo. El orden
simple y apoyado en principios muy conocidos puede
ser relajante, el orden complejo apoyado en principios
no esperados puede resultar incitante. Pero cuando el
orden es demasiado simple y predecible resulta banal,
o bien cuando va más allá de los umbrales del entendimiento se convierte en caótico.
El orden en general “se extiende en un espectro que
va de órdenes sencillos, de grado muy bajo, a órdenes
caóticos de grado infinito entre los cuales el azar es un
caso límite”. Cuando el orden lógico enfrenta contradicciones la mente tendrá que ser capaz de responder con
inteligencia creativa para percibir órdenes y categorías
nuevos que normalmente descansan entre los extremos
estáticos y no relacionados presentados por la pura
lógica. (Bohm, 1988)
Para el presente estudio se tomó en consideración que
la respuesta perceptiva es una tarea compleja, (Forgus,
1978) en donde la composición implica la idea de
agrupamiento ordenado. En ese sentido, se procedió
a identificar los ejes de composición de cada objeto
colocado sobre las paredes del espacio principal de las
viviendas estudiadas. Tales ejes fueron identificados
siguiendo los preceptos de una o más de las leyes de
la organización de la forma explicadas antes. Así, los
ejes podrían pasar por el centro del objeto, lo que fue
lo más frecuente, o bien podrían pasar por uno de sus
límites, en los casos que se presentaban los supuestos
de la ley de continuidad, Ahora bien, la cantidad de
ejes en un conjunto de objetos, es diferente a la suma
de los ejes de las partes, de tal forma que las percepciones del conjunto compuesto no pueden explicarse
mediante la adición de las múltiples sensaciones
producidas por un objeto componente, por lo tanto
a.
el estímulo debe considerarse globalmente como un
todo. (Goldstein, 1988)
En resumen, se consideraron como conjuntos
compositivos a todos aquellos muros de los espacios
de uso común de las viviendas que contenían objetos
en su superficie. En tales conjuntos se identificaron
tres tipos de elementos compositivos: los objetos,
cosas decorativas o utilitarias colocadas deliberadamente sobre la pared; los ejes compositivos, centrales
o tangenciales que modelan la geometrización de los
objetos sobre un fondo que en este caso es la pared;
y los agrupamientos resultantes de considerar a dos
o más objetos como una unidad perceptual, ya que
presentan los supuestos de las leyes y principios de la
organización de la forma.
c.
b.
d.
Figura 1. Elementos compositivos: Objetos, ejes y agrupamientos:
a. Un objeto y sus dos ejes centrales.
b. Dos objetos y tres ejes centrales hacen un agrupamiento por simplicidad, similitud y proximidad
c. Dos objetos y tres ejes, dos centrales y uno tangencial, hacen un agrupamiento por simplicidad, similitud, proximidad y continuidad
d. Tres objetos y dos ejes centrales hacen un agrupamiento por simplicidad, similitud, proximidad y rotación
Para efectuar el proceso de análisis de tomaron en
cuenta diversos criterios, en función a tres categorías
básicas: el espacio de composición, los elementos compositivos y los principios de orden compositivo. Tales
criterios de detallan a continuación:
1. En relación al espacio de composición:
1.1 Se consideró como unidad de análisis exclusivamente a los espacios colectivos o principales como
sala, comedor, etc., ya que en ellos la disposición de los
objetos se supone responde a una interacción común de
todos los habitantes. Se excluyeron los espacios indi-
viduales porque su arreglo reflejaría la personalidad de
miembros aislados y no del conjunto de habitantes.
1.2 Se redujo el universo de objetos a aquellos cuya
disposición corresponde a una decisión deliberada
del habitante, se excluyen los elementos fijos, arquitectónicos o de instalación, que son parte de la casa
como, ventanas, tomacorrientes, apagadores, lámparas
fijas, etc.
1.3 Tampoco se contabilizaron los elementos cuya
disposición fuera casual o temporal, por no ser resultados de una acción deliberada de ordenamiento, entre
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estos elementos consideramos a los objetos no colocados sobre la pared sino apoyados en el piso o mesas,
como floreros, portarretratos, aparatos eléctricos. Para
esta determinación nos apoyamos en el principio de
identidad de la figura percibida, establecido por Hebb,
el cual considera el factor experiencia en la respuesta
perceptiva. (Forgus) También nos basamos en otros dos
principios: una figura es un conjunto de contornos con
las propiedades del objeto en nuestra conciencia; y una
forma puede constar de una figura que se destaca del
fondo pero las formas también pueden incluir parte del
fondo del que surgen las figuras. (Stanley)
1.4 En el análisis se consideró a los muros exentos
de ornamentación, y a aquellos en donde solo existía
una sola pieza, como carentes de composición, pues en
condiciones normales los sistemas visuales operan para
producir objetos perceptuales (Stanley) y constituyen
propiamente la composición, lo que implica posición
común o agrupación de figuras. (Real Academia Española, 2006) En tales casos se consideró nula la agrupación.
En relación a los elementos compositivos:
1.5 Se graficó en un plano completo la composición
de cada muro interior a partir de imágenes fotográficas,
considerando la intencionalidad de alineación de objetos y soslayando pequeños desajustes de la colocación.
Este criterio se apoya en la ley de la simplicidad y las
demostraciones de Attneave (1975), sobre el hecho de
que figuras con pocos giros, fuerte simetría y ángulos
abiertos tienden a verse como más simples (Forgus).
1.6 Para la caracterización del grado de simetría se
recurrió a los primeros niveles establecidos en la teoría
de la información: elementos que tienen la misma forma
y la misma dimensión, elementos que tienen la misma
forma, pero dimensiones diversas, y elementos deformados de manera afín y proyectiva. (Bonsiepe, 1977)
1.7 Se computaron los objetos individualmente, e
independientemente de variables como la escala, la
proporción, la figura, el color, la posición. En algunos
casos de objetos distintos pero superpuestos se consideraron separadamente debido al factor experiencia de
la respuesta perceptiva en la organización figura fondo,
que permite la identificación o reconocimiento de una
forma o modelo y al principio de familiaridad de las
figuras ambiguas que previene: las personas normales
suelen ver percepciones aparentemente más complejas
ya que muchas personas cambian sus percepciones al
116
continuar contemplando la figura un cierto tiempo
(Forgus).
1.8 Dado que todos los objetos estaban dispuestos
en espacios rectangulares solo se consideraron los ejes
horizontales y verticales, ya que de acuerdo a experimentos realizados por Kubovy y Wagemans (1995),
ciertos patrones, como las filas y las columnas, parecen
tener preferencia en la percepción, y las organizaciones diagonales se diferencian con menor frecuencia.
También se consideraron los experimentos de Olson y
Attneave (1975), de acuerdo al tiempo de identificación
de los agrupamientos de patrones de formas, (Stanley)
así como los experimentos sobre la ley de la similitud
en los cuales se establece que en la diferenciación de la
forma es más significativa la posición que la dirección
de los elementos. (Forgus)
1.9 Los agrupamientos que resultaron del análisis de
objetos y ejes de composición, fueron obtenidos mediante una expresión simple:
G=
∑ Ev * ∑ Eh
Donde:
G = Agrupamientos compositivos
Ev = Ejes verticales identificados en el conjunto compositivo
Eh = Ejes horizontales identificados en el conjunto
compositivo
2. En relación a los principios de orden compositivo:
2.1 Se consideró que los elementos organizados en
conjuntos en base a principios de simetría de reflexión
especular o de rotación, generaban un solo eje, de acuerdo con las leyes de relación figura-fondo demostradas
por Edgar Rubín.
2.2 Dada la alineación de los órganos de la vista y el
predominio del formato horizontal de los muros, en el
eje horizontal se consideraron ordenados los elementos
alineados en forma tangencial y central y en los alineados en el eje vertical solo se consideró como factor de
orden los dispuestos en base a un eje central.
2.3 La alineación tangencial solo se contabilizó como
un eje común, cuando los elementos estaban en una
sola dirección de acuerdo a la ley de la continuidad que
establece que los elementos que parecen seguir la misma
dirección (una línea recta o una curva sencilla) tienden
a agruparse. (Stanley, 2001)
2.4 Por el mismo motivo solo se consideró la ordenación de objetos bajo el principio de simetría espe-
cular sobre el eje vertical. De acuerdo a la idea de que
si se reduce la distancia vertical entre los puntos con
relación a la distancia horizontal, la organización en
columnas comenzará a dominar. (Stanley)
2.5 No se consideraron ordenados aquellos objetos
que tuvieran el mismo eje pero se interponía entre
ellos otro objeto con un eje distinto. Ya que en tales
condiciones no opera el principio de continuidad de
acuerdo a la demostración de William Prinzmetal
y William Banks (1977) cuando un elemento no
se alinea o agrupa, se detecta con mayor rapidez.
(Stanley)
2.6 Como excepción del principio anterior se considera el caso de que dos o más objetos estén alineados
y entre ellos existe uno no alineado pero que forma
parte de una composición simétrica en el otro eje, en
tal caso los objetos se consideraron ordenados y se
computaron como un solo eje, de acuerdo a la leyes
de relación figura-fondo invocadas en el inciso 2.1.
(Forgus)
2.7 No se consideraron ordenados objetos que
teniendo el mismo eje, su distancia entre si, era
menor que otro objeto no ordenado. Razonamiento
apoyado en las experimentaciones de Prinzmetal y
Banks (1976) donde evidencian que la proximidad de
una forma con estímulos irrelevantes permite que se
agrupe con ellos e interfiera en el patrón de reconocimiento. (Stanley)
2.8 El grado de orden o coherencia que contiene el
mensaje emitido por los conjuntos de objetos agrupados compositivamente sobre el fondo neutro del
muro, se consideró mediante dos índices diferentes: el
de profusión y el de síntesis compositiva.
2.9 El índice de profusión integra la cantidad
absoluta de objetos compositivos que se encuentran
colocados en los muros del espacio de uso común
principal de la vivienda, y expresa el ánimo (valor,
esfuerzo, energía) que los habitantes imprimen en su
decisión de decorar su escenario de convivencia y de
tener al alcance visual o motriz, objetos utilitarios de
uso no frecuente, es decir que permanecen colgados
ahí durante largas temporadas. El índice de profusión
se obtiene de la suma total de objetos compositivos:
n
p = ∑O
1
Donde:
p = Índice de profusión de objetos compositivos
O = Objetos compositivos
2.10 El índice de síntesis compositiva expresa la
capacidad que tienen los habitantes para organizar
varios objetos en determinados agrupamientos. De
tal manera que cuanto mayor sea el número de
objetos que incluyen en cada agrupamiento por la
coincidencia de sus ejes centrales y tangenciales, su
proximidad y similitud, etc., mayor es su capacidad de
síntesis. El índice de síntesis se obtiene de una relación
simple:
σ=p/G
Donde:
σ = Síntesis compositiva
p = Índice de profusión de objetos compositivos
G = Agrupamientos compositivos de acuerdo a la
expresión (5)
En la tabla 2 se muestran los resultados de la fase
de acopio de datos y el cálculo de los índices de orden
o coherencia formal (las imágenes se omiten por razones de confidencialidad).
Al revisar los resultados anteriores, podemos observar que los valores registrados en las viviendas sin
violencia, se ubican en un estrato medio en relación
con los registrados en las casas con violencia, cuyos
extremos los sobrepasan en gran medida. De igual
manera, aunque los promedios obtenidos para cada
grupo de estudio son muy cercanos, sus medidas de
dispersión no lo son. Invariablemente los datos registrados en las casas con violencia son bastante más dispersos que los del otro grupo. Si se observa la figura 2
en la que se correlacionan por separado el número de
objetos y ejes para cada grupo de estudio, se explica
muy bien el fenómeno identificado.
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A14
0
σ
Síntesis
compositiva
0
G
Agrupamientos
0
A5
p
Profusión de
objetos
A2
Ejes
Horizontales
Tipo de
violencia
0
Ejes Verticales
Clave de la
vivienda
A1
2
5
11
3.2
3.48
7
7
11
7.0
1.57
7
8
11
7.5
1.47
8
6
14
6.9
2.02
A16
0
8
6
9
6.9
1.30
B3
3
16
16
16
16.0
1.00
B5
1
2
2
2
2.0
1.00
B10
1
3
1
3
1.7
1.73
B11
2
5
5
5
5.0
1.00
B13
4
18
20
22
19.0
1.16
B17
1
3
3
3
3.0
1.00
B19
1
0
0
0
0.0
0.00
Sin violencia
Promedio
DS
6.40
2.51
6.40
1.14
11.20
1.79
6.30
1.77
1.97
0.89
Con violencia
Promedio
DS
6.71
7.20
6.71
7.95
7.29
8.32
6.67
7.59
0.98
0.51
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Tabla 2. Cuadro de valores identificados. Tipo de violencia: 0 Sin violencia, 1 Psicológica, 2 Intimidación, 3 Física, 4 Sexual.
Ejes compositivos y objetos
45
Con violencia
y = 1.8081x + 0.2552
2
R = 0.9887
Suma de ejes
verticales y horizontales
40
35
30
25
20
15
10
Sin violencia
5
y = 0.0938x + 11.75
2
R = 0.0026
0
0
5
10
15
20
25
Figura 2. Correlación entre ejes
Objetos
Sin violencia
Con violencia
Aquí se puede observar que en las casas en donde no
ha estado presente la violencia, la asociación entre el
número de objetos y el total de los ejes compositivos, no
presenta correlación alguna (r = 0.05), sin embargo los
datos son muy compactos en ambas variables: el rango
de ejes va de 7 a 15 y el de objetos de 9 a 14. Por su parte,
en las casas donde sí se ha padecido la violencia, la correlación entre el número de objetos y el total de los ejes
compositivos es perfecta (r = 0.99) y sus extremos van
118
compositivos y objetos.
de 0 a 38 en cuanto a los ejes, y de 0 a 22 respecto de los
objetos.
Esto indica que si la variable de violencia se cuantifica de 0 (sin violencia) a 4 (violencia sexual, física,
intimidación y psicológica), la distribución de los datos
obtenidos no se ajustaría a una función lineal, sino a
la de un polinomio, por lo que se practicó este proceso
de regresión a fin de obtener los factores de correlación
entre las variables ambientales y las de violencia.
Violencia y Profusión de objetos compositivos
2
y = 3.4728x - 10.333x + 10.56
2
R = 0.855
R = 0.9247
30
Número de objetos
25
20
15
10
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0
0
0
1
2
3
4
1
SIN VIOLENCIA
VIOLENCIA EMOCIONAL
INTIMIDACIÓN
VIOLENCIA FÍSICA
VIOLENCIA SEXUAL
2
3
4
Tipo de violencia
Figura 3. Correlación entre profusión de objetos (p) y tipo de violencia.
En la figura 3 se aprecia con claridad lo anteriormente
expuesto. Los objetos compositivos integrados en el
índice p se correlacionan con las variables de violencia
siguiendo una función polinómica del tipo y=ax2–bx+c,
en la que las viviendas sin violencia presentan valores
intermedios, las viviendas en las que se presentaron
eventos de violencia psicológica e intimidación muestran valores bajos y las viviendas que padecieron abuso
físico y sexual presentan valores altos. Es decir, donde
los sucesos violentos fueron de índole psicológica o
intimidatoria, los conjuntos compositivos fueron claramente más escasos que aquellos de las viviendas sin violencia, como lo demuestran los pocos objetos –menos de
cinco– que emplean para decorar su espacio de convivencia. De hecho la vivienda B19 no tiene un solo objeto
colgado en sus muros. En cambio, donde las agresiones
fueron corporales y de mayor impacto traumático, los
objetos se desbordan en abundancia. Esta asociación arroja una correlación fuerte (r = 0.92), que no deja lugar
a dudas: los casos estudiados presentaron una clara
tendencia a ser profusos cuando las agresiones afectan
cuerpo y mente y escasos cuando el abuso es emocional.
En el estrato medio se ubican las viviendas de familias
pacíficas.
El mismo procedimiento se aplicó a los valores que se
obtuvieron al despejar el Índice de Síntesis Compositiva,
según se describió párrafos arriba. En este caso (figura
4) se observa una tendencia negativa integrada en una
curva un poco más suave, ya que los valores representativos de las viviendas sin violencia son los más altos.
Podemos interpretar pues que a mayor nivel de agresión
menor capacidad de síntesis, aunque ésta repunta un
poco en el caso de agresiones sexuales. Como se puede
ver claramente, el promedio de objetos que integran
una agrupación en el grupo con violencia es de uno en
términos redondos, en tanto que en el otro grupo de
estudio el promedio es de dos. Dicho de otra manera,
se observa una incapacidad en los integrantes de las
familias que padecen violencia para hacer arreglos compositivos con más de un objeto. Para las familias libres
del problema, parece ser que hacer conjuntos con dos o
más objetos es lo natural. Sin embargo esta asociación
arrojó un valor de correlación moderado (r = 0.58).
Una interpretación que podría hacerse a partir de
todas las evidencias discutidas aquí, se basa en la jer-
Violencia y Síntesis Compositiva
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Promedio de Objetos por Agrupamiento
4
2
y = 0.2274x - 1.0598x + 1.917
2
R = 0.3459
R = 0.5881
3
2
1
0
0
0
1
2
3
4
1
SIN VIOLENCIA
VIOLENCIA EMOCIONAL
INTIMIDACIÓN
VIOLENCIA FÍSICA
VIOLENCIA SEXUAL
2
3
4
Tipo de Violencia
Figura 4. Correlación entre síntesis compositiva (σ) y tipo de violencia.
arquía de necesidades propuesta por Maslow. Según
esta taxonomía las necesidades de seguridad, de
protección, de estar libre de peligro, de vivir en orden
y de esperar un futuro predecible, se encuentran en
el segundo nivel de prioridad, antecedidas sólo de las
necesidades fisiológicas. Este tipo de necesidades se
manifiestan como miedo, sensación de indefensión y
de caer en la anarquía. Mientras estas exigencias no
sean satisfechas, necesidades más elevadas como las
de aceptación social, las de reconocimiento y las de
autosuperación no son siquiera atendidas. (Maslow,
1999)
Siguiendo ese planteamiento, podemos decir que la
permanencia en un ambiente hostil, donde campea la
posibilidad de una agresión sutil, humillante e intimidatoria produce tal desgano que no existe la preocupación y mucho menos la ocupación de “componer”
los elementos del entorno, y esta pobreza ambiental
propicia a su vez un marco físico alentador para que
las agresiones se escenifiquen. Pero lo interesante
resulta en que ese desgano se manifiesta de forma
diametralmente opuesta, cuando las agresiones se materializan físicamente en el cuerpo de la víctima y los
120
daños afectivos se acumulan con impactos de mayor
trascendencia y perjuicio. En este caso el desinterés
por el arreglo ambiental se manifiesta en la acumulación de objetos, escasamente ordenados.
Los resultados de este ejercicio, también parecen
confirmar la idea de Bohm y Peat en el sentido de
que la capacidad de relacionar cosas diferentes en un
ámbito específico, puede desarrollarse en todos los
campos en que se aplica la mente. La irracionalidad,
dicen, implica un fallo de coherencia entre las relaciones establecidas o percibidas “pues la racionalidad
es un orden; es, de hecho, el orden esencial del pensamiento” (Bohm, 1988). Entonces, quienes presentan
incapacidad para establecer relaciones ordenadas y
coherentes con las personas que les rodean, resulta
evidente según los resultados discutidos, que tampoco
logran establecer ese tipo de relaciones con los objetos
con que modelan su entorno.
Así, por un lado se puede decir que aquellos habitantes incapaces de ordenar los elementos dispuestos
sobre los muros puede extenderse a diversos ámbitos
de sus vidas. De la misma forma que para colocar
un cuadro o un adorno sobre la pared, la falta de
razones explicitas puede llevar al caos compositivo,
para resolver un problema familiar esa misma falta
de comunicación razonada puede llevar a la violencia.
En ese sentido, la legibilidad ambiental debe considerarse como un indicador del problema de la violencia
doméstica, ya que es posible entender estos resultados
como señales que los habitantes agregan a sus espacios habitables, en los que informan de aspectos muy
profundos de su intimidad, en una codificación que ni
ellos mismos conocen, pero que de acuerdo al análisis
aquí descrito, parece haber sido descifrada.
Un ambiente sin adornos, con escasa utilería
decorativa o de uso cotidiano, desprovista de interés,
de retos de comunicación y poco sistemática, puede
avisar de que algo ocurre en el seno de esa casa, que
bien podría tratarse de violencia emocional. Por su
parte, un ambiente abigarrado, saturado de objetos,
que nos arrasa por la gran cantidad de información
que nos plantea, la cual rebasa nuestra capacidad de
lectura, pero además con muy escasa capacidad de
síntesis, y carente de criterios de orden, puede tratarse
de un llamado urgente relacionado con agresiones
físicas o sexuales. Por el contrario, un ambiente con
suficientes objetos que atraen nuestro interés, pero
que no exceden nuestra capacidad de lectura, compuestos con adecuada capacidad de síntesis, siguiendo
arreglos sistemáticos y racionales, pero afectivamente
agradables, que nos relajan o nos estimulan, puede
estarnos diciendo que se trata de un recinto donde sus
habitantes comparten la vida, con sus gozos y pesares,
en convivencia pacífica.
Los autores desean expresar su agradecimiento al
fondo SIMORELOS de CONACYT que financió el
presente proyecto, así como a todos los investigadores,
asistentes y becarios multidisciplinarios que participaron en las diferentes fases del mismo, en particular
a la M.A. Patricia Barragán Preciado quien se encargó
del registro de las características y elementos de las
viviendas encuestadas.
Referencias
Bohm, D. y Peat, D. 1988. Ciencia orden y creatividad, las raíces creativas de la ciencia y de la vida.
Editorial Kairos, Barcelona.
Real Academia Española. 2006. Diccionario De la
lengua española. Madrid: Espasa Calpe.
Bonsiepe, Gui, 1977. Teoría y práctica del diseño
industrial. Elementos para una manualística crítica,
Gustavo Gili, Barcelona.
Buss, D. M. 1987. Selection, evocation and manipulation. En: Journal of Personality and Social Psychology,
53, pp. 1214-1221
Eco, Umberto, 1976. A Theory of Semiotics. Indiana
University Press, Bloomington, IN, / Macmillan,
London.
Forgus, Ronald M. 1978. Percepción, proceso básico
del desarrollo cognoscitivo. Trillas, México.
Goldstein, Bruce, 1988. Sensación y percepción.
Editorial Debate. Madrid.
Gosling, S.D., Ko, J.S., Mannarelli T. y Morris, M.E.
2002. A Room With a Cue: Personality Judgments
Based on Offices and Bedrooms. En: Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, Vol. 82, No. 3, American Psychological Association, Inc., pp. 379–398
Gosling, S.D; Craik, K.H.; Martin, N.R.; Pryor, M.E.
2005. The personal living space cue inventory. An
analysis and evaluation. En: Environment and Behavior. Vol. 37, No. 5, September 2005, pp. 683-705
Greimas, Algirdas, 1983. Structural Semantics. University of Nebraska Press, Lincoln, NB, (1966).
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Thematic Abstracts
Active Living
Examining the Importance of
Accessibility Factors in Neighborhood
Walking: An Exploratory Analysis of
Behavioral, Perceptual and Environment
Data Covering Detroit Area Residents
Thematic
Abstracts
Active Living
Vida Activa
(Examinando la importancia de los factores de
acceso para peatones en vecindarios: un análisis
exploratorio de bases de datos conductuales,
perceptuales y medioambientales cubriendo el área
residencial de Detroit)
Diaan L. Van der Westhuizen and Robert W.
Marans (University of Michigan)
Understanding the impact of the neighborhood
physical environment on the physical activity of
different population groups has been the focus
of research over the past decade. This research is
designed to inform physical design interventions
and social programs that promote a more physically
active population. Walking has been identified as the
most common neighborhood physical activity since it
typically is or can be easily engaged in on a daily basis
(Brownson et al, 2001). In recent studies, questions
have been raised on how neighborhood perceptions
may influence relationships between environmental
characteristics and walking for different purposes.
For example, having destinations (such as stores, work,
or friends) in close proximity to people’s homes may
be important to encourage walking. Recreational
walking, on the other hand, may occur along any
neighborhood streets and not necessarily to a specific destination. At the same time, having positive
perceptions about specific neighborhood characteristics also seems to impact people’s willingness to walk
(Humpel, 2004).
This paper presents and tests several models linking
perceptual and environmental factors and walking for
different purposes. Specifically, these models test (1)
the characteristics of locations in which walking and
non-walking occur based on where populations live,
(2) the interaction between the importance of having
friends in choosing neighborhoods and the number of
nearby friends, and its relationship to whether or not
124
people walk to friends’ homes, and (3) the interaction
between the importance residents feel about having
parks and recreational facilities in their neighborhood
and accessibility to parks and recreational facilities,
and how it relates to whether people walk to these
places.
The paper uses data from a 2001 survey of residents
in the Detroit metropolitan area. A combination
of face-to-face interviews and mail questionnaires
yielded over 4300 respondents from residents living in
Detroit and other parts of the region. Questions about
walking for different purposes and neighborhood
perceptions and preferences were asked. Objective
environmental measures were also obtained for neighborhoods associated with each survey respondent.
Initial findings indicate that, compared to people in
the surrounding counties, Detroiters are less physically active across racial groups1. A pronounced
gap between walking for exercise between Detroiters and participants in the surrounding counties is
observed, with relatively low number of “exercisers”
in Detroit. With regard to destination-based walking,
only slightly lower walking propensities on selected
destination types were observed among Detroiters
in relation to participants in the surrounding counties. Preliminary analyses indicate that when people
perceive neighborhood attributes (i.e. nearby friends,
parks, etc.) as an important factors in their choice of
where to live, they are more likely to walk to those
places. The paper concludes with suggestions as to
how to best address physical design and policy interventions.
Keywords: Physical Activity; Neighborhood/
Community Planning; Spatial Behavior; Low Income;
Quantitative Research.
Note:. Detroit has a high proportion of African-Americans (72%)
who are burdened by high rates of obesity and inactive lifestyles
Identifying the Impacts of Objectively
Measured Natural and Built Environments
on the Level of Physical Activity Among
Older African American Women in Texas
(Identificando los impactos de las medición
objetiva de ambientes naturales y construidos
a nivel de la actividad física de mujeres
afroamericanas de edad avanzada en Texas)
Woo-Hwa Shin (Texas A&M University), Byoung-suk Kweon (University of Michigan, Ann
Arbor), Jody R Naderi (Texas A&M University),
Christopher D Ellis (University of Michigan,
Ann Arbor) and Victor Willson (Texas A&M
University)
Healthy People 2010 defines the at risk populations
for low physical activity including women, those with
lower incomes, less educated persons, African Americans, Hispanics, and those living in southern states
(U.S. HHS, 2000). Physical inactivity among African
American women aged 75 or older ranks at the highest
percentage (61%), as compared to the same age group
of white women (47.4%), and African American men
(59.2%) (Rejeski & Brawley, 2000). Recently, the importance of socio-ecological models on human health
behavior has been highlighted. Yet environmental
variables (either perceived or objectively measured)
that influence the level of physical activity among
older African American women have been rarely
investigated.
The older African American women living Texas
fall into one of the most inactive population segments.
This cross-sectional study focuses on discovering
the trends in physical activity among older African
American women residing in Bryan, Texas, and exploring environmental variables that might encourage
or discourage their physical activity. In this study, the
independent variables are objectively measured in
both natural and built environments, and the dependent variable is the physical activity of older African
American women. Additionally, psychological
well-being, sense of community, and perception to
safety will be tested to evaluate the mediation effects
between the physical environment and the subjects’
level of physical activity.
The study sample is African American women aged
55 to 84 and residing in independent housing (i.e.,
single family houses or multi-family houses) in Bryan,
Texas. A total of 255 older African American women’s
addresses were systemically selected by using two data
resources: 1) a voter registration database of the Bryan
area, and 2) the 2000 Census blocks representing over
80% of African American females aged 45 to 80 . The
self-administrated survey questionnaire are to be
sent out to 255 older African American women, and
responses can be collected documenting the level
of physical activity, psychological well-being, sense
of community, perception of safety, physical health
status, and background information of each of the
women. The environmental influence of natural
and built environments will be defined using two
boundaries: 1) nearby environment – a 0.5 mile street
distance, and 2) neighborhood environment – a 1
mile street distance from the participant’s house. The
natural and built environments will be measured
using a Geographic Information System (GIS) and
aerial photographs.
Preliminary results will include: a) the level of
physical activity among older African American
women and places in which they frequently participate in such activities; b) the influences of objective
environmental factors on older, African American
women’s physical activity; c) the mediating effects of
psychological well-being, sense of community, and
the perception of safety between the objective physical
environment and the older women’s level of physical
activity. The findings are expected to help discover
the differences/similarities among this gender and racial/ethnic group by comparing previously identified
environmental variables that focused on either older
white women or older African American men.
Keywords: Physical Activity, Natural and Built Environments, Older African American Women.
Nearby Outdoor Environmental
Support of Seniors’ Physical Activities and
Independence
(Soporte ambiental cercano a lugares de
actividades físicas e independientes de jóvenes)
Zhe Wang (Texas A&M University)
Background: Aging is a global phenomenon. Means
of helping seniors relocate from home to long-term
care have received a lot of attention, but ways in which
to sustain their independence in the community
have been generally overlooked. It can be argued that
Thematic
Abstracts
Active Living
Vida Activa
Thematic
Abstracts
Active Living
Vida Activa
consciously engaging in physical activities for health
and daily services allows seniors to extend their
independent years by compensating for age-related
decrements.
Specific Aims: To identify physical environmental
features of residential sites/ neighborhoods associated
with seniors’ yard activities/ neighborhood walking,
and the sequential environmental impacts on their
independent living in the community; to describe
evidence-based design guidelines and policy recommendations promoting environmental support for
seniors.
Methods: Questionnaire surveys on assisted-living
facility residents’ perception of their previous neighborhoods and residential sites in the community,
and their previous physical activities; environmental
analyses in Geographic Information Systems (GIS);
data analysis in SPSS and HLM.
Setting and Population: 10~15 assisted-living facilities in Houston, College Station, Bryan, and Brenham,
TX; facility residents aged 65 years and over. Measures: Environmental features thought to be related
to physical activities are studied at the site level and at
the neighborhood level. They are classified into four
categories: 1) Typology - basic building, site, or neighborhood characteristics; 2) Attractiveness - environmental amenities encouraging people to go outdoors;
3) Convenience - environmental features facilitating
yard activities/neighborhood walking; and 4) Safety
- environmental features related to perceived site/
neighborhood safety. The presence of environmental
features in sample areas is determined in GIS.
Analysis (in process): Along with the Social Ecological Model, hierarchical regression models will be
applied to examine the value of residential site/ neighborhood environments in predicting levels of seniors’
yard activities/ neighborhood walking, and years of
independent living in the community, with personal
factors, social factors, and physical environmental factors in the models.
Results (expected): Older adults living in an attractive, convenient, and safe site neighborhood environment engage in yard activities/ neighborhood walking
more frequently than other older adults living in a
typical site/ neighborhood environment; yard activities/ neighborhood walking of the former group last
longer per occurrence than that of the later group; the
126
former group has more years of independent living in
the community than the later group.
Keywords: Environments, older adults, physical
activities, independence, health.
Neighborhood Environment
Supportive of Physical Activity and
Social Interaction Among Older Adults:
Development of a Neighborhood
Environmental Audit Tool
(Soporte ambiental del vecindario para actividades
físicas y de interacción social en adultos mayores:
desarrollo de una herramienta de revisión del
vecindario)
Habib Chaudhury (Simon Fraser University,
Vancouver, Canada), Atiya Mahmood (Oregon
State University, Corvallis, Oregon), Ann Sarte
(Simon Fraser University, Vancouver, Canada),
Yvonne Michael and Erin McGregor (Oregon
Health & Science University, Portland, Oregon)
A substantial body of evidence indicates that regular
engagement in moderate-intensity physical activity on
most days of the week is sufficient for older adults to
achieve positive health outcomes (Li, Fisher, Bauman,
Ory, Chodzko-Zajko, Harmer, et al., 2005). Regular
participation in physical activity could prevent, delay,
or significantly minimize negative effects associated
with chronic conditions commonly experienced in
later life (Colman & Walker, 2004; Seefeldt, Malina,
& Clark, 2002). The neighbourhood environment
becomes increasingly salient to older adults faced
with multiple, personal and social changes that often
limit daily activities to their immediate or nearby
surroundings (Lawton, 1980; Glass & Balfour, 2003).
Physical activity that is accomplished as part of daily
life, such as walking for travel or recreation, usually
occurs within one’s neighbourhood. These habitual
forms of physical activities represent key sources of
exercise for older adults (Li, Fisher, Bauman, et al.,
2005; Satariano & McAuley, 2003). Few studies that
examine the effects of neighbourhood environment
on physical activity have focused on older adults. In
addition, the limited research that has been conducted
tends to overlook social aspects that potentially shape
the relationship between neighbourhood physical environment and physical activity of older adults. Social
aspects of neighborhoods may be especially important
for encouraging physical activity among older adults.
The goal of this three-year study is to examine the
impact of neighbourhood physical environment and
social capital on physical activity among older adults.
This presentation will report the first part of the study.
This part of the study has been conducted in a
selected sample of neighborhoods in Metro Vancouver
in British Columbia and Greater Portland Region in
Oregon. Objective data on physical environmental
features in eight selected neighborhoods have been
collected using a modified version of SWEAT (Senior Walking Environmental Assessment Tool), an
instrument specifically designed to assess the quality
of the physical environment for physical activity of
older adults (Cunningham, Michael, Farquhar, &
Lapidus, 2005). The SWEAT instrument is based on
key concepts and theories that emerged from a review
of the relevant urban planning and health literature.
Items within SWEAT are organized into four broad
topic areas: (a) functionality (structural aspects of the
environment, such as building types and sidewalks);
(b) safety (including personal and traffic safety attributes); (c) aesthetics (quality of micro-scale urban
design and visual appeal of streetscape); and (d)
destinations (availability of resources and services,
such as transportation). The modified version of this
tool incorporates: (a) relevant additional items from
the Irvine-Minnesota Inventory tool (Day, Boarnet,
Alfonzo, & Forsyth, 2005), (b) environmental features
relevant to the needs of older adults, and (c) neighbourhood resources that may support social gathering
and interaction. The tool was used to conduct observations on selected “segments” in eight neighborhoods
in Vancouver and Portland metro areas. The neighbourhood selection was based on broad level measures from available GIS and census data. Descriptive
profiles of the neighborhoods, inter-rater reliability of
the audit tool and methodological lessons learned will
be presented.
Neighborhood Physical Environment and
Social Capital Influences on Physical Activity
in Later Life: An Exploratory Case Study of
Two North Vancouver Neighborhoods
(Ambiente físico del vecindario y las influencias
sociales capitales en la actividad física en la edad
avanzada: un caso de estudio explorativo de dos
vecindarios del norte de Vancouver)
Ann Sarte (Simon Fraser University,
Vancouver, Canada)
Physical activity performed as part of daily life,
such as walking for recreation or travel, usually occurs within one’s neighborhood. Neighborhoods can
provide safe and accessible venues where individuals
– at any age – can engage in physical activities (Ball et
al., 2001; Brownson et al., 2001). Research in environmental gerontology suggests that neighborhoods
become increasingly salient to older adults faced with
multiple social and personal challenges (Lawton, 1980;
Scheidt & Norris-Baker, 2003; Kendig, 2003). While a
growing body of research has re-focused attention on
neighborhood environmental influences on physical
activity only a limited number of studies has focused
on the older adult population (Cunningham & Michael, 2004; Li, Fisher, Bauman, et al., 2005; Satariano
& McAuley, 2003). Moreover, few studies account for
neighborhood social environmental aspects. This
omission is notable since social characteristics of
neighborhoods may be relevant for encouraging physical activity, especially among older adults. In particular, neighborhoods can support social “networking”
and interactions that generate “social capital.” Social
capital is a concept that has been broadly defined as
the resources available to an individual through his or
her social networks (Flap, 2004). In addition to living
in a neighborhood with a supportive physical environment, having access to locally available resources,
such as social support and social programs, can
further encourage being physically active in later life.
Access to “social capital” may thus be an important
influence on the physical activities of older adults that
has yet to be fully explored in the literature.
A case study approach is used to investigate neighborhood physical environment and access to social
capital on physical activities of older adults living
in two North Vancouver, Canada neighborhoods.
These neighborhoods differ in general built form
Thematic
Abstracts
Active Living
Vida Activa
Thematic
Abstracts
Active Living
Vida Activa
characteristics, with one neighborhood representing
an urban setting, and the other representing a more
typical suburban setting. Research methods include:
(i) neighborhood environmental assessments using a
modified version of an established audit tool (Senior
Walking Environmental Assessment Tool); (ii) four
focus groups with convenience samples of older adults
(60+ years of age) drawn from both neighborhoods;
and (iii) completion of activity diaries by a sample of
older adults (n=20). Content and cross-case analyses
are used to explore key aspects of the relationship
between neighborhood environment and physical
activity. Findings suggest a complex interplay between
physical and social dimensions on physical activities
engaged in by older adults. Participants discussed several issues, including conflicts between different users
of sidewalk/street networks and public space, and how
physical design can help minimize or alternatively,
exacerbate problems between users. Access to social
capital from “formal” and/or “informal” social networks can encourage physical activity in local settings,
and improve perceptions of safety in spite of physical
design barriers (e.g., walking at night in poorly lit
areas). Relevant planning issues are discussed as they
relate to the promotion of physical activity in later life.
In particular, physical design that supports diverse
users and functions are presented. Recommendations
are also made to inform policy and planning decisions
to encourage neighborhood-based physical activity of
older adults.
Stair and Elevator Design and Their Influence
on Daily Exercise and Social Equality
(Diseño de Escaleras y Elevadores y su Influencia
en el Ejercicio Diario y la Igualdad Social)
Phillip Mead (University of Idaho)
The rise in obesity has prompted the medical
community to encourage moderate forms of exercise
such as stair climbing and neighborhood walking.
When integrated into daily routines, research
has shown that stair climbing appears to raise
intermittent moderate exercise. In this study, building
design factors are examined that can potentially
increase stair use while maintaining social equality.
These factors include: the stair and elevators’ visual
access from main circulation paths, stair placement
in relation to nearby elevators; the impact of slow
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speed hydraulic or high speed traction elevators and
building height. This study also examines issues
of social justice and equality of access to stairs and
elevators. As the research will demonstrate, elevators
do not always have to be out of sight from main
circulation paths and stairs to encourage moderate
stair exercise. Four case study buildings with stairs
ranging from two to five stories at two adjacent
universities (student populations of 28,000 and
13,000) with two different types of elevators were
examined. Stair/elevator combinations were chosen
for their visual accessibility, travel convenience and
aesthetics. The first case study examined a grand
staircase with a hidden hydraulic elevator which
demonstrated high stair use and low elevator use.
Although the stair/elevator encouraged exercise,
social equality was severely compromised. Case
study two surprisingly demonstrated a fair balance
of elevator and stair accessibility and visibility that
both encouraged exercise while offering social
equality. Case studies three and four moved across
state borders where because of the taller buildings
and higher building budgets, higher speed traction
elevators were used for which it was thought would
encourage higher elevator use. However, elevator
visibility once again played a key role in stair use
because the study showed that higher speed elevators
that are out of sight appear to encourage stair use.
However, none of the stair elevator placements at this
university showed a balanced combination of elevator
visibility and high stair use. In conclusion, from the
four case studies, the most significant and surprising
finding is that a hydraulic elevator prominently
displayed next to a equally visible stairway in a
university setting has high impact on increased stair
use and can thus better encourage exercise for the
able, while still serving those who are unable to use
the stairs.
Keywords: Health, social justice, wayfinding, mobility, architecture
Children & Youth
Environments
1-PARK (Investigating Parks for Active
Recreation for Kids): Where have all the
Children Gone?
(1-Park (investigando parques para recreación
activa de niños): ¿a dónde se han ido todos los
niños?)
Robin Moore, Myron Floyd, Nilda Cosco, Jason
Bocarro, Perver Baran, Orçun Kepez (North
Carolina State University)
Neighborhood parks can, in theory, provide a fertile
incubator for youth physical activity as both an attractive destination for childhood active transport
and a venue for active recreation. Exploration of the
associations between park recreation settings, neighborhood physical form, and physical activity of youth
in a diverse social, cultural, and economic environment provides intriguing insights into the salience
of environmental determinants to reduce childhood
obesity. This transdisciplinary research explores the
relationship between neighborhood socioecological
environment, park physical environment and levels
of physical activity in discrete age categories of youth.
The impact of ‘walkable’ neighborhood environmental
characteristics upon physical activity has not been
well-explored in children and youth, and results to
date have been inconclusive. Park characteristics such
as trails, bike paths, athletic facilities and playgrounds
theoretically could provide such a destination in
activity-supportive neighborhood environments for
children.
Primary Research Aims:
1. Determine the relationship between specific
elements within neighborhood parks and objective
measures of children’s physical activity.
2. Determine how objective measures of neighborhood environments are related to extent of children’s
use of parks for physical activity.
3. Determine whether extent of park use and
children’s physical activity differs by race/ethnicity,
socioeconomic status, and gender.
Twenty parks were randomly selected from a pool
of 45 in central Durham, NC, a moderately-sized
(pop. 205,000), socio-economically diverse city in the
Piedmont region of North Carolina. Each park was
subdivided into a variable number of unique activity
zones; the SOPARC (System for Observing Play and
Recreation in Communities) was utilized to categorize
children’s momentary physical activity within each
zone as sedentary, moderate, or vigorous. Children
were categorized as young, middle, or older during
observations. Observations were collected over a
period of 8 contiguous weeks during the mid-summer
months of 2007. Environmental audits were performed to define park environmental characteristics
at both the zone and park-wide level. Two tools were
utilized: a reduced version of the EAPRS, developed
by Saelens, et al (2006), and the CAFPAT (Children
and Families Park Assessment Tool), a new tool
designed by the team to capture park environmental
factors specific to children and families. Park Entrance Service Areas (PESA) were created using park
entrances defined during environmental assessments
and a ¼ mile network distance buffer with parcel-line
boundaries in ArcView GIS (ESRI, Redlands, CA) to
analyze network connectivity, land use characteristics,
sociodemographic characteristics, and crime data.
Interview data were collected from caregivers
present in parks with children, using a derivative of
the Tampa-Chicago Park Use Activity Questionnaire
to determine caregiver attitudes towards children’s
physical activity in parks.
Preliminary findings to be presented include:
1. Descriptive analysis of park-level characteristics,
aggregate physical activity measures, and neighborhood characteristics.
2. Correlational data relating park activity zone
characteristics to levels of physical activity in young,
medium age, and older children.
3. Correlational data relating ‘high-activity’, ‘moderate activity’, and ‘low-activity’ parks to neighborhood settings.
4. Multi-level analysis of zone, park, and neighborhood characteristics, and their respective associations
with physical activity in 3 age categories of children.
Thematic
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Children & Youth
Environments
Niños y
ambientes de la
juventud
Building Links for Progressive Action:
Connecting Youth, Teachers, and
Urban Planning Students with City Planning
Processes in Denver, Colorado
(Construyendo conecciones para una acción
progresiva: conectando a la juventud, maestros y
estudiantes de diseño urbano con los procesos de
planeación de la ciudad en Denver, Colorado)
Darcy Varney, Kelly Zuniga, James Taurman,
Tangier Barnes, and Doug Ragan (University
of Colorado at Denver)
Thematic
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juventud
This presentation reports on initial findings from
a study of a university-community partnership that
engaged high school geography students in planningoriented exercises to help them understand and
contribute to urban planning processes. As part of its
strategy for helping to make the city of Denver more
child and youth friendly, the Children, Youth and
Environments Center for Research and Design (CYE)
at the University of Colorado at Denver engaged the
city’s Planning and Community Development staff
and representatives of Denver Public Schools in a
discussion in early 2007 about how to introduce planning into the high school social studies curriculum.
By orienting students to planning issues and concepts
in school, CYE hopes to build links between students
and professional city planners, city planners and the
university, and high school students and the university, to encourage progressive action in city decision
making and development. CYE researchers and social
studies teachers at Denver’s East High School agreed
to collaborate during the 2007 fall term, supplementing the urbanization unit of the ninth-grade
geography curriculum with planning-oriented activities and lessons.
The CYE researchers undertook the partnership as
a pilot study to research how young people experience the physical environment of their community
and how planning-oriented supplemental exercises for
the high school geography curriculum can influence
their perceptions of place; to help graduate students
in urban planning interact with and learn from youth;
and to learn whether the documented experiences and
interests of youth in their urban environment have
the potential to influence professional urban planners’
consideration of youth in their work. First, CYE researchers and urban planning graduate students met
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with city planners to ascertain what kinds of studentgenerated information could best contribute to a
“youth supplement” for the existing area plan. Second,
they collected information from the ninth graders
about their experiences in their community and used
the data to develop exercises that could result in practical planning suggestions for the city and interested
community groups. Finally, they collaborated with
three classroom teachers to carry out the planning
exercises and developed materials and recommendations for the planners and for community groups that
could help create positive change in the area.
The project has created an effective social learning
process for all involved and has brought to light misconceptions held by the participants about each other.
Planning graduate students working directly with
youth learned about the diversity of experiences youth
bring to participatory projects and the often deep
concerns they have regarding change in their community. Teachers learned about planners’ real-world
application of geography concepts and the scope of
planning issues, which can inform more realistic and
applicable classroom activities for students. Graduate
students and teachers both learned the limits of planners’ power in the community and the importance
of engaging community members to create positive
change. The study has implications for the instruction
of urban geography in high schools and the engagement of youth in urban planning, pointing to the need
for more such collaborations in the future.
Children’s Play: A Sequential Analysis
(Juego de niños: un análisis secuencial)
Flores Herrera Luz Maria, Marcos Bustos
Aguayo, Gabriela Valencia Chávez (Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Mexico) and
Consuelo Chávez Durán (SEP)
Play, I.Q. and social interactions Factors. This study aims to identify the personal factors that
affect transitions in children’s play, in order to assess
which of these factors influence more intensively type
of play evaluated. Children spend several years in
spontaneous play, from solitary to social play, from
no pretend activity to pretend play, and within an
episode of pretend play, from setup to enactment to
negotiation phases (Doyle et al, 1992; Rubin y Coplan,
1998). In the present study it was hypothesized that,
social play enactment would be more complex than
literal social activities (e.g. language and I.Q.).
Empirical study: Objectives and planning The empirical study, subjects were 24 preschoolers
observed playing in group, during 30 minute sessions.
They were assessed with WPPSI, and continuous
recording was made of the activity of play in the
group (e.g. social play – solitary play, negotiation of
pretend and the social interaction). Results of solitary - social play. After video and in vivo training on
coding behaviors according to operational definitions,
inter.-observer reliability was calculated; percentage
agreement average Kappa (Cohen, 1960) was .83. In
order to isolate the important dimensions of the numerous observational predictor variables and the personal factors, each set of variables was analyzed. The
pattern of transitions between prior and subsequent
activity modes was of principal interest (Gottman &
Roy, 1990). The transitions that occurred significantly
more frequently than expected are social play. That is,
negotiation and social interactions of social play (F(2,
= 5.493, p = .01, R2 = .423, Durbin-Watson = 2.225).
15)
The personal factors I.Q. (5 subscales Information,
vocabulary), and social play of frequent pretenders
was more often that of solitary play (F(4, 17) = 2.979, p =
.049, R2 = .412, Durbin-Watson =1.829). Conclusion
The varied social interactions we have described in
this study illustrate the social interactions and I.Q. as
a fundamental ingredient of preshoolers’ play. Thus,
negotiations and interaction social of social play was
important precursor of pretend enactment.
Collaborative Planning and Design as a
Bridge Toward Children’s Cultural Learning
and Active Citizenship
(Planeación colaborativa y diseño como un
camino hacia el aprendizaje cultural en niños y la
participación de la ciudadanía)
Aija Stafans and Helena Teräväinen (Helsinki
University of Technology, Finland)
The top level learning results of Finnish comprehensive school in international comparative studies (e.g.
PISA/OECD 2000, 2003) has inspired academic field
to deepen the understanding of the success factors
behind these results. In this poster we report the performance and preliminary results of two sub-studies
carried out during the year 2007 in a research project
called InnoArch, Places and Spaces for Learning.
InnoArch is a part of a large multidisciplinary
InnoSchool consortium aiming to develop a set of
research-based good practices, processes, models and
designs for the Future School Concept.
The pedagogical idea based on inquiry-based
learning encourages to strengthen pupils´ epistemic
agency in the local community and to empower them
to be active stakeholders in it. The InnoArch project
has invited pupils to take part in the planning and
design process of their school environment by developing methods to find out what kinds of places and
spaces attract them and why. Our research questions
are as following:
1. How can the collaborative planning and design
process with children act as a tool for active citizenship and cultural learning for children?
2. How does children’s environmental local knowledge enrich urban planning?
Two sub-studies were carried out with pupils to produce data of their environment by following methods:
Sub-study 1) Pupils in two elementary schools in the
City of Helsinki (Arabia and Jakomäki) and a small
village school in Lapland (Muurola) were mapping
their experiences of the school outdoor environment
by using mobile phones and GPS technology. The
data was collected in photos, texts and sounds (partly
video) and sent to an interactive internet map. Substudy 2) Several planning and design workshops were
organized for children to examine their visions for
a better future school. Pupils were producing their
own ideas in scale models, texts and drawings for the
architectural competition of the new school to be built
in the City of Espoo; the workshops were videotaped
and analyzed together.
InnoArch is constructing the research both on the
socio-cultural and pedagogical ground (Vygotsky,
Geertz) and on architectural theories about place
and space, which have been developed along with the
thinking of human geographers (Tuan, Relph). The
function of culture is to impose meaning on the world
and make it understandable for the people living in it.
Vygotsky investigated child development and how this
was guided by the role of culture and interpersonal
communication. The specific knowledge gained by a
child through these interactions also represented the
shared knowledge of a culture. As a theoretical basis
Thematic
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Children & Youth
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Niños y
ambientes de la
juventud
Thematic
Abstracts
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Environments
Niños y
ambientes de la
juventud
of this research is used Vygotsky’s theory of “zone of
proximal development” (ZPD) in Gibsonian framework of perceptual psychology theory of affordances
(Kyttä).
The project aims to figure out a concept for a
learning neighbourhood. The preliminary results
of the project already show how safe and free the
children’s experiences of their daily environment in
Finland are and, how important it is to ask pupil their
“working” places.
Keywords: learning neighbourhood, local knowledge, cultural learning, collaborative planning and
design process
Designing Early Childhood Outdoor
Environments that Promote Physical Activity:
A Review of Emerging Research Evidence
(Diseñando los ambientes al aire libre de la niñez
temprana que promueven actividad física: una
revisión de la evidencia de la investigación que
emerge)
Samuel F. Dennis (University of Wisconsin)
The childhood obesity crisis has generated concern
for improving early childhood play settings in ways
that increase levels of physical activity. Two important
evaluation instruments have emerged that address the
many environmental attributes that, together with
appropriate programming elements, create engaging
settings for young children. The Preschool Outdoor
Environment Measurement Scale (POEMS) was
developed to evaluate the extent to which day-care
settings provide stimulating, active and developmentally appropriate outdoor learning environments. The
Environment and Policy Assessment and Observation (EPAO) tool was developed to quantify the social
and environmental factors that contribute to physical
activity in child care settings. In this comparative case
study, POEMS and EPAO are assessed for the degree
to which they provide compelling evidence that is
useful for designers of early childhood environments.
Although each protocol provides a validated instrument for conducting post-occupancy evaluations, only
POEMS provides clear direction for designers.
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Gardens of Hope: Using a Nature Therapy
Based Approach to Nurture the Traumatized
Children of the Guatemalan Garbage Dumps
(Jardines de la esperanza: usando una terapia
natural basada en aproximaciones para enseñar
a los niños Guatemaltecos traumatizados de los
tiraderos de basura)
Daniel Winterbottom (University of Washington)
Cast out of their highland villages by the war,
Mayan resettled in and around the massive garbage
dump, one of the bleakest barrios in Guatemala City.
There, they are exposed to toxins known to cause
lower intelligence, developmental delays, learning
deficits and behavioral problems. (Mittelstaedt, M.
2004) Safe Passage is an NGO focusing on educational programming to break this cycle of poverty
by developing preschool and vocational programs.
Participation in educational programs has been
identified across cultures as having a significant role
in reducing trauma and stress, increasing self esteem
and resilience, building basic life skills and coping
mechanisms for children. (Arafat and Musleh, 2006,
Tripplehorn and Chen, 2006) In the summer of 2006,
our University of Washington design/build program
collaborated with the Safe Passage community to
transform a donated decommissioned dump site into
a therapeutic park integrated into school curricula
using applied learning to improve educational and
therapeutic outcomes. Using the principles of play,
adventure and nature therapy, the park is designed
to help the children learn about the natural world,
their culture, and gain vocational skills and ultimately build their lives in a healthier and constructive
direction. Nature itself is therapeutic and the direct
encounter with natural elements triggers strong emotions and sensations in the user that may have been
previously suppressed. (Berger, 2004, 2005, 2006)
Adventure therapy offers a therapeutic model in which
nature presents subtle challenges for children who are
having difficulties coping with boundaries, authority
and physical engagement. (Berger and Mcleod, 2006,
Kaly and Hessacker, 2003 Garst, Scheider and Baker,
2001) Play itself offers children many benefits, promoting a healthy self image as they relate to others in
socio-dramatic play, and learning about the physical
world as they manipulate objects and predict change.
(Gomez, 2005)
The park offers benefits for the families including
increased nutrition through a community garden, improved health through an ethno botanical garden and
a refuge where parents can wait for their children to
finish classes and socialize amongst themselves. For
these families the loss of their traditional home and
community, the change from rural to urban living,
along with its reliable social support structures can
result in the loss of identity, social status and culture.
(Kostelny, 2006) The outcome for the children is the
loss of childhood and education, high rates of incest
and violence, poor nutrition and higher proportion
of learning and physical disabilities. Observing the
children in a natural setting, outside the barrio, they
displayed a passionate curiosity about insects, leaves
and flowers and appeared more confident and carefree
in their play.
This presentation will focus on the role of natural
places in rebuilding children’s lives concurrent with
a disaster and how the rebuilding of a place for safe
play, learning and skill building can help children
endure and move beyond the immediate effects of the
disaster. The goals of the project, the operational and
design processes employed, children’s and mothers’
participation and the implementation processes will
be discussed. The conclusion will offer reflections on
challenges in cross-cultural learning and an assessment of what changes have been achieved based on
the early stages of a post occupational study.
Learning with Child Guides: Exploring
Innovative Field Survey Techniques to
Discover Children’s Perceptions and Use of
Neighborhood Environments
(Aprendiendo con guías de niños: explorando
técnicas innovadoras para descubrir la percepción
de los niños y utilizar los ambientes del vecindario)
Janet Loebach and J. Gilliland (University of
Western Ontario)
As children reach school age, neighborhood environments become increasingly more influential
settings, as more activities take place in this arena and
children begin to explore their capabilities and roles
through the social and physical environments outside
of their home (Sutton & Kemp, 2002). However, children’s activities within the community environments
over the last several decades have become increasingly
structured and restricted, limiting the scope and nature of their environmental actions (McMillian, 2005;
Valentine, 1997). The form and development of communities themselves have also changed significantly,
resulting in different sets of environmental forms and
opportunities available to children. Despite increasing
recognition of the influence of the environment on
health and the development of children, we still know
very little about the precise nature of the relationship
between the form of the built environment and children’s perceptions and behaviors.
This field report will present experiences related to a
pilot study undertaken in London, Ontario, Canada to
test an innovative combination of methods intended
to further our understanding of children’s perception
and use of, and movement through, their neighborhood environments. Carried out in conjunction with
World Town Planning Day and Geography Awareness Week activities, and in collaboration with city
planners, approximately 30 Grade 3 children (ages
7-9) from a local school led researchers and planners on ‘guided tours’ of their school environment.
The selected school was located in a neighborhood
with considerable variations in both land use and
socioeconomic status of its residents. The school also
exhibited a high percentage of children who regularly
walk to school, increasing the linkelihood that the
participants interact with the study environment on a
regular basis.
Pairs of children led two adult observers on a selfselected walk through the environment to highlight
and discuss features or places of significance to them.
Children were given digital cameras to capture the
place or route as they wished, and marked the locations at which photographs were taken, as well as their
overall route, on a scaled map of the area. Observers
prompted children to talk about their perceptions of
each chosen environment. Observers prompted the
children to talk about their perceptions of each chosen
environment, and to provide details about the activities in which they might engage. Observers also used
GPS units to record the coordinates of these locations
and routes and units were synchronized with both
the children’s photographs and maps, along with the
descriptors culled from the narratives., in a geographical information system (GIS) to analyze patterns and
activities of the children.
Thematic
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Niños y
ambientes de la
juventud
This paper will report findings related to : 1) discernible patterns in the perception and use of the local
environment among the participants; 2) the value of
utilizing this combination of tools with the chosen age
group; and 3) the ability of the various tools to effectively verify and complement each other, as well as the
barriers related to their successful integration.
Keywords: children, guided walks, GIS, spatial
behavior
Thematic
Abstracts
Children & Youth
Environments
Niños y
ambientes de la
juventud
Preventing Obesity by Modifying Childcare
Center Preschool Play Areas: Methodology
and Preliminary Findings to Create an
Assessment Tool
(Previniendo la obesidad mediante la
modificación de los espacios recreativos en los
centros preescolares: metodología y resultados
preliminares para crear una herramienta de
contribución)
Robin Moore (North Carolina State University), Dianne Ward (University North Carolina,
Chapel Hill), Nilda Cosco (North Carolina
State University), Orçun Kepez (North Carolina State University), Karen Mumford (Emory
University), Linda Hestenes (University of
North Carolina Greensboro), Stewart Trost
(Oregon State University), and Dr. Howard
Frumkin, M.D. (Centers for Disease Control
and Prevention)
Research has shown that: a) time spent outdoors is
an environmental determinant most strongly correlated with greater amounts of physical activity in
children and opportunities for whole body exercise;
b) children’s physical activity is strongly motivated
by diversity of outdoor environments; c) preschoolers
with higher levels of outdoor physical activity retain
higher levels as schoolage children; d) active outdoor
childhood tracks into and influences preference for
outdoor experiences in adulthood; and e) preschool
and, more specifically, preschool outdoors is a strong
determinant of physical activity. This interdisciplinary,
exploratory research addresses the outdoor built
environment of childcare centers as an intervention
strategy and early childhood lifestyle preventive measure against obesity and responds to the Strategic Plan
for NIH Obesity Research (USDHHS/NIH, 2004).
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The objectives of Preventing Obesity by Modifying
Childcare Center Preschool Play Areas are:
1. To measure the amount of physical activity exhibited by three-to-five-year-old children exposed to
different behavior settings present in preschool play
areas and in similar behavior settings across different
preschool play areas.
2. To identify the physical components and attributes common among behavior settings located in
preschool play areas that may explain greater amounts
of physical activity exhibited by three-to five-year-year
old children.
3. To prepare and pilot test a tool for measuring the
physical settings, components, and attributes of preschool outdoor play areas that will rate their potential
to produce adequate physical activity when three-to
five-year-old children are exposed to them.
Thirty childcare centers were recruited across urban,
suburban, and rural contexts and diverse ethnic and
socioeconomic groups in central North Carolina.
Children Activity Record Scale (CARS), a validated,
reliable instrument was used to code physical activity
in preschool play areas using a coding configuration
that also included environmental component codes.
Behavior mapping data were coded in GIS. Physical
activity patterns were identified in specific behavior
settings (spatial location of subjects and physical
activity amount) to establish an inventory of behavior
settings, environmental components, and attributes
that afford greater amounts of physical activity. The
preliminary analyses were based on over 3,000 observations completed in 15 child care centers and 193
individual behavior settings.
Preliminary findings include:
1. Reliability coefficients were computed at each
setting. Variance components were estimated using
SAS Proc Mixed with restricted maximum likelihood
(REML) estimation. The proposed methodology was
found to be reliable.
2. Descriptive analyses of selected study play areas
and spatial/behavior mapping. 3. Attributes of behavior settings that best explain amounts of physical
activity performed by preschoolers in each selected
type of behavior setting.
3. Exploration of associations between independent
variables: behavior setting types (pathways, water play,
climbing structures, etc.), component types (manu-
factured, natural, fixed, loose), attribute types (shade,
slope, etc.), size of area or square feet per child; GIScoded variables (gender, location and derived variable,
configuration); and dependent variable: amount of
physical activity.
Conclusions from the full dataset (30 centers) are
expected for the conference presentation. The methodology developed will be applied to future research
with older age children in outdoor environments such
as parks and public playgrounds.
Prospects and Challenges of EvidenceBased Design for Children’s Environments
Symposium
(Prospectos y cambios de la evidencia del diseño
para los ambientes de los niños, simposium)
Organizer: Samuel Dennis (University of
Wisconsin) Presenters: Samuel Dennis
(University of Wisconsin) and Jeff Lackney
(Fielding Nair International)
Evidence-based design is receiving increasing
attention in all design disciplines. Initially emerging
from health-care settings—where evidence-based
medical standards proved strongly influential—
evidence-based design is becoming standard practice
in many other areas of design as well. Children’s
environments have long benefited from a variety
of research designs, including observational,
experimental and quasi-experimental studies.
However, this evidence-base is often pitted against
the body of knowledge accumulated by child- and
youth-sector practitioners through years of direct
experience. This situation begs the question, “What
kind of evidence for evidence-based design?”
This symposium includes those engaged in
children’s environments to reflect on their own use of
evidence in design practice. Important questions to
address include:
1. What is “evidence”?
2. For what do we already have a strong evidence base?
3. What important gaps exist and how might these be
addressed?
4. What can experience teach us that experiments cannot?
5. What can experiments teach us that experience cannot?
6. What can children and practitioners teach designers
(and how)?
7. Why is “evidence” important?
Although not a session for case studies per se, specific project or research examples will illustrate both
the prospects and challenges of evidence-based design
for the multiple spaces of childhood.
Presentations in this symposium include “Designing Early Childhood Outdoor Environments that
Promote Physical Activity: A Review of Emerging
Research Evidence “ and “Reframing the Practice of
School Design Through Evidence-based Design”
Reframing the Practice of School Design
Through Evidence-based Design
(Reframing la práctica del diseño de la escuela con
diseño Evidencia-basado)
Jeffery A. Lackney (Fielding Nair
International)
The practice of school design has been only marginally influenced by research in educational environments in the past forty years. The primary model for
translating research has been through the conventional approach of the haphazard application of salient research findings that support the practitioner’s
prevalent design philosophy. For instance, architects
have adopted sustainable design and the preliminary
results of research connecting natural daylight to
academic achievement to support their own propensity for designing well-lit space. The idea that a design
process would be reframed using research for design
decisions at first glance does not appear practical
or realistic given a variety of reasons including the
limited evidence available in the field of educational
environments and the passing interest from both
educational and architectural establishments. However, providing a coherent framework for design that
builds on evidence, both empirical and experiential
does have promise. This presentation will propose the
use of a loose collection of planning tools being used
in dozens of school design projects internationally to
encourage educators, as well as, architects to consider
an evolving set of research-based design patterns that
forms the basis for advancing a way of school design
practice that considers all available evidence. Case
studies will be presented that illustrate the efficacy
of the tools for school planning, and highlight areas
where development of the tools is on-going.
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The Role of Family Childcare Providers
in Protecting Children from Indoor
Environmental Pollutants
(El rol de la familia que provee el cuidado de
los niños al protegerlos de los contaminantes
ambientales dentro del hogar)
Lorraine Maxwell (Cornell University, NY)
Thematic
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Children & Youth
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Niños y
ambientes de la
juventud
Young children under the age of 5 years old are
especially at risk for health problems related to indoor
environmental pollutants. Children are more highly
exposed to contaminants related to indoor environmental pollutants and they are more vulnerable to the
toxic effects of this exposure (EPA, 2000). Children
under the age of 5 who are independently mobile
explore their environment by crawling, touching, and
tasting. Young children’s exposure to pollutants and
contaminants is relatively higher than older children
and adults because of their size (Goldman, 1995).
In addition, these toxins may be more harmful to
children than adults because their immune systems
and vital organs are not fully developed. It is therefore critical that the indoor environmental quality in
children’s homes and child care programs not compromise their health and development. In order to
protect children’s health the adults who care for them
need to know more about the potential risks and how
to eliminate or reduce these risks.
While considerable attention has been given to
indoor environmental quality in schools, less attention has been paid to child care programs, especially family child care programs that take place in
the home of the provider. The EPA has a “Tools for
Schools” program to assist administrators, school
health professionals and others in dealing with indoor air and other indoor environmental pollutants.
According to the New York State Child Care Coordinating Council, child care providers and administrators of these facilities do not have comparable
material available to them. In many states legislation
governing the licensing of child care programs only
provides general instructions for maintaining a clean
and healthy facility. Given that many children under
the age of 5 years are cared for outside their home, it
is critical that child care providers be well informed
about indoor environmental quality. Likewise, the
parents of young children need to know how to protect themselves and their children.
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This project had three objectives. One, to examine
family child care providers’ knowledge of indoor pollutants and their potential effect on children’s health;
two to determine the most effect method of training
providers in ways to reduce the potential exposure to
indoor pollutants; and three to determine children’s
level of risk to exposure in their child care programs
and their own homes. Family child care providers
were surveyed to determine their knowledge about
indoor pollutants and their cleaning practices. The
providers received educational material and/or attended a hands-on workshop to determine the most
effective method of educating providers about these
hazards. Dust samples were taken from the providers’
homes and from the homes of the children to test for
the presence of specific allergens. Reading appropriate
educational material about the topic may be just as
effective in educating providers about the hazards on
indoor pollutants as attending a workshop but not at
changing behaviors related to cleaning.
Keywords: Children/youth, health, action research,
childcare centers, housing.
The Role of the Natural and Built
Environment on Children’s Health and WellBeing Workshop
(El rol del ambiente natural y el construido en la
salud infantil y su buen estado - taller)
Organizer: Illene Pevec (University of Colorado). Presenters Illene Pevec and Bambi Yost
(University of Colorado)
What is a physical environment that supports the
well-being and healthy development of children and
adolescents? These questions concern parents, educators, architects, landscape architects and city planners
at the very least. With rising incidents of violence
in schools and universities across North America
what does research indicate about the needs of young
people in the natural and built environments they
inhabit daily in schools, parks, recreation centers and
other public locales that serve youth?
Greenery (views of trees and shrubs) lower incidents of violence in cities and help people to recover
from the stresses of urban life (Kuo & Sullivan’s 2001,
2001). Children play more creatively and with more
conversation if their play areas have greenery (Taylor,
Wiley, Kuo & Sullivan, 1998). Children with Attention
Deficit Disorder show greater capacity to pay attention
to school work and other tasks and behave better after
playing in parks and other areas that provided access
to nature’s greenery (Taylor, Kuo and Sullivan,2001).
The Robert Woods Johnson foundation funds
research nationally to attempt to discover some solutions to the childhood obesity epidemic. Some of this
on-going research examines access to parks, playgrounds and community gardens and neighborhood
crime levels in determining how much children have
access to outdoor recreation. The benefits to children
of access to nature at school and daily life indicate
that those who create city and school facilities and
policies need to take these needs for access to nature
by children into account (Louv,2005).
This workshop will offer the opportunity for presentations on research concerning the affect of natural
and built environments on children and youth’s
physical, mental, and emotional health. This workshop will be open to EDRA members wishing to share
their recent work in this field and explore these issues
in an open forum.
Bambi Yost (University of Colorado at Denver) will
discuss “Multigenerational Transmission of Place
Attachment, Place Identity, and Place Dependence in
the Rocky Mountain National Park” and Illène Pevec
(University of Colorado at Denver) will discuss “The
Sensory and Emotional Responses of Adolescents to
Gardening”.
Splendors and Miseries in a Poor
Neighborhood: Children’s Appraisal of
Outdoor Places
(Esplendores y miserias en un vecindario pobre: la
valoración de los niños hacia los espacios abiertos)
Genevieve Castonguay and Sylvie Jutras
(University of Quebec, Montreal, Canada)
Many places where previous generations of children used to play have now disappeared or have
become unusable. In recent years, formal play and
sport settings have become the most preferred places
during middle childhood (Korpela, Kyttä, & Hartig,
2002; Min & Lee, 2006), whereas streets and alleys
have been identified as disliked and unsafe places
(Loukaitou-Sideris, 2003; Pain, 2006). Although the
environment they live in is of lower quality (Evans,
2004), children from poor neighborhoods are more
likely to play outdoors in their area than children
from wealthier neighborhoods (Valentine & McKendrick, 1997). Available evidence suggests that children
living in poor neighborhoods perceive many problems
in their surroundings (e.g. O’Brien, 2003), but can
nevertheless identify places they like (Elsley, 2004).
This study examines how children living in a poor
neighborhood perceive their surroundings. Twentyeight children aged 7 to 12 from a poor Montreal
neighborhood photographed outdoor places where
they liked to go in their neighborhood. A total of
618 photos were taken by the children and developed, an average of 22 photos per child. In individual
interviews, the children discussed their photos and
selected the place where they most liked to go. They
also answered questions about the places they disliked.
Children’s responses were analyzed using classical
content analysis (Berelson, 1971), and places in the
photos were rated for degree of vegetation. Statistical
analyses were performed to examine how places vary
in terms of their characteristics and children’s activities; to determine how favorite places differ from other
liked places; and to explore variations in children’s
perceptions by individual, family, and environmental
variables. The places children liked were most often
parks and playgrounds, followed by streets and alleys,
service and retail places, spaces near the child’s home,
and spaces near an acquaintance’s home. Those places
provided children with the opportunity to engage in
liked activities. Older children tended to choose parks
and playgrounds as liked places, whereas younger
children were more likely to choose spaces near an
acquaintance’s home. As their favorite place, children selected mainly spaces near an acquaintance’s
home, spaces near their home, streets and alleys, and
parks and playgrounds. Children attributed a greater
number of positive characteristics to favorite places
than to other liked places, and reported doing a
greater number of activities in these places. The places
children most commonly disliked were, in descending
order: parks and playgrounds, streets and alleys, and
spaces near an acquaintance’s home. The main reason
for those negative perceptions were safety threats.
This study adds to the scarce literature on children’s
place preferences in poor neighborhoods. Favorite
places can be distinguished from liked ones by the
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greater amount of positive characteristics and activities they afford children. The coexistence of positive
and negative features in children’s liked places raises
fascinating questions.
Keywords: Children, low income, neighborhood,
outdoor environments, psychology.
Youth Participation in Community
Service: The Mathare Youth Sports
Association (MYSA) Environmental
Clean-Up Program in Slums of Nairobi
Thematic
Abstracts
Children & Youth
Environments
Niños y
ambientes de la
juventud
(Participación de la juventud en el servicio a
la comunidad: la Asociación de la Juventud
Deportiva Mathare (MYSA) programa de limpia
ambiental en barrios pobres de Nairobi)
George Awuor (University of Colorado)
Environment and Urbanization published a report
in October, 1992 (volume 4, number 2) about Mathare
Youth Sports Association (MYSA). This short overview was based on information from a newsletter and
knowledge from Bob Munro, founder and chair of
MYSA. In 2007, I spent seven months (January - July)
in Nairobi conducting research on and learning about
MYSA activities. As a follow-up to the publication
in 1992, my essay focuses on the participation of
MYSA members in the organization’s environmental
clean-up program. The paper is important because it
provides details about the program, its impact on the
participating youth, the physical environment and
their communities. I describe the clean-up process
and discuss some of benefits and the challenges facing
the program since it began in 1988. I further make
recommendations regarding the sustainability and future of the program. My recommendations are mainly
based on information from the youth and community
members. Despite the opportunities provided by the
clean-up activities, youth in Nairobi’s slums have to
contend with gang violence, police harassment and
lack of access to schools and other basic services. This
essay is based on data collected through qualitative
in-depth interviews and participatory observations
during months of attending and participating in the
clean up- activities in various slum locations. Interviewed informants include MYSA youth, community
members and the MYSA environmental clean-up
program leaders. Images from the clean-up activities
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are included which provide evidence of the conditions
in which MYSA members operate.
Keywords: Environment, Youth Participation,
Community Service, Nairobi Slum
Where Adolescent Development Takes Place
(Donde el desarrollo del adolescente tiene lugar)
Evan Schmidt and Patsy Eubnaks Owens
(University of California, Davis)
Previous research has provided direction on understanding the role of the social environment on adolescent development, but little research has addressed the
role of the physical environment. This research seeks
response to the question: what role do physical environments play in facilitating healthy development for
adolescents? The Search Institute developed a set of 40
specific assets for youth that facilitate healthy social,
physical and emotional development. The 40 developmental assets draw from theories based on positive human development and ideas from asset-based
community development theory. Asset development
recognizes the social embeddedness of humans within
their communities, and “synthesizes contextual and
individual factors that, when present, serve to protect
from…health compromising behavior and enhance
the opportunity for positive developmental outcomes”
(Benson 2002, p 125). While researchers note the
importance of safe and constructive places (Blythe
2006), the 40 asset approach focuses on the social
environment and largely ignores the physical environment. It is important to find out not only where assets
occur, but what role place plays in facilitating healthy
development for youth. Additionally, it is important
for communities to consider youth’s perspectives in
their designs and development.
The data from a youth photo documentary project
called, “You, Your Community, Your View” will
inform much of this presentation. This project asked
teens in seven communities in California to photograph and answer questions exploring their perspectives of their communities. Youth participants
described and photographed the places, people, and
activities that they view as important, as well as places
that they see as unwelcome or unsafe in their communities. A primary purpose of this project was to reveal
the community places that teens go to participate in
the types of activities cited by the Search Institute as
important for healthy development. For example, one
of the assets described by the Search Institute is safety.
Youth respondents from “You, Your Community Your
View” said that some of the elements that made them
feel unsafe were gang activity, drug or alcohol use,
strangers, and heavy traffic. Some of the places that
these elements occurred were in particular neighborhoods, at school, and in specific parks. Adding placebased analysis to where the 40 assets occur within the
community is a useful way for communities to implement policies and planning features that promote
healthy development for youth.
Research for this presentation will address the ways
in which the physical environment facilitates healthy
development in adolescents aged 12- 18. This presentation will focus on one of the seven communities by
analyzing data and assessing how the places identified
by the youth participants encourage or discourage
healthy adolescent development. Responses from
“You, Your Community, Your View” will offer teen
perspectives about the community and will also
ground truth theories from relevant literature drawn
from adolescent development, children’s geography,
and community design and planning theories and
research. By uncovering the physical environments in
which the 40 developmental assets take place, we can
learn more about how to provide community infrastructure that meets youths’ developmental needs
Children and Youth EnvironmentsSchool and Classroom Design
Capturing Multiple Voices in School Design:
Methods and Innovations in Cordoba
(Captando múltiples voces en el diseño de escuelas:
métodos e innovaciones - Cordoba)
Organizer: Vicky Cave (School of Architecture/
Centre for Study of Childhood and Youth,
University of Sheffield, UK) and Henry Sanoff
(Professor Emeritus of Architecture, North
Carolina State University),
Presenters: Vicky Cave, Maria Patsarika
(School of Architecture/Centre for Study of
Childhood and Youth, University of Sheffield,
UK), Henry Sanoff (Professor Emeritus of
Architecture, North Carolina State University),
Darcy Varney (College of Architecture and
Planning, University of Colorado), Kaname
Yanagisawa (Department of Architecture and
Urban Science, Chiba University, Japan)
Sponsor: EDRA’s Children and Youth Environments and Participation Networks
As traditional notions of school and learning are
increasingly challenged, the whole school community
- including children and youth - is also increasingly
being positioned as an important collection of voices
in the school design process. For some this is long-established practice, for others this is a completely new
challenge. Different levels of expertise and experience
exist to support these particular participatory processes. What is clear is that with a number of largescale school development programmes underway
around the world, it is timely to exchange, debate and
develop practice so that processes might be better
informed and ultimately more effective.
This session will focus on methods of eliciting
multiple voices in the design process. It will include
examples of recent practice in the school context, but
an important aspect of the session will be to also
explore what can be learned from other contexts, such
as community development, participation in school
governance and arts-based environmental education
programmes. The session will go beyond simple descriptive case studies to address a number of themes
and questions, including:
Thematic
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Schools &
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Niños y
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Escuelas y
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Thematic
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• How do choices of media support or hinder expression of voice for different groups?
• How do these media impact upon the interpretation and understanding of voices by design teams?
• Do particular methods have greater potential to
transform design practice?
• How does the procurement process impact upon
the expression of multiple voices?
• And what is the relationship between method of
engagement and the power of the various participant
groups?
A series of papers and concrete examples of methods
will be presented in thematic groups, with each group
followed by a discursive workshop which will relate
practice to theory. The intention will be to document and publish the content of the session to inform
others working in the area.
Keywords: Children, school design, participatory
design, methods
Children’s and Teacher’s Voices: A
Framework for School Design
(Voces de niños y maestros: un marco de
referencia para el diseño de escuelas)
Rokhshid Ghaziani and Rosie Parnell
(University of Sheffield, United Kingdom)
The school environment affects pupils’ and teachers’
health, work, emotions, and a sense of place and
belonging as on average they spend around six hours
a day and over one thousand hours a year in school.
Better school buildings provide the arguments and the
evidence that good design makes places work better
and improves the enjoyment of places and the quality
of time users spend there. However, there is insufficient effort being made to consult the users of school
buildings and in review of numerous publications, the
quality of the school environment is rarely mentioned
and often are not inviting or sensitive towards clients’
(users’) needs. In addition, users have their own ways
of seeing and it is important to consider the ways in
which they understand and experience the built environment. However, mostly architects have not studied
the users of schools and architectural plans seldom
include children’s or teachers’ suggestions. It has been
argued that users have a lot of implicit knowledge
about school buildings and it would be valuable to
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be made explicit so that this can be instructive to all
educators, architects, designers and policy-makers.
This study explores the views and expectations of
the user -teachers and children- and has been focused on making a tool for the school design process,
providing information and reflections from both
user groups. This paper describes the methodological
approach taken in carrying out the empirical study
in order to build A Staff and Pupil Environment
Calibration Tool (ASPECT). Literature, findings of
empirical studies in the UK and a pilot study all support the promotion and consideration of children’s
and teachers’ voices in the school design process. The
empirical study gathers data from pupils in junior
schools and secondary schools who have experienced
at least two school buildings which lets pupils be more
‘critical’ than ‘imaginative’ and be able to compare
design issues. Therefore, pupils in year 3 in junior
schools and year 7 in secondary schools who have
just come to their new school building are the focus
groups for this study.
The data generated both from children and teachers
in this study are mostly qualitative, exploring a
specific set of issues through open-ended questions,
although structured questions also test specific issues raised in the literature analysis. Qualitative and
quantitative analysis are applied to allow concepts to
emerge from the gathered data from both children
and teachers. The research strategy applies ‘grounded
theory’ as set out by Strauss and Corbin (1998) that
allows flexibility and creativity in the application of
qualitative and quantitative approaches. It is intended the results of this study would be a guide for
school communities, local authorities and design and
construction teams who are involved in the school
building process to help improve the quality of school
environments. Suggestions are made for further
research.
Keywords: Schools, children, teachers, participation,
architecture.
Daylight: Fountain for learning
(Luz del día: Fuente para aprender)
Meredith McCarthy and Megan Baxter
(School of Architecture, Roger Williams University, Bristol, RI)
Daylight, energy for photosynthesis as water and
carbon dioxide fuse into sugar releasing oxygen, is
also indispensable in biochemical reactions, playing
a role in hormone production, skeleton building, and
regulating the circadian rhythm, the beat of all life.
Daylight in school buildings has varied widely from
nineteenth century, flooded with daylight, single
room schools to windowless schools of the seventies.
Extensive literature review established the importance of daylight for classrooms. A 1999 extremely
well designed study by Heschong Mahone correlated
learning rates of thirty thousand students with a five
step scale of daylight conditions. This scale was used
to evaluate classrooms in Rhode Island high schools.
Outcomes of reporting this information included
discussions about restoring skylights removed as a
result of leaks in an existing school and reversal of
a decision to save money by reducing windows for a
new school because windows costs more than wall
per square foot, (arguments used to sell open classroom school buildings with minimal windows in the
1970’s.)
In addition to reduced learning rates, some individuals who suffer from SADD are measurably
hurt by the absence of sunlight. However we are all
handicapped when it comes to maladaptive environments with little or no daylight causing some physical
and psychological distress. Some governments such
as Germany and Denmark have minimum daylight
requirements for all workplaces. A healthful and accessible environment is a fundamental human right,
and natural light is part of it.
Future Direction of Community School in
Korea
(Dirección futura de la escuela de la comunidad en
Corea )
Hyejin Kim, Yunkyung Heo, Hyegyung Yoon,
and Yeunsook Lee (Yonsei University, Korea)
While metropolises have been threatened by a lack
of space, local cities have been increasingly occupied
by idle facilities due to the decrease of population.
This social circumstance practically makes it
impossible to provide the public in the metropolis
with designed facilities for education, culture, welfare,
nurturing and physical training. Since it is a universal
issue in the world, the development of complexes has
been raised as an alternative to solving a lack of space
and utilizing idle facilities. Particularly in the aging
countries such as Korea there has been much more
need for spaces for leisure and lifelong education due
to the extension of the average life span. From this
perspective, the development of a community school,
as a complex, has been highlighted as an example
of an excellent alternative to traditional educational
facilities. While previous community schools used
to be formed solely for the development of the local
community children and residents’ educational
need; present-day community schools have been
constructed as complexes with facilities for culture,
welfare, nurturing, physical training and lifelong
education to allow students and local residents to use
as communal facilities.
A few countries have already studied plans for the
utilization of schools as community complexes for
over a decade. For example, as many idle classrooms
have occurred due to the decrease in students caused
by the diminution of population, Japan has decided to
used these idle classrooms for local residents. Korea
had restored the function of a local community school
since 1953 and has turned its attention to developing
school facilitates as community complexes since 2000.
As a result, in 2002, the Kumho Open Education and
Cultural Center, the initial model of a community
school complex, opened in the former Kumho elementary school. Not only are over 40 schools in Seoul
operating as community complex facilities, but many
schools also have begun planning and constructing
community complexes on their sites. In light of this
development, we should systematically organize the
direction of these community school plans as they develop in the 21th century. In doing so, we can explore
the possibility of developing a community school in
diverse perspectives that adequately serves a wide
range of users.
This study examines the definition and direction
of a community school through a lengthy literature
review. Secondly, it explores the community school
existing within the country and existing outside of
Thematic
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Niños y
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Thematic
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Children & Youth
Environments
Schools &
Classrooms
Niños y
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juventud
Escuelas y
salas de clase
the country. Finally, this study examines the possibility of developing design guidelines and suggestions
by analyzing successful cases of community schools.
Community school are seen as a solution to
avoiding the limited space restrictions in school areas.
In addition, community schools are beneficial in
organically connecting the whole city by producing
local community spaces at upgraded level. Community schools also suggest a new paradigm and purpose
for the existing public education system
Four important aspects of a community school as
follows:
First, community schools should serve as facilities of culture, welfare, nurturing, physical training
that are three-dimensionally connected to the local
residents’ community by serving as a local community center. By using a school as the center of the local
community, local residents can reinforce their communalism weakened by the decrease of interchange
between residents and generation.
Second, the use of the school space for park and
green areas elevates the effective use of land, especially in an area where natural recreation spaces are
limited.
Third, local governments and their boards of education can cooperatively invest in creating an excellent
library and swimming pool to provide their residents
better educational and recreational environments.
Finally, facilities for culture and welfare, such as
childcare, welfare for the aged, etc, can also serve as
a possible educational resource through generational
interchange, education for social humanity and afterschool care.
Though many aspects will be discussed as an alternative to overcome the limits of public education and
find a new paradigm for this system education, the
plan to activate diverse educations of cultures and
arts will not only make schools more pleasant and
enjoyable but also provide students an opportunity to
improve their cultural sensitivity.
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How to Design School Buildings: The Users’
Point of View and Lessons from the Social
Sciences
(Simposio como diseñar edificios escolares: el
punto de vista de los usuarios y lecciones de
ciencias sociales)
Organizer: Eleftherios Pavlides (Roger Williams
University, Bristol, RI). Presenters: Laura
McAbee, Meredith McCarthy, Emma Fischer,
Katelyn Chapin, and Anne Marie Loiselle
(Roger Williams University, Bristol, RI)
This symposium will present information on how to
design school buildings, collected over several semesters by Roger Williams University architecture students as part of Social Aspects of Architecture classes.
The students researched twelve K-12 school buildings
from the point of view of those who use them every
day. This information was based on literature review,
informal and structured behavior observations, participant observation, walkthroughs with checklists for
accessibility, surveys, and photoelicitation interviews.
The research was conducted in teams of four with each
student responsible to coordinate one of the following:
architectural documentation, architectural literature
review, social science literature review, and field work
coordination.
In addition to information on inhabitant use and
perceptions, students also conducted an energy consumption assessment of the school buildings we were
investigating, in response to a request by the Rhode
Island Office of Energy grant to include an energy
assessment component to the field work. This course
fulfilled the Roger Williams University’s service
learning requirement by making the collected information available to school administrators, building
committees, facility managers, and architects who
design schools. As part of our presentation we will
examine how the presented information was utilized
by communities and architects, and we will evaluate
how it influenced decisions and affected outcomes.
The information on how to design better schools
that we will discuss includes the following:
An assessment of how daylight was incorporated
into school design during various historical periods,
the evolving research that measures the impact of daylight on learning rates, and evaluating specific school
buildings through field work in light of these studies.
• Issues that affect safety in school buildings including a) safety by preventing violence through control, b) safety through injury prevention, and c) safety
through evoking a sense of community either through
landmarks, memorials, or ritual that express pride or
by avoiding negative perceptions that evoke shame.
• Design issues that had not been anticipated before
the research and which provided new issues for
architectural designers to incorporate in their design
considerations:
a) a classroom that elicited “I feel smart in this
room”; and
b) areas that attract unforeseen aberrant behaviors.
Presentations include:
• Producing Useful Research For Architects And
Social Communities Through Service Learning Laura
McAbee (Roger Williams University)
• Daylight: Fountain for learning.
Meredith McCarthy and Megan Baxter (Roger Williams University)
• Safety through Design
Emma Fischer (Roger Williams University)
• School Buildings: Unanticipated Design Issues.
Katelyn Chapin and Anne Marie Loiselle (Roger
Williams University)
Learning Environments: Redefining the
Discourse on School Architecture
(Espacios para el aprendizaje: redefiniendo el
discurso en la arquitectura de escuelas)
Alessandro De Gregori (New Jersey Institute of
Technology)
This study originates from the assumption that
designing and building new schools from such perspectives as building performance, or meeting the
capacity demand for a growing student population,
are not necessarily a sufficient or adequate approach
to building schools as effective learning environment -an environment representing the physical,
social and cultural context in which learning occurs
(Duke, 1988). In order to understand how an effective
learning environment works, it is necessary to explore
both, environmental factors related to learning, as
well as the interactive process for planning and
building such an environment.
The paper maintains that the physical environment of the school is only one component, although
an important one, of learning environments suitable
for learner-centered approaches to learning. Hence,
school architecture should related to the physical
and well as the social and educational environmental
contexts. This perspective could invite educators and
architects to participate in a collaborative discourse
for realizing most effective and sustainable learning
environments, one school at a time. Such an approach
is timely, as schools around the world are undergoing
various forms of transformation. Indeed, the importance and acknowledgement of the fact that there are
different ways to learn, and that each student holds
a particular way to learned has increased the pedagogical challenge. Today, public education trends,
from kindergarten to high school, are generally
shifting from institution-centered to student-centered
methods of teaching and learning, hence increasing
the complexity of the school’s learning environment.
In search of learning factors, factors that cold influence learning and engage educators and architects in
collaborative discourse for planning and designing
schools as learning environments, the study addresses
the following:
a) a review of literature related to education, school
architecture, and environmental psychology;
b) interviews with school architects and educators;
and
c) four case studies exemplifying different approaches to planning learning environments, as well
as the corresponding educational outcomes.
Among the findings, the study identifies three
learning factors: classroom organization, learning
technologies, and school climate, as components of a
conceptual framework that could advance a common
language between educators and architects.
In summary, the study supports the notion that in
addition to the cirriculum and the teaching method,
the social climate of the school, learning technologies, as well as the physical environment, such as
the organization of classrooms, are all contributing
factors of students’ learning engagement and achievement. Therefore considering these factors together in
approaching the solution to a new school can improve both students’ and school’s overall educational
outcomes.
Overall, the paper confirms the importance of
an environmental approach, and moves to redefine
Thematic
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the discourse on school architecture, by suggesting
interdisciplinary research related to the findings, as
a strategy to advance knowledge and shared understanding of effective learning environments.
Keywords: Learning environments, schools, architecture, interdisciplinary, case study
Producing Useful Research for Architects
and Social Communities through Service
Learning
Thematic
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Children & Youth
Environments
Schools &
Classrooms
Niños y
ambientes de la
juventud
Escuelas y
salas de clase
(Producir la investigación útil para los arquitectos
y las comunidades sociales con aprender del
servicio)
Laura McAbee (Roger Williams University,
Bristol, RI)
Teams of a Social Aspects of Architecture class were
assigned to conduct field work, with the objectives of
a) gaining first hand experiences in order to achieve
a better understanding of the readings as well as b) to
produce information useful for improving buildings
of community importance such as schools to fulfill
a “service learning” graduation requirement. Building
on three semester experience studying school structures by Social Aspects Of Architecture, students were
organized in teams of four with the following responsibilities:
• An architecture literature coordinator reviewed,
analyzed, and diagrammed school building precedents from the architectural literature ;
• A social science coordinator reviewed social science literature for information on school buildings and classrooms;
• An architecture field coordinator conducted
physical documentation of the building under
investigation with scale drawings, photographs,
and diagrams;
• A social science coordinator designed the structured observation and interview research instruments and devised a detailed calendar for the
teammate research activities for the rest of the
semester.
Teammates worked together to:
• Develop the research instrument by taking and
selecting photographs for interviews and creating a recording form.
• Contact interviews using photographs to ask the
following indirect questions: a) Do you recog-
144
nize this place? b) In what ways is this is a good
place for the activities that it is used for? c) In
what ways this is a bad place for the activities
that it is used for?, If you could improve this
place how would you change it?
• Analyze data and derive findings.
• Explore implications for design or further research, and
• Prepare class presentation and presentations
for administrators and building committees of
schools they had studied to report the literature
review and any insights from the interviews.
These methods of interview do not seek answers to
design problems rather they attempt to identify questions that might have been overlooked. Students who
took these classes collaborated to anthologized the
reports from the entire class and from various years to
prepare this EDRA presentation.
Psychological Effects on School Children due
to Classroom Acoustics
(Efectos psicológicos en estudiantes a causa de la
acústica de las aulas de clase )
Cesáreo Estrada-Rodriguez and Isabel ReyesLagunes (Universidad Nacional Autonoma de
Mexico)
Studies of the effects of environmental noise in educational settings have increased since the 1970s, initial
investigations in the 1970s and 1980s on the effects of
noise in schoolchildren focused on: academic performance and interference in communication between
teachers and students and among students. In addition, the only sources of noise identified were traffic,
trains, and airplanes around schools. Lercher, Evans,
and Meis (2003) affirm that the literature indicates a
clear pattern of mediocre acquisition of reading skill
when there are high noise levels. In a review of the
state of the art of the effects of noise on schoolchildren, Shield and Dockrell (2003) observe that in 30
years of research in the field, most studies have focused on elementary school children between the ages
of 5 and 11 years. They report that many studies focus
on the effects of noise on children’s cognitive processing when performing tasks, and similarly on academic performance in school. In conclusion, based on
our review of the specialized literature, a systematized
presentation of the principal findings are: Interfer-
ence in communication (Changes in teacher conduct;
Disruption of educational activities; Annoyance).
Academic performance (Reading; Grammar; Mathematics and science). Cognitive processes (Memory;
Attention; Motivation; Problem solving; Auditory
discrimination; Speech intelligibility). Summarizing
the negative effects on students produced partially by
classroom acoustics.
The general objective was to identify the following
psychological effects on elementary school students
caused by classroom acoustics: annoyance, interference in communication, speech intelligibility, and
reading comprehension, considering, in addition, that
such effects are influenced by the interrelationship between a school’s architectural design and acoustical
conditions in classrooms.
The results obtained on psychological effects in
students due to classroom acoustics indicate that on
average students perceive medium annoyance (M =
2.2, DE = .57) from noise in their classrooms, despite
the fact that the levels recorded were very high (71
dBA), which represents 600% of the standardized
classroom noise level (35 dBA). Also, despite the high
noise levels, students expressed intermediate difficulty
communicating with their teachers (M = 2.3, DE
= .64) and with their classmates (M = 2.2, DE = .67).
As regards their capacity for speech intelligibility or
comprehension, students on average clearly and distinctly hear 93% of their teachers’ discourse, which is
consistent with the echo conditions recorded (average
0.5 seconds), which conforms to proposed classroom
standards (less than 0.6 seconds). In reading comprehension, students had a general average of 43.9%
correct answers, with a standard deviation of 9.7, in
some cases obtaining minimum scores of 20% and
maximum scores of 71.4% of correct answers on the
test.
To determine the relationship between acoustic,
design, and psychological variables, we applied structural equation modeling (SEM), which identified the
impact of noise and physical design on emotional factors (annoyance and interference in communication)
and reading comprehension, also identifying a direct
influence of emotional impact on comprehension, and
the influence of age on intelligibility of discourse and
on reading comprehension in schoolchildren ( Chi
Sq.=52.32 P=0.00 CFI=0.90 RMSEA=0.11.).
Keywords: School, noise, pupils, classroom acoustics
Safety through School Design
(Seguridad con diseño de la escuela)
Emma Fischer (Roger Williams University,
Bristol, RI)
Multifaceted issues of safety resulted from indirect
photo-elicitation interviews where informants were
asked “Do you recognize this place?”, “Have you been
there and if you have for what activities?”, “Is this a
good or bad place for this activity? Please explain the
reasons in detail”. In addition to responding to photographs, social variables were taken from informants
to identify commonalties of those giving similar
responses.
Issues of safety identified in five Rhode Island high
schools included safety resulting from:
• Security through control and informal surveillance. Video-cameras were stolen three days after
installed.
• Perceptions of threat from injury, including
dangerous stairs, bad hand-railing, areas that became
slippery when wet, and sitting on chairs.
• Safety through community included: a) monuments and art contributed to sense of belonging (such
as a memorial to students at Columbine); b) temporal
transformations of space as part of annual rituals such
as “spirit week” when hallways were group decorated
and students came to school dressed in costume; and
c) alienation was expressed in response to negative
perceptions of buildings.
• Although most findings were familiar to those
responsible for school buildings, they welcomed documentation of problems, which helped secure funds to
ameliorate them.
School Buildings: Unanticipated Design
Issues
(Edificios de escuela: ediciones inesperadas del
diseño)
Katelyn Chapin and Anne Marie Loiselle (Roger Williams University, Bristol, RI)
Often social science methods focus on finding
norms which architects already know through experience. However, architects’ responsibilities extend
beyond the needs of the norm to the needs of all. For
example handicapped people disenfranchised from
Thematic
Abstracts
Children & Youth
Environments
Schools &
Classrooms
Niños y
ambientes de la
juventud
Escuelas y
salas de clase
Thematic
Abstracts
Children & Youth
Environments
Schools &
Classrooms
Niños y
ambientes de la
juventud
Escuelas y
salas de clase
accessing the built environment in a way are denied
the right to exist. Architects also need to protect
buildings from the antisocial activities of a few. To
heighten our awareness about the responsibility
architects have towards all people, and to experience the impact buildings have on people’s lives, we
used wheelchairs through school buildings as well as
a check list provided by the Adaptive Environments
Center, Boston, for recording features affecting accessibility.
We seek unanticipated insights through focusing on
infrequent or unusual responses to photoelicitation,
which often revealed needs or problems beyond the
architect’s intuition:
• A photograph of a classroom elicited “I feel smart
in this room”. Subsequent interviews with students
and teachers established a number of factors behind
this statement.
• There is a variety of aberrant and antisocial behaviors, not normally associated with school buildings,
reported taking place in some schools.
While information about small and unusual groups
of people cannot become basis for designing, in the
hands of a creative architect, this kind of information
can pose design challenges that can produce small
modification with significant consequences.
ences on the spatial attributes of regular classrooms,
including 1) usage convenient, 2) social gathering, 3)
group study, 4) privacy, 5) recreation, 6) neatness and
comfort, 7) movement routes, 8) individual study, and
9) individual interaction. The results showed that the
aspects affecting regular classrooms include practical
functions and spatial atmosphere. The data were analyzed with regression analysis to construct the postoccupancy evaluation equation, and the satisfaction
indexes of various classroom spaces were compared.
This study is expected to enhance the classroom space
efficiency and meet usage demands, in order to create
quality study environment.
Keywords: post-occupancy evaluation, classroom
spaces, spatial layout
Study on the Post-Occupancy Evaluation of
Senior Vocational School Study Environment
(Estudio sobre las evaluación post-ocupacional del
medio de una escuela vocacional)
Yi-ling Chen and Szu-yu Tzeng (National
Yunlin University of Science and Technology,
Taiwan)
This study discussed the equipment and post-occupancy evaluation of study environment for Senior
Vocational School by evaluating the effective usage of
regular classrooms in aspects of usage functionality,
classroom arrangement, and spatial layout. The purposes are to 1) generalize the post-occupancy evaluation factors through literature review and interviews,
2) construct evaluation aspects and model for classroom space, and 3) compare the satisfaction indexes
of various classroom spaces.
Based on literature review and interview data, this
study generalized four types of stimulants, and distributed 200 valid questionnaires to survey the prefer-
146
Cognition, Wayfinding
Movement in the Designed
Environment
The Architects’ Understanding of Human
Navigation
(Edificios de escuela: ediciones inesperadas del
diseño)
Martin Brösamle & Christoph Hölscher
(University of Freiburg, Centre for Cognitive
Science, Freiburg, Germany)
Orientation can be a challenging task for visitors
of complex public buildings like airports and hospitals. The common way of putting the issue in the field
of human spatial cognition is to ask what makes a
building difficult. Investigating what constitutes the
legibility of built environments seamlessly leads to
the role of the architectural designer who shapes this
very environment. Architectural design processes
have been studied intensively in the Design Cognition
and some researchers do touch on wayfinding issues
in architectural design (e.g. Arthur and Passini, 1992).
While wayfinding cognition and design cognition are
both investigated as separate topics, the reasoning
of architects when they actively create wayfindingfriendly designs is not well understood. The present
study aims to close some of this gap.
In a series of semi-structured interviews with twelve
architectural designers and planners we discussed
concepts and techniques in architectural design in
relation to navigation and orientation. Four interviewees had closer contact with techniques of space
syntax. To account for both explicit implicit wayfinding design knowledge we asked our informers
to provide critique on example cases and to discuss
possible wayfinding issues. During the interviews
videos of the sketching area were recorded to capture
drawing actions and pointing gestures on the drawings as well as verbal utterances. The interview material was analyzed according to semantic content, use
of examples, provided definitions etc.
Main results: Participants analyzed the presented
example cases primarily along the main circulation,
reflected in the extensive use of circulation-related vo-
cabulary. Visibility-related utterances mostly occurred
in those situations when informers were pointed to
navigation and orientation issues by the interviewers.
The anticipation of possible usability issues from
a user’s perspective is not done consistently across
informers. Rather, locations looking interesting from
the plan view are considered and in a second step the
visibility and occlusion of relevant objects from this
location are evaluated. There is a tendency among our
participants that those who are involved in hospital
design provided more detailed analyses of usabilityrelated factors compared to those who are not.
The tools and techniques in architectural design
focus on the building, in particular its structure its
form and other properties. This building-centred view
is reflected in the frequent use of categories that are
strongly related to the organization of the building
in space. However, the resulting understanding of
architectural space tends to be static, like the spatial
relations they represent: Movement is frozen in aggregated flows which then are treated as location factors
rather than moving individuals with personal goals.
Our results do suggest that present techniques are not
suited to systematically evaluate the users’ situation in
a series of different locations. Thus, architectural design may be improved in this respect, whether in form
of more effective diagrams and software supporting
the architect or in form of specialized training for
those architects who are working on complex buildings.
Do you know your way? A mixed-method
study on the use of virtual environments in
wayfinding research.
(¿Usted sabe su manera? Un estudio del mezclarme’todo en el uso de ambientes virtuales en la
investigación)
Aga Skorupka (The Graduate Center, City
University of New York, New York, NY)
This paper compares wayfinding behavior in virtual
and real environments in order to reveal theoretical
basis for comparison while simultaneously producing
applicable implications for designers and architects.
Therefore, the constructed virtual environment was
modeled using standard design tools available for
most practicing architects and mimicked its parallel
real environment upon which it was based. Method-
Thematic
Abstracts
Cognition,
Wayfinding &
Movement in
the Designed
Environment
Cognición, la
búsqueda
del camino y
movimiento en
el ambiente
diseñado
Thematic
Abstracts
Cognition,
Wayfinding &
Movement in
the Designed
Environment
Cognición, la
búsqueda
del camino y
movimiento en
el ambiente
diseñado
ologically the study builds on existing research on
wayfinding in both real and virtual environments,
implementing both previously used and new methods.
The preliminary findings are partly consistent with
existing research. The performance measures indicate
that the time taken by users in the VE was significantly longer than in the real environment. The cumulative paths yielded from both conditions differed
considerably which contradicts studies demonstrating
that movement patterns in virtual and real conditions
correlate. The comparison of aggregate paths along
with the analysis of the qualitative data suggests the
critical role of body in experience of wayfinding and
movement in complex environments. The results are
also consistent with other studies which point out
that in a VE, people tend to travel in paths that are
generally straight, a pattern that is not persistent in
real environments navigation. Finally, the qualitative
analysis of think aloud protocols and interviews demonstrate major similarities in the cognitive rationale
behind the wayfinding behavior in both conditions.
These findings allow for a tentative implication that
virtual models could be used for assessing wayfinding
systems of future buildings. Even though the virtual environments might not prove to be useful in
predicting wayfinding performance and movement
patterns in quantitative terms, qualitative data that
can be gained through using VE in the architectural
programming phases of a project seem to be sufficient
for evaluation purposes and useful for redesigning
buildings before they are constructed.
Key words: wayfinding, orientation, virtual environments, design evaluation.
The Effect of Changes of the 3-Dimensional
Scale of the Urban Environment on People
Moving in Immersive Virtual Environments
(El efecto de los cambios en la escala
tridimensional del ambiente urbano sobre el
movimiento de la población en ambientes virtuales
inmersos)
Magda Mavridou (University College, London)
environments and whether scale properties affect the
navigation, wayfinding and intelligibility in these
environments. In order to investigate these issues, an
experiment in an immersive virtual environment was
set up. The participants were asked to complete a navigation task in six virtual urban environments which
had the same configuration but different properties of
3-dimensional scale or proportions. The differences
in scale were in building height, in the overall size of
the environments and in scaling hierarchy. There were
two groups of participants, one group had to navigate
in a more intelligible urban configuration than the
other. The intelligibility of the environments was
based on the definition of the concept as this is found
in the Space Syntax literature. Space syntax methodology was used for measuring topological properties
of the environments (which were invariant in all 6
environments) and correlate them to the different
movement patterns in each one. The participants had
to fill in a questionnaire asking questions related to
the perception of differences in the environments and
to the perception of easier navigation. The results are
based on the qualitative analysis of the questionnaires.
From this study three hypotheses for the perception
of scale have been created: first, that differences in
properties of form affect the perception of geometrical
properties of space; same length streets were perceived as longer when the buildings along them had
the same height than when they had varying height .
Second, that differences in properties of form affect
the perception of topological properties of space. The
environments with the same configuration were not
perceived as the same when the forms were different.
And third, that environments with the same building
heights were perceived as easier to navigate than environments with varying building heights.
Keywords: 3-dimensional scale perception, virtual
environment, navigation, space syntax
This research is trying to address the issue of the
perception of the 3-dimensional scale of the urban
environment. The questions raised are how are scale
differences perceived by people moving in urban
148
Effect of Wording of Fire Warning
Announcements on Evacuation Behavior in
Subway Stations
(Efecto de la fraseología de los avisos
amonestadores del fuego en comportamiento de la
evacuación en estaciones del subterráneo)
Ryuzo Ohno, Hidekazu Tamaki, and Masashi
Soeda (Department of Built Environment, Tokyo Institute of Technology, Yokohama, Japan)
Generally speaking, fire protection has not been
considered as great a priority in subway stations as in
other urban public facilities because they are assumed
to have fewer fire hazards. However, several major
subway disasters have occurred in recent years, such
as the fire caused by a suicidal man at a subway station in Taegu, Korea, that took 192 lives in 2003 and
the terrorist bombings on the London Underground
in 2005. Since people tend to follow the flow of the
crowd in emergencies, it is important for them to be
led in the appropriate direction in the early stages of
evacuation. Although in the case of subways, station staffs are expected to provide this guidance, the
number of personnel available in any one place is
limited, and those who are on hand may not always be
fully informed of the overall situation. One possible
solution is to make better use of loudspeaker systems,
recent technological advancements in which afford
precise control of the area and direction covered by
individual units, making it possible to tailor warning
announcements to the layout and signs of specific
locations in the station.
The present study experimentally examines how
the wording of broadcast warning announcements
combines with the effects of nearby spatial features
and signs to influence evacuation behavior at subway
stations. A series of experiments was conducted in an
existing Tokyo subway station at five settings, each
with a different stair and sign layout. For each session,
the subjects (13 male and 8 female university students)
were asked to listen twice through headphones to a
recorded announcement played over a portable voice
recorder, then to start heading in whichever direction
they believed safest. Experimenters followed them to
record their behavior until they started to go up/down
a stair, at which point the subjects were asked why
they chose that route.
The following results were obtained by the study:
(1) After hearing announcements that do not give
any directional instructions, subjects tend to choose
their way according to prominent spatial features
(most notably upward stairs) and exit signs or, in the
absence of such physical cues, to rely on their own behavioral history. (2) Subjects tend to feel uneasy about
and sometimes distrust announcements that direct
them downstairs, unless the instructions indicate
that going downstairs first is necessary to eventually
reach the exit. (3) Similarly, when subjects hear an
announcement that leads them in the same direction
as the location of the fire, they tend to feel uneasy and
reluctant unless they are given more details about the
situation. These results point to possible problems
with recently built or remodeled stations in Tokyo
that are designed to have one concentrated ticket area
shared by several subway lines of different depths,
so that some platforms have only downward stairs
leading to the exit. Such unintuitive layouts may result
in dangerous confusion for evacuees in an emergency
situation.
Emergent Circulation Patterns: Generating
movement networks for buildings using
stigmergy
Renee Puusepp and Paul S. Coates (Centre
for Evolutionary Computing in Architecture,
University of East London)
Flocking and optimal path formations are widely
explored subfields in agent programming. However,
there is no established application of these systems in
use in architectural design communities or practices.
Most of the work remains highly theoretical and is
deployed to analyze existing or planned environments. Besides few examples of generative modeling
for architecture, the environmental design processes
remain outside the domain of agent studies.
The ongoing research explores the flocking behavior
of agents based on the field of vision computation
and stigmergic communication. The author tries to
employ the emergent behavior of agent colonies into
architectural design routines. According to the proposed scenario an agent colony is not solely a passive
mechanism to analyze space but can also proactively
modify its environment. The work of Bonabeau et al
suggests that, given the right set of ‘stigmergic’ rules,
Thematic
Abstracts
Cognition,
Wayfinding &
Movement in
the Designed
Environment
Cognición, la
búsqueda
del camino y
movimiento en
el ambiente
diseñado
Thematic
Abstracts
Cognition,
Wayfinding &
Movement in
the Designed
Environment
Cognición, la
búsqueda
del camino y
movimiento en
el ambiente
diseñado
agents can generate highly ordered three-dimensional
architectures. Therefore, stigmergy based building
algorithms are considered to be an adequate way to
achieve meaningful spatial outcome. It is suggested
that such kind of agents can be directly involved in
creative design routines.
The proposed model demonstrates a dynamic
system that can be used in early stages of design
process. The greatest benefits of the model are its flexibility and ability to adapt to different environmental
configurations. It is argued that due to the dynamic
nature of the model, it can generate numerous architectural solutions and suggest not only the layout of
spaces, but also the spaces needed for pedestrian or
vehicular traffic.
The flexibility is facilitated by two kinds of behavior
in the model. Firstly, there is a dynamic process
that constantly tends towards optimal movement of
agents. Secondly, there is a feedback process going on
between agents and objects in the environment. The
resulting spatial structures are therefore never controlled by the circulation or by the spatial configuration alone, but emerge dynamically with the respect to
the existing environment.
Getting from A to B and Back: A
Representational Framework for Pedestrian
Movement Simulation in a School
Environment
Erica Calogero (The Bartlett School of Graduate Studies, London)
The paper presents some techniques developed in
order to explore the relationship between school design and pupil movement outside of formal teaching
activity. The focus is on the configurational component of school design and its impact on wayfinding
and crowding and how these factors in turn might
influence the pupils’ experience of school. The paper
considers various techniques of spatial representation,
simulation and network analysis and proposes a way
of combining these in a new way for use in pedestrian
movement consultancy in schools.
150
Learning and Navigating Built Environments:
How Spatial Cognition and Behavior Relate
to Environmental Form
Drew Dara-Abrams (University of California,
Santa Barbara, CA)
How to understand the interplay between people
and their built surroundings and then how to inform
planning and design with that research are questions
I am addressing with my background in cognitive
psychology, computer science, and human geography.
Large outdoor environments like urban squares,
city neighborhoods, and university campuses are of
particular interest, I believe, because many competing
interests and constraints must be balanced, and
oftentimes development only proceeds in piecemeal
fashion. Sets of buildings can be similarly complex—
consider a hospital, an indoor shopping mall, an
airport, or simply the phrase “a building complex.”
In my studies of these settings, I pair behavioral
measures of users with models of those environments’
physical form. Previous research has described the
cognitive architecture of spatial cognition, yet much
of this work has ignored people’s surroundings and
the role that physical barriers, architectural details,
landscape features, and such play in navigation, orientation, memory encoding, learning, and other components of spatial cognition and behavior. Modeling the
salient details of environmental form has allowed me
to retain the careful controls of experimental psychology while also considering environmental context
with formal, quantitative methods.
I would like to present a pair of empirical studies,
which are representative of my broader work. Automated computer systems collect data from human
participants; models of environmental form, constructed for the study areas, provide quantitative
measures; and these two sets of results combine to
explain—at least in part—the interplay between
people and their built surroundings. Cognitive scientists have an established theoretical interest in these
matters; planners and designers can also benefit from
applying such techniques for automated data collection, quantitative data analysis, and environmental
modeling.
Mental Model-Centered Design for Built
Environments
Sven Bertel, Thomas Barkowsky, and
Christian Freksa (Informatics, Universität
Bremen, Germany)
In this contribution, we argue that understanding
model preferences in human mental spatial reasoning
can eventually help improve both the design and the
use of built environments. We present a design support tool prototype that interacts with the designer by
checking for model preferences in the spatial instantiation of design constraints and suggests alternative
placements where such are appropriate. We then
discuss the applicability of the underlying methodology for supporting preferences in the spatial mental
models which users of built environments exhibit
when conceptualizing these environments. A framework is proposed for systematically evaluating designs
with regard to how well users can conceptualize the
corresponding built environments. We suggest that
integrating this framework into the design process
can lead to buildings for which correct mental conceptualizations are comparably easy to construct and
maintain. Users may ultimately benefit from better
building use and designers from being able to construct more usable buildings.
Keywords: Spatial mental models; mental preferences; design support systems; building use; cognitive
factors in human-computer collaboration.
Movement and Orientation in Built
Environments: Evaluating Design
Rationale and User Cognition
(Movimiento y orientación en ambientes
construidos: evaluando el diseño racional y la
cognición del usuario)
Organizers / Presenters: Saif Haq (College of
Architecture, Texas Tech University), Christoph Hölscher: (Center for Cognitive Science,
Institute of Computer Science and Social Research, Freiburg, Germany), and Sue Torgrude
(BoelterDesignGroup, Madison, Wisconsin)
Sponsor: EDRAMOVE Network
Although architects shape human movement and
cognition through the process of designing buildings,
their conceptions about these basic processes may not
match those of the users. Movement and cognition in
built environments is usually investigated from the
perspectives of either the user or the designer. This
intensive will provide an open forum to bridge these
perspectives in an effort to link design and research.
Specifically, this workshop will feature:
• Studies about the intentions that architects have
regarding shaping human movement and human cognition in space as well as investigations into relevant
knowledge employed by designers for these activities.
• Studies about human movement and spatial
cognition, both in real settings and under controlled
experimental conditions (e.g. virtual reality studies)
• (Technical) design support tools to improve the
planning process and evaluation of future buildings with respect to anticipating and shaping human
movement.
• Evaluation techniques: observations in the field,
spatial analysis methods of existing and planned
building layouts, agent studies.
• Cognitive mapping research: impact of environmental structure on navigability, memorability,
perception and appreciation.
Most importantly, it will provide a forum for
sharing and ‘linking differences’ of various approaches to studying and applying design rationale
and stake-holder cognition, with special emphasis on
human movement and orientation.
This full day intensive will have 7 presentations and
2 posters that will be followed by a panel / open floor
discussion. Presentations include:
• Martin Brösamle & Christoph Hölscher: The Architects’ Understanding of Human Navigation?
• Drew Dara Abrams: Learning and Navigating
Built Environments: How Spatial Cognition and Behavior Relate to Environmental Form.
• Sven Bertel, Thomas Barkowsky & Christian
Freksa: Mental Model-Centered Design for Built
Environments.
• Aga Skorupka: Do you know your way? A mixedmethod study on the use of virtual environments in
wayfinding research.
• Eve A. Edelstein, Klaus Gramann, Jurgen Schulze,
Nima Bigdely Shamlo, Elke van Erp, Andrey Vankov,
Scott Makeig, Laura Wols, Eduardo Macagno, Neural
Responses during Navigation and Wayfinding in the
Virtual Aided Design Laboratory – Brain Dynamics
Thematic
Abstracts
Cognition,
Wayfinding &
Movement in
the Designed
Environment
Cognición, la
búsqueda
del camino y
movimiento en
el ambiente
diseñado
Thematic
Abstracts
Cognition,
Wayfinding &
Movement in
the Designed
Environment
Cognición, la
búsqueda
del camino y
movimiento en
el ambiente
diseñado
of Re-Orientation in Architecturally Ambiguous
Space.
Erica Calogero: Getting from A to B and Back: Pedestrian Route Choices in a School Environment.
• Ryuzo Ohno, Hidekazu Tamaki, and Masashi
Soeda, Effect of Wording of Fire Warning Announcements on Evacuation Behavior in Subway Stations.
• Danjuma I. Nkwenti: Movement Dynamics and
Shopping Patronage – A Syntactic Profiling of Shopping Centers in Business Districts.
• Renee Puusepp & Paul Coates: Emergent circulation patterns: Generating movement networks for
buildings using stigmergy.
Movement Dynamics and Shopping
Patronage: A Syntactic Profiling of Shopping
Centers in Business Districts
Danjuma I. Nkwenti (National Advanced
School of Engineering, Yaoundé University,
Republic of Cameroon)
Movement and spatial configurations seem to play
significant roles in the performance of urban systems. Particularly noticeable is the case of shopping
centers and their relative locations within an urban
setup. This paper delves into some of the mechanisms
underlying the performance of such centers within a
restricted setting. The syntactic profiling of shopping
centers in Yaoundé (Cameroon) is used to illustrate
the intricate dynamic forces involved in shaping
a shopping environment. Space Syntax predictive
models of movements correlated with the underlying
land use and gate-count observations on selected
streets of the CBD area, point to somewhat diametrically opposed use of space by pedestrians and vehicles.
This apparent novelty is explained, using statistical
variables of the local morphology. The paper argues
that although both land use and the configuration of
street networks contribute to the movement equation
in the downtown area, the performance or patronage
of shopping centers is influenced more by the availability of suitably located interchange nodes that allow
movement to be switched between the two systems.
It concludes by a discursive analysis of some major
factors that may make or mar effective movement
systems and efficient location of shopping outlets
152
Pedestrian Movement and Choice Behavior in
Czech and Slovak Shopping Centers: Toward
an Economy of Movement
(Movimiento peatonal y de transeuntes y
comportamiento de elección en centros
comerciales en Czech y Sovakia: hacia una
economía de movimiento)
Jana Spilkova (Charles University in Prague)
and Matej Hochel (Universidad de Granada,
Spain)
This paper examines the consequences of the transformational changes in Czechia and Slovakia on the
shopping behavior of Czech and Slovak buyers. The
shopping and general consumer behavior has in a
short got through perhaps 50 years of usual retail development in just 15 years and this has also considerably affected consumer behavior distorted by previous
lack of shopping opportunities under the communist
regime. The shoppers in post-communist countries
seem to adopt the “western” shopping styles and behavior even more vehemently than their counterparts
in the developed “western” countries.
The paper presents a survey conducted via naturalistic observation in selected Czech and Slovak
shopping malls which aims to reveal the patterns of
pedestrian choice behavior on the intersections. Is
the movement of shoppers disorganized, unplanned
as it was in the first phases of the post-communist
transformation (Spilková 2003) or there is a tendency
to employ the principles of the economy of movement
which suggest that pedestrians tend to move in a way
involving the smallest number of steps? As a general
rule people tend to avoid obstacles and economize
their movement by minimizing the total number of
steps. One of the most important features of this effortminimizing pedestrian behavior is the tendency to
turn right at intersections (Bitgood and Dukes 2006;
Underhill 1999, Serrell 1997). However, the right turn
is not the only economical response. In particular situations (walking on the left-hand wall side) the left-turn
represents another economical movement pattern.
The pedestrian choice movement at intersections
was analyzed in five Czech and Slovak shopping
centres. The main ambition of the present study is to
demonstrate the impact of the transformation of the
CE retail sector onto consumers’ behavior. While a
few years ago shoppers’ behavior was rather chaotic
and disorganized (Spilkova 2002), Czech and Slovaks
will now show a more accentuated tendency to move
economically.
A randomization resampling test with 100,000
samples was performed on the data obtained in the
shopping malls and it can be concluded that pedestrians tend to avoid unnecessary steps by economizing their trajectories (p=0.00013). The results thus
show that there occurred a qualitative change in the
shopping behavior of the Czech and Slovak shoppers
(compared to 2002) and there is an obvious tendency
to minimize the total distance in correspondence with
the principles of the economy of movement.
The findings concerning the patterns of shoppers’ movement have implications for the design and
planning of shopping environments in the transforming CE countries, which are steadily adopting the
characteristics of “western” market-oriented economies. In this respect, shopping malls should integrate
time-efficient shopping opportunities which respect
the economy of movement principle with pleasurable
environments for shopping as leisure activity which
combine the variety of shopping environment with
sophisticated and attractive design of retail facilities.
Keywords: behavior change, shopping malls, pedestrian movement, experiment, post-communist
countries
Neural Responses during Navigation
and Wayfinding in the Virtual Aided
Design Laboratory: Brain Dynamics of ReOrientation in Architecturally Ambiguous
Space
Eve A. Edelstein and Eduardo Macagno1
(Division of Biological Sciences, University of
California, San Diego, CA); Klaus Gramann,
Nima Bigdely Shamlo, Elke van Erp, Andrey
Vankov, and Scott Makeig (Swartz Center
for Computational Neuroscience, University
of California, San Diego, CA) and Jurgen
Schulze and Laura Wolszon (California Institute for Telecommunications and Information Technology, University of California, San
Diego, CA)
An increasing number of virtual reality studies have
been conducted to predict how people move through
spaces and form memories of those places. Many
such studies rely on theoretical modeling systems,
simplified imagery to test wayfinding strategies, or
3D virtual reality (VR) images while subjects remain
prone and motionless in neural imaging devices. This
study developed an interactive virtual reality aided
design (VAD) laboratory in which subjects can move
through realistic scaled renderings of actual architectural environments. Novel software was developed
to track the virtual movement path and the virtual
cues and scenes observed by the subject while moving
through the rendering, synchronous with the physiological brain responses as each cue was encountered
and cognitive maps were formed. Electroencephalographic (EEG) was used to map the brain’s responses
to experimental spaces rich with visual cues and
compared to control spaces absent of navigation cues.
Volunteers consented (according to ethics guidelines) to participate in a wayfinding task designed to
test neural responses to ambiguous spaces (with no
visual cues to direction or orientation) versus unambiguous spaces (where landmarks, architectural
features, interior finishes, or color provided clear
clues). Visual ambiguity was systematically controlled by varying the symmetry of the surrounding
environment, lighting effects and shadows, or other
visual cues that might serve orientation. Subjects
learned the location of all rooms and corridors during
free exploration, and drew plans of the VR building
to demonstrate they had formed a cognitive map of
the space before and after testing. Each subject then
completed at least 96 trials in which they navigated
through unambiguous or ambiguous spaces toward
stated goals (in pseudo-random order). Egocentric
and allocentric wayfinding strategy was assessed
using a VR tunnel task previously validated (Gramann et al. 2007). Navigation efficiency during the
experiment was assessed by plotting the movement
path, turn errors, and time to goal. The findings from
study of several subjects will be reported.
Software was developed that synchronized wayfinding events with high density 256 electrode EEG
brain dynamics accompanying re-orientation after
being lost and during different classes of spatial
orientation processes. The timing and location of active brain sources during re-orientation were analyzed using independent component analyses (ICA)
(Makeig et al. 2007). Newly developed signal and
Thematic
Abstracts
Cognition,
Wayfinding &
Movement in
the Designed
Environment
Cognición, la
búsqueda
del camino y
movimiento en
el ambiente
diseñado
Thematic
Abstracts
Cognition,
Wayfinding &
Movement in
the Designed
Environment
Cognición, la
búsqueda
del camino y
movimiento en
el ambiente
diseñado
image processing systems allowed brain and muscle
activities to be independently analyzed and localized
as subjects moved during the task (Gramann et al.
2008). Unlike magnetic resonance imaging, which
records brain responses to earlier events in prone,
immobile subjects, this pioneering technology relates
navigation events and cognitive mapping strategies to
concurrent brain responses while subjects move freely
within the VR cave. This method thus offers a novel
means to test the effectiveness of cues to visual and
spatial relationships in virtual environments while
mapping brain and behavioral strategies that may
reveal provide greater knowledge of cognitive mapping processes.
Keywords: architecture, design, navigation, orientation, wayfinding, virtual reality, electroencephalography, ambiguity, allocentric, egocentric, route
following.
Sources of Information and Path Choices in
Wayfinding
(Fuentes de información y decisiones en la
búsqueda del camino a seguir)
Simon Jonas Buechner and Christoph
Hoelscher (University of Freiburg, Germany)
When navigating through environmental space
(Montello, 2005) people interactively use pre-existing
knowledge and perceptual information in order to
find a target location. Preexisting knowledge and
navigation strategies (e.g. Hölscher et al., 2006) are
individual dispositions of a visitor. Perceptual information is potentially accessible to all visitors, but
people still select information individually, combining
idiosyncratic dispositions and spatial characteristics
of the environment (cf. Stern & Portugali, 1999). We
conducted a study in a complex multi-story building
ensemble investigating how people use different
sources of information in wayfinding tasks. 32 participants had to solve 8 tasks in which they had to find a
target location while having different kinds of information available. The tasks were developed to cover a
wide range of spatial complexity (simple to difficult)
with different demands: floor change required, change
of building required or both together. Since it was not
possible for the participants to infer the exact position
of the target location from the instruction alone, they
154
had to rely on a combination of at least four types of
information in order to solve the task:
1) a priori information provided in the instruction
2) structural and map information from the environment
3) knowledge acquired during previous visits to the site
4) schematic knowledge and strategies
A priori information was varied (within-subjects)
in two tasks, providing either the room number or a
visual cue. Structural information was available to all
participants while only half of the participants had
access to standard wall-mounted fire plans. In each
of the two map conditions, half of the participants
were familiar with the building (regular visits for at
least one year); the other half was unfamiliar. We expected that the relative attractiveness of path choices
(based on line of sights, proximity, light etc.) changes
depending on the availability of different types of
information.
Participants were video-taped and asked to verbalize their thoughts. The videos were analyzed with
respect to the participants’ motion trajectory, orientation behavior and verbal comments. For each task we
counted path choices at intersections and analyzed
participants’ behavior. The data was enriched by participants’ verbalizations culminating in a qualitative
analysis of their cognitive processes during decision
making.
The results show different decision patterns depending on the available type of information. For example, participants in the room number condition accessed maps more frequently than those in the visual
cue condition. In addition they chose a different, more
vertical, strategy. In a different task we found that
participants who were attracted by a nearby staircase
tended to commit an inherited error at a later decision
point. The results show that path choices vary when
participants use different types of information as a
basis for decision making. We will discuss the results
with respect to potential implications for architects
and designers in order to support visitors’ navigation
through large, complex buildings.
Keywords: wayfinding, spatial cognition, academic,
psychology, qualitative research
The Study of the Train Station as an Architectural Typology and How its Iconography is
Crucial to Wayfinding
(El estudio de la estación del tren como una tipología arquitectónica y como su iconografía es
crucial en la búsqueda del camino)
Tricia Quinn (University of Arkansas)
The purpose of this presentation is to examine the
development of the train station as a typology and to
describe its iconographic architectural features that
enhance wayfinding. As a typology, the train station
has been in existence only 177 years, a manageable
timeframe in which to study its evolution. As a public
venue for moving masses of people, many of whom
have no prior knowledge of the environment, the station provides a model for understanding the factors
relating to wayfinding. Unlike the forces that led to
the birth of the railroad industry in the 19th century,
the issue of the sustainability of our natural resources
again makes rail travel a desirable travel option and a
topic worth studying.
Carroll L. V. Meeks state in his seminal work
entitled the Railroad Station: “There was no function precedent for the dept, every solution had to be
invented.” (Meeks, iii). Without a precedent on which
to base station design, circulation issues - moving
passengers and trains safely and efficiently - were
addressed initially in plan. In general, depots are
classified by their plan as either on-sided, two-sided,
or head-house stations. As stations evolved, not only
did the plan become more functionally complex, but
the vernacular was replaced with a more monumental
language. George Kubler addressed this dual role of
the functional and the aesthetic in The Shape of Time:
“Every important work of art can be regarded both as
a historical event and as a hard-won solution to some
problem” (Kubler, 33). Architectural features such
as clocks, towers, arched windows, and concourses
began to appear in stations regardless of their basic
layout and often in response to functional requirements. Over time, however, their presence acquired
symbolic significance, transforming them into the
iconography we now associate with railway stations.
Three research methods are used in this study:
qualitative, interpretative-historical, and case-study
methodology (Groat and Wang). Twenty-one stations
in England, Ireland, Italy and the United States were
visited. First-hand reactions to navigating through the
space were recorded in notes and photodocumentation. A review of the literature on both train stations
and wayfinding “makes use of empirical evidence
of the past” and comprises interpretive-historical
research (Groat and Wang, 88). Finally, case studies of
particular stations are used to test the hypothesis that
there is indeed a link between architectural elements
of design and how they assist in wayfinding (Groat
and Wang, 94).
The study of wayfinding grew out of the disciplines of environmental, cognitive, and behavioral
psychology long after train stations began to exhibit
modifications in response to the needs of its clientele.
That stations evolved so efficiently without the benefit
of a language that articulates the stages of wayfinding
is quite remarkable. “The aim of wayfinding design...
is to provide the environmental information necessary
for decision making and decision execution” (Passini,
159). It is clear from the study of stations that their
iconography provides such information and thereby
enhances their legibility.
Thematic
Abstracts
Cognition,
Wayfinding &
Movement in
the Designed
Environment
Cognición, la
búsqueda
del camino y
movimiento en
el ambiente
diseñado
Community and
Neighborhood Planning
Community Place Identity with a
Contemporary Image
(Identidad del lugar de la comunidad con una
imagen contemporánea)
Amira Mohyuddin, Hasanuddin Lamit
(University of Technology Malaysia, Skudai)
Thematic
Abstracts
Community &
Neighborhood
Planning
Planeamiento
de la
comunidad y de
la vecindad
Despite a considerable amount of research into the
pivotal role of mosques in urban place as an image
and identity of a community, there remains a divergence between the available space/place and users’
needs. The predominant architectural and planning
perspective is more focused on the architectural
design and planning of mosques rather than the
users. In order to deliver better community places
appropriate to the needs of contemporary users it is
imperative to gain the perspective of users. The purpose of this research was to explore and understand
the phenomenon: physical and psychological values
that users associate with mosque as a community
place in giving character/identity to the community
place, which gives identity to the urban place. An exploratory qualitative case study design was used and
data were collected by semi-structured interviews and
behavioral observations and mapping. The interviews
were transcribed verbatim and analyzed according to
contextual analysis. It was found that the Singapore
Muslim community is proud of the new image of their
new mosque to the effect that it projects or manifests
a contemporary cultural, social and religious identity in the context of a contemporary urban setting.
A number of themes of physical and psychological
values were generated from the analysis to explain
users’ views about their mosque as a community place.
The new image of mosque disseminates better Muslim
community identity to the urban place which reflects
the contemporary urban character of the community.
Keywords: mosque, community place, community
identity, perceptions, meaning
156
Design as a Means of Increasing Community Interaction: Linking Differences and
Defining Actions through the Appropriate
Implementation of Design for Experience and
Cultural Ergonomics
(El diseño como una suposición del incremento
de la interacción de la comunidad: asumiendo
diferencias y definiendo acciones a través de la
implementación apropiada del diseño para la
experiencia y la ergonomía cultural)
Traci Brisby and Jennifer Colman (University
of Calgary, Canada)
The goal of this project was to increase community
interaction through an industrial design intervention
where the design intervention is the design of a public
artifact or system modified by cultural ergonomics
and design for experience. This particular design solution was focused on the new residential development
Charlotteville in New
Providence, The Bahamas and the design solution
was informed by the literature review, contact research and unobtrusive research. Analysis and coding
of this research lead to a number of themes that provided the direction for the conceptualization.
Community Interaction can be increased through
public artifact design that is informed by an appropriate combination of cultural ergonomics and design
for experience. The contemporary global economy
sees the transfer of ideas around the world; land development is no exception with more and more international firms shaping the landscape of countries other
than their own. There is an opportunity for industrial
designers to positively impact these developments
and design artifacts for the public spaces that appropriately address and respond to their location and
as a result positively affect community interaction.
These projects funded by foreign investment are often
a manifestation of imported ideas that are simply
hosted of another nation’s soil. The implications of
Industrial Design interventions that are applied globally are significant. While it is certainly an honorable
challenge to design for either another culture or for
the global market, there are intrinsic responsibilities
that require consideration. The world as a patchwork
of separate and distinct entitles is changing; the
similarities from one nation to the next are becoming
more numerous as globalization facilitates homog-
enization. Sometimes the affects of this globalization
seem to evolve seamlessly while at other times these
global influences spawn resistance within a community, nation or culture. There are opportunities to link
these differences through defining actions that guide
informed design intended to celebrate and connect
these differences.
Although this project was developed specifically for
the Charlotteville site, it is intended that the fundamentals could be reapplied to other locations and
contexts. Modification of an artifact or system by the
appropriate combination of cultural ergonomics and
design for experience can be reapplied to other design
problems requiring design intervention to positively
affect community interaction. The international focus
of this research influenced the decision to consider
cultural ergonomics and design for experience as
the underlying influences for design development.
Cultural ergonomics and design for experience could
be applied to other developments, in other nations
with the resulting design solutions being a function
of the site specific research. The concept of modifying a public artifact destined to be successfully
implemented into any culture could be applied to any
product. It is the modifiers of cultural ergonomics and
design for experience that provide this opportunity.
The final design solutions respond to the numerous
themes identified in the research with the primary
theme being musical. The cultural implications of
music and its importance to society as a whole makes
it a viable direction in the context of transgenerational
design. Transgenerational solutions have the potential to bind a community together, creating ties and
interactions that may not be possible or likely without
thoughtful and informed artifacts.
Ethno-Cultural Diversity in Everyday
Neighborhood Space: Planning and
Designing for Interethnic Interaction
(Diversidad etno-cultural constante del vecindario:
planeando y diseñando para la interacción
interétnica)
Willow Lung Amam (University of California,
Berkeley)
In August 2007, Robert Putnam, renowned Harvard political scientist, reignited a critical debate on
American neighborhoods with the publication of his
study on diversity and social capital. After surveying
over 30,000 residents nationwide, Putnam concluded
that in the short run, immigration and ethnic diversity tend to reduce social solidarity and social capital.
In ethnically diverse neighborhoods residents of all
races tend to “hunker down”, trust of all races is lower,
altruism and community cooperation rarer, and
friends are fewer. His results contradicted what many
considered to be the sacred cow of diversity – that is,
that diversity in neighborhoods is a strength, making
communities more vibrant, lively and better places to
live. Putnam, in fact, agrees that this is the long run
consequence of diversity, but his research shows that
it is a process and that in neighborhoods across the
country, people are having a hard time learning to
live with difference. His results, however, should not
be surprising given over three decades of literature
in the field of environmental psychology on culture
and place, as summarized in several works by Amos
Rapport, suggestive of similar trends. This study addresses how planning and design strategies in diverse
neighborhoods might be useful in helping to integrate
residents and increase social capital. Insights from
the literature in environmental and social psychology,
social contact, and social capital suggest that settings
which provide opportunities for interracial contacts
increase the capacity of individuals to overcome
racial prejudices and negative outgroup orientations
and develop more general trust. Thus, by designing
for interracial contact within neighborhoods, design can impact long-run measures of social capital
and help to lessen the negative impacts in the short
run. Utilizing Ash Amin’s (2002) theory that “banal
transgressions” of everyday life offer both content
and a critical context for societal change, the research
locates everyday places of interethnic interaction in
two San Francisco Bay neighborhoods. Both neighborhoods are ethnically diverse at the neighborhood
scale, but differ in the spatial arrangement at the block
levels. In one, ethnic groups integrate across blocks,
whereas in the other, ethnic groups tend to segregate
by block. Everyday places, such as streets, grocery
stores, post offices, bus stops, and others, are considered critical spaces that foster mundane and substantive levels of interaction, both of which are posited to
affect neighborhood psycho-social measures of trust,
belonging and attachment. Within these sites, ethno-
Thematic
Abstracts
Community &
Neighborhood
Planning
Planeamiento
de la
comunidad y de
la vecindad
Thematic
Abstracts
Community &
Neighborhood
Planning
Planeamiento
de la
comunidad y de
la vecindad
graphic methods are used to record and analyze the
patterns and process of interaction, use, and behavior.
The study analyzes these patterns through the lens of
both ethnic and place identity, reflecting on the ways
in which behavior reflects upon individuals’ sense of
themselves within a given space. Finally, the analysis
links the measures of interaction and identity with
neighborhood psycho-social measures of trust, belonging and attachment.
Keywords: ethnic diversity, everyday spaces, neighborhood diversity, interethnic interaction, social
capital, place attachment, sense of belonging, ethnic
and place identity.
Examining the Importance of “Place”
Factors in Understanding Quality of Life
(Examinando la importancia de los factores del
“lugar” al comprender la calidad de vida)
Byoung-Suk Kweon and Robert Marans (University of Michigan)
“Quality of life” is a concept often used in public
pronouncements by civic leaders, politicians, and
government officials without a clear definition of its
meaning. At the same time, list of best places to live
and retire inferring a high quality of living have appeared in numerous popular publications. These lists
are based on criteria such as tax rates, crime statistics,
number of hospitals and golf courses, etc. Implicit in
the development of these lists is the idea that some
combination of these characteristics contribute to its
overall quality and therefore to the quality of life of
its residents. Past research has shown that “place” is
just one factor influencing the well-being or quality
of life of individuals (Campbell et al,, 1976, Cummins,
2005) This paper considers the relative importance
of specific place factors associated with individuals
in understanding the quality of life concept. Place
factors deal with an individual’s surroundings such as
the dwelling, the neighborhood, parks, transportation
corridors etc. Since quality of life is viewed as a subjective phenomenon which may vary from individual
to individual, place factors are based on the perceptions and evaluations of individuals.
The paper uses data from a 2001 survey of residents
throughout the Detroit metropolitan area. A combination of face-to-face interviews and mail questionnaires yielded over 4300 responses from individuals
158
living in different parts of the region. Although
corresponding objective measures were collected for
places associated with each participating household,
the analysis presented in this paper is based solely on
individual responses. Structural equation modeling is
used to assess the relationships between place factors
and quality of life
Results indicate that taken together, place factors significantly influence residents’ quality of life.
Quality of life decreases significantly when residents
do not have a satisfactory dwelling. Finding affordable housing that satisfies residents’ needs in today’s
expensive housing markets is a difficult task but our
research indicates that it is the most important determinant in residents’ quality of life. Having a stressful
commute to work in urban areas is also a negative
contributor to quality of life. Living in a good neighborhood environment as well as having good neighbors plays a significant role. To a lesser extent, having
good public and recreation services significantly
increases resident’s quality of life. Understanding
the relationship between quality of life and quality of
places is important to policy-makers and legislators in
creating livable settings for all residents.
Keywords: Quality of Life, Housing/Residential,
Neighborhood/Community Planning, Interdisciplinary, Quantitative Research
Is Planning Ending?
(¿Está terminandola planeación?)
Roberto Olavarrieta Marenco (Universidad
Veracruzana)
The current order of planning processes:
1.- Physical planning
2.- Economic planning
3.- Participative planning
4.- Strategic planning or Action planning
5.- Management
6.- Just management of the short resources
At first, we had the physical planning (the planning
and design of the territory), then the economic
planning appeared. Those ways of planning created a
struggle between them, one trying to prevail over the
other. Later in time, someone saw that without the
participation of those who were involved in a
problem, had to be participating in the planning of
the solutions to this problem - this is when partici-
pative planning appeared. Some years after, when
planners anguished and saw that reality runs faster
than planning, they invented strategic planning or
planning while doing. Recently, the people in charge
in local governments began to see that they just could
manage the situations rather than planning solutions
to them; now management reins. But in poor countries managers and management strategies seem to
always be just of the short resources.
The planning experiences of this author demonstrate this situation. Specifically the research and
planning in Indian towns in the Sierra of Zongolica
in Veracruz, México. This author had the opportunity to visit Zongolica in 1973 after a earthquake as a
student of architecture in social service, and recently
he has returned to Zongolica with a group of students of architecture. Here they observed that their
former planning had been a complete failure. Now,
this author reflects upon the lessons learned from this
experience and also seeks advice from others experienced in the planning process.
Keywords: Planning, Design, Culture, Sustainability
Linking Community to Communication
Action and Design Workshop
(Uniendo a la comunidad con la acción de la
comunicación y el diseño - taller )
Organizers: Gary Gumpert (Urban Communication Foundation) and Susan Drucker
(Hofstra University) Presenters: Janice Bissell
(Stafford King Wiese Architects, California),
Gary Gumpert (Urban Communication Foundation), Susan Drucker (Hofstra University),
Robert Marans (University of Michigan), Mike
Murtha (Community Sustainability Resource
Institute), Jack Nasar (Ohio State University),
Lena Sorensen (New York University), and
Richard Wener (Brooklyn Polytech)
The urban landscape is in a state of change as the
nature of civics and community are altered with the
rise of broadband technology, increasing expectations
of global connection and the requirement of data accessibility. For the first time, in 2007, more than half
the world’s population will live in urban areas. Thus
the quality of communication within urban ecologies
makes a significant difference to the overall quality of
human life. The nature of neighborhoods and enclaves
is changing but need for community remains. But
the city os being reformulated y technologies that
permit and encourage communication through connection. Daily lives are experienced in multiple and
diverse psychological and social zones which overlap
- some physical, other mediated. This workshop will
explore the common challenges shared by cities as
they contend with communication practices, policies,
diasporic communities and design. What qualities
of urban life should be nurtured and preserved? Is it
possible to embrace a modern technological life and
yet preserve some of our traditional expectations of
community?
Mexican-American Landscapes in
Midwestern Small Cities: Creating a Typology
(Espacios méxico, americanos en las ciudades
pequeñas del medio-oeste: creando una tipología)
Susan Dieterlen (University of Michigan)
The United States recently passed a demographic
milestone as Hispanic residents became its largest
minority group (U.S. Census Bureau News, 2003).
Most of these residents claim Mexican descent, including both recent immigrants and well-established
American families (Arreola, 2004). This population is
growing not only in the southwestern U.S. and larger
cities, but also in the smaller cities of the Midwest
(Millard and Chapa, 2004; Aponte and Siles, 1997).
Almost no scholarship within landscape architecture, architecture, or urban planning addresses the
effects of this major demographic change on the
built environment. The relevant literature is situated
within other disciplines, omitting crucial questions
about the built environment. This research explores
these questions, creating a typology of the physical
landscapes inhabited by Mexican-American residents
in small Midwestern cities, focusing on function and
aesthetics from regional scale to housescape. Information about the built environment available within an
interdisciplinary literature review was distilled into
an a priori typology of Mexican-American landscapes
in Midwestern small cities, including example cities.
Three of these cities in each a priori landscape type
(fifteen cities total) were studied via both remote data
and field observation of landscape, economic, and
social characteristics. Qualitative analysis of these
Thematic
Abstracts
Community &
Neighborhood
Planning
Planeamiento
de la
comunidad y de
la vecindad
Thematic
Abstracts
Community &
Neighborhood
Planning
Planeamiento
de la
comunidad y de
la vecindad
data revealed four landscape types unanticipated
by the literature review. The major finding of this
research was these empirically-based landscape types:
“entrepreneurs and workers,” “new tenants,” “new
homeowners,” and “community succession.” Detailed
narrative and visual descriptions of each city were
produced in this process, then distilled into a profile
of each landscape type. A second major finding was
the independent variables determining landscape
type, including characteristics of existing housing
stock, overall economic health of community, economic history of community, and socioeconomic class
composition and concentration of non-Hispanic white
population. Additional findings include comparisons
between African-American and Mexican-American
residential distribution and housescapes, and between the typical Midwestern Mexican-American
housescape and its counterpart in the Southwest. The
findings of this research suggest that the assumptions
made by landscape architects, architects, and planners concerning public use of the built environment
may need to change as this region of the United States
becomes more ethnically and racially diverse.
Keywords: neighborhood / community planning;
landscape architecture; social issues / social justice;
outdoor environments
Neighborhood Satisfaction: Physical and
Perceived Characteristics
(Satisfacción en el vecindario: características físicas
y perceptivas)
Misun Hur and Jack Nasar (The Ohio State
University)
Researchers from many disciplines, including sociology and planning, have examined Neighborhood
Satisfaction (Amerigo, 2002; Amerigo & Aragones,
1997; Francescato, 2002; Marans, 1976; Marans &
Rodgers, 1975; Marans & Spreckelmeyer, 1981; Mesch
& Manor, 1998; Weidemann & Anderson, 1985). The
research has focused more on the personal, social,
and psychological dimensions than on the physical
environment in relation to neighborhood satisfaction. When studies include physical characteristics,
they tend to look at the perceived physical characteristics, overlooking the impact of the physical
environmental features on neighborhood satisfaction.
Health researchers interested in the relation between
160
environmental characteristics, physical activity, and
health outcomes have discussed the need to study the
links between personal and physical features of the
environment at various scales (Bauman et al., 2002;
Frank et al., 2005; Handy et al., 2002; Hoehner et al.,
2005). Furthermore, while studies have repeatedly
found “aesthetics” related to physical activity (Frank
et al., 2005), and other studies have identified physical
attributes of environments related to “aesthetic,”
pleasingness to the eye (Nasar, 1998), research has not
examined the link between physical and judgmental
ratings of those attributes, nor has it looked at the link
between those measure and neighborhood satisfaction
or housing value.
This study identifies both physical and perceived
attributes, including aesthetic variables that affect
neighborhood satisfaction and the housing values. It
does this through a comprehensive structural model
of neighborhood satisfaction, which includes physical
and perceived attributes of the neighborhood, housing
values, and personal characteristics. The study centered on 400 residents in Franklin
County, OH. In addition to a survey of the residents,
the study included physical observations and Geographic Information System (GIS) analysis or their
neighborhood. This way it captured 27 measures of
the physical environment, and 15 measures of the
perceived neighborhood environment, including
the overall neighborhood satisfaction measure and
housing values. A Structural Equation Model reveals
the underlying structures among factors: the links
between the physical attributes of the environment,
resident perception of those attributes, resident’s
satisfaction with constructs related to those attributes,
and neighborhood satisfaction and housing values.
Methodologically, the study demonstrates advances
in data collection through its on-line survey, on-site
observation via a personal digital assistant (PDA), and
GIS.
Keywords: Neighborhood Satisfaction, Environmental Aesthetics, Incivilities, Naturalness, Housing
Value, Geographic Information System (GIS).
People Place or Parking Space? The Evolution
of the Courthouse Squares of Mississippi
(¿Lugar para personas o para estacionamiento? La
evolución de las plazas de la corte de Mississippi)
Michael Seymour and Amanda Rogers (Mississippi State University)
The town square has a long history as a center for
urban civic life. In the United States, the primary
form is the courthouse square which is described by
Price as “a rectangular block surrounded by streets,
with the courthouse...standing alone in the middle
of the square and the town’s leading business houses
enclosing the square symmetrically on all four sides”
(Price 1968, 29). In predominately rural Mississippi,
the role of the courthouse square has been especially
significant. The state includes at least sixty-five square
which historically have provided a much needed focal
point for social, political and economic life. While
the most famous of these - the Oxford square - is a
well known and still vital urban space, numerous less
vibrant examples exist throughout the state in little
known towns such as Canton, Holly Springs, and
Grenada. While these squares have much in common,
there are subtle differences in the organization and
Character defining features of each square that have
contributed to its success of failure as a civic space
and retail center. This paper, which will present the
results of a study which has for the first time identified
and catalogues the Mississippi squares, will explore
the evolution of three of the town squares in an effort
to reveal lessons valuable in the preservation and
creation of successful public spaces.
The examination of the town squares has followed
the Secretory of the Interior’s Standards for the Treatment of Historic Properties which includes guidelines
for the documentation of cultural landscapes. Primary
and secondary sources have been used to explore the
squares with an emphasis on vintage photographs and
period maps. Items addressed in the presentation will
include the merits of the various types of squares (including a new form discovered during the study), the
shifting role of the square in civic and social life and
the changing message communicated by the physical
from and character defining features of the spaces.
This presentation will conclude with a discussion of
the relevance of the town square in contemporary
society (in light of the popularity of new urbanism)
as well as an exploration of the linkage to the historic
plazas and squares of Mexico.
References:
Price, E.T. (1968) The Central Courthouse Square
in the American County Seat. Geographical Review
58:29-60.
Keywords: Preservation / Restoration, outdoor environments, landscape architecture, historical survey,
archival research.
Police Enforcement of Immigration Policy:
Impacts on Community Relations
(El cumplimiento de las políticas y la política
migratoria: impactos en las relaciones
comunitarias)
Kristen Day and Michael Powe (University of
California, Irvine)
Thematic
Abstracts
The US has seen an increase in anti-immigrant projects and policies at the federal, state, and local levels
in recent years. These anti-immigrant initiatives base
their claim for legitimacy in post-9/11 concerns about
terrorism. Most often, however, policies are directed
towards Latin American and especially Mexican immigrants. Such policies include tough new measures
of border “security,” policies to punish employers for
hiring undocumented workers, and laws to outlaw
housing rentals and other services to undocumented
immigrants. Together, these policies can have dramatic, negative impacts on quality of life for immigrants and on community relations more generally.
This study examines the impacts on quality of life
and community relations stemming from the involvement of local police in enforcing federal immigrant
law, through Immigration & Customs Enforcement
Act 287(g). Our research is a before and after study
of the impacts of this policy in the city of Costa Mesa,
California. The study asks: what have been the effects
of involving local police in enforcing federal immigration law, in terms of Latino residents’ perceived safety,
their use of their community, and their relations with
police and others?
The study was conducted in 2001 and 2001 (before)
and in 2007 (after). It involves Spanish and English
telephone interviews (169 before, 62 after) and indepth interviews with Latino community leaders (8
before, 8 after). In comparing responses before versus
after, we find no significant differences in amount of
Planeamiento
de la
comunidad y de
la vecindad
Community &
Neighborhood
Planning
Thematic
Abstracts
Community &
Neighborhood
Planning
Planeamiento
de la
comunidad y de
la vecindad
contact with police for Latino or non-Latino residents.
However, in our “after” results, we find more negative attitudes among Latinos towards police, and also
less likelihood among Latinos to report crimes to
police. Findings also reveal less perceived acceptance
of Latinos in the community, after vs. before. In addition, community leaders report that the new policy
has significantly impacted Latino residents’ use of
their communities, including a sense of being “under
siege”, reduced travel and use of public spaces, and
negative impacts on housing and business markets.
Conclusions suggest changes to policy and to policing
practice to address these impacts.
Potential of Sustainable Neighborhoods of
Aging and Depopluating Villages
(Potencial de los vecindarios de edad avanzada
sustentables y el despoblamiento de las poblaciones)
Tomotsune Honda and Hirata Takayuki
(Wakayama University, Japan)
Traditional small villages near Wakayama city of
Japan are facing depopulating and aging problems
which may cause sustainable neighborhood collapse
in spite of being located near urban district. This area
saw a reduction in occupancy over the last decade.
Villagers have gradually recognized that depopulation and aging is a major factor which influences their
lifestyles and long-term sustainability of built environment of the villages.
Wakayama is a mountainous prefecture and environmental design is hard for achieving barrier free
conditions. But many of such villages inherited with
both beautiful natural environment and easy accessibility to urban infrastructures of adjacent city or town.
Though such advantageous aspects of environment
are not fully made use of, the potential as a residential area is considerably high. The study focuses on
finding out the way of activating such small villages
from the view point of the transformation of built
environment, social systems such as mutual help and
support among villagers, kinships and administrative
aids. The closer relationship of urban and local sustainable neighborhood can be the model of moderate
solution for the future programs to seek cross implications with neighboring cities and villages.
162
The survey takes place at two villages, “Saikazaki”
and “Tano” near Wakayama city center by researching
recent transformation in terms of social and spatial
dwelling environment. The long term consequences
of the transformation of built environment must be
grasped first and mutual support system of daily
village life would be cleared based on our previous
research comparing physical changes of built environment and distribution of kinships along narrow alley.
The recent impact of sewerage construction which
accompanied reconstruction of alleys and remodeling
of old houses would be assessed as physical forces of
transformation of built environment.
Analysis of built environment, through the basic
data of house plans, is made out with following process.
a) Measuring and drawing house plans as well as
plotting them in the village maps.
b) General questionnaires about inhabitants’ mutual
support to sustain their daily life.
c) Interview survey asking the history of their
houses such as adaptation, renovation, rebuilding and
conversion.
d) Interview survey asking how the house is/was
used according to the change of their way of living or
life cycle situation as their family history.
Sustainable neighborhoods in perspective for the
future of urbanizing villages - Two villages, though
located near urban area, are thought that it is still
inconvenient especially for aged people because
of topographical and travel disadvantages. 60 % of
residents have no idea about successors of their houses
and they are aware of the future of their community.
The result of questionnaires show that people expect
fundamental mutual help of companionship among
neighbors and kinships who are mostly living within
fifteen minutes walk or drive. But aging and depopulating trend is threatening such conventional community care systems.
The research will bring out basic needs of people
and the potential of eventual reciprocal help and care
net work will be suggested based on sustainable built
environment of villages.
Keywords: sustainability, regional planning, social
issues, urban
The Role of Land Content and Land Use on
Neighborhood Satisfaction
(El rol del contenido del terreno y el uso del terreno en la satisfacción del vecindario)
Christopher Ellis and Byoung-suk Kweon
(University of Michigan), and George Rogers
(Texas A&M University)
Neighborhood satisfaction is an important component of life satisfaction (Fried 1984; Sirgy and Cornwell 2002). As a contributor to life satisfaction, neighborhood satisfaction is influenced by individual and
household background variables (Galster and Hesser
1981). Previous research found that nearby trees
and natural areas were the most important positive
factors in neighborhood satisfaction (Kaplan, 1985).
However, there is a limited understanding of how
other environmental content and land use influence
neighborhood satisfaction. This paper examines the
effect of land content (e.g., trees, structure, and pavement) and land use (e.g., residential, commercial, and
open space) on neighborhood satisfaction. A survey
of 276 respondents in College Station, Texas was geocoded and analyzed with land content and land use
GIS data. A structural equation model examines the
relationships among background variables, land use,
land content, and neighborhood satisfaction simultaneously. While land content appears to play a more
important role in neighborhood satisfaction than
land use, both were found to be important. Trees
were found to have a positive effect on neighborhood
satisfaction while structures were negative. A negative correlation between pavement and neighborhood
satisfaction disappears in the SEM model. In fact,
the effects of pavement that are not accounted for by
structures and commercial land use show a positive
relationship. Paved areas that are not in commercial
areas and are away from larger structures—such as
neighborhood streets and sidewalks—might actually
contribute to an improved sense of neighborhood
satisfaction. Commercial land use was also found
to have a negative effect on neighborhood satisfaction while background variables have no significant
impact. It is reasonable to conclude that the amount
and arrangement of land use and land content in and
around neighborhoods—if carefully planned and
designed—may improve the well-being of residents by
increasing their neighborhood satisfaction.
Keywords: Neighborhood Satisfaction, Neighborhood/Community Planning, Landscape Architecture,
Interdisciplinary, Quantitative Research
The “Sea Change” Phenomenon: Local
Perceptions of Environmental Change and
Community Sense of Place
(El fenómeno del “cambio oceánico”: perepciones
locales del cambio ambiental y el sentido de lugar
en la comunidad)
Ray Green (University of Melbourne, Australia)
The term “sea change phenomenon” has recently
been coined to describe the migration of affluent
urbanites to small coastal towns who are looking for
a relaxed lifestyle in beautiful, natural surroundings
as a way of escaping the pressures of city life. This
pattern of migration can be observed in many coastal
settlements located near major metropolitan areas in
Australasia, North America and Europe. It is common
that effected towns experience an increase in development; particularity residential development to accommodate the new migrates, and negative changes to the
natural environment associated with this development. Environmental impacts commonly include loss
and degradation of natural habitat and introduction
of exotic plant species while social impacts include
polarization between wealthy, urban newcomers and
existing residents. It is also common to hear residents
complain that their sense of place is under threat due
to these changes.
This research explored the perceived impacts on
residents’ sense of place due to the sea change phenomenon within three coastal town communities
located along Australia’s Great Ocean Road. These
towns represent three distinct types of settlements
that are all experiencing the effects of the sea change
phenomenon - coastal getaway, coastal lifestyle destination and coastal hamlet settlements. Data was collected using a three staged methodology starting with
a projective mapping exercise administrated via mail
surveys (N=633), which was used to identify stimuli
elements, a community photo-rating exercise (N=219),
used to assess the stimuli elements along various
Thematic
Abstracts
Community &
Neighborhood
Planning
Planeamiento
de la
comunidad y de
la vecindad
Thematic
Abstracts
Community &
Neighborhood
Planning
Planeamiento
de la
comunidad y de
la vecindad
evaluative perceptual dimensions (beauty, naturalness, distinctiveness, overall compatibility with town
character, etc) and a multiple photo-sorting technique
(N=66) used to understand the perceptual structure
underlying the response patterns.
The results show that introduction of highly visible
large, “boxy” new forms of development and removal
of heritage features and indigenous vegetation are
strongly associated with perceived negative impacts
to people’s sense of place while conservation of small,
historic features and ecologically intact natural areas
and indigenous vegetation were found to be strongly
associated with positive assessments. Respondents
were also found to discriminate between the stimuli
elements (and groups of elements) along three underlying dimensions: temporal (old versus new), scale
(large versus small) and natural versus built. The
results were subsequently used as a basis for amending
the local planning schemes in two of the study area
towns with the aim of minimizing the perceptual
impacts of new development on resident’s sense of
place by encouraging new development and landscape
treatments that would respond to local environmental
conditions and community perceptual values.
Keywords: Coastal Settlements, Landscape Change,
Demographic Change, Environmental Perception,
Sense of Place
Stressors Affecting Newly Arrived and Long
Term Residents in Two Rural Nebraska
Communities
This paper analyzes information obtained in a
quality of life survey of newly arrived and long-term
residents of two rural Nebraska communities in order
to identify key stress issues and determine the relationship between various stressors and overall level
of stress. We also explore the possible ameliorating
effect on stress of social mechanisms (social organizations and friends network). This information could
be particularly helpful in developing programs and
policies to assist the transition of new arrivals into a
community.
We found that neither group exhibit high levels of
overall stress. The principal contributors to overall
level of stress differed significantly between the new
arrival and long-term populations: the individual
stressors exerting a notable effect on overall level of
stress for the long-term population was the job (or
lack of), racial discrimination, level of income, the
struggle for a better house, and age. For the new
arrivals, only level of income correlated significantly
with overall level of stress. Network of friends was
found to ameliorate the level of overall stress, but only
for new arrivals residents.
Keywords: Stress, small towns, architecture, city
planning, quantitative research.
Toward and Examination of Neighborhood
Effects on Health-Related Outcomes
(Factores estresantes que afectan a residentes
nuevos y de largo plazo en dos comunidades
rurales de Nebraska)
Rodrigo Cantarero, James Pottter, Matthew
Gedney, and Carrie Butler (University of
Nebraska-Lincoln)
(Hacia una evaluación de los impactos del
vecindario en los balances relacionados con la
salud)
Jean Wineman, Robert Marans, Amy Schulz,
and Diaan van der Westhuizen (University of
Michigan), Sonya Grant-Pierson (Rebuilding
Communities Inc., Michigan), and Paul Max
(Detroit Health Department and Wellness
Promotion, Michigan)
Many small towns in the rural Midwest have been
experiencing a large influx of immigrants over the
past 15 years, mostly of Hispanics seeking employment in the meat processing industries that have been
locating in these communities. This rapid influx of
a culturally different population group into what has
previously been a very homogenous (white nonHispanic) community, has brought with it stressors
affecting the quality of life for both the new arrivals
and long term residents.
In recent years, there has been a plethora of studies
examining the effects of the built environment on
physical activity and numerous health outcomes
associated with individuals. While considerable attention has been given to supplementing self-reports
on physical activity and health status with more valid
measures, efforts have also been made to develop new
measures covering attributes of the built environment.
The latter has focused more on discrete environmental
measures, such as housing density or the presence or
164
absence of sidewalks, rather than on bundles of environmental measures. It has been posited that while
urban designers and planners work with individual
environmental attributes, they typically consider
them in combination with one another or as a bundle
of attributes.
As part of a program of research aimed at understanding neighborhood effects on the physical activity
and health of residents in three Detroit neighborhoods, efforts have been made to characterize the
micro-neighborhood of each study participant. Microneighborhoods are defined as the immediate blocks
surrounding the block of each participant.
Following an overview of the overall study and the
three neighborhoods, this paper describes the process
used in creating micro-neighborhood types. These
types incorporate measures of land use, residential
density, path and street network characteristics. Each
of these measures will be described including their
derivation from secondary and primary sources
including space syntax techniques. We demonstrate
how in combination they can be used to establish
micro-neighborhood types. Models showing hypothesized relationships between the micro-neighborhood
types and several outcomes (i.e. amount of walking,
perceived safety, BMI, etc.) will then be presented.
Finally, several of the models will be tested.
The paper concludes with a discussion of the appropriateness of the micro-neighborhood types created for the Detroit study to other parts of the metro
Detroit area and other settings.
Keywords: urban design, environmental typology,
physical activity, health outcomes.
Asumiendo Diferencias / Definiendo Acciones Thematic
Abstracts
Community &
Neighborhood
Planning
Planeamiento
de la
comunidad y de
la vecindad
165
Culture and Environment
The Aga Khan Awards for Architecture
as Indicators of Architectural Value: The
Experience of Bangladesh
(Las concesiones de Aga Khan para la arquitectura
como indicadores del valor arquitectónico: la
experiencia de Bangladesh)
Saif Haq (Texas Tech University)
Thematic
Abstracts
Culture &
Environment
Cultura y
ambiente
The Aga Kahn award for architecture, perhaps
the largest architectural award today, “...emphasizes
architecture the not only provides for people’s physical,
social and economic needs, but... also stimulates and
responds to their cultural and spiritual expectations.
Particular attention is given to building schemes that
use local resources and appropriate technology in an
innovative way and to projects likely to inspire similar
efforts elsewhere” (Aga Kahn Development Network,
2007). Since its inception in the late 1970s, three projects in Bangladesh have been awarded: Grameen Bank
Housing Program (1990), National Assembly Building
(1990), and School in Rudrapur (2007). From a stylistic,
morphological, or technical point of view, these three
are as different as they can be. Yet, in a deeply entrenched level of social consciousness, they respond to
an intangible concept call ‘meaning’ in Bangladeshi architecture. Approached to understanding this meaning
are the tasks of this paper.
This study finds validity by its contrast with the
narrow focus of existing studies that suggest a distinctive ‘bent bamboo’ shape (King, 1894), terracotta
detailing (Mitchell, 1983), or the presence of courtyards
(Hussain, 1990) as features of Bangladeshi architecture.
As a broad based approach, this study looks at historical
development, vernacular architecture, monuments in
history and to some extent, at sources from peripheral
areas. From these, it argues that the essential constituent of Bangladeshi architecture is in the relationship between simple free standing structures and their
yards. The facades of the structures are the elements
from which the yards derive their quality. This primordial concept forms the model by which a meaningful
architecture is produced in Bangladesh. This is the
theme that ties the Aga Kahn Award Winners together
and is also seen in the celebrated contemporary architecture of Bangladesh.
166
References:
The Aga Kahn Development Network http://www.
akdn.org/agency/aktc_akaa.html accesses 14 Oct, 2007
King, A. (1894) The Bungalow: The production of a
global culture. London: Routledge and Kegan Paul.
Mitchell, G. (Ed.) (1983) Brick Temples of Begal.
Princeton University Press.
Hussain, R. (1990). Bandladesher Sthapatya Sanskriti
(in Banglo) Dhaka: Sagar Publishers.
Connecting the Value of “Making” with the
Value of “Doing:” Environmental Aesthetics
as the Mother of Environmental Ethics?
(Conectando el valor de “generar” con el valor de
“hacer”: aspectos ambientales como madre de la
ética ambiental?)
Hyejung Chang and Paul Tesar (North Carolina State University)
Environment is a cultural product with visible and
physical features of the natural living system. Culture
is also a production of knowledge, belief systems,
and values, which clearly and equally entail moral,
rational, and aesthetic value systems in such domains
as religion, science, and art. Hence, both environment
and culture can be approached by an empirical under
standing of human science in pursuit of experiential
universals that are too concerned with establishing
similarity, regularities, and conformities to law, which
would make it possible to predict individual phenomena and processes (Gadamer 1989).
However, “culture” in this sense is yet the focal
point only in scattered works of individual scholarship (Peterson 1976), and current environmental
and social research with an empirical focus has
heavily favored attention to sub-cultural differences
and user/site-specific design solutions – things that
divide us –rather than to experiential universalities
across cultures and sub-cultures – things that unite
us. Moreover, environmental sustainability in terms
of cultural identity seldom appears to be considered
in conjunction with ecological health: the connection,
and potential conflict, between aesthetic inspiration
and moral responsibility. If it is our task to bridge the
realms of cultural identity and ecological health, designers need to approach environmental sustainability
from the linkage between environmental aesthetics
and ethics.
The paper will demonstrate three lines of argument.
First, in favor of the linkage between aesthetics and
ethics, the paper will point out that our contemporary
notion of sustainability lacks two sorts of experiential
universalities as both quality and value: aesthetics
and morality. It will explain why these two need to
be significantly interconnected in sustainable design
practice, both in terms of experiential qualities as well
as in terms of connecting the value of making with
the value of doing (Dewey 1934; Eaton 1997).
In the second line of argument, the paper will
discuss how an aesthetic approach to environmental
design would provide and enhance moral reasons
for ecological sustainability, based on the following
rationales: 1) moral responsibility and aesthetic
sensibility toward environment are substantially alike,
2) like culture, an aesthetic approach to the environment integrates such qualities as the emotional, the
rational, and the moral, 3) an aesthetic approach does
not allow us to view the environment simply as a “resource”, 4) by taking the cultural function of art as a
model for environment, the objective criteria for value
judgments on the environment will be appropriately
established from an ecocentric perspective (Carlson
2004; Callicott 1998; Elliott 1982; Leopold 1989), and
5) an aesthetic approach can enhance individual
morality to respect the intrinsic over the instrumental
values of the environment.
Lastly, the paper will address the plausible objections against the above claims as well as the replies
to those objections based on two positions: 1) the
different subject matter between ethics and aesthetics,
and 2) the incompatibility between “the work of art”
and “the environment.”
In conclusion the paper will argue that an aesthetic
approach to the environment has moral validity for
environmental sustainability across cultures, and that
it would provide a conceptually reasonable basis for
empirically based research and scholarship in environmental design.
Keywords: environmental aesthetics, environmental
ethics, sustainability, culture, experience
Culture and Quality, Basic Elements in the
Design of Tourist Environments
(Cultura y calidad, elementos básicos en el diseño
de ambientes turísticos)
Organizations. Marina Salazar (Universidad
Veracruzana) and Jesus Cruzado (Instituto
Tecnologico de Veracruz)
About the middle of last century the resort development of the littorals in Mexico started, first in the Pacific, twenty years later in the Mexican Caribbean and
for the decade of the 90’s in the Gulf of Mexico, even
though it must be said, the natural attractions in these
littorals are of different characteristics. This paper is a
reflection of the institutional perspective in the organizations dedicated to the tourism, with the inclusion
of two elements, culture and quality; the first one with
the idea of preserving it in the places of research, and
the second one to promote the competitiveness among
the same organizations. The concept of institution
has been defined by authors as Powell and DiMaggio
(2001), Montaño (2004) or Bobbio (2005); they see
the institution as a master or social pattern that has
reached certain state or property and the institutionalization, as the process to reach it, it has as an objective the search and maintenance of its own autonomy.
In spite of the fact that in the research the tourism
there are several qualitative and quantitative disciplines such as sociology and statistics that converge,
there is no parallel development of the theories and
the practice that can concert and conclude not just an
analysis or statistical information, but the development of projects where the organizations dedicated to
tourism could see their expectations of reaching the
competitiveness in the tourist destinations crystallized, with a global environment. This reflection has
as an analysis basis, the organizations located in the
Central Region of the Gulf Littoral and that is the
State of Veracruz. The Veracruz territory has a littoral of 745 kilometers long which represents 29.3 per
cent of the Mexican Coast, besides it has, mountains,
forests, prairies, rivers, tropical forests, waterfalls and
lagoons; this entireness of geographical characteristics
is enriched with a plus of indigenous population that
according to INEGI, in the year 2000 of the total of
the indigenous population in the Mexican Republic,
10.9 corresponds to the State of Veracruz, with a little
more than 750,000 people of indigenous language.
Thematic
Abstracts
Culture &
Environment
Cultura y
ambiente
Thematic
Abstracts
Culture &
Environment
Cultura y
ambiente
Within this region of the Veracruz littoral there is a
zone in particular known with the name of Emerald
Cost. Near Zempoala y in the Totonaca Circuit, the
development projects in this region have not projected
to a competitive level that could provide its inhabitants with the necessary resources to live and invest in
their local business. In this zone there is a combination of micro enterprisers, regular size projects and
family enterprises and that with studies of depth these
could give the alternatives to make this zone an international competitive development. The institutional
focus for the study of the tourism requires of an investigation in the organizations, operational methods,
problems, costs and the place they actually have in the
economy (Wiley 2000).
Key Words: culture, organizations, quality, tourism
The Experience of Historic Religious Sites:
Missions versus Wats
(La experiencia de sitios religiosos históricos: misión versus wats)
Daniel Levi (Cal Poly, CA) and Sara Kocher
(Sara Kocher Consulting, CA)
Managing historic religious sites requires balancing
the needs and demands of historic preservation, the
religious community, and tourists. Cultural heritage
tourism should provide a quality experience for the
tourists, while protecting the quality of the environment and improving the quality of life for local residents. Cultural heritage assets are preserved because
of their intrinsic value, rather than for their tourist
value. These assets serve a number of types of users
and stakeholders, who may have differing viewpoints
on how the asset should be managed. Some tourists
visit heritage sites merely to view the architecture,
while others are seeking meaningful personal and
cultural experiences. Tourism provides a powerful
political and economic justification for conservation
activities; however, increased visitation and inappropriate development may threaten the integrity of the
site. Although tourism provides economic benefits to
the local community, it can lead to the loss of cultural
identity and values through commodification, loss
of authenticity, and adaptation to tourist demands.
Tourism at religious or sacred sites is a special type
of cultural heritage tourism. Religious tourism cre-
168
ates the challenge of balancing site conservation and
tourism, while retaining the spirit of the place. This
balancing is more difficult when the local community
is still actively using the site for religious purposes.
Preservation and restoration of sacred places is different from other types of heritage environments
because these places are managed by religious entities
and have a community of local believers. Although it
is important to preserve the historic character of the
place, local worshippers may want to make modifications and additions to support their use of the
religious space. Although the tourists may be seeking
personal growth experiences, they may have little
background knowledge about the religious sites and
events they are witnessing. This project examined the
experience of Californian college students who visited
historic Catholic Missions in Central California and
Buddhist Wats in the Chiang Mai region of Thailand.
Tourism is an important industry in both the Central
Coast of California and Northern Thailand that has
the potential to help preserve these cultural heritage
assets. Using an evaluation system partially based on
the system developed by National Geographic, each
student evaluated their experience of several Missions and Wats. The evaluation examined the positive
and negative features of the sites, their overall quality,
amount of religious experience, environmental
quality, cultural integrity, commercialization, and
educational opportunity. Results show similarities
and differences in the experience of these sites by
tourists. Overall, these historic sites received positive
evaluations. The main factors impacting people’s
evaluations were whether the local community used
the place for religious purposes and the amount of
commercialization. Education and interpretation at
the Missions focused on history, while at the Wats it
focused on religion.
Keywords: assessment, culture, tourism, preservation / restoration, historic site
How the Tallest Skyscraper in the World
Represents the Cultural Aspects of the City it
Stands for: A Discussion on Taipai 101
(Como representa los aspectos culturales de la
ciudad que representa el rascacielos más alto del
mundo: una discusión sobre Taipai101)
Li-Wen Sung (Tamkang University, Taiwan)
When we try to determine if Taipei 101 is a good
representation of contemporary Chinese/Taiwanese
architecture, we must acknowledge the numerous
points of view. First, unlike Shanghai’s 421 meter
Jin Mao Tower, designed by S.O.M, Taipei 101 was
designed by Chinese architects. The primary architect,
C.Y. Lee, has attempted to insert Chinese cultural
motifs into his projects for more than two decades.
Second, while the form of Taipei 101 is connected to
Chinese traditional culture, its function is based on
contemporary daily life. The mall in the lower level is
not just a shopping center decorated with transformed
Chinese bracket structure; it is enhanced with the
concepts of “urban street” and “social plaza,” which
animated the space with public activities. Third, the
lighting plan of Taipei 101 has contributed an interesting diagram for special occasions. Its unique
building form has wonderful platforms for fireworks,
enabling it to successfully sponsor New Year’s activities for hundreds of thousands of people. It has begun
to be an important part of the common memory of
the society, and has the chance to be part of the city’s
future traditions. A fourth reason for its significance
is the fact that Taipei 101 is the highest skyscraper
in the world. It has the potential to become one of
the hottest tourist destinations in Taiwan. For the
same reason, it has attracted more attention from
other countries and exposed Taiwan to the world.
This engenders pride in the citizens of Taiwan. Thus,
the tower helps reduce the frustration stemming
from Taiwan’s international political situation. Fifth,
Taipei 101 is a unique project in Taiwan. It was the
first BOT (Build-Operate-Transfer) project located
in the center of Taipei city, close to Taipei airport. Its
height not only exceeded Taipei’s urban regulations,
but also had the potential to block the flight channel.
To accomplish this project, the main powers of the
city, including the city government, the builders, the
architectural firm, and a scholarly committee gathered together to negotiate a possible proposal. This
decision-making process was similar to the one used
by a pre-modern Chinese village when they wanted to
build a feng-shui tower. A good architectural design
should carry its unique meaning to the people it
serves, and represent its own time. It should not just
exist in its location, but also in the common memory
of its society. Its existence should not be decided by
elites, but by its users regardless of their social status.
It should not only function well, but also connect a
society’s past and future. Taipei 101 was successful
for existing in the right time and right place, and for
playing the correct role in society. Taipei 101 shows
us some clues to the further possibilities of contemporary Chinese/Taiwanese architecture, worthy of
careful consideration.
Keywords: culture, developing country, skyscraper,
architecture, phenomenology
The Mosou Matriarchal Society and Family
House Culture: The Tourism Development
and Settlement Conservation Plan of Lugu
Lake, Sichuan Province, China
(La sociedad matriarcal de mosou y la cultura
familiar del hogar: desarrollo del turismo y el
establecimiento del plan de conservación del Lago
Lugu, provincia de Sichuan, China)
Chang Ching Chin, Su Yi Farn, Shih Pei Yin
(National Taiwan University)
Luku Lake, located in the border of Sichuan and
Yunnan in South-western part of China, which is
a Scenic and Historic Interest Area. Owing to the
distinctive historical context and the tough living
environment, the Mosou people developed the most
suitable social culture to maintain the relationship
with the land, especially the culture of “walking marriage” and the matriarchal family is the one of oldest
heritage of human society. In 1989, the reforming and
opening-up policy of the state press the tourism development in a comprehensive way. Luku Lake became
one of the priority development areas. Along with the
commodity economy that accompanied tourism and
outside culture, its extensive and fast entry in Mosou
people’s day-to-day life have changed Mosou people’s
way of production way and their manners of life.
Because of the governmental policies implemented in
conformity with the tourism demand and environmental needs, the close relationship between Luku
Thematic
Abstracts
Culture &
Environment
Cultura y
ambiente
Thematic
Abstracts
Culture &
Environment
Cultura y
ambiente
Lake environment and the Mosou matriarchal culture
is gradually broken. The rapidly developed tourism
experience destroyed the traditional cultural characteristics of the Mosou people by pulling them from
their land which is considered as the mother of Mosou
culture. The challenge to planning is how to maintain
the nexus of social mechanism of the Mosou culture
by facing with their living difficulties? We choose the
site named Zhawoluo, a traditional Mosou settlement,
inhabited by only 32 families and about 400 people.
To maintain the traditional culture, our goal is not
only to conserve the settlement itself but also to bring
in eco-tourism and deep-experienced tourism to
improve the economic situation of local people we attempt to suggest appropriate management ways which
would prevent disintegration of the traditional daily
life of the Mosuo people.
Master strategy: We suggest responsible tourism to
respond to the pressure of development from tourism,
retard destruction and impact on the Mosou culture,
and to boost the settlement conservation project. This
will be accomplished by
a) recognizing the speciality and essence of the
Mosou culture,
b) creating an environmental conservation plan
with a linkage between local culture and natural environment., and
c) initiating settlement conservation by creating
“responsible” tourism.
Key words: the Mosou people, Luku Lake, settlement conservation, matriarchal family , responsible
tourism
Renovating a Cultural Centre in Order to
Build an Environment of Social Differences:
The Istanbul AKM Building Example
(Renovando un centro cultural para construir un
ambiente de diferencias sociales: el ejemplo del
edificio AKM de Estambul)
Serdar Asut (Anadolu University, Turkey)
Is architectural design discipline able to conclude
political, ideological, economical and cultural issues
of a messed society? If so, how and with which instruments can it do that? This project aims to resolve such
a matter via architectural methods and elements in an
ironical way.
170
The object of the project is Atatürk Cultural Centre
(AKM) building in Istanbul. The very interesting
story of the building begins in mid 1930s. With lots of
economical impossibilities, administrative problems
and a big fire the building goes through its destiny.
And in 1977 it opens once more as the major opera
and culture house of the city. However the story still
goes on today and the building is to face its destiny
once more; is it going to be destroyed or renovated?
Such discussions don’t (and possibly will never) end
up because of a few critical reasons. The building is
located just next to Taksim Square, which is the most
important Square of both Istanbul and the whole
Turkey. Obviously it is the most advantageous site of
the country both in terms of economical and political
issues; the perfect place for both making a big income
and demonstrating the ideology. Also, focusing to the
building itself, it is one of the most important modern
buildings of Turkey and symbolizes the ideology of
modern western dream of Turkish Republic via 1950s
aesthetic vision. So, at this point, the matter turns into
a new kind of problematic which includes more than
architectural knowledge. And as a matter of course
the sides of the discussion are not only architects
but also, politicians, economists, artists, columnists,
etc. And the government, which is possibly the most
important participant of the discussions, persists to
destroy the building, and build up a new, better and
more representative one.
In fact, it is insignificant to be surprised within this
discussion. Because, what has become to the ideology
of modern Turkish Republic has also become to this
building. The building stands as a perfect example of
the last 70 years history of Turkish Republic.
The AKM building stands like an alien just on the
heart of the country. It looks cold, doesn’t regard the
contrast and heterogeneity of the society, symbolizes
a modern utopia but doesn’t introduce it to the people
and instead of being an environment of differences
it is a border between them. And it does all of these
via the instruments of architecture –may look easy
but obviously is the embodiment of the ideological
behavior. Thus, it is (and will always be) the object of
such discussions although the counter critiques are
all about some absurd reasons, such as the operating
costs of the building.
This project tries to renovate the building, without
destroying it, as an environment of differences –not
a border between classes, a public arena of plurality
–not a gift for any certain party, and a heterogeneous
public space for action –not a monument of showy
inertia. The language and objectives of the project
are not realistic –however in the concrete, there is
nothing unrealistic in it as well. Its major claim is to
underline the necessity of considering the social differences in such a matter.
Keywords: Place Memory, Culture, Preservation/
Restoration, Social Issues
Tactics of Difference: Places of Discourse,
Spaces of Encounter
(Tácticas de diferencia: lugares para el discurso,
espacios de encuentro )
Joern Langhorst (University of Colorado at
Denver, CO)
The question of how we treat difference, spatially,
socially, culturally, ecologically, physically, and economically is at the center of any design and planning
project – if it is design, if it attempts to “changing
existing into preferred situations” (Simon 1969), then
it does so by articulating those differences.
The notion of creating places that offer equal opportunities for occupation, interaction and the construction of meaning across diverse subcultures, ethnicities, socio-economic conditions etc. has long driven
design and planning disciplines and the respective
professional practices. It has also suffered – some say
fatally - from the modernist-positivist dictum that
there is a basic similarity between all human beings
with regards to their basic needs and preferences.
While this may hold true for basic needs, there is little
doubt that there once past meeting those the preferences become considerably more diverse and complex
and defy being successfully codified into a set of
legally binding or advisory rule sets. Adhering to the
letter of those rules certifies the thus designed spaces
as “inclusive”, “safe”, “ADA-compliant”, “universally
accessible”, sustainable by LEED-standards, etc., but
– more often than not, they are not occupied by the
very subsets of humanity they were explicitly designed
to include. Beyond, they actually tend to develop a
degree of formal and material sameness and ignore
local conditions, which, considering their programmatic similarities, is hardly surprising. Polemically
speaking, the idea of multi-cultural inclusivity has
turned into a hegemonial mainstream culture where
form still follows function – or program.
This paper explores different ways to counteract this
inadvertent ‘demise of difference’ by well-intended
attempts to create ‘diversity by design’ and suggests a
theoretical and practical framework in which design
can be re-conceptualized to facilitate the creation of
places that accommodate and foster diversity.
The framework is based on the following axioms:
Space operates as agency. Contrary to the prevalent
ideas of space and landscape being a result of cultural
activity, spaces are influencing the way in which differences play themselves out culturally, and are much
more than passive “ground”.
Design is more strategic than comprehensive. Any
design effort takes place within dynamic, complex,
interrelated, ‘nested’ systems. It is impossible to model
those systemic processes in a way that allows for a
comprehensive understanding of the results of any
intervention. Instead of trying and failing to attain
a comprehensive understanding, or being highly assumptive of systems behavior, designers should focus
on how to strategically employ and interface with
processes that will move the “existing” in the direction of the “preferred”.
Design is an intrinsically open-ended process which
is “precisely open-ended” and not “vaguely loose”
(Berrizbeitia 2001). Design needs to define directions,
not destinations, and to focus more on the performative rather than the formal qualities and aspects
of space. Open-endedness should not be used as an
excuse to avoid decisions or justify subtle or blatant
relativism.
Instead of ignoring “horizons of undecidability”
(Berrizbeitia 2001)and engage in often unsuccessful
attempts in spatial and social engineering, a framework based on the above axioms would allow for an
integrative process that, instead of norming or foreclosing future possibilities, would allow for the emergence and development of rich, layered and meaningfully different and diverse places and communities,
and be both agent and result of actions that activate
citizens and bridge sub-cultural and other divides.
Thematic
Abstracts
Culture &
Environment
Cultura y
ambiente
The paper will investigate a number of projects the
author has participated in, operating in highly contested, socially, culturally and economically diverse
situations, from urban and brownfield redevelopment
projects to the ongoing revitalization and redevelopment processes in the Lower 9th Ward in New
Orleans.
Keywords: aesthetics/meaning , culture, social issues, theory/conceptualization
Cultural Meaning and the Shared Landscape
Thematic
Abstracts
Culture &
Environment
Cultura y
ambiente
Neil Challenger (Lincoln University,
Canterbury, New Zealand)
There has been considerable democratisation of the
landscape over the last 150 years. In 1847 the world’s
first public park was opened at Birkenhead (which
launched the park movement), in 1898 Sir Ebenezer
Howard carried this from park to town with the
publication of Garden Cities for Tomorrow, and in
1938 influential landscape architect Garrett Eckbo
expounded the idea that “our work is for people”
(1950: 73). More recently, the significant relationship
between the populous and its landscapes has been discussed by landscape theorists and geographers such as
Lewis, Jackson, King and Corner; while Claire Cooper
Marcus has written extensively about the relationship
between people as physical and social entities and the
landscapes they need and inhabit. Finally, Landscape
Journal (2007) very usefully widened this discussion from its unwitting (some would say racist) focus
on white society, to engage these understandings of
landscape with the United States’ large non-white
populations.
This progression describes the landscape as a deliberate and meaningful construct with a democratic
client for development. Significantly, however, while
culture is discussed, this corpus has failed to draw
out the design implications of post-colonial, polyglot
society either conceptually or in terms of practice.
Where Ebenezer Howard’s England was almost exclusively white and Anglo Saxon, Appadurai’s cultural
flows (1990) and a global repositioning of indigeneity
have re-coloured most population maps, creating
mosaics of cultural character, occupancy and ownership where some sites are culturally shared and others
are culturally owned, which raises complex questions
of how to appropriately design such sites.
In Aotearoa1 New Zealand issues of culture and
development are as significant as they are in the rest
of the colonized world. The country was settled by
Britain from 1769, Maori were displaced physically,
conceptually and economically making space for
white hegemony; and the country’s landscapes, rural
and urban, was re-formed after British modes of economics, culture and practice. Today white hegemony
largely remains, but it has been considerably tempered
by the increase of the Maori population to 18%2, by
the blooming of the Maori culture and its politic, and
by an increase in cultural diversity that has reduced
the percentage of the population that is white to 68%
(ibid). Predictably these recent changes have altered
the landscape’s cultural ownership, are changing
Maori, non-white and white notions of appropriate
forms of landscape development, and are challenging
landscape architects to find appropriate ways to
resolve these issues in the landscapes they design.
Building on design studios and case studies this paper
addresses these issues in two interconnected threads.
It firstly proffers the idea of landscape cultural ownership and suggests that culturally shared landscapes
need to have a cultural legibility to more than one
culture – giving them the character of a cultural hologram. Secondly, it uses sociologist Clifford Gertz’s
theories on cultural interpretation (1973), in which
he proposes that artefacts, behaviour and beliefs are
culturally meaningful, to frame, interpret and develop
design that will be democratic, meaningful and relevant to the cultures that use it.
Key words: Maori, landscape, culture, culturally
shared landscapes, design relevance
1
2
172
Aotearoa – the Maori name for New Zealand
Statistics New Zealand: 2007
Environmental &
Architectural
Phenomenology
Architect Christopher Alexander’s Theory of
Wholeness: Conceptual Critiques and Design
Applications
Teoría de la totalidad del arquitecto Christopher
Alexander: críticas conceptuales y aplicaciones de
diseño (intensivo de network de fenomenología)
Organizers: David Seamon (Kansas State
University, Manhattan, KS)
Participants Seamon, David, organizer
(Kansas State University, Manhattan, KS),
Kho, Karen (Program Manager, Green
Building in Alameda County, Oakland, CA),
Mehaffy, Michael (President, Structura
Naturalis Inc., Lake Oswego, OR), Pontikis,
Kyriakos (California State University,
Northridge, CA), Quillien, Jenny (New Mexico
University of Highlands), Walsh, Robert
(University of Michigan).
Sponsor: EDRA’s Environmental and Architectural
Phenomenology Network
This full-day intensive focuses on the theory and
practice of architect Christopher Alexander, whose
research and design involve a search for what he calls
wholeness—the “source of coherence in any part of
the world.” Most recently, in his four-volume masterwork, The Nature of Order (2002-05), Alexander has
sought an in-depth explication of wholeness and the
thinking, designing, and building processes through
which wholeness might be facilitated in environmental and architectural design.
In various ways, the participants and commentators
in this intensive overview and evaluate Alexander’s
conceptual and design efforts in regard to wholeness.
Each participant will make a twenty-minute presentation, followed by a ten-minute critique from commentators and open discussion from the floor. Three
presentations will be made in the morning session
and two in the afternoon.
The intensive begins with architect Kyriakos Pontikis, who describes his design and construction of the
Saint Andrew’s Christian Church in Olathe, Kansas.
He discusses the challenges, successes, and shortcomings of Alexander’s theory of unfolding wholeness and
concludes that the approach provides a practical tool
for generating successful building environments.
Second, architect Michael Mehaffy examines how
Alexander’s ideas on wholeness are being used in innovative ways in computer science, biology, and environmental design. Mehaffy’s main focus is the efforts
of one interdisciplinary group of investigators and
professionals to apply Alexander’s design approach to
the recovery of hurricane-ravaged New Orleans and
to the humane rebuilding of slums in the developing
world.
Third, anthropologist Jenny Quillien argues that
one of the most significant aspects of Alexander’s
ideas lie in their epistemology and innovative vocabulary, particularly their power of “sensemaking”—i.e.,
providing a clear and nuanced understanding of the
problem at hand and a resulting “vision” of practical
design and policy solutions. She argues that taking the
scaffolding of Alexander’s new constructs and implementing real-world “sensemaking tools” can only be a
collaborative social activity.
Architect and planner Karen Kho opens the intensive’s afternoon portion by examining similarities
between “placemaking,” as defined by the Project for
Public Spaces (PPS) and Alexander’s work. She introduces a “placemaking map” that integrates the PPS
placemaking diagram (used successfully in hundreds
of communities) with key principles from The Nature
of Order. She explores four fundamental characteristics of place–identity, expression, value and connection–from three different perspectives: physical (3rd
person), social (2nd person), and spiritual (1st person).
Last, to better understand the various processes
laid out by Alexander for understanding and making
wholeness, environment-behavior researcher David
Seamon draws on British philosopher J. G. Bennett’s
theory of “systematics,” an approach that uses the
qualitative significance of number to explicate the
underlying structure of wholeness. Bennett delineated
what he called six “universal processes”—identity,
interaction, expansion, concentration, order, and
freedom; Seamon examines how these six processes
Thematic
Abstracts
Environmental
and
Architectural
Phenomenology
Phenomenology
ambiental y
arquitectónico
Thematic
Abstracts
Environmental
and
Architectural
Phenomenology
Phenomenology
ambiental y
arquitectónico
are present or not in Alexander’s theory of wholeness and how they help identify some of the theory’s
strengths and weaknesses.
• Alexander’s Theory of Unfolding Wholeness in
the Design and Construction of the Saint Andrew’s
Christian Church in Olathe, Kansas. Kyriakos Pontikis
(California State University, Northridge, CA)
• The Application of Alexander’s Design Approach
in the Recovery of Slums and Natural Disaster Sites.
Michael Mehaffy (Structura Naturalis Inc.)
• Alexander’s New Constructs as Real-world Sensemaking Tools. Jenny Quillien (New Mexico University,
Santa Fe, NM)
• Similarities between Collaborative Placemaking
and Alexander’s Key Principles. Karen Kho (Green
Building in Alameda County)
• Comparing J. G. Bennett’s Theory of “Systematics,”
and Alexander’s Theory of Wholeness. David Seamon
(Kansas State University, Manhattan, KS)
Discussants: Robert Walsh (University of Michigan
Ann Arbor, MI)
Key words: construction; architecture; design process, Christopher Alexander; pattern language
Avoiding the Gap: Is a Priori Intersubjectivity
Achievable in Environmental Design?
(Evadiendo la brecha: ¿es la intersubjetividad a
priori factible en el diseño ambiental?)
Paul Tesar and Hyejung Chang (North Carolina State University)
“E pluribus unum: too much pluribus, not enough unum”!
- Source unknown
The material form of the results of our design
endeavors, as it meets the senses of our fellow human
beings, is never just the result of an intersection of
necessities, but always involves a certain degree of
freedom to choose one possibility over another. It is
the choice that ultimately determines the outcome
and poses the most confounding theoretical questions to designers: how to justify it rationally. The
space of this “freedom”, which used to be largely filled
with the consensual collective patterns of a culture in
homogenous traditional societies, has been increasingly usurped by the individual designer and is often
(abused for private ends of questionable significance
for the public at large. Any “expressive system” (Bonta
174
1979) that is not rooted in shared frames of reference
and structures of relevance will become a divisive
force, creating multiple chasms of understanding and
identification, and a concomitant need to “connect
differences” -to fix the problem a posteriori. This
paper sets itself the task to pose the question whether
some of these gaps could be avoided with an attitude
that springs from shared structures of understanding
and relevance: from the “we” rather than from the “I”
from our shared humanity.
The body of the paper will make the case by intersecting concepts of cognitive theory (Piaget and
Bruner in Rusch 1970, Lakoff 1987) with notions of
“intersubjectivity” in social phenomenology (Schuetz
1971, Schuetz and Luckmann 1979, Schuetz 1981),
arguing that there is potential for “common ground”
on several levels of cognitive development, from
“lower” to “higher”: the bodily level, the imaginal level,
and the formal level. The intersubjective potential on
the bodily level is perhaps the most obvious: design
that “speaks” to us as physical beings engages us on an
almost biological level across many of our differences
that emerge only later in our development.
On the imaginal level the potential for intersubjectivity resides mostly in its potential to tap into our collective memory, where our shared experiences of the
patterns of nature and of common cultural artifacts
establish a naturally metaphoric ground for environmental experience and understanding. The formal
level, specifically the level of language, offers perhaps
the most potent intersubjective realm: the shared
classifications and categories of our language as sedimented in the emergence of cultural types. The repetitive nature of culturally evolved and established types
(Tesar 1992) – whose potency as an intersubjective
expressive system is most dramatically demonstrated
in the structures of the vernacular architectures of the
world – are perhaps the most apt manifestation of “the
realm of the unquestioned” that constitutes our “life
world,” our common, taken-for-granted and shared
“reality” (Schuetz and Luckmann 1979). The paper will
illustrate these points with examples from the world
of architecture.
Ultimately the legitimate question has to arise
whether such “common ground” is possible – or even
desirable – in the multi-cultural, heterogenous, and
globalized environment we increasingly call our
home. We may have lost our faith in it, but not our
yearning for it: the more we are divided, the more we
also want to feel as one.
Keywords: theory/conceptualization, phenomenology, culture, cognition
Form versus Material Sensuousness: Kengo
Kuma’s Aesthetics of “Anti-Object” and a
Phenomenological Lesson
(Forma vs sensualidad del material: estética
de kengo kuma de “anti objeto” y una lección
fenomenológica)
Jin Back (University of South Florida)
My paper investigates the idea of “anti-object”
which has been presented by Kengo Kuma (b. 1954),
a celebrated Japanese architect. His architecture
ranging from the Kiro-San Observatory (1994) to
Water/Glass Residence (1995) and the One Omotesando (2003) displays various strategies to minimize,
if not erase completely, the presence of form and, in
extension, that of architecture. In particular, the
renowned Water/ Glass Residence is the culminating
example for the case: a residence of an extreme transparency with glass – from the level of furniture pieces
to the level of architectural elements including floors
and walls – which further evaporates itself into the
surrounding aquatic landscape composed of a pool
and an ocean beyond.
When understood in conjunction with minimalism
(in art) during the 1960s and 1970s, this disappearance of form and the aesthetics of “anti-object” gives
rise to an interesting interdisciplinary issue. Of particular interest in this regard is Michael Fried’s criticism
of minimalism. The replacement of art work, that
is heroically present as the embodiment of author’s
intention, with the literal status of a non-signifying
object parallels Kuma’s effort to erase the presence of
architecture as the product of the architect’s authorship. In this context, minimalism suppressed form
by reducing it to a geometrical pattern or shape – or
“known form,” as a minimalist called it – as a way of
disaffirming any embedded grandiose intention of the
author. Curiously, according to Fried, this erasure of
form as the realization of author’s intention opens an
opportunity for material itself to come to attention.
It further effectuates a theatrical situation in which
the beholder now perceives the endless sensuousness
that each material manifests: from the rough steel
meshes of tactile seduction to the reflectivity of the
highly polished steel plates and the gentle spreading of
fluorescent lights.
With this preliminary observation, the aim of my
paper is to criticize the aesthetics of “anti-object” by
Kuma by adopting Fried’s criticism of minimalism as
the reference. It illustrates the disparity between form
and material in Kuma’s architecture; One’s absence is
the opportunity for the other to come into visibility.
A further interest consists in the ambiguity of glass
in Kuma’s Water/Glass Residence, glass that operates
both as form in the absence of materiality – like a
graphical distillation of the floor, wall and furniture
pieces – and as sensuous material in the absence of
form, because, despite its transparency, it is always
present through its reflective and refractive play with
light. My paper illuminates this unique role of glass in
the light of the dialectical, or conflictual, reciprocity
between form and sensuous materiality. Lastly, my
paper criticizes the limit of this structural glass,
which oscillates between form and sensuous materiality. It shows how this oscillation, a unique aesthetic
achievement, should be complemented by the phenomenological concern which appreciates the thingly
nature of the glass as the platform for the praxis of
human dwelling.
Keywords: aesthetics/ meaning/ assessment, spatial
cognition, housing, architecture, phenomenology
Local Wisdom in the Flowing-Night Market:
A Dialogue with Pattern Language
(Sabiduría local en el mercado nocturno: un
diálogo con un lenguaje pautado)
Kuo Po-Sheng, His Pei Yin, and Liao Yen How
(National Taiwan University)
People in the places of subtropical zone whose
personality, habitus, daily life, and the familiar ways
of using space are affected by the weather, land, and
socio-historic development and those are in particular
embedded in the local context. ‘Local wisdom’ in the
built space grew from the people who face the subsisting challenge in specific socio-spatial environment.
In order to solve the continually living problems, the
local people respond to the living needs by everyday
practicing.
Thematic
Abstracts
Environmental
and
Architectural
Phenomenology
Phenomenology
ambiental y
arquitectónico
Thematic
Abstracts
Environmental
and
Architectural
Phenomenology
Phenomenology
ambiental y
arquitectónico
The ‘flowing-night markets’ which usually occurs
in rural places, and these probably are the specific
characteristics among towns in South-East Asian
countries within the domain of informal economy.
Ordinary people in Taiwan rely on the characters of
flexible and complex ways of using space, and then
put the sequences from a day / night through a week
connecting to different towns. From the experience
of this case in Taiwan, emerges the ‘local wisdom’ of
the ordinary people who have the capability of solving
living problems, and then is endowed with different
vitality to the space.
This paper is based on the empirical research of
‘flowing-night market’ in Taiwan Nantou county.
We find that the spatial planning theory of Pattern
Language can’t appropriately respond to nor solve the
socio-spatial issues in such a subtropical country like
Taiwan. Further, its hierarchy, network, top-down,
universal way of structuring space is much different
from our body-space experiences.
We try to get close to the local understanding of
place, and in this process continually asking ourselves several important questions, i.e., “where are the
people”, “where is the place” and “what is the wisdom”.
Further, we propose that the interaction between
human/ environment is more like an “circular ring
relationship” among people, place, wisdom, these
are dialectically developed; meanwhile, it shows the
inherent contradiction and restriction of Pattern
Language.
This paper will suggest tentative conclusions as follows:
1. Pattern Language, as a general knowledge framework about space planning and design, is largely
deriving from western countries’ socio-spatial histories. It hardly be able to understand and response to
the socio-spatial issues in such subtropical countries
where local people interact with the environment in
very different ways.
2. By constructing a systematic language model,
Pattern Language not only simplifies the richness but
also excludes the cultural differences between human
and environment relationships. Our article tries to
use ‘local wisdom’ perspective, putting ‘subjective
agency’ back to a deeper understanding of human and
environment relationships.
176
3. When planners (like us ) uses systematic knowledge, discursive ways trying to solve the issues in
local places, we must consciously recognize that the
ordinary people have their local knowledge about
understanding the place through everyday practicing.
Maybe we should first deconstruct us, and then combine these two different knowledge systems to face the
professional tasks of planning and design.
Keywords: flowing-night market, local wisdom, pattern language, informal economy, local understanding
Environmental Design
Education, Research and
Professional Practice
Environmental Design Education
The Bridge Studio
Anderson, Nadia M. (Iowa State University,
Ames, IA)
To create a different kind of studio practice, The
Bridge Studio focused on actively creating connections between architecture and community, buildings and the environment, and education and practice. As an option studio for students in their final
year of professional study, students worked in teams
to develop designs for single family, green, affordable houses to be built in the summer of 2008. They
worked with a local non-profit housing developer, the
neighborhood association, local contractors, and local
architecture firms to generate projects that responded
to the often conflicting priorities of a low budget, a
diverse historical neighborhood, and a shared desire
for sustainable design. As one of three pilot programs
in the American Institute of Architects’ Practice
Academy program, the studio was designed to expose
students to interactive design as a critical component
of architectural practice. By asking students to deal
with clients, budgets, and diverse goals they could see
their work as situated within a larger socio-economic
context rather than only the expression of individual
aesthetic concerns. By communicating with people
who did not speak the lingo of the academy and
working as part of a team, they worked in a manner
more in keeping with professional practice and,
perhaps more importantly, began to make connections between the ideals of their student work and the
realities of practice that can continue into their future
careers and so inspire a new generation of designers
who see communication and interaction as critical to
their roles as creators of spaces that can embody value
for diversity, environment, and equality.
Burnout in Teaching Activity at University Level
(Agotado para la enseñanza al nivel universitario)
Alfonso Valadez, Cristina Bravo, José Vaquero,
Patricia Ortega and Salomé Angeles (Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Mexico)
Burnout syndrome is present when person does
not meet the demands of work and usually he or she
is in a state of anger and depression. This term is
used to describe a type of job and institutional stress
occurring in professions that maintain constant
contact with people who are beneficiaries of his own
work (v.g. health personnel, teachers, social services).
Some important elements in the etiology of burnout
syndrome are: disruptions in workplace arises when
there is no clarity in the roles and tasks to be performed by the employees; the shortage, inadequate
and poor working tools, a suitable place to work, lack
of a motivation system adequate and equitable (Peris,
2003; Alvarez, Cantu, Gayol, Leal, Sandoval, 2005;
Gil-Monte, 2006).
The purpose of study was to identify characteristics
of burnout in educational areas at university level. It
surveyed 200 university professors, 56% women and
44% men, average age 45.3 years, and an average 18.8
years of experience as teachers. It was designed a scale
of 43 items, which assesses: depersonalization, emotional exhaustion and personal fulfillment areas. In
depersonalization factor, 21% of teachers reported that
occasionally show negative behaviors (e.g. irritability
and loss of motivation) with students; 27% mentioned
that, at least occasionally, feels emotionally exhausted
as a result of their teaching activity, and particularly
the interaction with students, about 5% of teachers
expressed physical and or psychological reactions (exhaustion and weariness) with prospect of work; in the
category of personal fulfillment, only 5% reported occasionally feel satisfied with the results of their work,
while rest of teachers said that often appreciates your
work. It was found differences statistically significant
when comparing scores of depersonalization factor
with teachers’ profession, that’s way, doctors have
a highest average score in relation to other professionals -psychologists, nurses, biologists, optometrists
and dentists- (F = 2. 385, df 8, p <.05); however, with
regard to other factors of evaluation scale it didn’t find
no differences statistically significant. In other sense,
differences statistically significant were found when
Thematic
Abstracts
Environmental
Design
Education
Research &
Professional
Practice
Educación
del diseño
ambiental,
investigación
y práctica del
profesional
Thematic
Abstracts
Environmental
Design
Education,
Research &
Professional
Practice
Educación
del diseño
ambiental,
investigación
y práctica del
profesional
comparing scores of emotional exhaustion and presence of chronic diseases, where teachers with illness
cardiovascular suffering higher emotional fatigue and
physical manifestations related to their teaching activities, as compared with those teachers who do not
suffer from any chronic illness (F = 3884, df 4, p <.01).
In conclusion, data are consistent with some previous
research findings indicating that presence of burnout
syndrome is among 15% to 25% of teachers at university, referring to dimensions of emotional exhaustion
and depersonalization; however, a protective element
could be considered a high degree of personal fulfillment paid to teachers. In that sense, it has been found
that various work conditions impacting significantly
on the performance of individuals and quality of
service providers (Gil-Monte, 2006).
Keywords: Burnout, depersonalization, emotional
exhaustion, personal fulfillment
Creating Collaborative Learning and
Communication Environments with WEB
2.0 Tools
Lyudmila Smirnova (Mount Saint Mary College, Newburgh, NY)
In a world easily divided by communication and
cultural barriers and private interests, and where
distance is often an impediment to collaboration, it
is important to recognize the power of the Web 2.0
environment as a qualitative leap forward over the
original generation of computer and internet tools
and services. Web 2.0 tools facilitate an advanced level
of collaborative learning and communication that
provide for a sense of connectedness and relationship
not found in the cold and solitary environments of
Web 1.0. As environmental phenomena, they create a
virtual space that empowers genuine community and
enables an intellectual community of learners. These
two features are of great importance. Genuine community has suffered in a world of sprawl, overwork
and displacement. The potential to create communities that collaboratively learn further suggests a
potential for bringing people together who are not
limited by tradition, culture and status quo. Rather,
there is a potential to use learning and discovery to
drive an openness to change. If allowed, this presentation will not only discuss the Web 2.0 environment
178
but demonstrate the environment created by Web 2.0.
In its fullest extent, the presentation would occur in
a computer lab that allowed participants to join in.
However, it could even be displayed as a poster or on
as a laptop presentation.
Keywords: Curricular Development. Technology/
Computer Applications. Other: Education. Schools.
Theory.
Creating Cultural Connections in the Design
Process
(Creando conecciones culturales en el procesod e
diseño)
Haroon Sattar and Marie Gentry (University
of Arkansas)
To enhance awareness of global cultures and to
improve effectiveness of design work, knowledge of
world cultures is essential. According to Bruner, “It
is culture that provides the tools for organizing and
understanding our worlds in communicable ways”
(p.3). Integrating meaningful cultural values with
design studio experiences will support processes that
encourage responsive design solutions in studio environments. In its professional standards, the Council
for Interior Design Accreditation (CIDA) reiterates
“programs must provide learning experiences that
address a global perspective and approach to thinking
and problem solving” (CIDA, 2006, p. II-9). By linking
design with culture, today’s students/future professionals will benefit by applying thoughtful, relevant,
and culturally-appropriate design decisions in our
ever-expanding, rapidly evolving international workmarket place. This presentation will elaborate on the
design process used and the integration of cultural
dimensions in projects produced in a first semester
sophomore interior studio.
During the curricular planning process, the faculty
recognized the changing disposition of the professional and global workplace. Although this generation of students is technologically and internet
savvy, many lack a global perspective. In response,
the faculty has introduced cultural elements across
the studio sequence to help students gain insight of
diverse cultures and global issues related to design.
Recognizing the need to address learning styles of the
new generation of students, faculty also incorporate
problem-based learning, sketching, written justifi-
cation for design decisions, reflective writing, and
leadership and team building activities in an effort
to “organize and manage our knowledge of the world:
logical-scientific thinking, narrative thinking, and
critical thinking” (Bruner, 1996, p.39).
Culture was introduced as a means to enrich each
stage of the design process used for the first sophomore studio project. Culture became the framework
for research, analysis, programming, conceptual development, and design development and presentation.
It was also an important consideration for site orientation and selection of finishes, fixtures, and materials.
The studio project was structured for both individual
and team work. The studio process was: (1) Teams
completed brief surveys of four cultures/ countries/regions, (2) Each team selected two cultures on which to
complete detailed research. Research included topics
such as history, tourism, climate, natural environment (geography/topography, flora/fauna), socioeconomics, art-culture, architecture/interiors, etc., (3)
Teams completed precedent /case studies of similar
projects, (4) Teams explored and developed concepts
derived from research and analysis of the cultures, (5)
Individuals addressed programming requirements
and details of design development, and (6) To enhance
teambuilding and critical thinking, each stage of the
design process was followed by self and team assessments and written reflections.
Rapoport (2005), paraphrasing Mark Twain, says,
“Culture in design is like weather, everyone talks about
it but no one does anything about it” (p.76 ). Rapoport further suggests “one might begin to use culture
in research, analysis, programming, design, and
post- occupancy evaluation” (p. 92 ). Consistent with
this perspective, the faculty within this program has
made a commitment to integrate cultural dimensions
throughout the studio sequence.
Keywords: culture, curriculum development, design process, academic, interior design
Graduate Studies in Environment and
Behavior in Spanish Language: Critical
Analysis of the Environmental Psychology
Residence
(Estudios de posgrado en ambientes y
comportamiento en idioma español: análisis
crítico de la residencia en psicología ambiental)
Organizer / Presenter: Javier Urbina-Soria
(School of Psychology, National University of
Mexico)
The training of high-level human resources is a
key issue in environment and behavior fields. Since
several decades ago, there are many graduate courses
in numerous universities of Europe –particularly
in Great Britain and France- and the United States
of America. The situation is not the same for LatinAmerica. According to the available information,
there is only one graduate course: the Residence on
Environmental Psychology that offers the National
University of Mexico as a Master Degree. This course
is the new version of the original Master on Environmental Psychology. The main difference is that the
Residence is focused on professional training, instead
of the former objective that was centered in research
work. The Residence is nowadays in its second year
and the general model implies a hard work in institutional locations, generally public government agencies.
In this half a day session, the general model and
the day by day operation of the Residence will be
displayed and discussed, looking out for critical comments and suggestions that could improve it. In this
sense, the attendance of academics and practitioners
of environmental design research is encouraged, as
well as the participation of undergraduate students
that want to know some options for graduate courses.
The expected audience is of 15-25 participants.
The planned activities are as follows:
1. Introduction of speakers and attendants.
2. Presentation of the general structure and professional objectives of the Residence on Environmental
Psychology.
3. Short presentations by Professors and students of
the Residence, showing the different activities of the
Residence and institutions involved.
4. Comments, suggestions and discussion of experiences from the audience.
Thematic
Abstracts
Environmental
Design
Education
Research &
Professional
Practice
Educación
del diseño
ambiental,
investigación
y práctica del
profesional
5. Identification of possible ways and topics for academic mobility (short academic visits of Professors/
Researchers/Practitioners and students).
Key words: Environmental psychology, training on
environment and behavior, Environmental psychology graduate courses.
Human Psyche and Architectural Design:
Views from students and faculty at two
programs
Thematic
Abstracts
Environmental
Design
Education,
Research &
Professional
Practice
Educación
del diseño
ambiental,
investigación
y práctica del
profesional
(La mente humana y el diseño arquitectónico:
puntos de vista de estudiantes y profesores en dos
programas)
Anubhuti Thakur (California State University
Northridge, CA)
This study aimed to identify the perceptions of students and faculty at two architecture programs in the
Southeastern United States regarding psychological
concerns in architecture design. Observations, personal interviews with faculty teaching the fourth year
design studio and focus group interviews with students were primary means of data collection. The data
revealed that students and professors acknowledged
various human issues in the design projects. The
various aspects of psychological concerns identified
through content analysis of observation field notes
and interview transcripts are discussed. In-depth
analysis of the data revealed five categories which
contributed to psychological concerns in architectural design: (1) Interaction with building, (2) Image
of the building, (3) Effects on occupant behavior, (4)
Feeling within the space, and (5) Other psychological
concerns. Each category is discussed in detail from
the students and faculty’s perspective. Suggestions
are made for architecture curricula to ensure that the
inherent understanding of psychological concerns
among students and faculty is fully harnessed and
nurtured.
Landscape Architecture Curriculum through
the Lens of Multiculturalism
(Curriculum de la arquitectura del terreno a través
de las visión del multiculturalism)
Meredith Forney (Pennsylvania State University)
The profession of landscape architecture is 91% nonHispanic white (LANDonline, 2006), while the United
States is becoming an increasingly diverse society
180
with 33% of the entire population a minority (U.S.
Census, 2006). This is a qualitative study researching
how accredited undergraduate landscape architecture
programs are incorporating multiculturalism into
their curriculum. While the research into multiculturalism in landscape architecture education is valuable, it is largely anecdotal, and lacking an extensive
theoretical basis, or framework for incorporating multiculturalism into a professionally accredited undergraduate landscape architecture program. Specifically,
literature looks in-depth into a handful of specific
studios attempting to have an explicit multicultural
component. In this day and age with increased immigration, travel and internet, people have a heightened awareness of different cultures and a world in
which there is much less separation of cultures and
much more intermingling, Different ethnic groups
will require different solutions to design problems.
Designers and planners need to be better prepared to
meet the needs and desires of an increasingly diverse
society; often the appropriate design choices are not
considered, including different ethnicity’s preference
for social and cultural services or public space (Hill,
2005). In addition to different ideas of programming, these ethnic groups have a variety of aesthetic
preferences that are not accommodated (Hill, 2005).
Department heads of 4 undergraduate landscape
architecture programs in the Northeast region of the
United States were interviewed regarding the inclusion of multiculturalism into their curriculum. Along
with a review of accreditation standards and relevant
literature, the interviews with landscape architecture
department heads provided current strategies being
employed in undergraduate landscape architecture
curricula that respond to an increasingly diverse society. Based on these strategies, lists were formalized
of conditions that encourage or inhibit the incorporation of multiculturalism into the curriculum of
undergraduate landscape architecture programs. The
findings of this study revealed four possible vehicles
that lead to or conversely do not lead to the incorporation of this phenomenon into landscape architecture
curriculum: 1. Community-Based design studios, 2.
Individual faculty members, 3. Study abroad programs and 4. A multicultural student body. Along
with these vehicles/themes, are intervening conditions
that help or inhibit the incorporation of the individual
themes/vehicles, some explicitly cited in the interviews as contributing or inhibiting as well as those
conditions, which were not explicitly cited but might
be assumed. Landscapes present an opportunity, a
forum with which to bring together the multitude of
cultures thriving in the United States. As the field of
landscape architecture continues to grow, it will shape
more and more of the American landscape, telling a
history, just as so many landscapes of the past have.
Will the landscape designs of the current generation
reflect the rich diversity existing today in the United
States? Through interviews with undergraduate
landscape architecture department heads, this study
examines measures being taken that respond to the
changing American demographic, and its manifestation in undergraduate landscape curriculum.
Keywords: Curriculum development, Culture, Social issues, Race, Ethnicity
Linking Cultural Differences: Teaching
Material Culture
(Uniendo diferencias culturales: enseñando la
cultura del material)
Catherine Wallack, Nancy Miller, and Jennifer
Webb (University of Arkansas)
As Cranz (1998) explains, “In the past century we
have come to appreciate rather than condemn the way
people in other cultures do things.” (p. 26). Material
culture offers a vehicle for improving intercultural
awareness and developing critical thinking through
design analysis and application in a first-year design
studio. Critical thinking valued in today’s educational environment but remains significant in today’s
global context. The greater challenge is to encourage
students become socially engaged critical thinkers,
what Barnett (1997) described as “critical beings,” not
just competent designers. The purpose of this presentation is to describe and demonstrate how the concept
of material culture contributes to the development
of critical thinking skills in a first-year design studio.
Material culture is “the totality of artifacts in a culture
…[that] facilitate social intercourse, to delight our
fancy and to create symbols of meaning” (Schlereth,
1982, p. 2). Material culture is an appropriate way to
introduce students of interior design to cultures outside of their own: it associates designed objects with
meaning: “ … almost everything… should be understood in its cultural context.” (Cranz, 1998). Learning
through material culture allows students to appreciate
meaning through context, an idea that translates
to their professional lives. First-year studios in this
program focus on two- and three-dimensional design
through use of various media. Projects focus on
developing not just sound design, but also on critical
thinking. The Material culture is used as a springboard for the Culture and Identity Project, to teach
design and critical thinking. A class that develops
critical thinking skills requires clear tactics defined
by the instructors (Paul, 2007). Design problems are
inherently complex and require a variety of pedagogical approaches. Complex tactics require multiple
parts over a period of time (Paul, 2007). The Culture
and Identity project is composed of a series of related
components. To expose students to a wide range of
aesthetic sensibilities and culture, we assign each
student a country, many of these being non-western.
Students conduct visual and verbal research of their
country, explore multiple design solutions, and create
two- and three-dimensional interior elements. Each
step of the project demands different thinking skills.
The initial research paper establishes a body of knowledge on which much of the project is based. Next,
sketching and ideation requires interpretation of the
research. Finally, application is realized through the
development of culturally derived pattern making.
In the Culture and Identity project, critical thinking
skills are enhanced through a sequence of increasingly
complex assessments. Students’ exposure to material
culture broadens their understanding of the world,
simultaneously allowing students to move beyond
the visual to recognizing the importance of context
in design. Introducing students to a wider range of
perspectives helps them become socially engaged
professionals, and therefore “critical beings.”
Keywords: Culture, social issues/social justice, curriculum development, interdisciplinary
Thematic
Abstracts
Environmental
Design
Education
Research &
Professional
Practice
Educación
del diseño
ambiental,
investigación
y práctica del
profesional
Linking Difference, Defining Action: Best
Practices in Education Workshop
(Asumiendo diferencia, definiendo acción: las
mejores prácticas en el taller de educación)
Organizer: Lynda Schneekloth and Robert
Shibley (University of Buffalo/SUNY)
Thematic
Abstracts
Environmental
Design
Education,
Research &
Professional
Practice
Educación
del diseño
ambiental,
investigación
y práctica del
profesional
Students, the future professionals of environmental
design, architecture, planning and landscape architecture, will have to negotiate in a multi-cultural world.
As educators, we need to think creatively of how
to expose students to cross cultural differences, to
explore various venues for these experiences beyond
the traditional study abroad, and to use our existing
curriculum in creative ways to expose the diversity we
daily inhabit. As Edmund Carpenter noted, “We don’t
know who discovered water, but we can be sure it
wasn’t a fish.” Like the fish in water, students, particularly students from the United States, can be unaware
of their own cultural milieu because they have never
had the opportunity, the language, or the naming of
experiences as being cross cultural.
The organizers of the workshop will first offer some
ideas of pedagogical moves that can strengthen the
understanding of differences in higher education academic settings. Three types of opportunities will be
discussed: 1. existing courses and studios, 2. service/
learning and student volunteer experiences, and 3.
embedded international study. (1) Looking to existing
opportunities within our existing curriculum greatly
expands the realm of diversity education without
having to initiate separate courses. For example, there
are students with diverse backgrounds in any classroom – international, social class, race, ability, and
other differences – how take advantage of this? How
offer projects in studios, seminars, or courses that
force address to differences? (2) Students from all over
the United States have gone to New Orleans to help
and been changed by that experience – demonstrating
how service learning/volunteerism teaches difference
and action. (3) Nothing can compare with international experiences in learning where you live in a
culture and where one must listen carefully to understand differences in meaning and therefore actions.
The study program we will present is “Sustainable
Futures,” held over 15 years in Monteverde, Costa
Rica. A consortium of schools – University at Buffalo,
University of Maryland,
182
University of Illinois/Champaign-Urbana, and
Syracuse University working with the Monteverde Institute – have run a 10 week course for students from
architecture, landscape architecture and planning
each summer. Students live with families in the zone
and engage with the community on projects the local
people identify. After a presentation by the organizers,
the discussion will be opened to workshop participants. The questions we would like to engage are:
(1) What kinds of ‘diversity’ experiences do your
students have?
(2) What has been successful in facilitating learning
about differences in academic settings?
(3) Have you had any significant failures and what
can we learn from them?
(4) How can we make university education more relevant for our students – so that they may understand
the complexities of living in a global world but also
are willing and able to take action locally on behalf of
better places? What best practices can we learn from
each other?
Keywords: culture; social issues; sustainability; curriculum development; academic; interdisciplinary
Integrating Research-Based Sustainable
Design into Design Studio to Increase
Awareness
(Integrando investigacion basada en diseño
sustentable en en estudio del diseño para
incrementar la concientización)
Hyung-Chan Kim and Aditi Hirani (North
Dakota State University)
The purpose of this paper is to present the findings
of an experimental sustainable design project in a
junior level interior design studio for understanding
contemporary environmental issues such as passive
solar house design and sustainable lighting design.
Sustainable design education has recently become an
important part of interior design curricula. According
to Council for Interior Design Accreditation (former
FIDER) Professional Standards 2006 included several
new indicators related to teaching sustainable design
Passive solar refers to a system that collects,
stores, and redistributes solar energy without any
mechanical system. Passive solar houses consist of
two main parts; a collector consisting of south-facing
glazing and an energy-storage element that usually
consists of thermal mass, such as concrete, marble,
and water. This study considered three possible types
of passive solar solutions; a Direct-gain system; to
maximize south facing windows for increased heat
gain, Trombe wall; to collect, store, and then radiate
heat back into the living space, and Sun space; designed to collect heat for the main part of a building,
as well as to serve as a secondary living area.
Fall semester of 2005, junior level interior design
studio dealt with passive solar house design in a
suburb area. The main concern of this project was to
develop both architectural and interior design for a
single family residence that is environmental friendly
and energy efficient to reduce electrical and heating
cost. Before the students started designing, residential
design procedures such as site and client analysis of
residential design as well as passive solar house design
principles were explained.
During the subsequent weeks, students understood
passive solar heating and cooling system, thermal
floor and wall system, building orientation, selecting
sustainable interior and exterior materials, and solar
section (for air circulation). In addition, students
developed a lighting design to maximize daylight
use and select energy efficient lighting. Students
developed architectural forms for the house based
on passive solar design using a lot of sketches and
study models for understanding spatial relationship,
difference between exterior and interior design, and
the relationship between building orientation and sun
movement. A client profile guided the programming
and design development of the spatial relationship
and interior design of the project. As part of the final
design solution the students were asked to create two
models; a site model to show the orientation of the
building and its relation to the site condition and features; and a detachable large-scale building model to
demonstrate the relationship between the spaces and
levels of the house.
Implementing research and sustainability as the
focus of the experimental project increased the
awareness of design responsibility in students. Transforming the theory into an actual physical project
made the application of the theory real and achievable.
Design students are the future designers and hence
making them aware of their design choices and how
they affect the environment should be an important
component of the design curriculum.
Keyword: Sustainability, Curriculum Development,
Housing / Residential, Interior Design, Architecture,
Case Study
Re-Examining the Link between Practice and
the Academy for a More Sustainable Future
(Re-examinando la relación entre la práctica y la
académico para un futuro sustentable)
Organizer: Lynn Paxson (Iowa State University). Presenters: Nadia Anderson (Iowa
State University), Lynne Manzo (University
of Washington), Lynn Paxson (Iowa State
University)
The studio model typically used in design education is described by Boyer and Mitgang as “a model
for the integration and application of learning” and
thus a model from which other disciplines and levels
of education can benefit (Boyer and Mitgang, 1996;
85). In architectural education, however, the design
studio often becomes the site of isolated form-making,
disengaged from social context and thus a passive
receptacle for the values of today’s dominant culture
that locates power in the hands of those with money
and power. In this symposium session the presenters
will discuss a variety of alternative studio teaching
practices intended to address these issues primarily
by linking students with communities, using these
practices requires students to deal with issues of
power and both community as well as environmental
sustainability. This symposia will also consider the
pedagogy of community research and design projects,
and how they involve, create and transcend community politics and conflict. Panelists will discuss the
dynamics of their own projects, but the symposium
aims to foster active participation and discussion by
all attendees. Nadia Anderson will present how an
experimental studio sequence working in Des Moines,
Iowa on the design of ‘affordable’ housing addressed
these issues. This studio is being partially funded by
the AIA through their practice academy grant. Lynne
Manzo will examine participation and sustainability
issues related to the HUD Hope VI program, and
how they might currently be used in a critical way
to pedagogically illustrate aspects of participation
Thematic
Abstracts
Environmental
Design
Education
Research &
Professional
Practice
Educación
del diseño
ambiental,
investigación
y práctica del
profesional
Thematic
Abstracts
Environmental
Design
Education,
Research &
Professional
Practice
Educación
del diseño
ambiental,
investigación
y práctica del
profesional
and sustainability in community design practice to
students. Lynn Paxson will use several examples of
design studio projects working with various Native
American Nations where students have needed to confront issues of identity and power between Indigenous
groups and dominant culture.
Presentations in this symposium include:
• “The Bridge Studio” Anderson, Nadia M. (Iowa
State University, Ames)
• “What Constitutes Genuine Participation? Lessons from the Field” Manzo, Lynne (University of
Washington, Seattle)
• “What do Service Learning, and Native Communities have to do with Practice or a Sustainable
Future?” Paxson, Lynn (Iowa State University, Ames)
Sources of Stress in the Field of University
Teaching
(Fuentes de estrés en el área de enseñanza
universitaria)
Alfonso Valadez, Cristina Bravo, José Vaquero,
and Patricia Ortega (Universidad Nacional
Autonoma de Mexico)
A wide range of factors in physical and social
environment influence people’s behavior in working
scenarios, because most frequently found negative
side effects in workers’ implementation and performance, due stressful situations and factors that they
are present in workplace. Work-related stress is the
response of a person who tries to adapt and adjust to
internal and external pressures, especially when there
is a mismatch between people, workplace and own
organization. Work-related stress causes disabilities,
absenteeism and poor performance at work. This process in workplace is a growing problem, with personal,
social and economic quite high costs (Martinez, 2004).
On this matter, Williams and Cooper (2004), state
that we should never underestimate impact of work
stress, as they have been found tremendously negative
impact: in what represents a disease, bad relationships,
and failure professional and low productivity.
The objective of study was to identify the main
sources of stress in teaching profession at university.
200 professors at university were surveyed, elected
through a non-probability sampling. The evaluation
scale contains 68 items, grouped into three subscales
184
(organizational, social and individual factors), Cronbach alpha coefficient .96.
Data show that 87% of teachers believe that organizational factors are “little or nothing stressful,” while
13% perceive these factors as “quite stressful”; while
the sources of social and individual are deemed “quite
stressful”, only for 2% and 7%, respectively. Comparisons were made on variables such as gender, marital
status, educational level, years of experience as a
teacher, career in which teaching, and current medical
condition, in general, it didn’t find differences statistically significant; it was found differences statistical
related with condition health, where teachers with
cardiovascular diseases show a higher level of workrelated stress linked with individual sources compared to those who did not suffer from any chronic illness (F = 3.575, df 4, p <.01) . In conclusion, teaching
activity at university, although it is not an easy task,
it’s not generally perceived as threatening or overwhelming the resources of individuals, so that this
may explain the fact that there are no big differences
in accordance with the different comparisons made;
in that sense, the inclusion in the analysis of specific
situations such as chronic diseases, which implies
elements are not necessarily linked to the teaching
profession in the strict sense, in general, it can imply
a change in the perception of person on your own
job performance, regardless of the professional field
that people develop; therefore, the stress response
can not be deemed as an automatic response, simple
or passive, but as a complex set of responses result of
the constant interaction between the individual and
demands that the conditions lead, which qualify those
responses.
Keywords: Environmental stress, stressful situations,
teaching
A Study of the Spatial Perception of
Beginning Design Students and a Teaching
Method for Visualizing Space
(Un estudio de la percepción espacial de los
estudiantes principiantes de diseño y un método
de enseñanza para visualizar el espacio)
Elizabeth Pober (University of Oklahoma)
The process of designing requires a specialized type
of thinking and a unique form of perception. Designers must be able to “think visually and volumetri-
cally” (CIDA, 2006). Acquiring the ability to accurately visualize space is and important skill for design
students. Design educators often find teaching this
skill to beginning students a daunting task. Design
concepts are communicated with a technique and in
a context that is a representation of what the real-life
version will be. Students must learn to visually make
the connection between the techniques for communicating the design, and the design’s real context. This
paper will explore the beginning design student’s
perception of space and a method for teaching them
to more accurately visualize design concepts.
Research was initiated investigating the beginning
design student’s perceived size of a floor plan drawn
at ¼”=1’-0” compared to their perception of the
actual scale of 1’=1’. The study used quantitative style
questionnaires distributed when the students were
drafting the plan, and at two stages when generating
the plan at the actual scale of 1’=1’. A total of 117
individual student questionnaires were analyzed and
nine student group interviews were conducted.
Students in a beginning design studio were given
an empty floor plan of a “pool house” at a scale of
¼”=1’-0”. The students regenerated this plan with a
section, learning to draft, to generate design drawings
and their components, and to plan circulation paths
and furniture arrangements. Once completed, the
class went to a large empty parking lot. Each student
brought their floor plan, rolls of masking tape, scale,
and tape measure. In groups of four, the students
regenerated the completed floor plans using their supplies at a scale of 1’=1’ (figure-4).
Three questionnaires were distributed throughout
the project asking the students to provide their perceived idea of the size of the pool house, ranging from
one to five, one being small and five being large scale.
In the weeks prior to this project, extensive time was
spent learning about design elements and principles,
including scale and its many forms. The first questionnaire was distributed after the completion of the
drafted plan. The second questionnaire was distributed after the walls of the plan had been masked off,
and the third questionnaire was distributed when
the furniture had been masked off and the plan was
complete. The results revealed that the initial perception of the drafted plan was larger (figure-1) than the
perception of the plan were just the walls were masked
off (figure-2). The results also revealed that the final
perception of the completed plan with furniture
(figure-3) was larger than the masked off plan without
furniture (figure-2), but smaller than the perception after the plan was drafted (figure-1). After the
completion of the 1’=1’ plan, the students were asked
to “walk through”, “use” the spaces and find mistakes
in their planning. Overall, the students interviewed
felt this exercise was very beneficial in helping them
to visualize the true size of the spaces they had been
drawing.
Keywords: Spatial Perception, Visualization,
Graphic Representation, Scale
Understanding the Millennial Cohort: Design
Students Respond to Educators’ Perceptions
(Comprendiendo la cohorte del milenio: respuesta
de estudiantes de diseño a las percepciones del
educador)
Megan Lee and Marianne Egan (Oregon State
University, OR), and Amy Crumpton (
Mississippi State University, MS)
The research discussed in this paper is the continuation of the exploratory study of Millennial cohort
(born between 1982-2002) characteristics that influence design education. The first phase of the research
was conducted in early 2007. A purposive sample
from a diverse range of eight design educators was
interviewed to explore educators’ perceptions of the
current cohort of design students. Design educators’
expressed awareness, passion and interest in further
exploring the generational influences on design education. Three important themes were identified during
the interviews:
1. Design students’ dependency on technology as a
crutch.
2. Awareness of social issues such as sustainability,
and heightened awareness of the built environment
from popular media.
3. Educators’ compassion towards students’ economic strains.
Using both the findings from the interviews and
the feedback received from our peers following the
EDRA38 paper presentation, we found that the first
stage of this project has influenced the second stage of
the long-term project. This paper presents the results
from the second stage that includes survey develop-
Thematic
Abstracts
Environmental
Design
Education
Research &
Professional
Practice
Educación
del diseño
ambiental,
investigación
y práctica del
profesional
Thematic
Abstracts
Environmental
Design
Education,
Research &
Professional
Practice
Educación
del diseño
ambiental,
investigación
y práctica del
profesional
ment using the themes identified from the educator
interviews as the instrument development guide. The
short survey was administered to a purposive sample
of introductory level ‘design students’ from two regionally diverse universities. The findings explore the
different viewpoints between educators and students
while helping to explain the disparities based on
cohort characteristics. The limitation to the current
project is that generalizations can not be made to all
design students in differing design majors. Nevertheless, the project of ‘Understanding the Millennial Cohort as Design Students’ is being developed utilizing
a mixed-methods approach to combine educators,
students and cohort perceptions and attributes that
are currently shaping design education from a social
ecology and systems perspective. Bronfenbrenner
and Morris’s (2006) Bioecological Model of Human
Development indicates that human development is
primarily stimulated by microsystem influences such
as parents and siblings, followed by mesosystem influence of friends and teachers. At the most distal level
of development are macrosystem influences which
tend to influence cohort characteristics. The reason
to propose the study of macrosystem influences is the
identified connection between design education as a
reflection of the macrosystem influences such as sustainability, technology and globalism. As environment
and behavior research strive towards the building
and maintaining of a global and socially sustainable
future, we propose that research examining all levels
of system analysis influencing the students is important towards the continued development of a holistic
curriculum.
Keywords: Curriculum development, interdisciplinary, qualitative research, quantitative research.
Reference: Bronfenbrenner, U., & Morris, P. A.
(2006). The Bioecological model of human development. In W. Damon & R.M. Lerner (Series Ed.) & R.M.
Lerner (Vol. Ed.), Handbook on child psychology: Vol
1. Theoretical models of human development (6th ed.,
chapter 14; pp. 793-828). New York: Wiley.
What Constitutes Genuine Participation?
Lessons from the Field
Lynne Manzo (University of Washington,
Seattle, WA)
In this session I will discuss the implications of
participation and the goal of sustainability in the
context of HOPE VI, a competitive grants program
administered by the U.S. Department of Housing and
Urban Development (HUD) that transforms public
housing sites into mixed-income developments. As
part of the redevelopment, the government requires
that local Public Housing Authorities (PHAs) involve
current residents in the redevelopment process – in
both the development of a new master plan and in
discussions of the relocation process. In other words,
they mandate citizen participation. There is good
indication that by some standards what is done does
not constitute genuine participation, but rather is part
of a larger, unfortunate trend toward more normative,
institutionalized participation, as noted by Randy
Hester (1999) and Mark Francis (1997). Additionally, there are important issues of sustainability at
play as that is one of the goals of HOPE VI redevelopments. However, in light of how the program actually
works on the ground and its attendant issues of social
engineering by deconcentrating poverty and mixing
incomes, there are critical social sustainability issues
that this program also raises. Because of this and the
enormous impact of HOPE VI on both our landscape
and the lives of disenfranchised people, it is important
to explore resident participation in the redevelopment
process. What is genuine participation in the context
of HOPE VI? How can we define it differently? How
can it be accomplished within a studio context? To
address these questions, this paper will review several
lessons learned from the field – of both what to do and
what to avoid in seeking to educate our students about
participation and social and environmental justice.
What do Service Learning, and Native
Communities have to do with Practice or a
Sustainable Future?
Lynn Paxson (Iowa State University, Ames, IA)
Community, Participatory, and Advocacy Design
are all terms used to describe an orientation or a way
of practicing design that grew out of the participatory
186
democracy movement of the 1960’s. The social and
cultural issues raised during this time were heavily
critical of the status quo and sought to make a better
world which was more inclusive of a wide range of
groups – many of whom did not have resources or,
a voice in existing design practice or other “professional” fields that made decisions about the places
in which they lived. Much has changed since that
time, design and research fields have developed more
critical understandings about participation, and the
design fields have gone through periods where this
type of practice or orientation has been marginalized.
Most studios in design schools model practice in very
limited ways and those are mostly based on some
version of contemporary corporate design practice. In
both design practice and schools the definition and
understanding of sustainability is limited to physical
environments excluding any social aspects of sustainability. Students rarely have opportunities in studio
that challenge their cultural viewpoint or openly
require them to deal with conflict, power, alternative points of view, and issues of marginal or ethnic
identity. This presentation will look at what has been
learned about some of these issues in a number of different studio service learning projects. These projects
involved design students working in a variety of ways
with Native American communities. The projects have
been undertaken to provide various tribal communities with support that will assist them in preparing
to hire design professionals and or to gain funding
rather than to provide or take the place of professional
design services.
Environmental Design Research
Cross Cultural/International Research:
Contributing to the EB (EnvironmentBehavior) Body of Knowledge
(Investigación internacional / intercultural:
contribuyendo al cuerpo del conocimiento EB.)
Organizer: Mary Anne Alabanza Akers
(Morgan State University, Baltimore)
Sponsor: EDRA International Connections Network
Conducting research in various cultural and international contexts brings forth many questions and
debates about the universality of research paradigms,
epistemologies and methods. Because cultural communities are socially constructed based on different
and unique histories, traditions, world views, and
environmental elements, we challenge the notion that
an objective universal research prototype can readily
be applied in any culture. We understand the need
to develop diverse frameworks as we inquire into
relationships between people and their environments
around the world.
The proposed half-day intensive workshop will
explore environment-behavior (EB) research from
an international perspective. Using case studies of
research conducted in places such as Sri Lanka, Brazil,
England, Algeria, Jordan, Philippines, and Australia,
the workshop will specifically address the following
questions:
1. Why is there a need to challenge standard EB
research protocols and their applications to cultural
studies around the world;
2. What research methods are used in international
research and how are these created and/or modified
so they are culturally appropriate;
3. As international researchers, how do our worldviews, assumptions, familiarity with the culture and
language impact the nature of our research; and
4, Is it necessary to develop an “international
epistemology” so that our research converge at some
coherent point or should we continue to conduct relative studies that do not intersect?
The proposed intensive workshop is divided into
three parts. Part One will consist of seven 15-minute
presentations with 10 minutes Q&A for each study.
After these presentations, a full discussion is planned
for 45 minutes. Presentations Include:
Thematic
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Environmental
Design
Education
Research &
Professional
Practice
Educación
del diseño
ambiental,
investigación
y práctica del
profesional
Thematic
Abstracts
Environmental
Design
Education,
Research &
Professional
Practice
Educación
del diseño
ambiental,
investigación
y práctica del
profesional
• Street Vendor Life in the Philippines. Mary Anne
Alabanza Akers (Morgan State University, Baltimore,
Maryland)
• Privacy and Mores in Vernacular Jordanian
Architecture. Rula Awwad-Rafferty (University of
Idaho)
• Urban Public Spaces and Street Life in Sri Lanka.
Nisha Fernando (University of Wisconsin- Stevens
Point)
• Universality or Cultural-specificity of Research
Methodologies and Methods in International Research?: Examples from research at the University of
Sydney. Gary Moore (University of Sydney, Australia)
Data Gathering by Environment-Behavior
Professionals: A Working Group to Explore
Innovative Techniques and Instruments
Working Group
(Recolección de información por los profesionales
de ambiente-comportamiento: un grupo de trabajo
para explorar técnicas innovadoras e instrumentos
de trabajo de grupo)
Organizers: Sally Augustin (PlaceCoach Inc.,
Michigan) and Janetta McCoy (Washington
State University)
Architectural programmers, academic researchers,
designers, and others who need to know more about
how humans interact with their physical environments gather information using various tools. New
information gathering techniques and instruments
are continually being created and existing ones are
regularly revamped in useful ways. The purpose of
this session is to involve all interested parties – practitioners in the field, researchers, teachers of environment-behavior courses, students, etc.- in a discussion
of the best new data collection tools available to gauge
human responses to particular environments. In this
unstructured session, individuals will be invited to
share new techniques and instruments that they have
found useful for learning about human/environment
interactions. These might range from new observation protocols to a set of insightful survey questions
to virtual reality simulations to Internet based focus
groups. The techniques and instruments discussed
will be determined by the tools that attendees choose
to share.
Keywords: Research methodology
188
A Different Kind of Writing: What and Why
Workshop
(Un modo diferente de escritura: que y por que?
Taller)
Organizer: Karen Franck (New Jersey Institute
of Technology). Presenters: Karen Franck (New
Jersey Institute of Technology), Galen Cranz
(University of California, Berkeley), Jack
Nasar (Oklahoma State University)
Many environmental design researchers adopt a
certain style of writing, one common and appropriate
to the social sciences, that is largely neutral in tone,
based on facts and the careful interpretation of those
facts. Some researchers may sometimes adopt a more
journalistic form of expression or one that is accessible to the general public but even then it would not
be called “creative writing.”
Some of us, however, have wished to try another
form of expression, that could be called “creative
writing”, possibly with a different purpose, a different
audience in mind and, possibly, because there is something else, something different we want to say.
In this workshop session, three long time EDRA
members will each give a short reading from an ongoing creative writing project. Audience members will
be asked to guess which excerpt is fiction and which
non-fiction. Then the three presenters will answer several questions: What is the project I am engaged in?
How am I pursuing it? Why am I pursuing it? Those
attending the workshop are urged to share their own
experiences in pursuing creative writing projects.
Learning Objectives:
1) To discover what kinds of creative writing
projects some environmental design researchers are
pursuing
2) To explore the reasons for and the advantages of
undertaking this kind of work
3) To consider what the writers bring to and take
from these projects
Keywords: writing, memoir, fiction, non-fiction
Environmental Autobiography as a Means
of Understanding Memories of a Small-town
Theater
(Autobiografía del ambiente como un medio de
entender las memorias de un pequeño teatro de
población)
April Allen (Michigan State University, MI)
Environmental autobiography, a method of bringing
out a person’s conscious and unconscious affective ties to environments through personal reflection, analysis, synthesis, and presentation has been
used as a learning experience in classroom settings
(Boschetti, 1987), as well as in investigating the connections among human values, behavior, and space
in residential settings (Hasell and Peatross, 1991;
Marcus, 1997; Marcus and Sarkissian, 1986). This
study was undertaken to discover the affective ties
and social importance of the Pulaski Theatre to the
residents of the town. Various research methods were
utilized, including a drawing exercise. Six males and
nine females participated in the study. Ages ranged
from 43 to 82 with an average age of 60. Four participants were African-American and 11 were Caucasian.
All had grown up in the Pulaski area with six living
there their entire life and attending the theatre from
childhood through adult years. Before beginning an
open-ended interview, participants were given a sheet
of drawing paper and offered pencils and felt-tip pens,
and asked to draw a picture of the theatre that expressed their feelings of their experience of the space.
The emphasis of the picture was left to the discretion
of each participant. Seven people participated in the
drawing exercise portion of the interview. After the
drawing exercise, participants were asked to discuss
their drawings of the theatre and the meanings connected with them. They were interviewed regarding
their earliest recollections of the theatre; the dates
they attended the theatre; the types of movies they
remember seeing; where they sat in the theatre; if
they attended the theatre alone or with others; and
what the theatre meant to them. The drawing exercise helped to bring the experience of the theatre to
a conscious level for the participants and allowed
them to express these feelings during the interview.
Drawings created by the participants were examined
to discover significant memories and associations
regarding the theatre. Since participants were given
no direction when asked to “draw a picture of the
theatre that expresses their feelings of their experience
of the space”, the drawings reflected what the participants considered most important and memorable. The
theatre building was seen as an integral part of the
community and a reflection of its social norms and
roles, and the interior space of the theatre contributed
to the social atmosphere of the patrons’ experiences.
The close, affective ties the townspeople have for the
theatre speak to the need to preserve this building
within the landscape of their community.
Keywords: meaning, place memory, preservation,
neighborhood
Life-Space Design & Research Workshop
(Diseño de espacio de vida & taller de
investigación)
Organizers: Mardelle Shepley, Susan Rodiek,
Cerruta Minyoung, and Kirk Hamilton (Texas
A&M University)
Pastalan (1997) and others have endorsed the
“provision of specialized facilities through purposeful
design, construction and operations.” A specialized facility suggests an awareness of the impact
of life-span differences on environmental requirements. However, the concept of heterogeneity is also
central to the theory of life-span design. Children’s
developmental stages vary dramatically and rapidly
over the first 18 years of life. Likewise, the population of seniors is broadly diverse; it is likely that their
individual differences exceed the differences between
their age group and other age groups. Awareness of
the acute similarities and differences of children and
seniors has resulted in the development of the Texas
A&M College of Architecture Life-Span Reference
Center, which includes the Powell Lawton archives,
and the 400+ references associated with Healthcare
Environments for Children and their Families (Shepley, 1998).
Three topics will be briefly presented in the workshop: 1) research theories and agendas that are
appropriate for both populations, 2) research associated with environments which are shared by children
and seniors, and 3) the application of research data to
professional practice. The structure of this workshop
Thematic
Abstracts
Environmental
Design
Education
Research &
Professional
Practice
Educación
del diseño
ambiental,
investigación
y práctica del
profesional
Thematic
Abstracts
Environmental
Design
Education,
Research &
Professional
Practice
Educación
del diseño
ambiental,
investigación
y práctica del
profesional
is geared to specifically address the objectives of the
conference: to “link differences and define actions.”
Research theories and agendas. Several theories
which were meant to address environmental needs
of seniors can be applied to children. For example,
Pastalan identified 10 types of activities that can be
associated with spatial zone: solitude, intimacy, personal care, relaxation/play, companionship/friendship,
anonymity, eating, entertainment, and healthcare.
These zones are equally applicable to the activities
of children. Rodiek’s (2005) research on seniors and
access to nature can also be addressed in the context
of other populations. These theories and others, will
be discussed in terms of their impact on the design of
environments for individuals of varying ages.
Intergenerational Environments: Several researchers
have focused on the impact of intergenerational environments. One recent study (Seo, 2006), found that
semi-enclosed spaces were the most effective environments for fomenting interaction. This study and
intergenerational design research will be integrated
into the workshop discussion.
Application to Professional Practice: One focus of
this workshop will be to discuss the way in which lifespan research can be incorporated into professional
practice. The role of varying levels of researcher/
practitioner (Hamilton, 2004) in the development of
evidence-based design projects which acknowledge
life-span design will be presented.
The primary objective of this workshop will be to
develop an environmental research agenda which acknowledges evolving and re-volving needs of children,
seniors, and other adult populations.
Keywords: child/youth, elderly/gerontology, intergenerational, professional practice, design for aging
190
Mixed Methodologies for Capturing
the Complex Dynamics of People-Place
Relationships Workshop
(Metodologías mixtas para capturar la dinámica
compleja del taller de relaciones de personaslugares)
Organizers: Penny Travlou, Susana Alves
(OPENspace, Scotland) and Andrea Faber
Taylor (University of Illinois)
Presenters: Gary Evans (Cornell University),
Gowri Betrabet Gulwadi (University of Northern Iowa), Andrea Faber Taylor (University of
Illinois), and Penny Travlou and Susana Alves
(OPENspace, Scotland)
Place is conceptualized as dynamic process of interactions rather than as a static entity. The theoretical
framework is informed by place philosophy in which
place is conceptualized as encompassing self and
others, subjectivity, memories and experience in place
(Casey 1993, Malpas 1999). It is also informed by the
transactional perspective from environmental psychology (Altman and Rogoff 1987) in which personenvironment transactions form one interactive
system integrating the individual, social and physical
environment. The theory of Affordances (Gibson
1979, Heft 1988) similarly views the individual and
environment as one interactive system. Affordance is
a dynamic perceptual process between individual and
environment, in which the physical features of the
environment afford (or offer up) a range of possibilities for action.
This workshop will present and discuss mixed
qualitative and quantitative methodologies that
capture the complex interactions of people with place
with a special focus on diverse communities. A range
of multi-disciplinary techniques will be presented to
include: place ethnography, new technologies, experiential mapping and audio walks, and use of GIS in
this process.
The workshop proposal is directed to researchers
wishing to develop integrative research methodologies
and will focus on integrating diverse communities
into the research process (i.e. immigrant populations,
older people and young people at risk) who find it
difficult to engage in traditional quantitative and/or
qualitative methodologies. The discussion from the
workshop presentations will focus on some of the following key questions:
a) How successful are the methodologies in capturing dynamic people-place relationships?
b) How well do the methods address issues of diversity?
c) What are the implications for further developing
these methodologies to evaluate sustainable quality of
life in urban and peri-urban environments?
d) What are the benefits and challenges of a multimethod approach?
References:
Altman, I. and Rogoff, B., (1987) “World views in
psychology: trait, interactional, organismic and transactional perspectives.” in D Stokols and I. Altman
(eds.) Handbook of environmental psychology. Vol. 1.
Ch 8, pp. 245-281.
Casey, ES (1993) Getting Back into Place: A Phenomenological Study (Studies in Continental
Thought), Indiana University Press.
Gibson, J J (1979) The Ecological Approach to Visual
Perception: Boston: Houghton-Mifflin.
Heft. H (1988) ‘Affordances of children’s environments: a functional approach to environmental
description’ in Children’s Environments Quarterly, 5
(3): 29-37.
Malpas, J. (1999) Place and Experience: A Philosophical Topography, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Keywords: Place-people relationships, Multimethods Integrative, Socio-cultural and ethnic diversity, Multi-disciplinary
Psychosocial and community level impacts of
internet use: A literature review and future
research agenda for environment-behavior
studies
Shalini Misra (University of California, Irvine)
Evidence about the effects of the Internet on
interpersonal communication, social relationships,
and sense of community has been conflicting. This
review argues that the contrasting evidence on the
psychosocial and community level consequences
of Internet use can be explained by the congruence
between specific personal dispositions of people, their
socio-physical context, and the characteristics of the
particular cybernetic environment. Specifically, this
review realizes three objectives. First, it connects
and integrates the various strands of research in the
areas of psychology, urban sociology, and media and
communication studies that have dealt with specific
psychosocial variables associated with Internet use.
Second, it presents a model of ‘personcybernetic
environment fit’ linking the characteristics of
cybernetic environments, personal dispositions,
and the socio-physical environmental context to
certain behaviors. Third, it identifies theoretical
and methodological gaps, potential extensions, and
questions that environment-behavior theories and
methods can address.
Keywords: environmental psychology of the Internet,
virtual environments, cybernetic environments,
person-cybernetic environment fit
A Study of Attributes Measuring Model by
Case of Interior Design
(Estudio del modelo de medición de atributos por
caso en el diseño de interiores)
Tzung-Hui Wang and Szu-yu Tzeng (National
Yunlin University of Science and Technology,
Taiwan)
With regard to the analysis of measurement in
interior design, the empirical study process has long
been neglected by past researchers. Therefore it is an
essential task for researchers to gain a quantitative
consumer understanding which hopefully will form
the basis of design quality improvement.
This paper establishes a measuring model, explores
the particularity and the complexity of design elements and discusses design attributes and orientation.
Based on a literature review and qualitative analysis,
the paper sums up design attributes and explores measurement dimensions. Based on confirmatory factor
analysis in structural equation modeling, the paper
establishes an attribute measuring model, and tests its
stability and fitness. The paper converts a scale into
measurement indicators which form the pragmatic
viewpoints, thus facilitates further research.
First, design samples from design literature, magazines, and designers’ works, published or unpublished
were selected. Based on spatial function, spatial
composition elements, spatial vocabulary words, and
design materials, six design samples are selected by
Thematic
Abstracts
Environmental
Design
Education
Research &
Professional
Practice
Educación
del diseño
ambiental,
investigación
y práctica del
profesional
Thematic
Abstracts
Environmental
Design
Education,
Research &
Professional
Practice
Educación
del diseño
ambiental,
investigación
y práctica del
profesional
a scholar and two professional designers as stimuli
samples.
Next, this paper uses projection experiment to
collect subjects’ responses to stimuli. The research
method included collecting subjects’ cognition vocabulary words in response to six interior design samples.
By interviewing 156 subjects, we selected attribute
adjectives in interior design from the above vocabulary. The attribute adjectives are organized and coded
for measurement terms on the questionnaires. Then,
a pilot study which used exploratory factor analysis
to put interrelated cognition vocabulary words in the
same dimension in order to form a scale. The measurement dimensions in interior design are as follows:
Pragmatic Function, Stylish Peculiarity, Economic
Value, and Spatial Aesthetics.
Finally, Confirmatory factor analysis was performed
by the software LISREL 8.72 to establish a design
attribute measuring model. Based on the formula of
Bruhn and Grund, the paper establishes a measuring
model in which attribute measurement is designated
by numbers. According to the dimensions of the
model, measurement indicators of each sample are
respectively calculated.
The objective is to convert the developed scale into
a result-oriented evaluation tool. The scale forms the
Comprehensive Evaluated Index and thus the improvement direction for interior design. With regards
to measuring models, the reliability and validity is
based upon Latent Dimensions evaluation and Measurement Error Control. Any individual tool is unable
to provide an accurate prediction. It is advisable to use
various tools to construct a reliable and valid measuring model.
Keywords: Measuring Model, Quantitative Methods,
Interior Design.
192
Environmental Design Professional
Practice
Coalition of National Design Associations’
Proposal for a New National Academy of
Environmental Design: An Opportunity For
EDRA Participation and Influence
(Coalicion de propuestas de las associaciones
nacionales de diseño para una nueva academia
de diseño ambiental: una opotunidad para la
participacion e influencia de EDRA)
Janice Bissell (Stafford King Wiese Architects, CA)
A growing coalition of national organizations
focused on the built environment has agreed to create
a new National Academy of Environmental Design
(NAED) to coordinate research, generate new knowledge, distribute vital information, and make recommendations to policy makers on how to reduce the
negative impact of cities, buildings, landscapes, and
transportation on our global climate.
The built environment—the communities and buildings we occupy—produces nearly half of all the greenhouse gases and consumes almost 40% of the energy
that humans use. Architects, engineers, landscape
architects, interior designers, public health physicians, building contractors, researchers, scientists,
and many others each play vital roles in designing and
constructing the built environment. Yet there is no
single entity, no national-level public or private body,
charged with coordinating the existing work, or defining the needed research to improve the energy performance and environmental impact of the designed
world. Similarly, there is no single entity charged with
understanding and documenting improvements to
the quality of life that can come through a better built
environment. The NAED will take up that charge.
The Association of Collegiate Schools of Architecture (ACSA), The American Institute of Architects
(AIA), the American Society of Landscape Architects
(ASLA), the American Institute of Architecture Students (AIAS), the Association of Collegiate Schools of
Planning (ACSP), the Environmental Design Research
Association (EDRA) and the Council of Educators in
Landscape Architecture (CELA) have all endorsed a
resolution to establish the NAED. The NAED would
incorporate the full range of design and planning
disciplines, including architecture, urban planning,
landscape architecture, interior design, product
design, and graphic design and work with the other
National Academies in providing expertise for the
National Research Council boards and committees
that advise Congress and other levels of government
on public policy.
The coalition’s steering committee will work to
organize the NAED with a plan to seek congressional
support for its establishment in 2009. “Today, the
United States and the world face pressing and catastrophic challenges, including precipitous climate
change, species extinction, epidemics affecting human
health, and a wide range of toxins, the impacts of
which are poorly understood even when recognized,”
said Kim Tanzer, AIA, President of ACSA. “The
NAED will marshal the extensive knowledge of the
environmental design disciplines to help the existing
academies, through the
National Research Council, and address these critically important issues.”
The existing National Academies bring together
committees of experts in areas of scientific, engineering, and technological endeavor to serve “pro
bono to address critical national issues and give
advice to the federal government and the public.” Four
organizations comprise the academies: the National
Academy of Sciences (created in 1863), the National
Academy of Engineering (created in 1964), the Institute of Medicine (created in 1970), and the National
Research Council (created in 1916). The National
Academies receive funding from a range of sources,
including government allocations, private grants, and
foundation support. All four organizations were established during times of extreme need for the nation
to act in the face of crisis – the Civil War, World War I,
and the Space Race.
The founding organizations of the NAED believe
that we have entered just such a perilous period in our
planet’s history, and that we must act now to secure
the future for our children and the generations to
come.
The purpose of this workshop is to get input from
the EDRA membership on the direction for the
NAED research agenda, and to establish a database of
accomplished and noteworthy individuals who should
be considered for nomination to the Academy.
EDRA Input Session
(Edra aportación de los asociados)
Every year at the EDRA Membership meeting, too
little time is available for the EDRA Board to receive
feedback from the EDRA Membership. This year, in
addition to feedback opportunities at the Membership Meeting on Thursday evening, we will hold two
feedback session on Friday and Saturday mornings.
At these session we take input and feedback on any
topic members would like to raise. In addition, we are
excited to discuss the Board’s strategic initiatives and
organization governance work over the past year. In
addition, we are excited to discuss the EDRA website,
get your feedback about it, and consider plans for how
it may grow over the next year.
Social and Ethnic Stratification in the U.S.
Green Industry: The gap between elite design
professions and laborers
(Estratificación social y étnica en la industria verde
en los estados unidos: la brecha entre la elite de
profesionales del diseño y los trabajadores)
Neil Korostoff, Meredity Forney, and A.E.
Luloff (Penn State University)
Because of recent trends in immigration and U.S.
population demographics Latinos (used inter-changeably here with “Latino”) now represent the largest
single minority – over 13% of the total population
(US Bureau of the Census 2005a). Compared with
other American populations Latinos have lower
levels of educational attainment, occupational status,
income, and household wealth (US Bureau of the
Census 2004b; Kochhar 2005a; Kochhar 2005b). Latinos tend to cluster in low-wage, low-skill jobs or specific occupations in the US economy (Kochhar 2005b).
Many Latinos find employment in the Horticultural
Services Sectors that include Landscape Services. The
grounds maintenance and landscape architecture sectors of the US “Green Industry” – formally termed the
Horticultural Services Sectors - employs over 551,000
people with an annual payroll of $13 billion and sales
of more than $38 billion (Hall 2005). Despite the
expansion of the Latino population in the US and the
concentration of Latino employment in horticultural
services, very few Latinos have made the transition to
the professional and managerial levels – such as landscape architecture (Ahluwalia 2005; Kochhar 2005b).
Thematic
Abstracts
Environmental
Design
Education
Research &
Professional
Practice
Educación
del diseño
ambiental,
investigación
y práctica del
profesional
Thematic
Abstracts
Environmental
Design
Education,
Research &
Professional
Practice
Educación
del diseño
ambiental,
investigación
y práctica del
profesional
Data from professional landscape architecture organizations corroborates with the shrinking proportion
of professional and managerial jobs held by Latino
in this industry and the growth of income inequality.
The small number of Latino landscape architects currently employed in an industry that depends ultimately upon the low wage, low skill labor dominated
by Latinos raises important issues for the profession.
Are landscape architects comfortable in their role in
the Green Industry as well-compensated, high-status
professionals whose success depends entirely upon the
demanding, physical labor of people whose color and
culture differ from their own? Given the very small
numbers of Latino landscape architects, far below
the proportion of Latinos in the U.S. population, are
there specific educational or cultural barriers that
prevent Latinos from entering landscape architecture?
As the Latino population in the U.S. increases, does
landscape architecture run risk becoming irrelevant
to this growing market? Some of these issues will be
considered in the discussion section of this paper.
Why Do Some Architects Care? Motives
behind Choosing a Socially Responsible
Career
(¿Por qué a algunos arquitectos si les importa?)
Elif Tural (Arizona State University)
Today a major portion of architecture still stays as a
profession that eliminates the disadvantaged groups,
privileges the privileged, and prioritizes aesthetic/
formal dimensions of design presenting itself as an artistic practice. The relationship between the powerful
sections of the society who control the economic and
cultural capital, and architects who possess cultural
capital was extensively discussed by Stevens (1995;
1998) within the framework of Bourdeiu’s theories
of power. Within this context, Stevens elucidated
how the field of architecture has its own “favored
circle,” as a social system favoring the favored, i.e.
who already has the symbolic capital, and at the same
time, addressing this favored group with their professional service via producing ‘Culture’ for them. This
“favored circle” within the field of architecture can be
defined with personal and social backgrounds of its
members, such as their class, race and gender traits as
well as their socializations and enculturations from
194
family and educational histories. As demonstrated in
several studies, this “favored circle” is mainly gendered, classed and raced (Stevens, 1998; Ahrentzen &
Anthony, 1993; Davis, 1993).
However, beside this approach, there are several
architects who pursue alternative directions within
the profession adopting a social agenda of the practice
that emphasizes service to the subordinate fractions
of the society, utilizes participatory design processes,
and are sensitive to socio-cultural contexts within
which they design. Even though their perceptions of
social responsibility differ among each other, there
is a significant difference between the architects who
choose to practice architecture as a form of art to
serve the power status quo versus the ones who claim
architecture should address the needs of ‘the other,’
regardless of how ‘the other’ is defined—in terms of
economic class, race, ethnicity or gender.
This study argues that designers who choose to practice, teach or research socially responsible architecture
are:
a) the ones who have entered the profession, but do
not belong to the “favored circle” due to their personal/social backgrounds, attributable to their class,
gender, or race-based identities; or
b) the ones who have somehow experienced how
the world is like out of their “favored circle,” because
of a specific event, an activity, an educational experience, the epoch—the larger cultural context, or via a
person/role model; either temporarily or in long-term;
either directly or indirectly.
Within the context of existing research, and biographies and statements of architects, the study attempts
to provide evidence that the experience of ‘otherness’
is the reason how these architects perceive the world
and the profession they are operating in differently
than, for example, the “star” architects who choose
to define their architecture in relation to their artistic
geniuses. The study concludes with demonstrating
a knowledge gap in explaining which factor(s) or
combinations of them are most influential in shaping
the social directions architects pursue in their career
choices and the nature of work.
Keywords: social issues, professional practice, architecture
Women in Academia: City Planning
Departments in the United States
(Mujeres en academia: departamentos de
planeación de ciudades en los Estados Unidos)
Zeynep Toker (California State University,
Northridge)
these phone interviews will provide guidance for the
next step of this research project.
Keywords: Women, city planning, academia.
As the first step of this research project the city planning departments in California were examined. Female faculty constitutes only 31% of the tenured and
tenure track faculty in city planning departments in
California. Moreover, the distribution of female faculty in these departments across ranks is imbalanced.
There are only female assistant professors in some
departments, and only associate and full professors
in others. Therefore, lack of mentorship and guidance
for junior female faculty members is a disadvantage.
Also, lack of female faculty in the personnel committees which evaluate the junior faculty is another
disadvantage. These findings are parallel to previous
studies’ findings on women either in academia in
general or in professional practice of city planning.
However, specifically city planning departments have
not been the focus of a comprehensive study with an
emphasis on female faculty members. Considering the
fact that the criteria for promotion in city planning
departments usually include professional practice
as service to communities, which is different from
the conventional descriptions of scholarly activities,
female faculty members in these departments might
have unique experiences in academia.
The purpose of this study is to examine the city
planning departments in the United States in order to
identify if the distribution of female faculty members
across the ranks and in terms of percentage compared to their male counterparts is a pattern around
the country. The Association of Collegiate Schools of
Planning (ACSP), which is a consortium of universitybased programs offering credentials in urban and
regional planning, lists 70 accredited and 18 non-accredited city planning programs in the United States.
The percentage and the distribution across ranks of
female faculty members will be documented for the
total of 88 departments of city planning. Based on
the findings, a small group of female faculty members in California will be interviewed as a pilot study
to explore the affects of such a distribution on their
experiences as faculty members. Content analysis of
Abstracts
Environmental
Design
Education
Research &
Professional
Practice
Educación
del diseño
ambiental,
investigación
y práctica del
profesional
195
Environmental Gerontology
Activities that Promote Wellness for Older
Adults in a Rural Community
(Actividades que promueven el mejoramiento para
adultos mayores en una comunidad rural)
Mihyun Kang and Randall Russ (Oklahoma
State University)
Thematic
Abstracts
Environmental
Gerontology
Gerontology
Ambiental
The importance of wellness for older adults, which is
more than the absence of disease, is a topic of growing
significance. Older adults is the fastest growing U.S.
population sector, and it has particular wellness needs.
Growing interest in healthier aging coincides with
a new model for health and well being, the comprehensive whole person wellness model. This model
includes six dimensions: physical, emotional, intellectual, spiritual, social, and vocational.
Whole person wellness programming offers new opportunities for the senior market in each dimension.
Community centers in rural areas, though, may not
be aware of the need for developing and maintaining
dimensions of wellness in addition to the physical.
Community centers that integrate the six dimensions
will maintain a healthier, more capable older adult
segment by responding to the diverse needs of that
group. Providing programs that are attractive to and
serve older adults will foster additional opportunities
for broader services and larger audiences.
This study examined current activities for older
adults in rural community centers. The population
was community centers in rural areas, and a convenience sample was obtained from the directory of
Oklahoma community centers. Data was collected
via a mail survey sent to the directors of these centers.
The questionnaire, which consisted of open-ended
questions on activities offered in each center, was
developed for this study. The questionnaire was sent
to 259 community center directors; 90 returned their
questionnaires, which provided a response rate of
34.7%.
Findings from the survey indicated that 16% of
the centers offered activities for all six dimensions.
In terms of the dimensions, activities addressed, in
decreasing order, physical, social, spiritual, intellectual, vocational, and emotional needs. Activities for
196
the physical dimension were the most diverse, consisting of a variety of individual and group exercises
focused on muscle strength and endurance, flexibility,
coordination, and balance. All activities were held in
the same physical space. The most frequent activity
was the use of exercise equipment such as treadmills.
Additionally, planned meals and nutrition education were frequent activities related to the physical
dimension. Respondents indicated that games, such as
bingo, dominos, cards, and puzzles, and parties/gatherings for family and friends, were the frequent social
activities aimed at creating and maintaining healthy
relationships. It was also observed that not only does
each dimension contribute to overall wellness, but
individual dimensions interact with one another.
For example, in addition to games serving the social
dimension, they also serve as intellectual activities
that encourage individuals to expand knowledge and
skill, vocational activities that promote positive attitudes toward personal and professional development,
and emotional activities that help seniors maintain
confidence in managing their physical and emotional
health. Spiritual activities were more personal than
other activities. The whole person model can be
achieved through diverse activities for each dimension. Activities reported included individual and
small or large group activities, implying the need for
diverse space in which to provide programs. Therefore, to accommodate activities in a rural community
center, both programs and space for the programs
must be addressed.
Keywords: Wellness, rural community, design for aging, interior design.
Activities of the “Workshop for the Home
Environment Improvement for Elderly People
with Dementia” By Family Caregivers and
Experts
(Actividades del “taller para el mejoramiento del
ambiente del hogar para ancianos con demencia”
por cuidadores de la familia y expertos)
Chiho Oshima (Den-en Chofu University,
Japan), Hikaru Shimogaki (Japan College
of Social Work), Tetsuya Akagi (Kogakuin
University, Japan), and Keiko Kodama (Japan
College of Social Work)
1. Background and purpose
In Japan, half of the elderly people with dementia
who need to be cared for live at home. However, the
practical applications of home environment improvement for their family caregivers are not established.
For this issue, we organized “the workshop for the
house environment improvement for elderly people
with dementia”, and have had sessions of group case
example studies.
The purpose of this report shows the studies of
“the workshop for the house environment improvement for elderly people with dementia”, and proposes
the direction for the development of home environment improvement.
2. The activities of “the workshop for the house
environment improvement for elderly people with
dementia”
The workshop consists of researchers in architecture, psychology, and social welfare, caring experts,
and architects.
Group case studies were conducted by the following process: 1) collect case examples; 2) analyze
the cases; 3) feedback the analysis; 4) share the studies
in the group. From 2005 to 2006, we had five sessions
of group case example studies.
3. Characteristic and achievement of the workshop
One of the main characteristics of the workshop
is that various experts participated and studied one
common topic, home environment for family care
givers, together. The participants experienced cooperation not only between experts and family caregivers,
but also between researchers in different specialized
areas. Through the workshop, each researcher rediscovered the value of their specialty and the need for
understanding other areas of study.
Another characteristic of the workshop is that
elderly people with dementia themselves also participate in this workshop. We could analyze more
practical situations, having opinions from the most
involved party.
Our next goal is to propose a study of developed
home environment improvement, combining the both
purposes of caring and home improvement.
Keywords: home environment, elderly people with
dementia, family caregivers, expert, case study
Aging Friendly Experience Pavilion of Korea
Chaesuk Lim, Miseon Jang, and Yeunsook Lee
(Yonsei University, Korea)
While the birth rate has tremendously decreased,
the aging process of Korean society has been the
fastest in the world. Along this phenomenon, the
change of family formation and function and the
diversification of life styles lead the elderly to the
changed values of their own independent and healthy
old age rather than to depend on their offspring. In
spite of these social structures, Korean studies and experiences are ill-prepared for the aging society. Thus,
with the preparation and the need to be done, it is
necessary to develop diverse environments and products for the elderly, which make it possible to sustain
their independent lives in housing sites.
The purpose of the study is to analyze domestic and
foreign aging friendly experience pavilion to grasp
their tendencies and investigate the advanced concept
of the aging friendly.
The study proceeded with two stages: First, after
investigating the cases of worldwide future housing
through literature reviews, we selected total five
places: Welfare Techo House and Toyota Universal
Design Pavilion, a Japanese representative house
of experimental houses to study the aging friendly
housing environments, Barrier-Free Smai in Shinagawagu in Tokyo, Yokohama Sun City in Ganagawahyun, Kameda Medical Center in Chiba. And we
investigated the existing comparison cases through
literature reviews and touring-sites targeting spatial
formation and characteristics of contents.
Second, we used content analysis to analyze the
spatial formation and characteristics of contents for
the cases of Korean aging friendly experience pavilion
in order to grasp current tendencies. As for Korean
Thematic
Abstracts
Environmental
Gerontology
Gerontology
Ambiental
Thematic
Abstracts
Environmental
Gerontology
Gerontology
Ambiental
cases, we selected five representative places: The Universal Design 1 and 2, exhibited at Seoul Art Center in
2003, as the cases which have come to grips with the
concepts of universal design, the Senior Simulation
Center of Hallym University already operating, The
Aged Experiencing Center of Ansan College, and The
Senior Experiencing Center of Seoul Gwanak Senior
Welfare Center. The analysis objects of the spatial
formation and characteristics of contents were analyzed on the basis of information collected through
touring-sites and literature reviews. The process of
analyses was completed by 2 researchers in order to
compare their individual results to grasp a tendency.
The process was also verified through the professional
workshops relevant to the study to reinforce reliability
on the study results.
The results of the study are as follows: First, although the aging friendly experience pavilion of
Korea is divided into three experiencing pavilionseducational preparation, sentiment and physical
strength and walking, a designed space needs to be
developed in a way to reinforce reliability on experiencing through the production like realistic living
spaces and give users participant and dynamic experiences. Second, the pavilions, leading a rotational
experiencing path, were relatively operating well, they
needed to be complemented and designed to maximize the effect of learning supplements to experience
by leading systematic spatial deployments of environmental elements and the smooth path of flow. Third,
medicine- and science-based contents should be
developed in a way to make it possible to lead systematic provision of contents and organized experiences
for the proper grasp of the aging.
Though the study proceeded with limited cases, understanding the current tendency of the aging friendly
experience pavilion of Korea in which supports the
sustainable life of the elderly confirms specific ideas
of future directions of developing pavilions. Moreover,
by investigating the Japanese advanced experiment
cases previously developed, this study will reduce
trial and error which may occur in the process of
developing the aging friendly residential environment
eligible for the Korean circumstance. The idea of the
aging friendly residential environment produced in
the process will be a basic knowledge for an industrial
design which makes it possible to explore the idea
198
eligible for the products of the aging friendly environments. Finally, this study will explore an advanced
concept of the aging friendly through the experience
and conversion of the aging friendly consciousness.
Key words: Aging friendly, Aging friendly environment, Aging friendly experience pavilion
Attributes of Living Environment for Thai
Elderly
(Para ambientes de vida para la vejez)
Praima Israsena Na Ayudhya (Chulalongkorn
University, Thailand)
The demographic trends of the past decades are
leading to unprecedented increases not only in the
absolute numbers of the older persons but also in the
relative share of the population that belong to the
elderly age group (National Statistical Office of Thailand, 2002). As in most Asian countries, the family is
the traditional social institution for Thai elder-care. It
is the responsibility of each family to look after their
elders at home (Hugo, 1996), and this has become
a considerable burden on them. Appropriate living
environment can help decrease elder care burden and
promote well-being. Wilson(1990) recognized six
attributes of housing for the older persons: privacy,
choice, independence, individuality, and home-like
environment. Cohen and Weismen(1991) have identified nine therapeutic goals established for the older
frail people. And Regnier (1994) has expanded the
categories in the list, suggesting twelve environmental
principles: privacy, social interaction, control/choice/
autonomy, orientation/wayfinding, safety/security,
accessibility & functioning, stimulation/challenge,
sensory aspects, familiarity, aesthetics/appearance,
personalization, and adaptability. Since most research in the West focus on enabling the elderly to be
independent in a care center with trained caregiver.
Only some parts of the finding can be applied to the
Thai context. Besides the difference of elder care by
untrained family caregivers at home in Thailand, the
culture and ways of life are also different from the
West. This study aims to: 1) identify the attributes of
living environment that are important to Thai elderly
and caregivers. 2) better understand the effects of
sleeping areas on elder care burdens. Data from 38
pairs of elderly and caregivers were collected through
contextual interview and observation, self-documentary study, and floor plan sketch. Mapping of living
conditions and the elderly and caregiver’s burdens
reveals findings as follows: 1) For those who live in the
city, where the Western lifestyle were adopted, privacy,
independent and control are the most important
attributes. They prefer sleeping in a bed, living in a
bedroom and facing elder care problems similar to
those of the West. 2) For many families who are living
the Thai lifestyle, a higher importance is giving to
social interaction with family member, safety and
familiarity than for privacy, control, and other attributes identified by Wilson (1990) and Regnier (1994).
Many prefer moving the elderly, who has difficulty in
using stairs, to sleep in the living room downstairs in
order to be surrounded with family members all the
time. Many prefer sleeping on the floor as Thais are
used to it, and also think it is safer than sleeping in a
bed. These families have to deal with many problems
specific to Thailand which are left unexplored and
unsolved. For example Sleeping on the floor greatly
affects caregivers as they must bend down and exert a
lot of energy in transferring the elderly. The research
pointed out that each culture has specific needs
and requires the study of local problems in order to
achieve the best living criterion and solutions.
Keywords: elderly, culture, design for aging, interior
design, qualitative research
Characteristics of Universal Design Products
Applied to Japanese House in the View of
Aging in Place
Minah Park, Hyejin Kim, Soojin Lee, and
Yeunsook Lee (Yonsei University, Korea)
the elderly population was 9.1%, into account; Korea
requires immediate attention to devise a countermove
as the aging percentage is currently 9.5% in Korea. Especially, the progress pace on the shift from the aged
society to super-aged society in Korea is much faster
than in Japan; therefore, a policy provision and a
house development in respond to the aging society are
an urgent task. Thus, developing houses that would
ensure physically impaired elderly people’s independence and support their life is required.
The objective of this research is to analyze the
characteristics of the latest universally designed
products in Japan and to understand their trend. This
is expected to be a groundwork data for aging friendly
houses’ prosperity in Korea.
This research was progressed through two courses.
Firstly, the recent Japanese housing trend and the
general idea of the universal design were examined
through domestic journals and theses. Secondly, the
universal design products were chosen from the
recent Japanese houses and the universal design characteristics were extracted from these products. Then
they were analyzed by the 5 principles of the universal
design.
Although a notion of universal design paradigm is
widespread and the level of preparation for the aging
society and people’s interest in quality of lives are increasing in Korea, there have not been comprehensive
case studies. This research was analyzing products in
Japan where universal design paradigm was applied
and developed earlier than Korea. This paper could
provide a guideline for supplying housing product
plans and welfare system in relation to realistic improvement of universal design in Korea.
Amongst society transitional presuppositions
towards the future, an aging population is the most
significant matter. Revolving around the advanced
countries, the whole world’s population is aging, in
other words, the proportion of the elderly population
has been rising. This indicates that the elderly population is going to be a main consumer group. Korea
has entered the aging society in 2000 and will face
the aged society by 2018, which is the fastest time
that takes from the aging society to the aged society
in the world. Taking Japan’s reaction on planning a
constructive aging related policy, when the ratio of
Thematic
Abstracts
Environmental
Gerontology
Gerontology
Ambiental
A Comparison Study of Living Space and
Activity Territory for the Elderly Living
in Charitable Home: By Cases of ChiFei Institutions in Kaohsiung City Relief
Institution
(Un estudio comparativo del espacio de vida y
el terreno de actividad para la vejez en casas de
caridad: casos de la institución chi-fei en la ciudad
de Kaohsiung - institución de descanso)
Szu-Yu Tzeng (National Yunlin University of
Science & Technology)
Thematic
Abstracts
Environmental
Gerontology
Gerontology
Ambiental
Public Charitable Homes were established by municipal government in the 1960s, were stereotyped
relief institution with large scale, with congregated
care services.
This research chose Chi-Fei Institutions in Kaohsiung City Relief Institution as objectives, we conducted focused interviews, observations and timestudy surveys, and there are three main purposes
in this study: 1) By view of health states, to realize
the characteristics of using behaviors of living space
and activity territory of the elderly in three kinds of
Chi-Fei institutions; 2) To look into the reasons and
causes of different using behaviors of living space and
activity territory of the elderly; 3) To conclude the
orientations in the future for Charitable Home, from
a board view of physical aspects and socio-cultural
aspects of environment.
Finally, we attain the results as follows:
The space atmosphere of residential care home is
stereotyped, the activity territory of the majority
of elderly is limited inside the space of institution.
Whereas, the mostly activities are occurred inside the
Charitable Home, the activity territory for the elderly
in Chi-Fei Institutions and senior apartment are
various. Partly of the elderly were extended to the outside of Charitable Home. The functions of bedroom
and bathroom are overflowed, and cooking, diet and
storage behaviors are extended to the common space.
We find personal aspects, such as healthy and economic condition, education, traffic method, supports
from relatives or outside world; physical aspects, such
as the area and layout of bedroom and common space,
barriers in outdoor space; software service aspects,
such as meals, support of recreation and interaction
using behaviors of living space and activity territory
of the elderly. And the healthy condition is a key vari-
200
able. We suggest four topics that Charitable Home
should improve in the future: to supply a mini-type
home considered with privacy and personal territory;
plural accessible common space; flexible and with
choices meal service; better support various recreation
and interaction.
Keywords: elderly, living space, activity territory,
charitable home
Designing Ubiquitous Environments
for the Elderly: From the Perspective of
Environmental Behavior Approach
(Diseñando ambientes ubicuos para la vejez)
Soo-been Park (Pusan National University,
South Korea)
Ubiquitous Environment (UE) put its origination on
“ubiquitous computing (Weiser, M., 1988)”, creating
a vision of people and environment augmented with
computational resources that provide information
and services when and where desired (Abowd, G. D.
et al., 2002). Creating UE is concerned with not only
technology itself but also the users managing daily
lives in that situation. Recently researchers creating
UE are forced to examine what the people expect
in UE (Intell, S. S. et al., 2003; S.S. Intille, 2006). It
is also expected that the elderly, who constitute an
increasing percentage of the population, will be able
to function independently and maintain an acceptable quality of life in UE. An important issue for the
designing UE for the elderly is whether they feel the
same as the younger people who adapt easily to the
rapidly changing environment. It is, therefore, necessary to understand age-related differences in sensing,
processing and acting on information in order to plan
the digital place for the elderly to make them more
comfortable and delighted. This study concentrates on
the behavioral factors to design UE for the elderly. It is
undertaken with two differentiated processes: One is
re-examination of available data from diverse sources
including the project groups of the universities, the
companies, and the consortium. The representative
research projects that address challenges facing the
future technologies are The Aware Home Research
Initiative (Georgia Tech.), The PlaceLab (MIT), The
Smart Medical Home (University of Rochester), and
The interLiving (The Royal Institute of Technology in
Stockholm). Their research processes and results have
included the concerns of how technologies contribute
to assisting the physical limitations of the aged, the
memory and learning of an older adult, as well as
the interpersonal relationship between seniors and
other family members. The other is the comprehensive survey and the analysis of the seniors’ use and
meaning of home. The subjects were 305 healthy and
computer-literate senior adults aged from 45 to 78
years of age. As a result, four factors are classified: the
physical defeat and health, the safety and comfort, the
social and emotional interaction, the cognitive works
and lifelong learning, and entertainment.
Keywords: Elderly, Ubiquitous Environment, Behavioral Factors
Discussion on Environmental Experience of
the Elderly’s Outings: From Accompanied
Observation
(Discusión sobre la experiencia ambiental de
paseos con ancianos: de observación acompañada)
Kotaro Matsumoto (Nagoya University, Japan)
In Japan, the average span of life has become dramatically longer in recent years and reached 79.0 years
for men and 85.8 years for women in 2006. The society
has been aging. In 2005, 20.5% of the population
was over 65 years old. Since the majority of Japanese
industries have shifted from primary industries
such as agriculture to secondary industries such as
manufacture industries and third industries such as
the service industries, these majority people are to
retire at some time in life. If anyone retired at 65 years
old, it means for men to have a vacant time of 14 years
and for women, 20 years. For us to understand lives
after retirement, it is noteworthy for us to see that
people lose their routine of going to their work places.
The Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport
Japan’s research shows that people have a tendency
not to go out as they get older. In the day the research
was carried out, 35.5% of the subjects over 65 years
old didn’t go out anywhere the whole day while it was
only 15.5% of the counterpart in the age group of 54
to 65 years old. The author has accompanied the elderly and kept descriptions on what happened during
their going out. It was a fact there were not many opportunities for the elder to go out, but we should not
to immediately conclude that is bad. It is important to
reveal what happens on their going out in order to discuss what they are missing if they don’t go out in their
daily life. To conduct accompanied observation, this
research relates to the research concepts of “Transaction” (Altman & Rogoff, 1987) and “Environmental
Experience” (Ittelson, 1960; Rowles, 1978). When we
try to reveal what happens on their going out, it is
important to consider two characteristics of environment; person is surrounded with environment and
person encounters the environment. In other words,
it is impossible for us to go outside environment and
have interaction with environment as the object. Also
Altman & Rogoff(1987) pointed out that the observer
was one aspect of the event, and they were not able to
go outside the event. It is needed for the observer to
be inside of the environment and describe the event
as Rowles(1978) conducted “Experiential Field Work”.
This research presents some characteristics of the
elderly people’s environmental experience, and tries
to discuss differences how each audience gets feelings
through our showing concrete episodes of the elderly
people’s going out.
Keywords: Elderly, Outdoor Environments,
Interdisciplinary, Qualitative Research,
Environmental Experience
Digitalization & Housing Design for the
Elderly
(Digitalización y diseño de hogares para la vejez)
Chanohk Oh (Inje University, South Korea)
Our living pattern is rapidly changing due to digitalization. In the field of housing design, ‘home automation’ was appeared long time ago at first, but most
of them were not used at all. After that, ‘intelligent
home’ or ‘digital home’ was developed, and recently
‘ubiquitous home’ is developing. However, only several
digital systems are using by actual residents and many
systems are presented only in experiment room or
model house. Some researchers are interested in how
to apply ubiquitous technology to the space for old
peoples. The supportive space environment would be
necessary for the elderly in order to live independently
as long as possible. There are many ways to make the
supportive space environment. One of them is to use
new digital or ubiquitous technology. The study was
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intended to identify how to use new digital or ubiquitous technology in housing for the elderly. In order to
achieve it, first, the physical and behavioral characteristics of old people were reviewed, and the ones which
would be met by digital technology were selected.
Then, how to apply those technologies to space design
for the elderly was suggested.
Keywords: elderly/gerontology, design for aging,
housing/residential, interior design, qualitative research
Thematic
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Gerontology
Gerontology
Ambiental
Features of Interior Design Preferred by the
Elderly
(Rasgos del diseño de interiores preferidos por la
vejez)
Chun Yeop Lee (Inje University, South Korea)
Most researches of space design for the elderly has
focused on how to meet with the physical frailty of the
elderly. However, the effort to meet with the emotional and psychological aspects of the elderly should
be considered, too. To grasp the elderly’ preferred
features of interior design, such as furniture, color,
material, lighting, and interior style or image, would
be useful to design the space for the elderly. The purpose of this study is to identify the features of interior
design preferred by the elderly. The subjects are 200
old peoples whose ages are more than 65 years. Data
are collected by interview using a questionnaire.
Keywords: elderly/gerontology, design for aging,
housing/residential, interior design, quantitative
research
Fire Safety among Korean Elderly Household
and Escape Plans in High-Rise Apartment
Complexes
Soojin Lee, Jiin Choi, and Yeunsook Lee
Population aging is a global phenomenon, the challenge facing Korea, however, is especially daunting.
With life expectancy rising and birthrates plumbing
record lows, Korea is about to undergo a stunning
demographic transformation. According to the latest
government projections, 38 percent of Korea’s population will be elderly by 2050, putting it in contention
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with Japan, Italy, and Spain for the oldest country on
earth.
Older adults are not only the fastest growing segment of Korean population, but also one of the groups
at highest risk for fire deaths. As a natural result of the
aging process, older adults present unique challenges
in the fields of fire protection, prevention, and safety.
Changes associated with the aging process predispose older adults to ignite a fire yet, at the same time,
reduce their chances of surviving it. Analysis by National Emergency Management Agency showed that
446 Koreans died in fires in 2006 and 23.3 percent was
older adults (individuals 60 years and older) amongst
them, representing one of the highest fire risk populations in Korea.
Meanwhile, unsafe dwelling environments may contribute to high morbidity residential fire among the
elderly people. Residential fatalities that occurred by
fire in 2007 comprises 57% and burns are the fourth
leading cause of unintentional injury-related deaths.
Even in Korean situation in which high-rise apartment complexes are representative form of housing
culture, fire-related deaths and injuries might be more
serious without developing special device and escape
plan. Although successful exit from a home fire could
greatly reduce fire-related deaths and injuries, little is
considered about both of them.
This study investigated the prevalence of fire safety
devices and related risk factors considering escape
plans for elderly households. Websites and brochures
of construction companies within the top 5th contract ranking were analyzed. As a results, fire alarms,
smoke detectors, cutting-edge digital sensors worked
by ubiquitous network and exits in the elevator hall
are well designed, however, there is no place to escape
quickly from the inside of each unit to outside. Alternative plans were presented.
These findings have important implications not
only for the government and policy makers but also
housing providers to improve residential fire safety
for the elderly. Future fire safety interventions should
increase their awareness of the risk of home fire and
also consider formulating and practicing escape plans
with developing escape device. It is essential to greatly
reduce fire deaths and enhance the chance to escape
safely, especially in high-rise apartment complex.
Outdoor Space for Aging: Environmental
Assessment and Survey of Assisted Living
Residents and Staff
(Espacios abiertos para la vejez: contribución
ambiental y la perspectiva de los residentes y el
staff asistidos)
Contact with the outdoors is considered a potentially important contributor to quality of life and
well-being for both staff and residents in long-term
care facilities (Cutler & Kane, 2006; Martin, Marler,
Harker, Josephson, & Alessi, 2007). However, the
usability of outdoor space depends largely on appropriate design: where are the outdoor spaces
located, how do they connect with indoor circulation routes, and how does the building envelope help
shape the spaces? Although the importance of this
topic is widely acknowledged by designers and care
providers, few studies have evaluated the quality of
outdoor space in comparison with levels of usage
and satisfaction. This multi-regional study evaluated outdoor space at assisted living facilities and
compared the results with surveys conducted with
residents and staff members (N = 1530). Based on
the existing literature, a 63-item environmental assessment tool was developed and tested for inter-rater
and test-retest reliability. The core hypothesis was
that residents may be discouraged from using outdoor areas due to preventable problems with the built
environment (both outdoors and indoors). Seven
major environmental issues were developed as “design hypotheses,” to examine their correlation with
residents’ outdoor usage and satisfaction with the environment. To record resident and staff perceptions,
two 40+ item survey instruments were developed
and pre-tested. Surveys and environmental assessments were conducted on-site at assisted living facilities randomly selected within a two-hour diameter
from the urban cores of three of the ten largest U.S.
‘megapolitan’ regions (Houston, Chicago, and Seattle), chosen for their wide diversity of climate and
geography. A total of 68 randomly selected facilities
with 50+ resident capacity participated in the study,
representing a range of different-sized provider
organizations, with about 85% for-profit, and15%
not-for profit. Facilities ranged from single-story to
14 stories, and site contexts ranged from high-density
urban areas, to outlying towns and suburbs. Facility
administrators recruited about 1100 residents and
400 staff, representing all levels from direct care to
executives. Written surveys and videotaped interviews documented outdoor usage and preference
for specific environmental features. Residents who
spent more time outdoors reported having better
overall health, higher physical activity levels, and
more satisfaction with the physical environment.
Those who went out less said the outdoor areas were
hard to see and reach, and were more concerned
about the possibility of falling. The great majority
of residents and staff reported feeling “better than
before” after spending time outdoors. About 80%
of residents said they preferred to do their walking
“mostly outdoors” or “half indoors/ half outdoors”;
but 40% reported that walkways and outdoor areas
were either “not very well-designed” or “partly welldesigned” for seniors. Specific features and problems
were described as ‘barriers’ to outdoor usage; many
of these could be modified by environmental design
and/or staff intervention. By improved support of
users’ specific requirements for outdoor space, the
long-term care environment may encourage higher
levels of outdoor usage and physical activity, potentially leading to improved health and quality of life
for both residents and staff (Rodiek, 2006; Takano,
Nakamura, & Watanabe, 2002).
References:
Cutler, L. J., & Kane, R. A. (2006). As great as all
outdoors: A study of outdoor spaces as a neglected
resource for nursing home residents. In S. Rodiek
& B. Schwarz (Eds.), The Role of the Outdoors in
Residential Environments for Aging (pp. 29-48). New
York: The Haworth Press, Inc.
Martin, J. L., Marler, M. R., Harker, J. O., Josephson, K. R., & Alessi, C. A. (2007). A multicomponent nonpharmacological intervention improves
activity rhythms among nursing home residents with
disrupted sleep/ wake patterns. Journal of Gerontology: Medical Sciences, 62A(1), 67-72.
Rodiek, S. (2006). A missing link: Can enhanced
outdoor space improve seniors housing? Seniors
Housing and Care Journal, 14, 3-19.
Takano, T., Nakamura, K., & Watanabe, M. (2002).
Urban residential environments and senior citizens’
longevity in megacity areas: the importance of walk-
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able green spaces. Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health, 56(12), 913-918.
Keywords: Outdoor space, aging, environmental
assessment, surveys, assisted living
The Requirement and Factor Weight of
Environmental Element Designing for the
Wandering Space of Demented Elders
Thematic
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Environmental
Gerontology
Gerontology
Ambiental
(El requisito y factor de peso de los elementos de
diseño ambiental para el espacio deseado de ancianos dementes)
Yao-Rong Hwang (National Yunlin University
of Science & Technology, Taiwan)
Many experts agree that all people with dementia
should be presumed at high risk for wandering due to
their cognitive deficits. Risks associated with wandering include the potential for encountering hazards,
falls and fractures, interventions and management
strategies must take these risks into account. A negative care orientation to wandering involves dependence on physical and chemical restraints, physical
restraint often results in serious injuries and chemical
restraint may cause serious side effects.
Many facilities are encouraged to discover the
strategy that elders with dementia can walk in a
therapeutically supportive environment which maintain safety with the least restriction. The purpose of
this research is to look for environmental elements
designing as therapeutic setting for demented elders
with wandering.
Six typical special care units were selected as
samples which included two units with wandering
path of indoor single loop, two units with wandering
path of indoor double loops and two units with wandering path of indoor & outdoor loops. The patient
was focused on moderate dementia with wandering,
and there were 66 caregivers from special care unit
participating in this research. A field study was to
observe existing environmental elements which were
recognized as therapeutic setting for wandering space
and encouraged care unit to design all kinds of environmental elements. Care- givers were questionnaire
in terms of the requirement of environmental element
after three months. A one-way analysis of variance
was applied to compare the frequency of environmental element recognized as therapeutic setting, and
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factor weight of environmental element was established by using multiple-regression stepwise.
We found that reminiscence element, occupational
element, religion element, interest element and animal
element are five kinds of environmental elements
mostly recognized as therapeutic setting for wandering space. As to the comparison of different typology of wandering space, indoor & outdoor loops of
wandering path are more available for designing environmental elements as therapeutic setting than indoor
double loops or indoor single loop of wandering path.
Elements of reminiscence figure, exhibition, Information board, decoration on the door of bedroom,
vine, plant in the water, tree, plantlet, monkey, small
rat and small pig are not significant importance for
designing as therapeutic setting in Taiwan.
Keywords: wandering space, environmental element,
therapeutic setting, factor
Staying Connected: Designing to Enhance
Social Opportunities for Older Adults
(Permaneciendo conectados: diseñando para
acrecentar las oportunidades sociales para adultos
mayores)
Lisa Waxman (Florida State University)
Proshansky et al. (1983) stated that place attachment
involves the interplay of emotions, knowledge, beliefs,
and behaviors in reference to a place. Place attachment typically occurs after people have long or intense
experiences with a place and the place acquires great
personal meaning (Gifford, 2002). Often these feelings
of attachment involve the home, but they may also include other public gathering places in the community
such as the grocery store, barber shop, coffee shop, or
other favorite gathering spot. Regardless of the location, feelings of attachment to these special places and
the people who inhabit them can enhance feelings of
connectedness to the community at large (Putnam,
2003; Waxman, 2006; Sucher, 1999).
The United States Census Bureau reported that fewer
than five percent of people 55 or older move in any
given year, and of those who move, 49% stay within
the same county. These feelings of attachment illustrate the concept that people develop special bonds
with certain settings that hold deep meaning to them
(Altman & Low, 1992).
In a passionate article on designing for the elderly,
Roslyn Lindheim (1974) stressed the importance
of good design for older adults. She stated that the
physical environment should serve as a reinforcing
system to enable people to meet their needs effectively.
Lindheim examined needs which affect the young and
old, which included the need to be socially useful, and
the need to exercise choice as to where and how one
lives and maintain continuity and roots. The ability
to engage in the community can happen in many
venues, including third places, those places other than
home or work were people can bump into friends and
neighbors, and connect with people from their community (Oldenburg, 1999).
Purpose: This paper will address the social and
physical attributes that enhance the ability for older
adults to gather in third places, specifically coffee
shops and small restaurants.
Method: These findings have been collected using
the techniques of visual documentation, observation,
and interview.
Findings: Social Implications. Although designers
often focus on the design of the physical environment, the social aspects of an environment must not
be overlooked. The themes that emerged emphasized
the importance providing places where people could
linger, feel productive, engage in social interaction,
feel trusted and respected, and be in the company of
familiar strangers.
Physical Implications and Design Guidelines. Design guidelines were developed following the observations and interviews of patrons. Design features that
could be modified to better serve older adults included access to the space, layout, restrooms, flooring,
seating, outside areas, service bar, tables, lighting,
aroma, acoustics, access to a view, and overall visual
appeal.
Conclusion: Clearly, it is simplistic to say coffee
shops and small restaurants are the answer to the
complex question of community engagement. However, the coffee shop or restaurant simply provides an
opportunity to informally connect with the members
of the community, thereby making allowing connections to be made which enhances the engagement in
community.
Keywords: Place attachment/place memory, elderly/
gerontology, design for aging, interior design, qualitative research
Study of the Characteristics of Enhancing
Social Integration of Elderly Housing
Kaboo So, Heejin Lee, Hyeyeun Kim, and
Yeonsook Lee (Yonsei University, Korea)
Nowadays, we need regular qualitative and quantitative levels of physical spatial environment. While
the physical spatial environment is not easily changed,
our lives have consistently been changed by cultural
paradigm and needs a new spatial environment for
the changes.
In particular, we experience various changes physically, psychologically and socially according to the
aging, the elderly do need a new space and environment for the aging. If all physical circumstances do
not properly support the elderly’s declined functions,
not only will it isolate them socially but also decline
the quality of their individual life. Thus, alternative
housing for proper social integration community
for the elderly and the members of a society reduce
tensions from the aging members of the society and
further makes it possible for a community to preserve
its sustainable values.
Korea has now many the public houses for the
elderly which normally have a group accommodation
in residential patterns. However, in foreign cases, the
elderly tend to choose their way of life for independent and sustainable life rather than are lodged in the
elderly houses. Thus, it is quite remarkable that they
can extend their residential duration and raise the
quality of life.
Moreover, Koreans have mostly resided in apartments. The Korean elderly adjusted to this residential
pattern have been faced with difficulties sustaining
their residences caused by an invasion of their privacy
from community life and conflicts between residents.
Thus, two issues should be considered: diverse
solutions to improve general social recognition and
alternatives to reduce the problems caused by communal use in terms of physical operation. These will
be considered as variable in terms of the elderly’s independence, the exchange among local communities
Thematic
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Ambiental
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as social integration with physical environment such
as the scale of houses.
Consistently residing in the existing local community, the elderly in Korea prefer integral housing
environment which makes it possible to exchange
among generations. Their attitudes will be changed in
positive ways according to how the house is planned
and designed. However, although it has been asserted
that city and housing development should be prepared
for the aging future in a way to solve the elderly’s
housing problem in perspective of social integration,
there have no eventual alternatives for this.
This study aims to examine the advanced cases with
diverse systems in relation to the elderly’s housing environment. Besides simple rearrangement of physical
environment, it is to reconsider the patterns which
makes it possible to sustain their lives by promoting
local and community. Of these cases, this study examined the case to promote social integration by opening
a part of the elderly’s house to a local community, the
patterns and characteristics of exchange program to
produce local exchange. In doing so, it suggested an
alternative for social integration community as the
elderly’s housing model which can accept an architectural alternative to form their houses as an open space,
promote their social participation and other diverse
desires for housing.
Walk-Through Post Occupancy Evaluation of
Recently Built Elderly Care Environment in
Korea
Soohyun Lim, Chaesuk Lim, and Yeunsook
Lee (Yonsei University, Korea)
The proportion of the elderly population; 65 and
over; that requires a care service in Korea is 12.1%.
In respond to this particular elderly population, the
proportion of admitted inpatient numbers at elderly
medical care facilities; elderly medical care centers
and hospitals; is 3.8% which is insufficient. Up to the
present, most elderly medical care facilities have been
developed in a sporadic way rather than an intentional way. However, Korea has recently stepped into a
stage that provides a well-planned built environment
with awareness of an aging society. Recently, ‘The
northern elderly medical care hospital (1999)’, ‘The
eastern elderly medical care center (2002)’ and ‘The
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western elderly medical care center (2005)’ have been
developed in Seoul and these developments differ to
others as that focused on satisfaction level of medical
care patients’ needs through research. ‘Short, intermediate and long term of medical care service below
severe illness’, ‘Elderly medical care on low income
class’, ‘Day care center’, ‘Elderly service at home’ are
additional services that those facilities offer which are
lacking in generic hospitals. Wards and patients’ space
in those buildings have increased for severely ill, long
term elderly people compared to generic hospitals and
a medical treatment is composed mainly around a
curative treatment and the size of nursing space has
reduced. It is significant to focus on personnel and
facilities that can assist patients’ movement and room
variability for care assistants’ operational efficiency
when elderly medical care environment is designed.
Even though a guideline considering various users
is applied when medical care facilities are developed,
it is common to discover a suitability issue while
using the space. Therefore, this research sets out to
understand what needs to be improved within newly
developed built environment through post occupancy
evaluation and to provide a foundation for the present
and the future built environment’s enhancement
process.
In order to achieve this research’s aim, analysis and
observation methodologies were used and their procedure contains three stages. Firstly, literatures of previously developed elderly medical care facilities’ space
characteristics and post occupancy evaluation in
developed countries were reviewed. Secondly, taking
‘The northern elderly medical care hospital’, ‘The
eastern elderly medical care center’ and ‘The western
elderly medical care center’ as case studies, a literature
review was done on their space characteristics and
post occupancy evaluation, furthermore, by analyzing
related data in Korea and abroad, advantages and
disadvantages were discovered. Lastly, analyzing data
and observing the users’ built environment took place
through case studies’ site visits to verify suitability
between the space users and its built environment.
The evaluation standard on verification is based on
SCEAM (Sheffield Care Environment Assessment Matrix) and ASPECT (A Staff and Patient Environment
Calibration Tool) and their evaluation standards are
transformed to a measuring scale that is appropriate
in Korea.
Case studies, as mentioned above, were planned
and developed through a turn-key system. During the
course of development, various advanced countries’
standards were used and still there was a side issue
on actual users’ suitability such as circulation, sizes of
space, distance etc. Thus, the standards for a development process required to be adjusted to the actual
Korean circumstances as the users are elderly Koreans
and discovering benefits and improvement schemes
is essential through an appropriate post occupancy
evaluation on elderly medical care environment in
Korea. Consequently, this study has profound significance in the future development of elderly medical
care environment plans in Korea, which would be
useful in providing better built environment and
service for the users.
Keywords: Elderly care environment, Elderly medical care center/hospital, Post occupancy evaluation
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Ambiental
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Environmental Psychology
Analysis on Distance Cognition Situation
with Body Movement and Human Factors
in Cognition Process Through Computer
Simulation
Thematic
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Environmental
Psychology
Psicología
Ambiental
(Análisis del conocimiento de la distancia con
respecto al movimiento corporal y de los factores
humanos en procesos cognitivos a través de la
simulación por computadora)
Yu Wang, Takeshi Suzuki, Yasuhiro Tanaka,
Shigeki Matsubara, Toshinobu Oku, and
Michihiro Kita (Osaka University, Japan)
This study aims at examining the relationship between visual changing phenomenon and the distance
cognition using cognition experiment in computer
simulation environment, base on J. J.Gibson’s spacial
perception theory. Most of previous studies took the
influencing factors at the physical aspects of the space
itself as a study object. In this study, we focus on the
influencing factors of human themselves to analyze
distance cognition situation with a mobile viewpoint
in terms of ecological geometry. The experiment was
carried out in a simulation environment which was a
simplified modeling of the visual phenomenon in the
real environment. The human’s distance cognition
situation was tested by magnitude estimation. The
subject had to tell the relations between the object
and standard stimulus in numbers then they were required to tell what their conclusion was based on. The
participations were Chinese, Japanese and westerns
aged from 20 to 35 with various occupations.
By examining the cognition situation of 26 subjects,
it showed that there were possibilities that people
might cognize a distance that could not be identified
directly by observing the visual changing phenomenon generated from body moving. It is also noticed
that the cognition situation was affected significantly
by the subjects’ criteria used in distance cognition
process. There are totally five kinds of cognition criteria which can be seen in this experiment when classifying by their characteristics. (1) “Relative sinking
amount” criteria: The subjects who used this criteria
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tended to cognize a distance by comparing height
changes of the objects.
(2) “Relative sinking speed” criteria: The subjects told a distance by observing the relative speed
changing generated by the movement of the viewpoint.
(3) “Stepping analysis” criteria: The subjects who
used this criteria always divided the whole process
into several steps and chose the proper visual elements for every step to cognize a distance.
(4) “Multiple observing elements” criteria: Subjects
picked up more then one observing elements for distance cognition.
(5) “Direct sense” criteria: the subjects observed the
visual changes on the whole and judged a distance by
their “sense” of the visual phenomenon.
The most different part of this criteria which makes
it distinguished from the above-mentioned other
criteria lies in the few words about concrete visual elements in the subjects’ utterance. There are significant
effects which could be seen in the cognition results
by different criteria, especially in longer distance. For
the accuracy of the cognition distance, “direct sense”
criteria could be the most effective one in the cognition of longer distance.
Keywords: Body movement, distance cognition,
cognition criteria, multiple visual objects, visual
changing phenomenon
Bridging the Gap between the Public and
the Historic Preservation Professional:
Understanding how People Value New and
Old Residential Environments
(Puenteando la brecha entre la preservación
profesional pública e histórica: entendiendo como
las personas valoran los ambientes residenciales
nuevos y viejos. Tender un puente sobre el boquete
entre el profesional público e histórico de la
preservación: entendiendo cómo la gente valora
nuevos y viejos ambientes residenciales)
Jeremy Wells (Clemson University, South
Carolina)
There is a need for an effective bridge between public
and professional values in historic preservation in
order to define more acceptable interventions for older
built environments. The professional methodology
of valuing the historic built environment is based
on an antiquated philosophical system developed in
almost complete isolation from public input. Only a
few white males have been responsible for developing
and refining the methodology and methods of historic
preservation. While age is the central tenet of historic preservation, we know precious little about how
everyday people actually value, perceive, and experience age as an intrinsic part of an urban environment.
This situation is due to the lack of empirical studies
that specifically address this topic. With so large a
gap in our knowledge, changes to historic environments are not adequately informed by the diversity of
stakeholder’s values, especially in regard to residential
environments. The result is that professionals sometimes make poor decisions about which elements of
historic places to retain, change, and remove.
In order to ameliorate this knowledge deficit, this
study aims to build on the existing literature on place
attachment (i.e., a cognitive and affective bond to
place) and connect the sociocultural meanings of the
built environment within a residential context to specific, physical elements in that environment. The goal
is to understand the nature and degrees of attachment
to new versus old places and how specific physical elements in the built environment influence place attachment. Specifically, these two questions have guided
this study: What physical elements in a new and old
residential community evoke a sense of attachment for
those living and working in the community? Can a
new environment authentically replicate the age of an
old environment and thereby foster the same degree
and character of attachment found in authentically
old environments? In order to answer these questions,
this research project was designed as a comparative,
qualitative case study, employing a phenomenological
methodology, and two methods: interviews and photo
elicitation techniques. There are two units of study:
(1) residents in a new residential environment, I’On,
a new urbanist development in Mt. Pleasant, South
Carolina and, (2) residents in an old residential environment, the historic part of Charleston, South Carolina, south of Broad Street. In both places, the physical
characteristics of the built environment are remarkably similar in density, form, layout, and design, but
the age is dramatically different.
The results of this study reveal that residents of
historic Charleston and I’On value their built environ-
ments in remarkably similar ways. Surprisingly, elements that evoke a strong sense of attachment tend to
be landscape features, such as gates, fountains, trees,
and gardens rather than buildings; doors and balconies were mentioned as important building elements,
however. The informants valued the “mystery” that
they felt was part of the landscape and which consisted of layered elements such as fences, gates, and
paths, such that these features (including buildings)
had to be “discovered.” Lastly, the informants strongly
valued landscapes that showed “people care” through
regular maintenance. The essential difference in people’s experience and valuation of the new environment
(I’On) and the old environment (historic Charleston)
is in the older environment’s ability to instill creative
fantasies in the minds of the informants based on a
hypothetical past of their own creation. The informants in I’On did not share these kinds of meanings.
A Case Study of Icon Design for Wireless
Application Protocol
(Un estudio de caso de diseño de icono para
protocolo de aplicación inalámbrica)
Phil Choo (Oklahoma State University)
Along with advances in technology, information
can be accessed faster and more easily with Wireless
Application Protocol (WAP) through mobile communication tools. Users want these tools to be not only
lighter, smaller, and handier, but to have more effective Graphic User Interfaces (GUI) that allow easy access to information. To develop effective GUI within
WAP technology, this study was conducted to suggest
prototypical icons for WAP screens. While developing
these icons, a framework for icon development was
created that involved the logical and creative design
processes of a matrix. The interconnected criteria of
the study of WAP, characteristics of good icons, and
the graphic representation of ideas were identified to
develop an evaluation matrix for WAP icons and to
evaluate prototypical alternatives for these icons for
Frequently Used Functions (FUFs).
The procedural development for WAP icons included the identification and analysis of WAP user
needs and the investigation of images for WAP icons.
The analysis of the FUFs of WAP users included
identifying characteristics of the FUFs and creating
Thematic
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Psychology
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Psicología
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prototypes of icons that represented these functions.
Visual forms were investigated to prototype the FUFs
on WAP devices. Based on these procedures, a morphologic matrix was created to discover all possible
relationships among WAP user needs and the images
and functions of WAP icons. The matrix was used to
establish a clear pattern of relationships and to identify the possible solutions within the icon development process.
Using this icon development matrix, more than a
thousand WAP icons were systemically designed to
represent each of the WAP FUFs. These icons were
then self–evaluated for the final icon design process.
In this process, three icons selected for each FUF were
transferred to the actual small screen size. Once the
icons were scaled down, grids were applied to measure
the number of pixels and to manipulate dots, lines,
and shapes. The selected and refined icons were applied to a WAP device screen to test recognizability.
This study was an inquiry into the basic criteria for
effective communication of WAP GUI design and resulted in a set of FUF prototypical icons for WAP. The
study evaluated graphic user interface designs based
on the criteria of iconic communication in combination with both the application of current technology
and an investigation of icon design for WAP devices.
Furthermore, this study explored and demonstrated
a case study to enhance the effectiveness of GUI
for WAP screens. The study’s recommendations are
limited to logical creative processes and experimental
image investigations for WAP iconic communication.
The analysis of immediate and long-term needs suggests a set of criteria for improving the functionality
of WAP tools through the use of icons. Hence, this
study suggested a framework for the development of
WAP icons – from research on user needs to visualization of final icon designs on a WAP screen. This
framework can be extended to other fields of icon
design for LCD screens.
Keywords: Wireless application protocol, graphic
user interfaces, graphic design, icon design.
210
Choosing Between Facades for Professional
Services
(Seleccionando entre fachadas para servicios
profesionales)
Lindsay J. McCunn and Robert Gifford (University of Victoria, Canada)
The role of building facades in the consumer choice
process is not well understood. In two studies, photographs representing two commercial building types
(office building and converted heritage house) were
shown to participants, who chose between them for
legal, dental, financial, and medical services, and also
rated them for expected comfort level and quality of
service. In Study 1, Canadian university students preferred office buildings for all four services. In Study
2, Canadian community residents (M = 44 years old)
preferred converted heritage houses more often for
legal services. Participants in both studies reported
that they would be more comfortable using office
buildings for dental, financial, and medical services.
Participants in Study 2 expected that they would be
more comfortable visiting converted heritage houses
for their legal needs. Participants in both studies also
expected better dental, financial, and medical service
in office buildings, but those in Study 2 expected
higher quality legal service in converted heritage
houses. Implications of these preferences and predictions are discussed.
Keywords: Facade, building exterior, consumer
choice, comfort, service quality
A Climate for Change: The Role of
Environmental Psychology and Design in
Bringing about Eco-Social Transformation
Un Clima para el Cambio: El Rol de la Psicología
(ambiental y el diseño en traer a nosotros la
transformación eco-social)
Organizer / Presenter: Michael R. Edelstein
(Ramapo College of New Jersey, Mahwah, NJ)
We live in an interesting time, one where the demand for quick yet wise translations of ideas to action
is demanded. Driven by concern over the climate
issue, a new impetus for social transformation toward
a sustainable society has been created. This presentation describes the environmental psychological issues
and potential roles for Environmental Psychology and
Environmental Design associated with climate change,
with social transformation away from the dominant
world paradigm of the modern period, with the definition of and then shift to a new sustainable paradigm,
and with meeting the decision making requirements
created by the need to consider multiple timely issues
as one complex and the traps associated with partial
solutions - where one problem is addressed but new
problems created. Several case contexts are offered.
First, concrete actions to make campuses sustainable and to have them serve as models and axes of
sustainable change are explored. These create important experiential laboratories for preparing models,
training leaders for sustainability and for collecting
information vital for influencing both individual and
societal change where campus both transform themselves and serve to
transform society. A second case involves rethinking
the presumptive Environmental Psychological
constructs—or lifescape - that underpin current ways
of living. The sustainable transformation demands
that home and shelter be rethought, the relationship
of person to environment be reshaped, assumptions
about health be reconsidered, the myth of personal
control be reframed and that social trust be formed
within new contexts of relationship. In these ways,
we must remold the built environment, lifestyle and
create a civil social fabric capable of active learning
and guidance, tools for creating community and
preserving place relationships and local knowledge. A
third case explores an important social experiment
created in the State of New Jersey by the bold decision
to reduce greenhouse gasses by 80% by 2050. There is
a major environmental psychological role to be played
in achieving these targets effectively and acceptably
and in generating new patterns that can be sustained.
A combination of technological and social change is
demanded of this transformation. The New Jersey instance will be instructive rather than idiosyncratic, as
multiple experiments are created worldwide seeking
the same path. A number of concrete methodologies
for guiding the transformation are offered, including
Sustainability Planning and Impact Assessment,
Sustainability Shoppes and other modes of collaborative learning and meeting the meta-challenge of
instituting new modes and levels of social learning
that unite with common responsibility those holding
diverse cultures, perspectives and stakes rather than
allowing conflict and social dissolution. This session
can occur as a keynote, as an intensive offered by one
speaker with full active audience participation or additional participants can be recruited.
The Effects of Commercial Signs on Users’
Sense of Visual Quality in Historic City Centers of Different Urban Contexts
(Los efectos de muestras comerciales en el sentido
de los usuarios de la calidad visual en los centros
de ciudad históricos de diversos contextos urbanos)
Adriana Portella (University College London,
United Kingdom)
This paper focus on the relationship between visual
quality of the built environment and commercial
signage in historic city centres. It identifies the
physical aspects of commercial signs and buildings
that should be taken in account in the development
of a general approach to control commercial signs in
historic city centres of different urban contexts. This
study suggests that while some visual preferences are
influenced by users’ urban contexts, others can be
universals and applied to define general urban design
principles. This study explores whether user perception and evaluation of the number of commercial
signs and the percentage of building facade coverage
by these media has some influence on (i) user satisfaction with commercial street facades, (ii) user perception and evaluation of order, color variation and complexity, and (iii) user feeling of pleasure and interest in
relation to the appearance of commercial streetscapes
in historic city centres. The findings (i) show that
there are common visual preferences among users
from different countries, and (ii) suggest that these
can be applied to develop a general approach to control commercial signs in historic city centres.
Keyword: Visual quality; commercial signage; historic city centre; user perception and evaluation.
Thematic
Abstracts
Environmental
Psychology
Psicología
Ambiental
Information Enriched Environments for
People
Patricia Taylor (Independent Scholar) and
Robert McGrath (NCSA, University of Illinois
at Urbana-Champaign, IL)
Thematic
Abstracts
Environmental
Psychology
Psicología
Ambiental
New technologies (both hardware and software)
offer a variety of ways to augment daily life through
information enriched environments. These technologies can work through physical installation in intelligent built environments, through on- and offline virtual environments, and through overlaying the virtual
on the real environment (also known as Augmented
Reality). Many intelligent environments focus on efficiency – e.g., control of building atmosphere, lighting
and security. Some technologies offer psychological
escape from the local environment (virtual worlds,
MMOGs). Other technologies, such as Wi-Fi, allow
human interaction across any amount of distance,
from face-to-face to global. New possibilities involve
information enrichment, not just of buildings, but
of outdoor public spaces. Regardless of what the
designers, manufacturers, and building owners might
mean to do with their technologies, creative (and
sometimes subversive) users find new ways to use the
equipment, bandwith, etc. for purposes both practical
and whimsical.
These technical developments raise many significant challenges for environmental psychology
and design. How can we combine these technologies to add value to local places and people-centered
activities? How can we encourage use by diverse
populations? How can we open up the resources to
encourage participation, innovation and personalization by interested users? First, we review some recent
examples of the ways people are modifying their use
of local places through innovative repurposing of
available technological capabilities. These include
not only individual or group use but ways to allow
for several users to enjoy the enhancement together,
even if they are strangers to one another. Second, we
identify issues regarding the use of technologies and
potential place enhancement by different segments of
society. For example, can ways be found that not only
allow but encourage both teenagers and seniors to
participate in extended information capabilities at the
local shopping mall? And at the same time? Third,
we ask how changes in user behavior in information
212
enriched and Augmented Reality environments might
be measured. In summary, we review the questions
w have raised and suggest strategies for the future.
Keywords: Technology/computer applications,
urban (city, suburb, exoburb), interdisciplinary,
theory/conceptualization
Linking Differences by Finding
Common Somatic Experience:
Designing from the Consciousness of the
Organs
(Uniendo diferencias a través de experiencias
somáticas comunes: diseñando desde la conciencia
de los órganos)
Organizer / Presenters: Galen Cranz (University of California, Berkeley, CA) and Jader
Tolja (Domus Academy of Design, and Polytecnic of Milan, Milan, Italy)
This half day intensive offers the opportunity for
participants to experience for themselves an application of “experiential anatomy” to design education. Experiential anatomy comes from movement educator
Cohen (1979) and has been applied to design at all
scales by two somatic educators (Cranz, 2000; Tolja,
1993) who also teach in architecture, design and landscape departments, one in Milan and one in Berkeley.
The theory and history are explained, and then experienced through a carefully crafted
sequence of exercises in this workshop, which has
been conducted internationally--most recently in
Denmark, Slovakia, Spain, and Italy. A measure of the
power of the direct phenomenological experience of
the organs is a comparison of before and after drawings done in one state of consciousness, ordinary
rational thinking, and in a second state of “organ
consciousness.”
The differences are profound and the process pleasurable. The theory about the linkage between organs
and the horizontal plane in environmental design at
all scales is discussed, and the application to design
pedagogy at all scales from object to building to landscape are explored by the group. Three learning objectives:
1) understand “experiential anatomy;” differentiate
ergonomic from somatic perspectives on the body;
relate to the triune structure of the brain to the horizontal, vertical, and capital dimensions in design;
2) learn how to design from the point of view of the
organs, in this case the kidney; and
3) Explore “organ consciousness” as a form of conflict resolution and integration of opposites.
Mutating Third Places
(Mutando terceros lugares)
Patricia Taylor (Independent Scholar, Illinois
Third Places, as defined by Ray Oldenburg (1989),
are those public places where people can casually
gather or just hang out. However, they are increasingly being invaded by the worlds of work and
study as they offer internet connections and as their
customers bring along a variety of mobile connectivity devices. This paper explored the changing
social scene through observations at local coffee shops.
Variables studied includes: location of coffee house
(downtown, campus, mall), provision of internet connections, whether the connection was free or not, the
number of connectivity devices (computers, mobile
phones, etc) being used, the number of face-to-face
interactions taking place, and the extent to which
people were engaged in both types of interactions.
The results, so far, indicate that a layering of work and
connection functions has not yet eliminated the faceto-face social functions that Oldenburg argues are so
important for sustaining community.
Keywords: culture, urban (city, suburb, exoburb),
quantitative research
Perceived Restorativeness Scale (PRS):
Differences by Age and Sex in Mexican
Adolescent and Adult Samples
(Percibiendo la escala de restauración (PRS):
diferencias por edad y sexo en adolescentes y
adultos mexicanos)
Joel Martinez Soto and Montero y Lopez-Lena
(Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Mexico)
The “Environmental Restoration Experience” refers
to the perception of properties of the different scenarios contributing to the psychological adjustment
through mitigation of mental fatigue and stress (Coles
& Keshavarz, 2006). Restorative environments and
experiences highlight certain characteristics of the
places that allow people to relax, unwind, free their
minds and distance themselves from the ordinary
aspects of everyday life. The environment’s restorative
components have been evaluated by the Perceived
Restorativeness Scale (PRS) (Hartig, Kaiser & Bowler,
1997; Hartig, Korpela, Evans & Garling, 1997). The
PRS (T. Hartig, personal communication, February
14th, 2006) was accepted and validated with the
Mexican population by Martinez-Soto and Montero
(2007). The Mexican version of PRS was called EPRA.
This scale is based on the Attention Restoration
Theory, which states that a restorative experience has
five dimensions: (1) Being Away -BA, (2) FascinationFA, (3) Coherence-COH, (4) Extent-EXT and (5)
Compatibility-COM (Kaplan & Kaplan, 1989). Several
studies have shown restorative experiences in children, teenagers and adults (Korpela, 1992; Korpela
& Hartig, 1996; Wells, 2000; Wells & Evans, 2003).
However, there is little information documenting the
impact of the restorative components on the subjects
through a life cycle. For this reason, it is important
to hypothesize on possible differences in the perception of environment restorativeness based on the
person’s age. Thus, in this study, possible differences
of EPRA scores are explored, considering the age and
gender of the subjects. 109 subjects participated in
the research (men, n= 33 and women n= 76, = 24
years old) ordered in three contrast groups: a) 14-18
years (teenagers), b) 20-29 years (young adults) and c)
30-52 years (adults). The consistency indexes of this
scale were: COH, α= .70; COM, α= .75; BA, α= .76;
FA, α= .81 and EXT, α= .81. It was found that the FA
(F= 5.444; gl 2, 106; p < 0.05) and ALC (F= 5.523; gl 2,
106; p < 0.05) components were more important in the
restorativeness for teenagers (FA, = 8.44; ALC, =
7.98) than they were in the restorativeness for young
adults (FA, = 7.04; ALC, = 6.45). Also, COM (F=
3.690; gl 2, 106; p < 0.05) and ALC (F= 5.523; gl 2, 106;
p < 0.05) were significantly more important for teenagers (COM, = 8.35; ALC, = 7.98) than for adults
(COM, = 7.15; ALC, = 6.47). Finally, women
scored significantly higher in the five dimensions of
EPRA when compared to the men. In summary, the
psychometric qualities of EPRA were ratified with the
Mexican population. The differences in the evaluation
of environments based on age and gender were docu-
Thematic
Abstracts
Environmental
Psychology
Psicología
Ambiental
mented, and the relevance of environmental restorativeness as a subject that deserves further research
within the Latin American context became obvious.
Keywords: cognition, healing environments, restorative environments, quantitative research, preservation/restoration
Place Experience: Meaning, Emotional Links
and their Influence on Identity Development
Thematic
Abstracts
Environmental
Psychology
Psicología
Ambiental
(Experiencia del lugar: significado, conecciones
emocionales y su influencia en el desarrollo de la
identidad)
J. Antonio Corraliza and Paz Ferrer-Ispizua
(Universidad Autonoma de Madrid, Spain)
Environmental experience is not only a part of
everyday experience, but it is one of its core parts, as
long as the environment surrounds and takes part
in the whole existence of human beings. Even if the
attention is not focused on the place, it is experienced
and a certain meaning is given to it. To try to define
this experience three dimensions are suggested: the
first one is related to how much of the environmental
experience is related to real experience and how much
to imagined, “lived” experience (feelings, cognitions,
beliefs, values, symbolism, fantasies, attributions). The
second one is related to the nature of the stimulation
received or the situation undergone in a particular
setting (physical or social). The third one is referred
to the kind of environmental set itself, from micro
sets (like residential ones) to macro sets (like natural
landscapes).
Environmental settings or “places” have also great
links with emotions and feelings, which become
important elements not only of the present experience but of the memories, and can have consequences
in peoples’ behavior. These emotional experiences
can be positive, negative, neutral or, very commonly,
ambivalent or mixed ones, and they have influence
in the development of personal identity as well as in
psychological and physical well-being. The nature of
the emotional experience depends also on its temporal
course (long-term and moderately intense vs. critical
and highly intense ones). In order to describe the different emotions taken place on a particular place Russell’s affective descriptors are proposed: depressing,
exciting, relaxing and stressing emotional experiences.
214
This work intends to go deeper in the understanding
of environmental experience and environmental
memories, how people perceive they influence their
lives through the emotions they elicit and how it is
perceived they help to build personal identity. In
order to reach these objectives an interview instrument was designed (adapted from Manzo). Emotional
significance was also assessed using a graphic instrument and a rating system based on Russell’s affective
descriptors. The subjects interviewed were students
from an adult program at Universidad Autónoma de
Madrid, all of them aged more then fifty-five.
The preliminary results suggest the perceived
importance that certain environmental experiences
have on peoples’ lives and the possibility of characterizing those using common categorical patterns. These
located experiences seem to be perceived as significant
and important on self and social identity development.
They also indicate the high complexity of the connections established with different places and the need of
further research on the area, specially oriented to relocated population, immigrants and people who have to
move from their meaning environments, in general.
Key Words: Environmental experience, meaning,
environmental settings, memories, emotion.
Privacy Regulation and Place Attachment to
a Student Residence Hall
(Reglamento de privacidad y anexo de colocación
en un domitorio de residencia de estudiantes)
Nam-Kyu Park and Naz Kaya (University of
Florida)
Effective use of privacy regulation has been shown
to have positive place attachment outcomes in the
home (Harris, Brown, & Werner, 1996). The privacy
regulation model proposed by Altman (1975) describes privacy as selective control over access to the
self or to one’s group. Central to Altman’s privacy
model are the constructs of desired privacy, achieved
privacy, and optimum level of privacy. Place attachment is defined as a process involved in affective,
cognitive, and behavioral bonds between individuals
or groups and particular places (Low & Altman, 1992).
By linking concepts of privacy regulation and place
attachment, a theoretical model was developed by
Harris et al. (1996) to study the relationship between
the two constructs in the home. Consistent with the
study model of Harris et al. (1996), the purpose of this
study was: (1) to examine the relationship between
privacy needs and place attachment for undergraduate
students living in university residence halls, by gender,
and duration of time living with a roommate and (2)
to investigate the relationship between the desired and
achieved levels of privacy by gender and by duration
of living with a roommate.
The survey was conducted at a large university in
the North Central United States. The total sample size
was 978 undergraduate students (340 males & 638 females) living in double occupancy (suite-style) rooms.
The majority of the participants (71%) had lived in the
residence hall with their roommate between seven
months and one year, while 17% lived there less than
six months, and 12% lived there between one and two
years. Multivariate analysis of variance and univariate
analysis with LSD test were used to determine the effect on the dependent variables.
The result of achieved privacy level showed that
there was significant two-way interaction (gender
by duration). Male students achieved much higher
privacy than did female students the longer they lived
with their roommates. For the identity of attachment, there were significant differences for duration
by group interaction. The students who felt crowded
in their double occupancy rooms had lower identity
scores than the students who scored optimum in that
range, where the duration of living with a roommate
was longer. Also, a significant difference for gender
by duration interaction was found on overall place
attachment. Male students had higher overall place attachment scores than did female students, when they
lived with a roommate for more than one year. The
opposite result was found for male students who had
lived with a roommate between seven months and one
year.
Moving to a university residence hall is often a
young adult’s first experience of independent living;
if the room is double occupancy, it may well be their
first time sharing close living quarters with a nonfamily member. Feeling comfortable with the degree
of privacy and experiencing feelings of place attachment may mean the difference between the student
succeeding in or retreating from dormitory life.
Keywords: Privacy, Place attachment, Residence hall,
Interior design, Quantitative study
Space of Knowledge: Bridging Architectural
and Curatorial Spaces
(Espacio de conocimiento: vinculando la
arquitectura con los espacios tutelares)
Pegah Zamani (Georgia Institute of Technology)
Knowledge is thought to be spatially rendered and
articulated in museums where gallery layouts are
treated as pedagogical devices to organize, present
and transmit knowledge. There is a rich body of
morphological studies on the pedagogical role of museum which has emerged over the last decades. This
interdisciplinary study is aimed at bridging two different but interrelated spatial structures for formation of knowledge in gallery layouts: architectural
and curatorial. Architectural and curatorial spaces,
with two different operational modes, tend toward
homogeneity in generating display space. These two
modes deploy their own mechanisms of classification
with particular design languages by defining ways of
distributing, accessing, seeing and knowing objects.
Thus, they bring spatial and conceptual orders to the
heterogeneous collection of objects. The study, therefore, interrogates two fundamental and interrelated
questions: First, how architects and curators address
the display objects and display space; Second, in
what ways architectural and curatorial spaces of
galleries interact and influence each other and shape
an emergent space for presenting and transmitting
knowledge.
As a case, the study analyses the High Museum
of Art (HMA) by Richard Meier in Atlanta, USA, in
order to reveal how the potential for the spatial classification of the permanent collection has changed
due to different architectural and curatorial stages
of the layout modifications. The examination focuses
on the three stages of internal transformation of the
HMA layout (1983, 1997, 2003) with particular focus
on the ways in which the spatial grouping of objects
has been transformed. The method consists of three
main components including: a morphological analysis
of the HMA architectural layouts; an examination of
curatorial notes, conceptual maps and objects layouts;
and an analogical profile of interactions across the
architectural and curatorial organizations. The investigation outlines specific morphological properties
of display layouts and applies an analytical diagramming to map the curatorial and architectural spaces.
Thematic
Abstracts
Environmental
Psychology
Psicología
Ambiental
Thematic
Abstracts
Environmental
Psychology
Psicología
Ambiental
The technique, to be more specific, explores whether
the same collection of objects, viewed, accessed and
displayed by the different architectural and curatorial
settings, activates different formations of knowledge.
Within multiple intersections across architectural
and curatorial spaces, the study offers a preliminary
evaluation of the direction of change for embedding
knowledge inside the gallery layouts. The findings
propose a fundamental shift in architectural and curatorial approaches and in the underlying pedagogical
principles.
Keywords: Informal pedagogy, Curatorial intentions, Architectural principles, Museum design
Stressful Sources Perception in
Inhabitants of Mexico City
(Percepción de las fuentes de estrés en habitantes
de la Ciudad de México)
Alfonso Valadez, Cristina Bravo, and José
Vaquero (Universidad Nacional Autonoma de
Mexico)
Development, creation and fast urbanization has led
to an increase in the problems that affect the health
of cities inhabitants, some of the psychosocial factors
that influence people produce a social environment
of uncertainty, anxiety and lack of control, which can
be consider example of stress situation. The purpose
of study was to identify the sources of stress in a
non-probability sample of 200 inhabitants of Mexico
City. The assessment was performed using the Urban
Stressors Evaluation Scale, which has two sections:
stressors and stress levels; and frequency of exposure
to stressors, each one sections has reliability through
Cronbach’s alpha, 0.9542 and 0.9313, respectively. The
situations more stressful were related to crime, public
transportation and pollution. Women have a higher
stress levels with regard to situations of crime, besides
being who are exposed more often to them. We found
differences statistically significant in level of stressrelated crime, pollution and behavior of people, married people reported more stress; there are differences
statistical in level of stress in situations such as crime,
behavior of people, pollution and traffic, people with
elementary education reported more increased stress
levels compared with those with higher educational
levels. With regard to frequency about people are
exposed to stressful situations, it was reported those
216
related to environmental pollution, urban distribution
and public transportation, occur frequently. It was
found differences statistically significant frequency
of exposure to situations involving people’s behavior
and demonstrations, married people reported more
often this type of situation. Regard to schooling, we
found differences statistically significant in how
often reported situations such as pollution, behavior
of people, demonstrations and crime, people with
elementary educational level refer most frequently
exposed to these situations, compared with those with
educational medium and higher levels. In conclusion,
data found most stressful situations are linked to factors associated with crime, (v.g. to think a loved one
can be a victim of it), which may explain why married
people are more stressed for this reason that the single
people. The inhabitants of large cities are exposed to
many situations which generate stress; they linked to
satisfaction of needs, such as transportation and the
number of hours that residents of large cities invest
in moving from one place to another. Accordingly,
its necessary identify intervention areas in the built
environment, to prevent and or reduce the impacts on
health and human behavior.
Keywords: Urban Stress perception, stressful situations, stress levels.
Neuropsychology
An Overview of Courthouse Design Research
Debajyoti Pati (HKS Architects, Dallas, TX)
The presentation will focus on three recently conducted studies on courthouses. Two of the inquiries
attempted to identify the environmental correlates
of the abstract notion of openness. Openness as an
ideology surfaced in contemporary courthouse design
as an attempt to bridge a perceived divide between
the State and the citizens. The first study focused on
identifying the clients’ (judges, designers) intentions
in infusing openness in courthouse architecture
and ways the intentions were translated into built
forms. It was found that openness was conceived and
interpreted in six different ways, resulting in multiple
means of portraying it through architecture. Studying
the impact of the clients’ intentions on building users
constituted the objective of the second study. Using
a survey methodology, 108 courthouse users were
solicited to assess the openness of their courthouse in
three federal projects. The findings suggested that only
two of the six interpretations of openness by clients
were meaningful to building users. The third study
addressed the issue of functional courtrooms using
user evaluation data from 31 state superior courts in
Georgia. Multivariate analyses of environmental and
user data suggested key courtroom attributes that
significantly impact task performance and symbolic
rendition of courtrooms.
Architecture and the Neuroscience of
Courthouse Design
(El diseño arquitectónico: y neurociencia y diseño
de la corte)
Jay Farbstein (Jay Farbstein & Associates, California)
The presentation will report on a workshop sponsored by the AIA Academy of Architecture for Justice
(AAJ) and the Academy of Neuroscience for Architecture (ANFA). The workshop explored the application
of neuroscience concepts and methods to understanding the impact of courthouse design on judges,
staff, victims, offenders, and other users. It brought
together neuroscientists, court administrators, court
planners, and architects who design courthouses.
The workshop considered the potentials for applying
and developing knowledge that can improve the
safety, humanity and effectiveness of courthouses by
defining a neuroscience-based research program to be
carried out in courthouse settings. The workshop reviewed neuroscience concepts as they apply to the way
architectural environments are perceived and looked
at specific research topics in the areas of wayfinding,
the impact of natural light and views of nature, the
relative location of participants in the courtroom, including the height of judge’s bench and its impact on
perceived status & interaction, and on the image and
symbolism of the courthouse.
Neuropsychology and the Environment Establishing the Right to be Neuro-Diverse,
Other Sensing and the Creation of Criteria
for Neuro-Accessibility Workshop
(Estableciendo el derecho a ser neuro-diverso, con
otro sentido y creando criterio para neuro-sensibilidad - taller)
Organizers: Sarah Clemerson (University of
Essex, United Kingdom) Dorit Ben Shalom
(Zlotowski Center for Neuroscience Ben Gurion, University of the Negev) and David Morris
(Mayor’s Senior Policy Adviser for Disability
and Deaf Equality, London)
Worldwide, with increasing use of the internet,
those on the autistic spectrum are demanding to have
their sensory rights and neurodiversity to be accepted
on an equal basis with those whom they term neurotypical.
In the United Kingdom there is an increasing
striving towards social inclusion and respecting both
cultural diversity and local distinctiveness in terms of
both landscape and community. As part of this move,
person-centred planning and the holding of individual budgets for care by those with various impairments as well as supported living for those who need
additional support is gaining momentum. David
Morris will argue that “....everybody is on a spectrum
of difference. Normality is an illusion. A mirage of
perfection and people strive towards it, driven by the
fear of isolation and consequently label and stigmatise
those people with different abilities.” Ken Livingstone
speaking at Disability Capital, October 2007 argues ‘If
we remove hurdles for some people we remove hurdles
for the rest of us’. This debate has added impetus with
Thematic
Abstracts
Environmental
Psychology
Neuropsychology
Psicología
Ambiental
Neurociencia
Thematic
Abstracts
Environmental
Psychology
Neuropsychology
Psicología
Ambiental
Neurociencia
preparations for the Olympic and Paralympic games
in 2012.
Our intention is to run a morning intensive workshop. David Morris will do a presentation on the right
to be neurodiverse, Dr Dorit Ben Shalom; cognitive
neuroscientist will review work in relation to sensory processing in Autism Spectrum Disorders and
Sarah Clemerson; Landscape Architecture Student
and Assisted Living support worker will present her
application of these theories as design criteria to three
projects created as part of her Master’s dissertation.
Then we envisage questions followed by a discussion
of examples of attendee’s projects, the limitations
and possibilities of this approach and how as design
professionals we can create a design development continuum to promote and sustain neuro-accessibility.
All three of us are informed by the social model
of disability rather than a medicalised curative one.
Sensory processing and integration issues are not particular to autism; other researchers such as U.K. based
research optometrist. Ian Jordan argues that 25% of
the population have 10 or more undiagnosed symptoms of sensory impairment (Jordan, 01/05/07).
Therefore we will argue that the understanding and
acceptance of the perception of the world by people
on the spectrum, creates criteria for enabling for a far
wider group.
Key words: Sensory perception, social model of disability, neuro-diversity, applied design
References
Jordan, I. (01/05/07) Your Head Has Disappeared,
You Smell Strange and I Want to Take My Clothes Off.
Blinded By the Light Conference: Lincoln.
Neuroscience Approaches to Understanding
Wayfinding in the Courthouse
Richard Wener (Polytechnic University, New
York)
Wayfinding issues are particularly appropriate for
discussions of neuropsychological responses to the
environment because they are, on the one hand, so
fundamental to the experience of a place and, on the
other so clearly related to studied neural processes
and mechanisms. Wayfinding is commonly the first
part of any person’s experience with a setting. In
courthouses, the focus of this workshop, it may be
particularly relevant because often they are large,
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imposing and complex. Whether or not getting to the
facility is easy or difficult, finding ones way into and
through entryways, halls, elevators and numbering
systems to the desired place is often frustrating and
confusing. In addition, wayfinding in a complex
environment is made more difficult by stress - which
reduces one’s ability to engage on complex cognitive
processes, and first time visitors are typically under
considerable stress in these settings, complicated
by the pressures of their legal proceedings.
Neuropsychological advances have increased
understanding of how and where these functions
occur in the brain and also provide increasingly
sophisticated means for monitoring and measuring
response to environmentally related stresses.
Toward an Environmental Neuropsychology:
Neuroscience and Courthouse Design
(Hacia un ambiente neurosicológico: neurociencia
y diseño de la corte)
Organizer: Debajyoti Pati (HKS Architects,
Texas). Presenters: Debajyoti Pati (HKS Architects, Texas), Jay Farbstein (Jay Farbstein &
Associates, California), Richard Wener (Polytechnic University, New York), Melissa Farling
(Jones Studio, Arizona), Dr. Eve Edelstein (Snr.
Vice President, HMC Architects, San Diego,
Division of Biological Sciences, University of
California, San Diego, Academy of Neuroscience for Architecture)
Since its inception as an interdisciplinary branch
of intellectual inquiry, neuroscience-in-architecture
has been offering innovative objective techniques
to study unique environmental design problems.
Incidentally, this development is coinciding with an
emerging interest on the part of architectural clients
in understanding the down-stream impacts of design
decisions on key parameters of interest. Among the
settings of intellectual pursuit by environmental
design researchers are justice facilities, where there
is an increasing awareness among court designers,
administrators and researchers of the need to create
“functional environments” for the stakeholders
(victim, juror, offender, judge, community and staff).
Such functions include those that are instrumental
to justice delivery as well as the symbolic portrayal
of the fundamental essence of the judiciary and the
State. The conflicting requirements and complexities involved could easily make the judicial process
extremely stressful to the users. In addition, stress resulting from the litigation itself (violent and non-violent crime, divorce, bankruptcy, custody, etc.) and the
physical environment (light, color, noise, orientation,
etc.) could render the judicial experience distressing.
In the pursuit of designing a less harrowing judicial
experience (courts as regenerative spaces, producing
hope), some of the challenges to justice facility designers and researchers are in comprehending abstract
constructs, and finding objective means of assessing
the impacts of alternative design ideas. Moreover,
with societies around the world getting increasingly
multi-cultural as a result of economic globalization, experiences associated with the procedural and
symbolic aspects of courthouses are increasing in
complexity.
Several previously held symposiums and workshops explored the potential of neuroscience research
designs and methodologies in addressing similar
challenging issues in the context of healthcare architecture and correctional facilities. This symposium
will build on the previous knowledge to explore an
environmental neuropsychology approach to courthouse design. The symposium will begin with a presentation of three recent courthouse research studies
that will outline the key issues and constructs dealt
with in contemporary courthouse and courtroom design. Subsequently, results from a recently conducted
workshop on neuroscience and courthouse design
sponsored by the Academy of Architecture for Justice
will be discussed, specifically focusing on lighting
and wayfinding. The symposium will conclude with
an open discussion on: 1) environmental correlates
of stressful experiences in courthouse settings, and 2)
potential means of objectively measuring neurological
correlates of physiological and perceptual/experiential parameters. The symposium will include four
presentations totaling 45 minutes. The remaining 45
minutes will be opened up for audience participation
in the discussions. The discussant of the symposium
will be an eminent neuroscientist, Dr. Eve Edelstein,
Associate of the Academy of Neuroscience for Architecture. Dr. Edelstein will contribute by suggesting/
elaborating on objective measures of neurological
correlates of physiological and perceptual/experiential
parameters, among other topics.
• An Overview of Courthouse Design;
• Architecture and the Neuroscience of Courthouse
Design; and
• Neuroscience Approaches to Understanding Wayfinding in the Courthouse.
Key words: Stress, wayfinding, justice, architecture,
neuroscience
Abstracts
Environmental
Psychology
Neuropsychology
Psicología
Ambiental
Neurociencia
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Health Environments
Are Hospitals Stress Generators? A predictive
model of stress in the case of cancer patients
Adina Dumitru and Patricia Ortega-Andeane,
(School of Psychology, Universidad Nacional
Autonoma de México)
Thematic
Abstracts
Health
Environments
Ambientes
de la salud
Environmental psychology has long studied the
influence of the built environment on its users. Previous studies identify certain factors of the physical
and social environment that influence the stress level
of users and the functionality degree of the space.
(Ulrich & Zimring, 2004). The environment can
either facilitate/support the behavioral needs of users
or it can hinder the achievement of objectives, thus
creating stress. Stress, defined as the process in which
environmental demands exceed the coping abilities
of an organism, producing different biological and
psychological changes which are associated with
strong coping demands (Cohen, Kessler y Underwood,
1997), is particularly relevant in the case of cancer
patients, whose coping resources are already diminished by their health situation. Among determinants
of stress we considered the ones proposed by Reizenstein, Grant and Simmons (1986): physical comfort,
social contact, symbolic significance, orientation and
way-finding.
The present paper seeks to test a causal model of
stress, in which the exogenous variables refer to the
physical and social environment and include physical space perception, negative physical evaluation,
functionality of space, human quality of attention
and trust in and safety of the medical attention. The
setting was a general hospital in Mexico City dedicated to women, and the data were collected in two
areas of the hospital: a general waiting room and the
two hospitalization rooms from the Oncology section.
The sample was constituted from 116 women with a
diagnosis of cancer, half in ambulatory treatment and
half hospitalized. 51 % of the women were married, 32
% were single and the others were widows, divorced
or in a partnership. The majority of them (75 %) were
unemployed. We used the Environmental Evaluation
Scale, designed by Ortega et al (2000) to collect data
on the perceptions of physical and social environment
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factors and an adapted version of King, Burrows and
Stanley’s Stress/Arousal Adjective Checklist (1993) to
measure stress. We used structural equations modeling. Our model shows that the negative physical
evaluation, trust in and safety of the medical attention
and functionality are direct predictors of stress. It
also shows very interesting mediating mechanisms of
stress generation in the case of cancer patients. The results were very satisfactory in the sense that they show
a very good fit of the data to the model (GFI = 0.98;
AGFI = 0.94). We conclude with a few recommendations to improve the environment of hospitals.
Keywords: stress, cancer, women, hospital, evaluation
Chemotherapy Area Design Research:
Implications for the Design of Consolidated
Cancer Care Centers
(Investigación para el diseño de áreas de
quimioterapia: implicaciones para el diseño de
centros de cuidados contra el cáncer consolidados)
Nicholas Watkins (Cannon Design)
Chemotherapy patients can experience side effects from treatment including reduced quality of
life, increased anxiety, vomiting, nausea, and longterm psychosocial challenges. The environment of a
chemotherapy bay might serve as a stressor contributing to patients’ side effects and perceived treatment
progress. Yet, (to this researcher’s knowledge) no one
has attempted to measure the impact of the chemotherapy bay environment on the patient experience.
An ongoing study examines chemotherapy bay environments as contributors to patients’ chemotherapy
experiences by exploring how patients perceive and
respond to specific features of chemotherapy bay
environments. These features include private chemotherapy bays, communal chemotherapy bays, ambient
conditions, amenities, other patients, staff responsiveness, and availability and proximity to a window.
The longitudinal, cross-comparison study has
consisted of pre- and post-occupancy measurements
using the Chemotherapy Area Design Survey (CADS),
a questionnaire specifically created for the study. The
CADS asks patients to evaluate their current chemotherapy session relative the room and its surround-
ings, what they did during treatment, the presence of
guests and other patients, and overall experience.
This presentation includes a description of the
chemotherapy experience, a discussion of the design
aspects of chemotherapy environments, and a description of the study’s findings thus far. Research findings
have implications for the planning and design of consolidated cancer care centers consisting of treatment
areas, clinic spaces, counseling spaces, and spaces for
radiation oncology.
Keywords: Chemotherapy, chemotherapy bay, consolidated cancer care, radiation oncology
Designing for Addiction Recovery: Reflections
from an Architectural Case Study
(Diseñando para la recuperación de la adicción:
reflexiones de un estudio de caso arquitectónico )
Brian Schermer, Caitlin Boyle, Emi Kiyota
(University of Wisconsin – Milwaukee),
Newton D’Souza (University of Missouri –
Columbia), and Matt Jarosz (University of
Wisconsin – Milwaukee)
This paper discusses and architectural case study
that affords a unique opportunity to better understand how physical places are implicated in addiction recovery. The Milwaukee Alano Foundation is
a club and drop-in center for recovering alcoholics.
As the owners of a historic, but rundown residence,
the members sought assistance from the authors to
renovate the building. The authors proceeded to
conduct scenario planning, assessment of organizational and architectural fit, pre-design programming,
and schematic design. These activities paralleled, in a
very real sense, the kind of critical self-inventory and
removal of character defects associated with addiction
recovery. In addition, while places can support and
enhance recovery through instrumental and symbolic
mean, they can also play a dual role as both the object
and instrument of recovery. In other words, people
recovering from substance abuse, as suggested by this
case study, may seek to rehabilitate their physical setting in order to rehabilitate themselves. The case study
also suggests that ownership and control over places
for recovery can be a critical factor in recovering from
substance abuse.
Empowering the Caregivers through
Inclusive Design: An Autobiographical Essay
(Dando poder a quienes dan cuidados a través de
diseño inclusivo: un ensaño autobiográfico)
Rula Awwad-Rafferty (University of Idaho)
“Nearly 45 million Americans are caring for ailing
adult family members. More than 60% of these
caregivers are women” (Berman, 2005). Increasingly
resources are made available nationwide for caregivers
to assist them in their roles, however, one critical area
remains inadequately addressed: what role does the
built environment play in enhancing or hindering
caregivers’ role, health, and independence. This paper
presentation underscores the importance and means
of empowering and addressing needs of caregivers
through design and participatory action process.
Process/Contexts - Caregiving means caring for
others, whether friends or relatives, who have health
problems or disabilities and need help in their daily
activities and tasks, from grocery shopping to helping
with daily tasks such as bathing, dressing, and eating.
Many caregivers struggle to balance caregiving
with other responsibilities including full-time jobs
and caring for children. Constant stress can lead
to “burnout” and health problems for the caregiver.
Caregivers may feel guilty, frustrated, and angry from
time to time.
The Built Environment: Empowering and Forever
an Anchor - It is a very difficult and emotionally
charged undertaking to revisit an event that has
changed one’s life so absolutely and to explore its
depths and turns with a disciplined professional
mindset. The content here are autobiographical, they
deal with a drastic life change for both husband and
wife; a change that in many ways demanded much
attention, flexibility, readjustment, learning, more
readjustment, and certainly strength to move forward
and hope. Prior to beginning, the following poem
was shared by a friend, it is very characteristic of
many of those caregiving stories; the vigilance, the
independence, the ;letting go, and the anxiety.
I have started this reflection with a story and will
end with another. Shortly after Dan was injured, we
were asked to complete a questionnaire. One question asked about changes in social life and changes in
quality of life. Dan’s answer was that both were a zero,
since he “had gone from something to NOTHING”.
Thematic
Abstracts
Health
Environments
Ambientes
de la salud
Thematic
Abstracts
Health
Environments
Ambientes
de la salud
Fast forward a couple of years later, we met a couple
after the husband became quadriplegic. That young
man recently passed away after some severe complications. Dan’s response when he heard the news was
“that is too bad; he would have had a great life once
he got through this”. Yes, we will fully live our next
many years together, each day will be a little different,
each day may bring some challenges, but we will have
many victories along the way, and for that we are
grateful.
Today, caregiving is much more than a personal
family issue. It is the issue of our age because it will
sooner or later affect every family in America and
we are underprepared, either as individuals or as a
society, to deal with it. This reflection is aimed to
give pause to the significant power our environments,
built, social, political, and economic have on people’s
abilities to persevere, and on the overall notion of self
and community membership.
Environmental Evaluation of Hospital
Waiting Rooms: Relationships of psychoenvironmental variables
Patricia Ortega-Andeane and Cesareo Estrada-Rodriguez (School of Psychology, Universidad Nacional Autonoma de México)
According to some theories (Canter and Canter,
1979), physical environment can play a decisive role
in the effective functioning of hospitals, since it can
help promote patient recuperation and staff activity
and offer a comfortable, secure, and well-attended stay
for users. In order for environmental characteristics
to function for and not against therapeutic work, it is
necessary to pay attention not only to architectural
design but also to psychological concepts, which can
define the difference between a positive and a negative
environment. In this sense, Environmental Psychology has generated substantial information to improve the design of hospitals, supported by systematic
findings, which analyze and evaluate the interaction
of human relationships between environment and
behavior. Rubin and Owens (1995), as well as Ulrich
and Zimring (2004), have reviewed studies on the impact of physical environment in hospitals and reached
the conclusion that most studies accept the hypothesis that environmental effects on patient health do
exist. Shumaker and Pequegnat (1989) maintain that
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environmental organization and hospital design can
directly affect patient recuperation or the well-being
of users in two ways: one is the obstruction of effective and immediate provision of healthcare, since,
from the patient’s point of view, the hospital layout
interferes with the movements necessary for prompt
healthcare; this is supported by the results reported
by Reizenstein, Grant, and Simmons (1986) and
Shumaker and Reizenstein (1982). On the other hand,
physical features such as deficient lighting, excessive
noise, inadequate localization of medical equipment,
or large distances between related areas can indirectly
hinder immediate attention and create a stressful
environment for users. In the present study we identified the relationships of air humidity and noise, both
measured objectively with specific equipment, with
stress perception, measured exhaustion, and physical
evaluation with self-reporting instruments, in addition to delay time, in 253 patients who waited for care
at three waiting rooms in a public hospital for women
in Mexico city. Patients answered the Environmental
Evaluation Scale and the Checklist of Adjectives for
Stress and Activation. While they were answering
them, noise and humidity levels in all waiting rooms
were measured every 30 minutes during working
hours. The results identified significant relationships
between the physical evaluation of waiting rooms and
humidity, noise levels, stress perception, exhaustion,
and time of delay; there were also significant differences in physical evaluation among the three waiting
rooms. In a specific way, when patients evaluated
their environment negatively there were objectively
observable worse physical conditions of humidity and
higher noise levels; at the same time, they reported a
high level of stress and exhaustion and longer waiting
times before their medical consultation. The conclusions emphasize the need to reduce adverse environmental conditions that pose a threat to the process of
recuperation in patients.
Keywords: Hospitals, stress, women, noise, air
humidity.
From Bench to Bed: Do the Design of
Transitional and Interdisciplinary Research
Facilities Contribute to Scientific Discovery
and Improved Healthcare?
(De la banca a la cama: ¿el diseño de investigación
transicional e interdisciplinaria contribuye al
descubrimiento científico y cuidado de la salud
mejorado?)
Nicholas Watkins and Jeanne Qiu (Cannon
Design)
Translational research involves scientific investigations that pair discoveries in the laboratory with
insights from clinical research and practice. Research
follows a bench-to-bed cycle where observations in
the clinic can guide innovation in the laboratory
and vice versa. Patients benefit from participating in
clinical trails that discover cures and prevent diseases.
Researchers benefit from accessibility to patients and
faster pharmaceutical and treatment development.
Consequently, innovations in treatment keep up with
staggering advances in research and technology in
laboratories.
Translational research leads to nontraditional
research collaborations and roles. It is projected
that nanobiotech research will be a $1 trillion dollar
industry by 2015. Academic institutions and corporate industries are partnering up to supplement
each other’s resources and to share significant profits.
Translational research requires collaboration among
researchers from various backgrounds. Interdisciplinary teams approach one problem from several
facets by using multiple techniques and disciplines.
These may include genomics, proteomics, cell biology,
molecular biology, imaging, biomedical engineering,
synthetic biochemistry, high-throughput genotyping
and broad transcriptional profiling.
Design may facilitate the discoveries that develop
from impromptu conversations and interdisciplinary
collaborations. Collaborations can occur in write-up
areas, at the lab bench, and the in the kitchen and cafeteria areas. Conference rooms accommodate formal
collaborations, while break rooms, lounges, coffee
bars and lunch rooms accommodate informal collaborations. However, there can be tradeoffs. Open laboratories might contribute to improved collaborations
and safety, but create noise detrimental to private
work requiring quiet and concentration. Transparency
afforded by window views and glass walls might reinforce collaboration among neighboring researchers,
orient researchers to the outside world and provide
daylight. Yet, this transparency might create distractions with conducting focused research. These are just
a few of the considerations designers and facilities
managers address when creating facilities that attract
and retain top research talent.
This presentation will define translationsl and
interdisciplinary research, and share research findings
from ongoing mixed-methods facility evaluations of
multiple translationsl and interdisciplinary research
facilities. In doing so, the presentation will explore if
and how facility designs impact scientific discovery
and the contribution of environmental psychology research to the programming of research environments.
Keywords: Translationsl research, bench-to-bed
cycle, laboratory, interdisciplinary collaboration.
Hospital Environments, Image and Stress in
Women Symposium
(Simposio sobre ambientes hospitalarios, imagen y
stress en mujeres)
Organizer: Patricia Ortega-Andeane (School
of Psychology, Universidad Nacional Autonoma de México)
The role of the physical environment in reducing
or increasing patients’ stress in hospital settings is
crucial in countries like Mexico, where demand for
inexpensive care is excessive, and especially when the
environment in public hospitals interferes with the
primary activities of their primary users, patients.
Considering that the lack of fit between environmental properties and personal needs may induce
stress, by creating demands that exceed the person’s
capacity to cope, in this symposium we present three
papers that exemplify the effects of the impact of
physical environment in waiting rooms and patients’
rooms on the perception of stress and exhaustion in
women of low socioeconomic levels. The symbolic
qualities of the environment, in other words the perception of quality, safety, and confidence in medical
services, and their mediating role in generating stress
in patients, are also identified as part of the evaluation
of physical environment.
Thematic
Abstracts
Health
Environments
Ambientes
de la salud
Thematic
Abstracts
Health
Environments
Ambientes
de la salud
We will focus particularly on the sociodemographic
characteristics of the subjects in the three studies in
terms of their low social and educational level, as well
as the reasons for their hospitalization, which include
gynecological conditions and cancer.
The symposium will seek to reinforce our knowledge of the importance of reducing adverse environmental conditions which, as occurs with stress, if
they are not addressed prolong or exacerbate illness
or represent threats to the process of recuperation in
patients who are hospitalized or required to wait for
long periods of time before they receive care.
Presentations include “Environmental Evaluation
of Hospital Waiting Rooms: Relationships of psychoenvironmental variables”, “Are Hospitals Stress
Generators? A predictive model of stress in the case of
cancer patients”. and “The Image of a Public Obstetric
Hospital”.
The Image of a Public Obstetric Hospital
(Imagen de un hospital público de obstetricia)
Beatriz Vazquez-Romero and Patricia OrtegaAndeane (School of Psychology, Universidad
Nacional Autonoma de México)
The image of the place is influenced by the circumstances in which they find the subject, as well as their
personality traits and environmental characteristics
of the setting, this image influences the behavior and
expectations about itself. In general the image of
many public hospitals in Mexico is negative because
of the waiting time and the quality of its services, particularly in the area of outpatient. The objective of this
study was to research the institutional image that had
a group of women interned in an obstetric hospital.
The sample included 200 women from lower middle
class and poor, they were hospitalized for emergency
for the birth of their son or abortion, they all shared
the hospital room with more than three people and
were interned for two days. In this study were applied
to) a questionnaire data general hospital and b) a scale
of institutional image designed by Ortega-Andeane
(2000) in which it is measured confidence in the safety
and quality medical service; environmental evaluation comprised by functionality and spatial perception and perceived stress in the rooms. The validity of
the scale was obtained through a factor analysis with
varimax rotation with eigen values greater than unity,
224
explained 42% of the total variance, comprising the
factor 1 “Confidence in the safety and quality medical
service” explains 25% of variance and has a reliability
Alpha .93; the factor 2 “Stress perceived” explains
the 7% of variance and has a reliability of .81 and the
factor 3 “Environmental evaluation” explains the 6%
of variance with a reliability of .79. The results showed
that most patients had a favorable image of the
hospital, it is recognized and recommended by their
families because of the good quality of medical care
and the low cost of their services. The physical aspect
is not very important charged at the time of the image
of the place, only 34% said that the settlement, comfort and tranquility in the room itself influenced their
hospital stay. Nor any woman perceived crowding in
the room. As for the stress, patients reported a high
level in relation to his personal life but is not related
to environmental stress of the place, it is worth noting
that the patients suffered from anxiety it by the state
health suffered their roommates.
It is concluded that in this group of women patients
is favorable institutional image mainly because there
is a great satisfaction with the medical care they
receive during their hospitalization. We discuss the
results from other studies that have been made in
the image hospital in Mexico and the environmental
aspects that relate with it.
Keywords: hospital, women, image, stress, evaluation.
Impacts of Different Patient Room
Configurations on Patient Care Activities in
Adult Medical-Surgical Units
(Impactos de diferentes configuraciones de
habitaciones de pacientes en actividades de
cuidado de adultos en unidades médicoquirúrgicas)
Debajyoti Pati and Tom Harvey (HKS Architects, Texas)
Patient room configuration is a critical topic in
healthcare design since it constitutes the setting
where most of the care process occurs. A typical issue
considered during the initial phases of bed unit design
pertains to the location of patient toilet/shower. More
specifically, decision-making focuses on whether
to locate patient toilet/shower on the corridor wall
(inboard), window wall (outboard) or create a nested
arrangement. Another decision relates to toilet/shower
location on the headwall (the wall with medical gases)
versus the footwall (the wall opposite the medical
gases). The decisions are, however, typically taken in a
non-systematic manner, with only a handful of issues
taken into consideration in design decision-making.
Such considerations include patient’s visual access to
the outdoors/nature, the caregivers’ ability to monitor
patient conditions, or accommodation of family
members in the patient room. With the current massive investment into bed tower design and construction, understanding the trade-offs associated with
each option, systematically, constitutes an important
step in designing an ideal environment for patients
as well as care givers. With that objective, a symposium was organized in HKS, Inc. office in Dallas,
Texas in May 2007. The symposium was attended by
clinicians, patient, patient advocate, educators, and
healthcare designers from Integris Baptist Medical
Center, Oklahoma City, M D Anderson, Houston,
University of Texas at Arlington School of Nursing,
and HKS Architects. Six typical patient room layouts
were used in the symposium. Only adult medicalsurgical units were considered since such units are the
most common inpatient units across all hospital types
– rural, suburban, and urban hospitals as well as in
general hospitals and centers of excellence. A total of
23 issues were identified as being affected by the location of toilet/shower in patient rooms. The issues can
be classified into six (not mutually exclusive) groups:
1) patient safety, 2) staff efficiency, 3) circulation, 4) patient consideration, 5) infection control, and 6) family
consideration. Each issue was discussed in details, and
symposium participants were asked to rank the issues,
individually, in their order of importance. In addition,
the participants rated each of the six room configurations along each of the 24 issues or criteria. The data
collected from the ranking and rating exercises were
analyzed using simple descriptive statistical techniques. Data analyses focused on two major topics: 1)
the priorities of clinicians and healthcare designers in
patient room design, and 2) the perceived comparative
performance of different room configuration options.
This presentation will discuss the 23 criteria in details,
and review the key findings from the data analyses.
Keywords: healing environments, hospital, architecture, interiors
“Impressive!” Credentials, Family
Photographs, and the Perception of Therapist
Qualities
(“¡¡Impresionante!!” Credenciales, fotografías
familiares, y la percepción de las cualidades
terapéuticas)
Ann Devlin, Sarah Donovan, Arianne Nicolov,
Olivia Nold, Andrea Packard, and Gabrielle
Zandan (Connecticut College)
Attention has been given to the role of décor as it
affects various kinds of social and personality judgments for over 50 years (e.g., Maslow & Mintz, 1956;
Heppner & Pew, 1977). The present study assesses the
impact of credentials displayed on the wall of a therapist’s office that participants view in a projected image.
Earlier researchers had displayed a maximum of 5
credentials (Heppner & Pew, 1977). Here, that number
has been increased to nine, viewed as a reasonable
test of the question about the limits to which the
number of credentials has a positive effect. Participants were 177 students at a small liberal arts college
in the Northeast. Six conditions (2, 4, or 9 credentials
displayed, with or without 2 family photographs) were
created. Participants rated a total of 32 characteristics, each on a 9-point rating scale. Each of the first
14 characteristics was presented with an appropriate
lead-in stem, for example “With this person’s schedule,
making an appointment to see this person would be”
1) very easy to 9) very difficult. The next 18 items were
bipolar adjectives on a 9-point scale where the survey
stated “Please indicate how you view this person on
the following scales.” Background characteristics and
a manipulation check were included. The 32 ratings
were subjected to a principal components analysis
with varimax rotation. Twenty-seven items loaded
on three factors that were labeled Qualifications,
Friendliness, and Energy. A 3 (number of credentials)
x 2 (presence or absence of family pictures) factorial
Manova was conducted. The analysis for the number
of credentials was significant, Wilks’s Lambda = .789,
F(6, 338) = 7.07, p < .001. Univariate findings for the
number of credentials showed significant differences
for both the Qualifications factor, F(2, 171) = 10.88, p
< .001 and the Energy factor, F(2, 171) = 16.42, p < .001.
Tukey post hoc tests for the Qualifications factor indicated that the 2-credential condition differed significantly from both the 4- and 9-credential conditions.
Thematic
Abstracts
Health
Environments
Ambientes
de la salud
Thematic
Abstracts
Health
Environments
Ambientes
de la salud
For the Energy factor, the 2-credential condition again
differed significantly from the 4- and 9-credential
conditions, and 4-credential condition differed significantly from the 9-credential condition as well. For
both of these factors, Qualifications and Energy, the
greater the number of credentials, the more positive
(lower) the ratings. Supporting the findings from earlier studies, the results here indicate that displaying
diplomas and other indicators of competence has a
positive effect on people’s judgments of a therapist’s
qualifications. A display of such credentials also affects people’s assessment of the energy or dynamism
of the therapist (e.g., being active rather than passive,
bold rather than timid, forceful rather than forceless). Thus, credentials appear to provide an important indicator of the professional competence of the
therapist and his or her professional strivings. Many
states require practitioners to display their licenses.
The display of a license alone might be considered a
“minimalist” approach. Displaying many credentials
appears to send the message that the practitioner
is not only qualified, but very qualified, and also a
person who has demonstrated energy with regard to
the pursuit of success in his or her career.
Keywords: healthcare, aesthetics, psychology, experiment
Privacy and Territoriality in Cancer Patients
(Privacidad y territorialidad en pacientes con
cáncer)
Maricela Irepan and Patricia Ortega-Andeane
Privacy, understood as selective control of access to
oneself or the group to which one belongs (Altman,
1975), is an issue of great importance for the hospital environment, considering that when a patient
is interned in a room with other patients, it means
that she must remain in constant contact with others,
whether she wants to or not, and therefore will lack
the ability to maintain an adequate level of privacy.
Ulrich et al. (2006) affirm that privacy depends on the
opportunities provided by our physical surroundings
and the circumstances that make us seek privacy, for
which people use various psychological mechanisms
to find and maintain an acceptable and effective balance of privacy desired and privacy achieved. When
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the former clearly outweighs the latter, it produces a
perception of overcrowding and invasion of personal
space with the resulting behavioral manifestations
and psychosocial costs. For this study we interviewed
72 female cancer patients, with ages between 18
and 70 years, interned in a specialized public hospital. The interviews were conducted in three kinds
of rooms: private, semiprivate, and public, applying
the Ortega-Andeane Environmental Evaluation Scale
(2002), consisting of 31 items with 10 answer options,
where zero indicates total disagreement with the
question and 10 indicates total agreement. For the
purposes of this study we discuss only the two factors
related to the topic of interest with the corresponding
percentage of explained variance and reliability coefficient, resulting from factorial and reliability analyses:
Privacy 10% (α=.61) and Territoriality 9% (α=.64). The
results obtained by means of “t” tests show statistically significant differences in relation to perception
of privacy and educational background, with persons
without schooling reporting an average of 7.72 and
those with schooling an average of 6.42 (t70 p= 0.05);
as regards the relationship between privacy and subjects’ places of origin, those who lived in the Mexico
City area obtained an average of 5.83, compared with
those from other parts of Mexico, who scored 7.24 (t70
p=0.38); as regards privacy compared with density,
subjects with private rooms obtained an average of
9.26 and those in rooms with more than two patients
6.30 (t70 p=0.058). In the case of territoriality, we also
found the same pattern of significant differences (t70
p=0.053), in other words a higher average for those
with private rooms (8.7) compared with those in
shared rooms (7.2). In other words, patients with more
schooling who lived in Mexico City and were interned
in shared rooms reported a greater need for privacy
and territoriality, compared with unschooled people,
who live elsewhere and were interned in private rooms.
The discussion revolves around the consequences for
patients in situations of extreme physical and emotional frailty, as occurs in the case of cancer and its
relationship with the environment.
Keywords: Hospitals, privacy, territoriality, health,
women.
Restorative Properties of a Therapeutic
Environment
(Propiedades restaurativas de un ambiente
terapéutico)
Rocio Estela and Patricia Ortega-Andeane
The most common idea people have of a hospital is
that it should provide care and attention to persons
who have lost the ability to handle the demands of
everyday life; however, it is not always so. According
to Canter and Canter (1979), the physical environment
can play a decisive role in the effective functioning of
hospitals, as it can favor patients’ recovery and staff
activities, with the added benefit of offering a comfortable, safe, and well attended stay for their different
users. Due to the sensitivity of patients and their companions during hospitalization, environmental factors
can calm, cheer, and even further the recuperation of
a patient or, on the contrary, can represent sources of
added stress and prolong illness (Ortega, 2005). If a
hospital’s goal is to cure disease and promote health
and well being, then environmental factors that favor
recuperation also need to be taken into consideration.
Recent investigations have evaluated design characteristics in different settings that tend to reduce the effects of environmental stress in users, many of which
have been found to promote “restorative environments”. Restoration involves a renewal of resources
and abilities that have been diminished through
experiences that offer the subject the opportunity to
reduce the fatigue produced by direct care, through
visual exposure to natural settings or the experience
of being in them (Hartig, 2003; Kaplan and Kaplan,
1989). The goal of the present study was to evaluate patients’ perception of the restorative nature of environmental qualities in an hospital.The investigation was
conducted in a public hospital specialized in cancer,
applying an adapted version of the Hartig’s Perceived
Restorativeness Scale (1996) to 72 hospitalized female
patients. The scale was applied in two types of rooms:
private and shared with one or two patients. The scale
was made up of 17 items with seven answer options,
ranging from agree totally to disagree totally. Three
valid factors were obtained: abstraction, exploration,
and coherence, with an explained variance of 56.30
and reliability of α=0.71. The results indicated differences between patients who were in private rooms and
those who were accompanied; specifically the perception of exploration in the setting was worse for those
who were alone (average score 3.4) and better for those
who were accompanied by one or two other patients
(average score 4.9) (t70 , p= .003); in other words,
patients who lacked privacy preferred to examine
their surroundings, moved about them more easily,
identified reference points to move about, and wanted
to get to know their surroundings more than those
who were in private rooms. The results are analyzed in
the light of existing knowledge of restorative environments in therapeutic settings and their benefits for
internees.
Keywords: Hospitals, restorative environments,
women with cancer, health, privacy.
The Healing Garden Designed for Active Use:
A Post-Occupancy Evaluation of the Rooftop
Therapy Park
(El jardin curativo diseñado para uso activo: una
evaluación post-ocupacional de la parte superior
del parque de terapia)
Brad Davis (University of Georgia)
Considerable research supports the theory that
the inclusion of green spaces within health care
contexts is beneficial to multiple user groups (Ulrich,
1984). Marcus and Barnes (1995) describes the healing
benefits of hospital gardens and identifies common
obstacles to their success. Much work has focused
on passive garden use rather than active. Research
is needed of healing gardens serving an active
user population. This study uses a post occupancy
evaluation to identify the successes and shortcomings
of a rooftop hospital garden designed for patients
of a physical and mental rehabilitation center. The
Center admits patients ranging in age from toddler
to senior citizen who have suffered trauma such
as stroke or accident and receive individualized
physical and cognitive therapies. Patient stay is
often three months or longer. The study garden is
heavily programmed to provide outdoor physical
therapy, while also considering the mental, social, and
spiritual user needs. The park was constructed on an
existing rooftop many years after the initial hospital
construction.
Questions posed by this study include: To what
extent is the garden adequate for walking and active
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uses? Does the layout provide comfortable social and
private spaces? What are user’s perceptions of the
value of various park elements? What issues result
from the addition of the park years after main hospital
campus construction? The following methods were
used to answer these and other questions:
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1) Behavioral observation and mapping: garden use
was mapped over a period of one week during seasonally pleasant daytime temperatures and anticipated
increased garden use. Twenty-eight patients, visitors,
and staff were observed and mapped.
2) Interviews: telephone and personal interviews
were conducted with the lead therapist and garden
designer.
3) Staff Survey: twenty-five of sixty Center staff
participated.
4) Patient Questionnaire: twenty-three out of fortyfive patients were identified by Center staff as cognitively capable of participating. Of these, twelve were
given the thirty to forty-five minute questionnaire.
Using Zeisel’s framework, data sets were analyzed
for convergence (Zeisel, 1984). Analysis reveals many
issues to be addressed in the design of future healing
gardens, specifically those with programs of active
use. The results suggest that: A) Incompatibility of active/passive space requires resolution; B) The hospital
masterplanning process must be driven by a holistic
view of healing; C) Garden placement within the
campus is critical in optimizing user wayfinding, accessibility, and use; D) Human perceptions of garden
elements become heightened and these elements
take on deeper levels of meaning in physical, mental,
social, and spiritual ways. E) The addition of a rooftop
garden post facility construction creates design challenges ranging from technical to user comfort. This
proposed paper offers the unique design challenges
carried by active use, rooftop, healing gardens. As in
any type of design activity, these elements must be addressed at the beginning of the masterplan process.
Keywords: Healing environment, healthcare, green
roof, behavior mapping, wayfinding
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The Mental Representation of the Differences
Space Form in Outpatient Environments
(La percepción psicológica de diferencias en la
forma del espacio, en ambientes de pacientes
dados de alta)
Jui Sung Huang and Szu-Yu Tzeng (National
Yunlin University of Science & Technology)
The study is based on the presumption that the
index in the actual environment does clearly guide
people to understand the environment organizations. However, without index information, people
will use the mental representation in the environment
recognition to help them search the correct position
in the similar space. The study aims to discuss the
encoding, retaining and retrieval of the information
in the differences space form when people move in
an environment and to further understand which
environment design elements affect the memories
of the users as environment representation. The
experiment environment is based on the differences
space form in outpatient environment without index
(graphic/text information). The experimenters have
never been to the experiment environment. There are
two experiment groups. One is given text stimulants
while the other is given graphic stimulants. After receiving different visual stimulants, the experimenters
immediately perform search in the actual outpatient
environment and mutually verify the psychological
representation in two stages of sensory memory and
working memory. The search process was videotaped
for the visual space and psychological movements of
the experimenters. After the operation of the experiment, free recall was used to explain the psychological
process of different visual stimulants an environment
search behaviors while recorded images were verified
in order to ensure the memories of the experimenters
on environment representation from search process.
The expected contributions of the study are: 1. To understand the differences of different visual stimulants
to environment verification. 2. Which design elements
in environment design can be retrieved for verification. 3. Which environment information of outpatient
users forms psychological representation.
Keywords: Environment information, psychological
representation, environment memory, space form.
The Relationship between Workspace,
Activity and Hierarchy in a Clinical Exam
Room: An Innovative Design in Practice
(La relación entre el espcio de trabajo, actividad
y jerarquía en una habitación de examinación
clínica: un diseño innovador en la práctica)
Julka Almquist (University of California,
Irvine), Caroline Kelly and Joyce Bromberg
(Workspace Futures, Steelcase Inc.), and Victor Montori (Mayo Clinic College of Medicine)
The clinical exam room is a space in which an
important encounter takes place between patient and
physician. Traditionally the patient- physician interaction follows a paternalistic model; the physician is
the “expert” and the patient seeks their “help.” The
nature of this interaction is hierarchical and elements
within the physical environment reinforce this power
structure. In a collaborative study conducted by Mayo
Clinic and Steelcase a new clinical exam room was
prototyped to examine the extent to which changes
in the design of an exam room, aimed to decrease
hierarchy, would be functional in practice.
In a typical exam room the physician sits directly
in front of the computer and the patient sits laterally
in front of them. During the design research phase of
this study it became apparent that this room design
communicated a spatial divide between physician and
patient. Three major factors were found to contribute
to this: the placement of the computer screen, the
face-to-face seating arrangement and the defined
physician workspace. Consequently, a new innovative
design was created to diminish the sense of a spatial
divide. Each of these factors were addressed in a new
design that included; a new half-round table allowing
patients to sit alongside the physician, a computer
screen placed on the wall in the center of the table
and an even distribution of work related artifacts (i.e.
printer, phone).
Observational data was collected during the prototyping phase in August of 2007 with 4 physicians and
20 patients. Through live video we observed how the
physicians and patients used the space and obtained
feedback from the physicians immediately after they
saw their patients.
The primary finding was the nature of activities
contributed to spatial divide more than the placement
of the artifacts alone. There were three categories
of activities; shared, discreet and potentially shared.
Shared activities were those patient and physician
do together. In this setting the computer screen was
the primary artifact necessary for shared activity.
Previously, the lack of transparency in information
sharing was a critical factor in the spatial divide and
hierarchical nature of the relationship. In this design
the monitor was placed in such a way that all parties seated at the table could see it. The placement of
this computer did not interfere with the physicians
work and led to a diminished sense of a spatial divide.
Discreet activities were those done only by the physician such as prescription printing. Artifacts necessary
to perform these activities needed to be in a fixed
position for easy access. However, the fixed position
of these artifacts did not contribute to a spatial divide
because they were not related to a shared activity.
Finally, there were the potentially shared activities
that patients could, but were not likely to participate
(i.e. use the mouse and keyboard). The keyboard and
mouse were placed in a fixed position, but were wireless and could be moved around if the opportunity
to use them arose. This did not contribute to a spatial
divide because of the option for mobility.
In the theoretical part of this study the placement of
artifacts created a clearly defined workspace and contributed to a spatial divide. In practice it was, more
specifically, the activities related to these artifacts that
created this divide. A new approach to workspace was
developed based on this finding. Prioritization of artifact placement was made based on the nature of the
activity and not the artifact alone. This allowed physicians to have a functional workspace that diminished
spatial divide and potentially decreased hierarchy in
the interaction
The Visual Image: Aesthetics versus Ethics of
What is Appropriate in Healthcare Settings
(La imagen visual: estética contra ética acerca de lo
que es apropiado en los espacios para el cuidado de
la salud )
Upali Nanda and Kathy Hathorn (American
Art Resources, Texas)
There is a growing body of evidence on appropriate
design for healthcare settings and a shift towards
evidence-based design- t he process and product
of scientific analysis of healthcare environments
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(Hamilton, 2003). This entails a push towards making
design answerable, and measuring the outcomes of
design interventions by clinical indicators (such as
change in heart-rate or blood pressure), patient/staff
based outcomes (such as patient or staff satisfaction
surveys) and economic outcomes (such as change in
staff turnover) (Ulrich and Gilpin, 2003). With this
change in approach, guidelines and directives have
begun to emerge for appropriate healthcare design. At
the same time there is an emerging concern for potentially compromising aesthetic quality. Are evidencebased directives being used to justify design decisions
at the cost of design quality? After all, aesthetics is
largely immeasurable, and the onus of measurability
may be pushing design into mediocrity.
Nowhere is this debate more potent than in the context of healthcare art. The evidence on the restorative
quality of exposure to nature is overwhelming. In
the stead of nature views, artwork depicting nature
is also seen to serve as a positive distraction for pain
reduction (Diette et al., 2003, Miller et al. 1992 etc.),
and as a means to reduce stress (Ulrich, 1991, 1992,
Heerwagen and Orians, 1990 etc.). In fact, a study has
also shown that while artwork with nature content
showing verdant foliage and a large depth of field improved outcomes in patients, an abstract image, using
the same colors, worsened outcomes (Ulrich et al.
1993). In this study the abstract image was computer
generated, which raises the question about whether
the results would have been the same if an accomplished artist had created the abstract image. After all,
the greatest art of our times is abstract in nature.
To address this issue we undertook an art survey
with two different populations: 64 adult in-patients
with short-term stays in a hospital, and 45 long-term
care residents in a rehabilitation center. We showed
them images of best-selling artwork from online art
vendors, including works of grandmasters like Van
Gogh, Klimt and Chagall, and images that were similar in theme but followed evidence-based guidelines
with nature and figurative content. We found that
in spite of the undoubtedly superior “aesthetics” of
bestselling artwork, patients still preferred the images
that had positively reinforcing nature content for their
hospital room. In fact patients made a clear distinction in what they would like to see in their hospital
room, and what they would like to see in their own
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homes. The evidence-based images were also rated as
images that made them “feel better”. Overall, there
was a preference for realistic imagery over stylistic or
abstract imagery.
In this paper we will discuss the power of the visual
image, the importance of content and style, and
the appropriateness of positively reinforcing nature
images. We will also discuss if an evidence-based approach is at the cost of aesthetics, or is it the other way
round- is a purely aesthetic approach at the cost of the
ethics of designing for the vulnerable populations of
healthcare?
Housing & Residential
Environments
Affordable Housing: Getting Beneficiaries to
Agree to Sustain Functioning of a Prescribed
Housing Delivery System in Pumwani,
Nairobi
(Alojamiento equipado: adquiriendo beneficiarios
para acordar el funcionamiento de un sistema preescrito de alojamiento en Pumwani, Nairobi)
Crispino Chicano Ochieng (Jomo Kenyatta
University of Agriculture and Technology)
The study looks at upsurge in housing delivery in
Nairobi from mid-1980’s to the present and the reaction of the government to this development. More
than fifty percent of Nairobi’s population is living
below acceptable poverty level. With this kind of situation there is the need to deliver various categories
of housing. Study identified the existence of both informal housing and the officially permitted ones. Each
was aimed at a particular socio-economic group. It
found that the government encourages the delivery of
housing that were abiding by the building byelaws and
regulations while curtailing all together those that fail
to abide by the requirements. This includes putting in
place policies and institutions that would enhance the
delivery. To effectively house its vast population cities
of the developing world should adopt housing delivery
that addresses the housing needs of the different
groups. While some of these would be recognized
others will be on the fringe of acceptable housing.
Keywords: Housing delivery; informal; housing
needs; housing;
Content Analysis of Recent Korea Apartment
Brands
Sunhye Lee, Minah Park, Soojin Lee, and
The 50% of Korean population is concentrated in
the metropolitan area and the dominant housing type
is apartments. After currency crisis in 1997, there was
apartment’s surplus supply and the government’s deregulation caused the removal of pre-sell’s upper limit
and that made each construction company to focus on
apartments’ high-quality and their own distinction.
This affected most construction companies to build
up an apartment brand which is what major construction companies have been doing since the late 1990s.
Today’s consumers consider not only a construction
company’s recognition, apartment’s area and geographical location, but also apartment’s brand image.
In 1990s, Korean construction companies focused on
the quantity of apartments rather than the quality of
them and this brought housing unit standardization.
With this background, it is not clear that whether the
difference of each apartment’s brand image make a
difference in living environment. Therefore, this paper
aims to research and analyze the difference of housing
environment among Korean apartment brands and
this would clarify a Korean apartment brands’ current issue and help to understand Korean apartment
housing culture and most of all, this would provide a
base for the future Korean apartment’s development.
For case studies, top 15 apartment brands, which
were chosen through a survey on consumer recognition in apartment brands, are selected, and complexes
that were recently out for pre-sell were chosen to
investigate for an analysis on an individual complex.
In terms of methodology, contents analysis is used
and the process is divided into two steps. First of all,
brand identity, brand concept and the link of brandpositioning among different brands were looked into
through literature reviews. Based on this information,
20 people in the metropolitan area who have experience in living in apartments were surveyed on each
apartment’s brand characteristics and comparisons of
all apartment brands. The relationship between apartment brands and consumers point on actual housing
environment was examined and analyzed through the
survey. For a standard of representing brand characteristics, 20 adjectives were selected that could signify
each construction company’s brand identity and its
concept and with these adjectives 60 photographs
of all apartment brands were provided to selected
consumers to find out their actual reaction on Korean
apartments’ characteristics. For higher reliance and
validity of this research, apartment contents, a size of
photographs, composition in the photographs were
unified and the result’s analysis took place under two
related professionals’ supervision.
As a result of this research, apartment brands do not
reflect greatly on housing environment. The differ-
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ence was recognized in apartment’s exterior appearance due to its color and several characterized factors;
however there was only little difference acknowledged
by people in living environment among all brands.
This indicates that Korean apartment brands influence more on consumers’ cognition and an apartment
brand image than on living environment, which
is considered optimistic in a sense that apartment
brands’ characteristics could affect on both changes
in apartment’s image and development in consumers’
awareness of housing environment. Further research
on consumer’s requirement, creating a brand that
has reflection on changes in housing concept, and
applying brands’ identity on housing environment
should be done in order to set the future direction for
Korean apartment brands.
Designing Affordable Comfort for Affordable
Housing: The Role and Implications of Social
Household & Cultural Factors
(Diseñando comfort alcanzable para una vivienda
alcanzable: el rol e implicaciones de los dueños de
casas sociales y factores culturales)
Ernesto Fonseca and Sherry Ahrentzen
(Arizona State University)
The term “affordable comfort” is often associated
with the Affordable Comfort Institute, a non-profit
agency founded in 1986 to define the best way to
make homes energy efficient, without harming the
residents and the building. Attending to building science, testing and diagnostics, their systems approach
has evolved into the field of home (building) performance, the foundation for creating sustainable, green
communities. Yet today “affordable comfort” has entered the vocabulary of a broader range of affordable
housing practitioners and advocates, suggesting ways
to design and retrofit homes that will have minimal
operational costs for energy and water resources yet
still be desirable, comfortable places for residents.
Organizations like ASHRAE, the Department of
Energy, and university research centers and faculty
have done extensive work analyzing thermal comfort
and setting up broad standards that today are used by
designers and builders across the U.S. as baselines for
their projects. However, little has been done to continue the effort to study and expand our knowledge
on adaptive and behavioral comfort. But while all
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these researchers and practitioners advocate a system
approach in their settings of design and mechanical
standards, the diversity of the human system is often
lacking in their calculations; in particular it lacks
attention to cultural and social conditions and individual household experiences and expectations.
This paper first provides a brief depiction and
critique of the “human” dimension of the affordable
comfort approaches to date. Using 2 examples of
recently constructed and occupied sustainable homes
designed for low-income households by the ASU
Stardust Center, we highlight how unexpected/unexamined social and cultural behaviors of the residents
challenged the energy efficiency projections of the
Center. Based on architecture/cultural theories of
Amos Rapoport, we propose a conceptual framework
that provides for a richer identification and incorporation of occupant preference, choice and behavior when
considering design directions for affordable comfort
in low-income housing.
Key words: Behavior, Affordable, Comfort, Framework, Culture
Design Characteristics of Korea Brand
Apartment
Ji-in Choi, Sunhye Lee, Miseon Jang, and
Yeonsook Lee (Yonsei University, Korea)
Urban concentration of Korean population emerged
with drastic economic growth resulting from the
rapid industrialization during the 1960s to 1970s.
As this change had intensified a deficiency in house
supply in urban arrears, apartment had emerged as
a solution for this deficiency. Apartment, developed
in both quality and quantity since then, has been
placed as the representative housing pattern in Korean
society after the 1990s. However, as many apartments
remained unsold right after the currency crisis of the
late 1990s, these unsold apartments drove the Korean
government to promote a flexible measure for the sale
of apartment. Based on their own brands, construction companies also reflected various consumers’
needs to distinguish their brands from others through
interior, facilities, apartment unit plans, exterior
design, apartment complexes planning etc. Branded
apartments, settled down as the mainstream through
these processes, have suggested their own identity and
various brand concepts which reflect social trends.
By examining how each identity of branded apartments and those concepts of apartment brands are
projected onto apartments according to the spatial
features of apartment units, this study aims to see the
correspondence between brand concepts and design
and reconsider the meanings of apartment brands to
consumers. This study has its significance that it will
be a basic source to establish strategy for brand and
design differences which help construction companies
survive in the competitive era of affluent brands.
The study proceeded with two stages: First, it
examined the brand identity, brand concepts and
characteristics of design through literature reviews,
internet website and mass media. Second, 6 branded
apartments were selected from the 10 well recognized branded apartments from the top in 2008 and
examined with the selected designs of representative
unit in the most recent apartments reflecting the
brand identity and brand concepts. In design, apartment unit plans were analyzed by friendly-environment, high-tech, and exclusiveness to identify which
features are most emphasized in Korean branded
apartments. The results of the study, based on those
tools, revealed that all companies are emphasizing 3
trends as similar as one another. Thus most branded
apartments, representing designs applied by various
features, failed to show the differentiated characteristics of branded apartments. Rather, they presented
similar concepts in terms of characteristics of brands.
That consumers distinguish one branded apartments
from another was eventually the process of inscribing
the images produced by each company. This seems to
be dealt with regard to apartments’ marketing. Thus,
instead of subdividing respective characteristic of
branded apartments to grasp, it is necessary to regard
those characteristics as one of paradigm to suggest
futuristic vision to Korean apartments. However, considering that brand have become a significant standard for consumers to judge values of an apartment,
construction companies should unify brand concepts
and designs practically applied to an apartment in
conceptual ways to reinforce their own brands.
Keywords : Branded Apartment, Design Characteristics, Apartment Difference
Design Characteristics of Korean Future
House Pavilions
Guenyung Hwang, Yegu Lee, Soojin Lee, and
House, reflecting human life and social structure
as a real space, satisfies basic human desires and
works as the basis of family and individual life. Social
changes-the progress of the aging, women’s move in
society, the diversification of family types according
to single and nuclear families, the expansion of spare
time, development of information and communication technology, high-tech facilities, information society, expansive recognition of environment-requires
changes of residential life and house. That is, besides
shelter function, future house is regarded as the
space containing other activities-working from home,
spending spare time, etc.
The term future as “the time that is to come” and
“the prospective or potential condition to come” connotes innovative meanings of “not yet advanced” or
“has not existed yet.” And house, as a receptacle for
human life, is a cultural phenomenon and a crystal
of physical environment which reflects contemporary
life style, cultural pattern of the public and social
spirit. Following this notion, the future house in this
study, as a space to accommodate future housing culture, is applied by futuristic concept at the point when
the house was developed.
Forms and designs of houses reflect the contemporary values. Moreover, needs for house and housing
have varied over time. Future is the age of coexistence
of such diversities. Thus, house for human life will not
be exceptional from this tendency, and various houses
will co-exist to meet those diverse life styles.
In order to provide user with houses which accept
diverse desires for housing in a rapidly changed society, it is necessary to examine the representative future house pavilions of the current Korea and explore
a future direction of the house. This study aims to
examine future house and design paradigm through
literature reviews. For this, it selected four pavilions of
future houses-Samsung Raemian, Hyundai Hillstate,
Byuksan Dream House and Kolon Ubiquitous, and
completed touring sites to take pictures, gathered
information from pavilion guides and researched resources in internet and literature reviews to examine
the pavilions. Under these examined data, it exam-
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ined the current state of Korean future houses, the
characteristics of respective design and trends.
Respective characteristics of design were analyzed
by the analysis frame classified by five paradigm: Universal Design (UD)/ Green Design (GD)/ Social Design (SD)/ Culture Design (CD)/ Pro-Digital Design
(PDD). The result of the study will give us a moment
to reconsider how we can move forward future house
in the rapid flow of world changes by examining the
current Korean future houses. It will help us to expect
diverse patterns of future housing and develop houses
which accommodate various users’ desire for the
future houses
Domestic Violence: Messages within the
Architectural Space
(Violencia doméstica: mensajes dentro del espacio
arquitectónico)
Adolfo Gomez-Amador (Universidad de
Colima)
This document examines part of the results of an
investigation, started in 2001, with the aim of finding
a correlation between patterns of violent behavior and
architectural environment. This study took 12 singlefamily houses in the city of Colima as analysis units:
5 without violence and 7 with different degrees of
violence. The analysis of the composition of elements
placed on the most significant wall spaces are defined
in relationship to a concept of order. The study considered that the perceptive response of the inhabitants
becomes a complex task where composition implies
the idea of orderly arrangement. The composition
axes of each object placed on the walls of the studied
houses were specified.
The analysis took into account diverse criteria, complying with three basic categories: the composition
space, the composition elements and the principles of
composition order. The composition elements were
analyzed abiding to perception principles and perception laws experimentally identified between 1975 and
1995 by diverse authors.
The study shows the composition outlines and the
results of this analysis. In the cases of houses without
violence there is no correlation between the number
of objects and the total composition axes, but the
data is very compelling in both variables. Whereas,
in the houses with domestic violence, the correlation
234
between the number of objects and the total composition axes is perfect (r = 0.99).
The correlation between the Profusion Index and
violence shows that the composition objects —integrated in the index, are correlated with the variables
of violence following a polynomial function. The
homes without violence present intermediate values,
the homes with events of psychological violence and
intimidation show low values and the homes that
suffered physical and sexual abuse display high values.
This relationship shows a high correlation (r = 0.92):
the studied behaviors show a tendency to be ample
when the aggression affects body and mind and rare
when the abuse is emotional. The houses of peaceful
families are in the middle stratum.
In conclusion, the inhabitants who live with domestic violence extend their inability to organize to
different areas of their lives, thus lacking the capacity
of arranging decorative elements on the walls.
Key Words: Domestic Violence. Inhabitant. Architectural Space. Composition. Message.
Health and Housing in Urban Context
Alejandra Terán-Álvarez MD Deputy Head
of Medical Training, Rubén Leñero Hospital,
Federal District’s Government, Mexico City,
México
Given the fact that housing is the setting where the
activities that allow people to restore strength, rest,
nourish and interact with the other members of the
family, a study was carried out to know if houses fill
its restoring role at Mexico City so it obviates the detrimental effects of stress. If so, it should contribute to
prevent health problems, measured by number of that
people go to see the doctor per year and the presence
of respiratory, digestive, cardiovascular, nervous or
dermatological ailments.
A questionnaire was applied to 150 housing inhabitants between 15 and 65 years old. Housing fitness was
measured through Mercado et. all’s Inhabitability
instrument which include:
• Information Rate, pleasure, arousal, and control
were found to have effects upon health.
• Information rate gave rise to respiratory diseases,
to the .05 significance level.
• Pleasure and information rate produce emotional
ailments to the .05 level.
• Arousal affects arterial pressure to the .05 significance level and control to .05
High Functional Characteristics of Future
Houses of Korea
Miseon Jang, Kyoungyeon Kim, and Yeunsook
Lee (Yonsei University, Korea)
Korea will face the age of 10 million apartments over
5.5 million less than ten years. With the quantitative
drastic growth of apartments, the rapid development
of Information technology, which provides apartment
more digital-integrated service than before, makes
it possible to change our lives. Digital-integration
service is mainly applied to future houses strategically
structured to suggest its branded apartment vision
of a leading construction company. Through this
suggested vision, consumers can access to new and
various cultural experiences. As digital technology
has been developed, future houses can be equipped
with high functions in which the existing houses have
not, and life contents based on the materialization of
those functions have become a phase to reveal our future. Thus, the study aims to analyze the cases of the
domestic pavilions for future houses to examine the
current situations of digital life contents application
and their characteristics. In doing so, it grasps high
functions inherent in the contents to profile future
houses.
The study proceeded in two ways: first, throughout
literature reviews, it reorganized various characteristics of houses to design analysis tools for respective
cases. Second, through touring sites of five domestic
future house pavilions-Daewoo Prugio Valley,
Byucksan Dream House, Samsung Raemian Gallery, Kolon Ubiquitous Home and Hyundai Hillstate
Gallery, information was collected. The developed
analysis tools was used to analyze the information to
understand the current states of digital life contents
applications according to space in a family unit to the
present-day future house and their characteristics.
As a result of this, the spatial compositions of future
house pavilions were divided into two: pavilion
forms and general housing forms. While the pavilion
forms mainly provide user with entertainmentbased contents for visual interests and enjoyments,
general housing forms do with the overall services
to aid effectively household affairs. However, most
future house pavilions had similar forms of digital
life contents. It means that the contents were massively developed in a few companies to develop those
contents and sold to the construction companies. By
examining high functions and various life contents
inherent in future houses, this study will be useful
for the basis for future house design which needs a
specific ideal of the contents.
Keywords : High Function, Life Contents, Digital
Home, Future House
Housing Research in Mexico Symposium
(Simposio investigación de la vivienda en méxico)
Organizers: Serafin Mercado Domenech
(Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Mexico).
Presenters: Ana Maritza Landazuri-Ortiz,
Eric Jimenez-Rosas, and Javier Urbina-Soria
(Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Mexico),
Alehandra Teran-Alvarez (Ruben Lenero Hospital, Mexico City), Maria Amerigo (CastillaLa Mancha University, Spain), and Gabriela
Luna Lara (Guanajuato University, Mexico)
To understand how people relate to their dwelling is
an important problem for environmental Psychology.
A great deal of research has been carried out at the
international level, including studies about residential
preference and satisfaction. Mexican researchers have
also contributed to housing research in a significant
way. There has been an endemic deficit of housing at
cities, due to the growth of population and an underdeveloped economy. There have been government
efforts to deal with the problem, but it has resulted
in low quality, undersized and standardized social
interest housing. The errors made in the design are
multiplied by the number of dwellings, constructed
employing the same blueprint. Research in Mexico
has taken several approaches, trying to demonstrate
the importance of housing design for the wellbeing of
its inhabitants and it effect upon family’s life.
The first participant, Ana Maritza Landázuri, presents a model of housing evaluation, the inhabitability
model, that has turned out quite satisfactory, using a
method of direct assessment, through a set of scales
that together provide a method of appraisal that taps
several phases of satisfaction, identified through a
method of development that used multidimensional
scaling to identify the structure of relations between
Thematic
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Housing &
Residential
Environments
La vivienda
y ambientes
residenciales
Thematic
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Housing &
Residential
Environments
La vivienda
y ambientes
residenciales
the components of the model. The structure of these
was then verified through path analysis. She then
shows how Inhabitability affects family welfare and
quality of life, and how inhabitability is dependent on
a set of architectural design features.
The second presenter, Eric Jimenez, introduces
research carried out to demonstrate the effect of
space syntax variables on inhabitants’ behavior. This
research shows the importance of topological connections in the house in relation to human behavior.
The third paper, by Alejandra Terán, shows the
relationship between inhabitability and health. She
maintains that the adequacy of dwelling’s design
affects its effect on health, directly, through comfort
and indirectly throughout its effects upon family’s life.
When there is a proper design. It helps the inhabitant’s
relaxation. When this is not true, then the person
stays stressed.
In the forth paper Gabriela Luna presents the results
of her research work about the solid wastes in housing,
in the city of Leon Guanajuato México.
Finally, the chair presents a way to analyze the
social representation of the house and home using
a semantic networks approach. He obtains from a
set of participants the concepts related to house and
home, and then, with another sample, he uses a paired
concepts presentation to obtain semantic distances
between them. Using multidimensional scaling, then
he obtains the semantic network structure, which
permits to understand how people conceive housing
and the main values related to it.
The symposium allows a view of the kind of research carried out on housing in Mexico and its main
achievements. It is a representative sample of the work
that is being carried out.
The discussants will be Javier Urbina and María
Amérigo, both outstanding scholars interested in
housing research, which are most qualified to asses
the work done and its implications.
• The Meaning of House: An Approach to Measurement. Serafín Mercado-Doménech Ph. D. School of
Psychology. UNAM, Mexico
• Some Physical and Psychological Factors Linkied
to Housing’s Internal Inhabitability. Ana Maritza
Landázuri-Ortiz Ph. D., School of Higher Studies
Iztacala, UNAM. México
236
• Relation Between Domestic Activity Patterns and
House Spatial Configuration. Eric O. .Jiménez-Rosas
Ph. D. School of Architecture, UNAM. México
• Health and Housing in Urban Context. Alejandra
Terán-Álvarez MD Deputy Head of Medical Training,
Rubén Leñero Hospital, Federal District’s Government, Mexico City, México
María Amérigo Ph. D Castilla- La Mancha University, Spain
Javier Urbina Soria M SC. School of Psychology.
UNAM, Mexico
• Management of Trash in Housing. Gabriela Luna
Lara Ph. D. School of Psychology, Guanajuato University
Housing Satisfaction and Cultural
Assimilation
(Satisfacción de vivienda y asimilación cultural)
Eunsil Lee and Nam-Kyu Park (Michigan
State University)
According to the US Department of Commerce
(2006), the United States has experienced a significant
increase in the total admission of foreign nationals
(sojourners). Some studies suggest that such sojourners are influenced by experiences with and
expectations generated from their home country’s
housing styles. This is supported by Rapoport (1969)
who developed the notion that a house is a cultural
phenomenon best suited to the way of life of a people
rather than just a physical structure. Others indicate
that cultural differences in everyday life are no longer
as strong. This is because cultures are more affected
by globalizing influences, which are increasingly
homogenizing the character of places (Noussia, 2003).
Therefore, the main focus of this study is to determine
how different cultural groups in the United States are
satisfied with their current housing and how cultural
norms influence housing satisfaction.
South Korean sojourners represent the fifth largest
national group with a reported 705,000 Korean
sojourners in the US in 2005 (the US Department of
Commerce, 2006). The purpose of this study is to
identify the factors that influence housing satisfaction among South Korean sojourners in the US and
to understand how they settle into their US housing.
Based on the housing satisfaction model of Marans
and Spreckelmeyer (1981) and the assimilation theory
of Park and Burgess (1967), this study investigated
the relationships among sojourner characteristics,
housing perceptions, and housing satisfaction.
A survey was conducted to collect data from South
Korean sojourners in the Lansing area of Michigan.
A total of 235 data were analyzed using hierarchical
multiple regression analysis to investigate the relationship between exogenous and endogenous variables.
Exogenous variables are demographics, sojourning
condition, and housing conditions. Endogenous
variables are housing perceptions and satisfaction.
Housing perceptions are evaluated along physical,
cultural, neighborhood, and overall dimensions.
The results show that demographic variables were
not significantly associated with housing satisfaction. However, a sojourner’s past experience, length of
residence, and housing conditions were important indicators of housing satisfaction. Three of the housing
perception variables were significant predictors of
housing satisfaction. These were cultural, neighborhood, and overall dimensions. Results suggest that
sojourner characteristics and sojourners’ perceptions
of various aspects of housing explain 50% of the
variance of sojourners’ satisfaction with their current
housing. The findings suggest that cultural aspects of
housing are an important factor in housing satisfaction for South Korean visitors in the US. These
findings add to designers’ understanding of how different cultures perceive and are satisfied with the new
residential environment of their host country.
Key words: Culture, Housing, Temporary Settlement, Interior Design, Quantitative Study
The Image of Middle School Students for
Han-Ok, The Korean Traditional House
(La imagen de estudiantes de escuela secundaria
para han-ok, la casa tradicional Koreana)
Byungsook Choi, Suna Jung, Sunhee Park,
and Jinsuk Lee (Chonbuk National University,
Korea)
Korean housing educators would like to know the
image of a house in contemporary Korean students’
mind and to apply it to their school work. The residential feature was one of the environmental features
that affected environmental cognition, or the mental
image (Lynch, 1960; Ladd, 1970). The house is a sociocultural factor (Rapoport, 1969), and the spirit of
Korean tradition is transferred to the next generation
through it. According to this background, the research needs to understand modern youth’s thoughts
about houses and to teach them were suggested. For
this reason this study was designed to find out middle
school students’ perception of Korean traditional
housing through their interpretation of Han-Ok. The
image of Han-Ok was operatively defined attributes of
beauty, symbolism, form and functionality, based on
the literature review. For the purpose of this research,
a questionnaire survey method was used. The image
of Han-Ok was measured by the SD (Semantic Differential) method, 5-point Likert scale between 53 bipolar adjectives. The bipolar adjectives were extracted
from technical books on Han-Ok and the dictionary.
Word description by 60 students and 4 experts from
the housing division and a Korean language teacher
recommended the measurement method. The content
validity was recognized by experts and the reliability
was verified by Cronbach’s α = .779. Photos of HanOk (Kim, Dongsu’s house, a representative cultural
property in Chonbuk Province) assisted students
in understanding that. Data samples were collected
from 236 students who finished the standards curriculum in middle school in Jeonju city, Jeollabuk-Do
Province, Republic of Korea. Data were analyzed
by qualitative analysis and descriptive statistics
using frequency, percentage, mean t-test, F-test and
a graph. The results were as follows: 1) The middle
school students were understanding the image of
beauty of Han-Ok. In particular, the words delicate,
harmony, naturalness, natural, graceful, formality,
becoming, exposed a certain image of beauty. 2) The
middle school students were understanding the image
of symbolism of Han-Ok. In particular, the words
traditional, antique and composure exposed a certain
image of symbolism. 3) The middle school students
were understanding image of the form for Han-Ok. In
particular, the words ‘refreshing’ exposed a certain
image of symbolism. 4) The middle school students
were understanding the image of functionality for
Han-Ok. In particular, the words agreeable and
comfortable exposed a certain image of symbolism. 5)
Each attribute-beauty, symbolism, form and functionality partially concerned Han-Ok. The beauty symbolism, and form attributes partially had a difference
depending on sex and the educational background
Thematic
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Housing &
Residential
Environments
La vivienda
y ambientes
residenciales
of the student’s father. Symbolism and form partially
showed a difference on the educational background of
the student’s mother, his or her housing type, housing
experience, the Han-Ok for learned or not. Beauty
and form were partially different to the Han-Ok for
experienced or inexperienced. Form and functionality
partially had a difference in family types.
Keywords: Image, Korean, house, student, Semantic
Differential
The Influence of Users on the Thermal
Performance of Dwellings
Thematic
Abstracts
Housing &
Residential
Environments
La vivienda
y ambientes
residenciales
(La influencia e usuarios sobre la ejecución térmica
de casas)
Moreno Pena Ricardo and Sandoval Alvarez
(Instituto Tecnologico de Colima)
The present work was based for one side, in measurement of temperature and humidity of two classrooms of similar size, orientation and construction
and exposed to a similar solar radiation, this measurement carried out in the middle of the year 2000 in the
Faculty of Sciences of the University of Colima, and
the other side, on the thermal performance of two
houses of low cost under similar conditions, except
that one of them is already in use and the other one is
not. This objective it was expected that the obtained
data of both spaces were the same or very similar
given its similarity. Nevertheless the results front
the analysis of temperature manifest differences that
should be considered. These differences were caused
by other external agents apart from construction
materials, orientation of the windows and the buildings in it self and it is highly probable that this result
are given by the effect of the conduct of the users in
the spaces of the building being studied. Does you
discuss later on and is it sought to give answer to the
following question: Are the habitants of a house a
variable to be considered in the equation of its thermal
performance?
238
Management of Trash in Housing
Gabriela Luna Lara (School of Psychology,
Guanajuato University)
One of the greatest challenges for city management
is to carry out a good handle of urban solid residuals,
taking in account that a huge volume of such is generated at home, so it’s important to encourage people
participation in the reduction, use and, separation of
trash in the dwellings.
In study carried out at Leon Guanajuato, it was
found that trash management is left mainly to women
and that only 27 % that people that live near a recollection center know about its existence.
In general, there is a great level of emotion regarding environmental care, however, the functionality is low they fill its not practical and they not have
the infrastructure to do it at home.
We might think that the people that separate trash
are those with a higher level of correct knowledge
about organic and inorganic materials. However of
findings are that the people that separate trash are
making mistakes in the classification process. We
suppose that it is no enough to have the knowledge to
carry out the behavior.
The Meaning of House: An approach to
measurement
Serafín Mercado-Doménech (School of
Psychology. UNAM, Mexico)
The Semantic Networks model is an approach to
explain the manner in which humans encode conceptual information in long term memory and the links
between concepts provide meaning.
An approach was developed by Figueroa et all (1981)
which uses free association to gather data of the way
people understand concepts. They collect words that
provide concepts that are related to the one we want to
understand in a way that they define it.
The aim of the present paper is to show a modified
procedure, using Multi Dimensional Scaling, which
provides such defining concepts and establishes their
structure.
This makes available a model of the way people
conceptualize the house and evaluate it.
A non-metric MDS was carried out that provided
the relationship among the concepts. House and home
are central. Family and children are closer to home.
There are groups for food processing and cleanliness,
rest, and for bonding feelings.
According to modern cognitive theory, people act
in relation to objects, including places and buildings,
in terms of the cognitive structures through which
they ascertain and evaluate them. We believe that the
method of “Natural Semantic Networks” provides a
means to gather information about people’s schemata
and value system.
The Pattern of the Self-Constructed Dwelling
in Merida, Yucatan
(El patrón de ocupación de la vivienda
autoproducida en mérida, yucatán)
Carmen Garcia Gomez (Universidad Autonoma de Yucatan)
This paper is a piece of a larger work on self produced dwellings and the decisions and actions the
inhabitants make to create a dwelling place with
multiple expressions of self.
This particular dwelling is located in the poor
periphery of Mérida city in Yucatan, Mexico, which
is among all of the Latin American cities, average in
terms of real estate speculation where access to formal
urban ground by extensive sectors of the population is
not possible. The subjects of this research are families
that first imagined a place like these zones for living,
and then began to make it through initiating the use
of specific construction materials, which serve as
social symbols of their daily space. This implies that
the periphery is like a space of life and a lived space
with different dimensions, especially the experiences
related to living and “to making” the house as one
practices on a long term daily basis. This sort of
dwelling generates a group of established characteristics through the repetition of a set of similar actions
by those who cannot guarantee a place to live. This
process can be synthesized in three basic steps: the occupation of a land; the management and obtainment
of a dowry for basic urban services through collective action and thirdly, the construction of a house.
The three great passages of this process are related to
each other and occur under specific circumstances in
time and place, in addition, each case is a variant of
this repeated process. This way a model or pattern of
activities that constituted a constant is created. Thus,
the physical form of each establishment that results is
from the expression of a pattern of general activity or
of a particular activity. These repetitive characteristics
denote a pattern. Within the dwelling there is a great
diversity of forms and distributions, but there are
also easily distinguished common characteristics in
the construction, the arrangement of the spaces, and
configurations of elements, formal details ornament.
These regularities or repetitions imply a cause-effect
relationship. The purpose of this project is to analyze
this process of self produced dwellings which demonstrate qualities of habitability that are pronounced in
the short and long term so that when new residents
integrate themselves to the pattern of the existing
establishment as they obtain an appropriate dwelling
with habitable conditions.
The Preferences of Residential Service for
Single Person Household
Housing &
Residential
Environments
La vivienda
y ambientes
residenciales
Minhae Lee, Juhyun Lee and Hyunsoo Lee
Various new concepts of residences for singles
have been introduced recently such as an built-in
office apartment, fully-furnished condominium and
serviced residents, which combines concepts of both a
hotel and an apartment. According to this trend, considering residential environment, people have been
aware the importance of housing service as an aspect
of Software.
This study aims to research residential preference
among single-person households and to propose
housing services according to the household’s demand
as a condition of Future Housing. The research was
conducted to meet the needs of the young people
from the age of 20’s to 30’s. Six cases were used in the
questionnaire to collect relevant samples from well
running serviced residences located in central Seoul
in various aspects of residential preferences. One hundreds and fifty-four responses to the questionnaire
developed by this researcher were analyzed utilizing
frequencies, percentages and cross-analysis by SPSS
Window 12.0 Ver. statistics program. This study researched on the 6 main categories:
Convenience (55,2%), Well-Being (23.4%), Safety
(15.6%), Information (3.2%), Social Activity (2.6%). It
selected the research samples for the facilities; fitness center (81%), shuttle bus service (58.9%), book
Abstracts
239
Thematic
Abstracts
Housing &
Residential
Environments
La vivienda
y ambientes
residenciales
rental service(54.4%),tenants’ private use [lobby,
room’s access card, elevator](35.3%) and two-way
fax service(26.5%). It selected the research samples
for the unit (inside the room); bath unit well-being
system(80%), wireless internet(72.1%), emergency
call(67.3%) and house keeping service(50%). Differences were based on the household’s basic data such
as gender, age, composed family members, residential
type, residential district etc.
The result of the research, it showed that customized service can be possible and more helpful
in meeting the household’s need. I propose in this
study, shuttle bus service, house keeping service and
administrative support to save their time, emergency
call and tenants’ private use [lobby, room’s access
card, elevator] to be safety and to protect their private
life, fitness center, bath unit well-being system and
book rental service to enjoy their spare time healthfully. The result of this research should contribute
more various and advanced service quality into new
residential type for a single life and finally providing
more satisfactory life style for a single-person household.
Keywords : Housing service, Single-person household
Privacy and the Kuwaiti Woman: An
Examination of Contemporary Housing
Types
(Privacidad y la mujer de kuwait: un examen de
tipos de vivienda contemporánea)
Lisa Waxman (Florida State University) and
Alenazy Turkiyah (University of Florida)
The purpose of this study was to examine Kuwaiti
contemporary residential design and the impact on
the privacy and social interaction needs of Kuwaiti
women. This research project focused on the middleeastern country of Kuwait, which went through a
major transformation following the discovery of oil in
1936. Kuwaitis found they had the financial resources
to reconstruct their entire city and most traditional
adobe dwellings were leveled to make room for new
construction of more popular contemporary styles
(Al Mutawa, 1994). With these changes, many of the
design amenities that allowed women to freely move
throughout the home were altered.
240
This study addressed the privacy and social needs of
women in contemporary Kuwaiti homes, with specific
attention to the changes in the design of homes in
the last 70 years. In a country where over 85% of the
population is of Muslim faith, religious doctrine
provides the general ethical framework for human
behavior (Mahfouz and Ismail, 1990). This doctrine
carries over into the design of the built environment,
specifically in the design of separate spaces for men
and women (Al Mutawa, 1994). During frequent social visits, common in Kuwaiti culture, men socialize
in the male diwania, or male salon, while women
interact in the female salon (figure 1) (Lewcock &
Freeth, 1978). Islamic principles require that women
wear a veil, or al hejab, when out in public and in the
company of unrelated men (figure 2). This veil not
only separates “the female from the male, but also the
private from the public, the interior from the exterior,
and the invisible from the visible” (Clevenot & Degeorge, 2000, p. 208). Historically, the home has been
a refuge for women, a place to remove the veil, and
move freely about the home while revealing their own
sense of style and identity to others.
A field study visit to Kuwait was conducted to
explore the contemporary Kuwaiti architecture and
social dynamics of the home using methods of visual
documentation, behavioral mapping, and interviews.
This study revealed that the design of the contemporary Kuwaiti homes examined often overlooked the
needs of the Kuwaiti women in terms of privacy, contact with nature, the ability to move freely within the
home while unveiled, and ease of social interaction
with family members. There were a number of areas
of concern uncovered including loss of the courtyard,
limited access to nature, and relegation of the salons
to the front of the house, which forced the residents
toward the back creating isolated family spaces. The
loss of the courtyard led to male visitors passing
through the front yard to enter the male guest salon.
This restricted the movement of the female members
of the family who do not feel free to enjoy the outdoors because they feel exposed to male visitors and
the public passing by in the street. The courtyard,
the central location interconnecting the surrounding
rooms gave women great flexibility and facilitated free
movement between their spaces. Solutions include
incorporating some of the traditional architectural
elements into contemporary Kuwaiti architecture.
Keywords: Privacy, women/gender issues, housing/
residential, interior design, qualitative research
References:
Al Hussayen, M. (1995).Significant characteristics
and design considerations of the courtyard house.
Journal of Architectural and Planning Research. 12,
91-103.
Al Mutawa, S. (1994). History of architecture in old
Kuwait city: and its influence of its elements on the
architect (Master thesis, University of Miami, 1982)
Clevenot, D. & Degeorge, G. (2000). Splendors of
Islam: Architecture, decoration and design. New York:
The Vendome Press.
Lewcock, R., & Freeth, Z (1978). Traditional architecture in Kuwait and the Northern gulf. London: Art
and Archaeology Research papers.
Mahfouz, A. and Ismail S. (1990). Women and Space
in Muslim Societies: In Expressions of Islam in Buildings. Proceedings of 1990 of the Aga Khan Award for
Architecture.
Redefining Equality in Housing in the South:
Design the Arkansas Proto-House
(Redefiniendo la igualdad en el alojamiento en el
sur: diseñando la casa prototipo de Arkansas)
Korydon Smith, Jennifer Webb, and Brent
Williams (University of Arkansas)
‘Diversity’ and ‘equality’ are apparent antonyms, yet
both are apparently valued in today’s political and
social climate, and in contemporary design discourses.
Fostering equality has been championed for decades,
most notably exemplified by the Civil and Disability
Rights Movements. Achieving equality, however, is
made more complex the society becomes more diverse.
In housing, the question remains: how can designers
both (a) meet the variety of physical and psychosocial
needs and preferences of a society, and (b) ensure
equity among the various groups that comprise that
society? Nowhere is this question more pertinent,
timely, and challenging than in the South (U.S.), a
region characterized by strong contrasts in economic,
racial, geographic, educational, and health status.
For decades, regional sociologists have explored
the demographic makeup and cultural stereotypes
of the South, revealing an amazing complex set of
subcultures which occupy this region; yet the role
that housing plays relative to these subcultures has
largely gone unstudied. Moreover, housing designers
in the South have failed to tackle the question as to
how to provide higher quality, cost-effective, culturally- and place-specific housing. The inertia of an
aging population (and their impending physical
needs), coupled with increased perceptions about
environmental concerns (e.g. “global warming”), will
have astounding effects on housing. The South will
experience these effects sooner and more deeply than
other parts of the country, and thus, will need to
respond more rapidly. From a broad view, the South
(and states like Arkansas) is (are) often stereotyped as
rural, poor, and unrefined. Yet a finer view reveals a
great deal of diversity. Differences between urban and
rural, flat and mountainous, temperate and extreme
exist within any given political or legal boundary. So,
although Arkansas maintains the highest poverty rate
and third highest rate of disability in the country—
exemplary of the South—poverty and disability are
not evenly distributed throughout the state; neither is
employment, access to health services, public education, cultural norms, nor access to suitable housing.
This presentation, therefore, provides a cross-sectional
view of the diverse underlying economic, sociological,
environmental, and technological mores of the South
through a case-study of Arkansas. This presentation also explores the major challenge—paradox—of
designing housing prototypes that are both replicable
(read: standardized) and culturally-/site-specific (read:
customized) for under served populations, to reconcile diversity and equality in housing design.
Keywords: universal design, culture, social justice,
low income
Relation Between Domestic Activity Patterns
and House Spatial Configuration
Eric .Jiménez-Rosas (School of Architecture,
UNAM. México)
In this study, activity patterns in house and configurational properties where these occur were investigated. Along two days, 60 participants recorded in a
diary all activities they accomplished in their houses
as well as their duration and the number of people
involved. Three spatial properties were associated
Thematic
Abstracts
Housing &
Residential
Environments
La vivienda
y ambientes
residenciales
Thematic
Abstracts
Housing &
Residential
Environments
La vivienda
y ambientes
residenciales
to such activities: depth (the number of intervening
spaces that are necessary to pass through, form the
exterior of the house, in order to reach the indoor
spaces), integration (connection degree between the
spaces in a complex and one other) and connectivity
(the number of directly adjacent spaces). Results
showed that domestic activity patterns are represented
by two dimensions where the activities they contain
are mutually excluding: 1) Private activities vs. Social
interaction activities; 2) Self realization activities vs.
Needs satisfaction. These dimensions show different
spatial properties as well as different duration and involved people number. Results are discussed in terms
of spatial configuration significance over residential
behavior and housing design.
Socially Integrative Approach to Korean
Public Rental Housing Plan
Euisun Lim, Sunyue Hwang, Kabsoo So, and
Korean government have announced a business
plan for a million public rental housing from 2003 to
2012 to promote the lower-class’s residential stability.
The ministry of construction and transportation has
promoted the development of residential apartment
complex as a key measure for the lower income class.
However, since 1989, it has been severely rebuked by
the existing apartment owners for its ghettonization
of public rental housing. On the other hand, sociologists and private groups have suggested that the ministry should develop the sites combined with diverse
income classes on the basis of a new paradigm of
social integration, for the mass productions of rental
housing apartments with the existing measure produce similar error repeated by the government. Moreover, since the government’s measure on a housing
complex has been promoted without a specific process
of a communal agreement of “how to combine,” it is
arguable that it still contains a potential to cause class
conflicts among residents. Under this social circumstance, the purpose of the study is to grasp current
developments and phases of social mix between public
rental apartments and non-public apartments to investigate how far present Koreans’ attempt at social integration has been progressing in Korea. For this, the
study first examined the position of social mix in the
public rental housing since 2000. Second, it investi-
242
gated types and patterns of mix method between two
different types of apartments. Finally, it attempted to
look for the differences of the mixes between the same
square-foot and the multiple square-foot. Moreover,
it attempted to understand how the issue of social
integrations had been formed in respective residential sites through diverse sources Study methods
has been taken in two ways: literature reviews of the
existing statistic data and precedent studies relevant
to the study subject to see the implication of social
integration and the collection and analysis of relevant
information through newspapers and internet to see
the meaning of social integration in residential sites.
As a result, currently taking into consideration of
social integration as a key challenging work, Korea in
2008 should lead not only mix among incoming class
but also mix among different social groups in a way
to extend diversely the ranges of social integration. In
particular, this study has its significance that it will be
a basic source for future relevant study since Korean
society has less been conscious of social integration
and lacked relevant essays on this subject.
Some Physical and Psychological Factors
Linked to Housing’s Internal Inhabitability
Ana Maritza Landázuri-Ortiz (School of
Higher Studies Iztacala, UNAM. México)
The purpose of this research was to analyze how
some of the characteristics of the architectural design
influence housing’s internal inhabitability, as well as
the transactional processes that take place in-between.
A no probabilistic intentional sample was used in
Mexico City’s Metropolitan Zone. Some variables
were explored through a scale and the others were
taken directly from architectonic plans of the house.
The study was exploratory, expostfacto. For the statistical treatment, a multiple linear regression analysis
was employed. The results confirm how some of the
aspects of the architectural design of housing satisfy
the needs and expectations of its inhabitants.
Take a Look at the Inhabitant of the Space in
the Social Interest House
(Una mirada del habitante en el espacio de la
vivienda de interés social)
Ana Rosa Velasco-Avalos and Adolfo Amador
(Universidad Michoacana de San Nicolas de
Hidalgo)
The present work is an advance of one larger investigation, be attention at the conditions of “experience
for inhabiting the space” for a particular human
group. For this subject we will talk about to the construction process of schemes or perception models to
inhabitant makes around his nearby space, supported
in some theoretical models to sustain the investigation. The space notion is explained like a subjective
and individual construction process (Piaget, Montessori) like to conception to the basic direction scheme
formation (understood like the personal identification
of referential points in the inhabited space), the construct to the “vital space” concept, that the inhabitant
does, allows create a real dimension of relation and
dialogue with the “places” they live. We assumed
the practice to inhabit the space, like a unique and
individual experience, related to the social customs,
the familiar traditions and the individual necessities;
this multiplicity of aspects affects the explanation of
the phenomenon. For that reason, this particular case
does, like departure point, have the characteristics
from the modular space in the social interest house;
it identifies the relations constructed between both,
understood like a “great place” of meaning, and the
inhabitant. Some levels of the vital space are recognized and characterized, allowing to explain the interaction between the man and its environment; then, we
can affirm, we cannot identify a simple architectonic
spaces (Schultz); therefore, the work is centered in the
relations between the constructions use, like a reading
and the poetic design condition in the architectonic
work (Muntañola), interrelation of the spaces with the
inhabitant who settles in a dynamic balance, changing
and personal. In this exposition, the theories of J.
Muntañola, are an important support , affirming the
architecture is a place, to live and from life; against
the idea a “machine to live” (le Corbusier), nor a form
of independent symbol (Heidegger); defending a
Baeza idea of field to count with an architecture with
vocation of being constructed in its Essential Space.
Teaching Residential Environments:
Challenges and Opportunities Workshop
(La enseñanza de ambientes residenciales: retos y
oportunidades. Taller)
Organizer: Tasoulla Hadjiyanni (University of
Minnesota).
Presenters: Sherry Ahrentzen (Arizona State
University), Marilyn Bruin (University of
Minnesota), Tasoulla Hadjiyanni (University
of Minnesota), Kyriakos Pontikis (California
State University at Northridge), James Potter
(University of Nebraska)
At last year’s EDRA, members of the Residential
Environments Network (REN) expressed an interest
for a workshop on teaching. The network involves
members from varying backgrounds, interests, and
concerns ranging from students, academics, and practitioners, educated in fields like design, anthropology,
housing studies, and health care. Areas of expertise
vary from urban planning to housing theory and
design as well as construction, culture, policy, and
universal design at national and international scales.
Although this diversity is exciting, it makes it difficult for members to coordinate efforts and share
knowledge. As EDRA39’s theme is ‘Linking Differences—Defining Actions,’ this is a perfect opportunity
for the network’s members to gather and critically
think about REN’s role in fostering connections and
support. We thereby envision this to be the first of a
series of workshops that tackle a different issue each
year.
The teaching of residential environments is an area
that is both under-researched and under-published.
Courses vary from studios to lecture courses that in
some cases are solely about housing while in others
housing is a sub-theme. With limited teaching
resources, educators often find themselves entering
unknown waters that require interdisciplinary collaborations. As a result, they can end up struggling to
define what should be taught; which theories to use;
and how to encourage in-depth explorations, analysis,
synthesis, and re-thinking of problems, solutions,
and ideas around the complex topics of residential
environments.
The workshop will begin with five brief presentations:
Thematic
Abstracts
Housing &
Residential
Environments
La vivienda
y ambientes
residenciales
Thematic
Abstracts
Housing &
Residential
Environments
La vivienda
y ambientes
residenciales
• Sherry Ahrentzen’s (Stardust Center for Affordable Homes, Arizona State University) on the
development of the program and award winners
from the newly-initiated ACSA/AIA Housing Design
Education Award program that aims to recognize the
importance of excellence in housing design education
and the need to develop exemplary housing-related
courses and curricula.
• Marilyn Bruin’s (Housing Studies, University of
Minnesota) on using service-learning in a seminar
course to better understand the housing needs of
older individuals and individuals with a disability.
Universal design and aging-in-place knowledge guide
students’ development of recommendations that
enhance the independence of the people they were
working with.
• Tasoulla Hadjiyanni’s (Interior Design, University
of Minnesota) on how meaning of home and identity
theories can be used to enrich students’ approaches
to the problem of residential design, particularly as it
relates to housing minority groups.
• Kyriakos Pontikis’s (Interior Design, California
State University Northridge) on how Christopher
Alexander’s environmental design theory, presented
in his books “A Pattern Language” and “The Nature
of Order” can be applied in a senior interior design
studio about residential environments with human
and sustainable qualities. And,
• James Potter’s (Architecture, University of Nebraska) on his seminar course “Housing Issues in Contemporary Society,” a survey of social, psychological,
political and economic research regarding housing in
today’s global economy and how research can inform
housing design for scales ranging from the interior of
an individual residence to regional planning.
The discussion with participants will concentrate
on putting together coherent and organized efforts
by which REN can provide teaching support for those
teaching residential environments.
Keywords: Housing, interdisciplinary, curriculum
development.
244
Toward Culturally Sensitive Housing:
The Experience of Minnesota’s Mexican
Community
(Hacia una vivienda culturalmente más sensible:
la experiencia de la comunidad Mexicana en
Minnesota)
Tasoulla Hadjiyanni and Kristin Helle
(University of Minnesota)
Cultural identities are defined by both what makes
us similar and different from each other. Given the
diversity of the American cultural landscape, cultural
differences pose a challenge to housing providers who
must cater to the needs of people they know little
about. Nevertheless, few studies have examined the
impact that the built environment might have in the
adjustment of displaced groups or in their struggle for
a new identity definition. This paper, part of a larger
cross-cultural study of differences in housing needs,
posits that culturally sensitive housing, i.e. housing
that supports various ways of living, can also support
mental, emotional, and physical well-being as well as
the preservation of the diversity that enriches American communities and lives.
Drawing from twenty-five interviews of members
of Minnesota’s Mexican community in their homes,
this paper explores the role of the house in sustaining
the Mexican identity and culture. Being the fifth of
six cultural groups in the study, the findings confirm
that homes on the one hand, help bridge the diverse
and often opposing cultural values and practices of
the Mexican and American cultures, while on the
other hand, pose difficulties that cause undue stress
to those living there. Caught in the middle of the
current political debates on immigration, Mexicans
are Minnesota’s largest immigrant group, which apart
from differences in legal status, includes people with
varying backgrounds, years in the US, educational
levels, professional affiliation, and family situations.
As a result of this inherent diversity, varying degrees
of Mexicanness were observed among the interviewees. Cultural expressions like food, language, music,
dance, and decorative aesthetic were integral aspects
of some interviewees’ identities. Maintaining close
family relations was also important even as many
families have been pulled apart as a result of policies, economic pressures, or job opportunities. At the
same time though, many of our interviewees used
similar expressions, like eating fast food and learning
English, to construct an American identity and sense
of belonging. Their homes helped them navigate this
on-going negotiation between Mexican and American
cultural prescriptions.
Our sample reflected the varying housing conditions in which Mexican immigrants live: from rural
farm housing for male workers to urban single-family
homes and condos. Revealing their occupants’ cultural background were kitchens with tortillas and
dried peppers on the counters; objects and artwork of
a Mexican flair decorating the rooms; bright colors
adorning the walls; and altars of the Virgin of Guadalupe occupying the main living areas. In spite of their
attempts to adjust and adapt to their living situations,
many experienced difficulties with practices such as
cooking traditional Mexican foods in small, poorly
ventilated kitchens and hosting family and friends for
extended time periods.
Culturally sensitive solutions illustrated through
student projects from the author’s interior design
studio class demonstrate how the needs of the
Mexican community can be integrated in mainstream
residential designs. In recognition that all cultural
groups have specific needs that must be accommodated, further studies should focus on identifying the
particular cultural housing needs of other minority
groups.
Keywords: culture, social issues, low income,
housing, interdisciplinary
Urban Renters and their Perception of Safety
in Gated Residential Communities
(Arrendatarios urbanos y su percepción de la
seguridad en comunidades residenciales cerradas)
Suk-Kyung Kim (Michigan State University)
From the 1800s when the first gated community
in the United State, Tuxedo Park and the private
streets of St. Louis, appeared, gated communities have
been paid attention to by many housing researchers,
planners, and developers. Since then, the number of
gated communities has constantly increased and their
forms became diverse from luxurious communities to
inexpensive apartment communities. Initially popular
for expensive neighborhood development, gated
communities are now available even for apartment
communities. Especially for the residents who are
interested in safety in their residential environment,
a gated community must be an attractive housing
option.
This study explored the architectural characteristics of gated apartment communities, demographic
characteristics of the residents who selected gated
communities, and their perception of safety in their
gated residential environments. Research questions
associated with this study were as follows: 1) how
gated communities have been developed for urban
renters, 2) what kinds of amenities they provide for
the residents, 3) how much the residents feel safe in
their near home environments in gated communities,
and 4) what kinds of architectural or demographic
characteristics are correlated with their perceptions of
safety.
The primary research methods were site visitation and a survey of residents in gated communities.
Subject communities are located in Houston, Texas.
The 12 gated apartment communities were selected
for this study from a thorough review of 72 apartment communities in Houston. To compare residents’
perceptions of safety in gated communities with those
in non-gated communities, six non-gated communities in the same area were also selected. The subject
sites were selected based on the community size and
monthly rental prices. The responses from 156 gated
community residents and 93 non-gated community
residents were analyzed for this study.
The results showed that gated apartment communities have been developed by various reasons. Some of
them were developed adding more site amenities for
giving high-end residential environments to young
professional renters while some communities were
developed to protect the residents from near-home
environment crimes. Site amenities designed in gated
apartment communities varied. Those were from the
original gated community design, but transformed
appropriately for their current residents. Gated community residents felt safer in their residential environment than non-gated community residents. However,
the actual property crime rates showed different
results. Some demographic characteristics of the residents such as gender and number of children in the
family were correlated with their perception of safety.
In conclusion, this study suggested architectural
Thematic
Abstracts
Housing &
Residential
Environments
La vivienda
y ambientes
residenciales
interventions to increase residents’ perceived safety in
apartment communities in urban areas.
Keywords: Gated communities, Perception of safety,
Territoriality
Warmness, from a Basic Necessity to a
Luxury: The Technological Evolution and
Social Life of Korean Heated Floor
Thematic
Abstracts
Housing &
Residential
Environments
La vivienda
y ambientes
residenciales
(Calor, desde una necesidad básica a un lujo. La
evolución tecnológica y la vida social del piso
calentado de Korea)
Jung-Hye Shin (University of Wisconsin –
Madison)
The study focuses on the process of social change
and place hybridization, as seen through the evolution
of Korean housing, specifically 20th century adaptations of the Korean heated floor called ondol. Ondol,
as a material structure, is explored in relation to
changing family relations and larger societal transitions in Korea using the concept of place—a conjuncture of material space, social relations, and the process
of social construction. Theories of place and place
hybridization have provided a framework for tracing
how and why Korean ondol has persisted throughout
modernization in the 20th century. Physical adaptations of ondol, changing family relations, social
constructions embedded in the changing forms of
buildings, and their dynamic interplay are explored.
This study addresses four interrelated research
questions: (1) how have the physical pharacteristics of Korean ondol changed; (2) how have family
relations interrelated with the use of ondol changed
over time; (3) what are the meanings and symbols
of ondol shared by Koreans; and finally (4) how has
people’s experience changed as a result of physical
and social transformation of ondol in Korea? Three
data collection methods were employed in the study:
(1) collection of scholarly articles on physical dimensions of ondol including its thermal performance;
(2) popular media including internet articles, magazines, newspapers, and TV dramas; and (3) in-depth
interviews with elderly immigrants in the Chicago
and Milwaukee areas. (1) was analyzed through the
descriptive meta-analysis method while (2) & (3)
were analyzed with interpretive content analysis. The
study revealed that Korean ondol went through three
stages over the last 100 years: (1) traditional ondol; (2)
246
modified ondol; and (3) hydronic ondol. Each ondol
stage evolved with its own unique physical characteristics, actively interacting with: (1) patterns of
everyday life of Koreans; (2) large societal transition
including social order and infrastructure; and finally
(3) place experience that arose from the combination
of physical characteristics, patterns of everyday life,
and societal change. Throughout different stages of
ondol, encompassing themes are also identified: (1)
issues of gender, economic class, and generational effect; (2) culturally unique features of thermal comfort;
(3) commercialization of thermal experiences; and
finally, (4) the formation of Korean identity in the era
of globalization.
Keywords: culture, social issues, technology, residential, architecture, case study
Interior Design / Interior
Architecture
Application of Chinese Elements in Interior
Decoration Practice at Baton Rouge,
Louisiana
Jun Zou (Louisiana State University)
Interior design is a sprung up career in the past 70
years. As a major in higher education, interior design
program started around 1940s in U.S.A., and around
1950s in China. While the programs in different
universities vary by time, administrative settings,
educational philosophy and approaches, and even by
their names, both commonalities and differences are
evident. With educational background and teaching
experience in design programs across China, Canada
and the U.S.A., the author recognizes that the differences run deeper than variability between individual
programs. In fact, the systematic differences between
the two education systems (the American and the
Chinese systems) dominate those within the two.
This research is set forth to study the differences between the two systems. The objective is to encourage
more communications between them, which would
consequently benefit both systems by facilitating
better mutual understanding, by learning from each
other, and by incorporating a globalized perspective
in interior design education.
By examining two typical interior design programs
from respectively the American and Chinese systems
through an analysis of their history, current curricula,
and implementation of the curricula, some observations are made.
In the U.S.A., interior design education has been
evolving from having lots of arts education characteristics to incorporating many engineering components.
In particular, the interior design program has the
following characteristics:
• Establishment of a collaborative, multi-disciplinary learning community
• Focusing on system/process – oriented training.
One distinct feature is the emphasis on the whole
design process and its associated documentation, presentation, review and critics
• Promoting self-study ability, fostering students
study initiative
• Inclusion of new technology and notions, such as
computer technology, green design, sustainability
• Using internship as a mean that helps students
to gain practice experience from professional design
company
In China, early interior design programs mostly
reside in arts schools or departments, and have just
started to spin off from architecture design or industrial design since late 80’s. Decoration remains a very
influential perspective in interior design programs,
which reflects its artistic origination. In particular, the
following characteristics are observed:
• Emphasizing foundation trainings: freehand
drawing and spatial imagination skills have been
given tremendous emphasis
• Emphasizing on study of regional, national and
cultural styles
• Focusing on result, in the form of the final design
and its representations.
• Most of studio projects are real and practical
Overall, the American and Chinese interior design
programs maintain some unique characteristics.
While these two systems are not at the same maturity
level, some of their characteristics can complement
and have the potential to benefit each other. Considering interior design education is currently undergoing a major expansion and enhancement in both
countries, a larger scope of surveys and comparative
studies of these two systems could potentially offers
more insights on the future development of interior
design education in both systems.
Keywords: aesthetics / meaning / assessment, curriculum development, design education, interior
design, case study
Case Study: Comparing American and
Chinese Interior Design
(Caso de estudio: comparando los programas de
diseño de interiores de américa y china)
Jun Zou and T. L. Ritchie (Louisiana State
University)
Interior design is a sprung up career in the past 70
years. As a major in higher education, interior design
program started around 1940s in U.S.A., and around
1950s in China. While the programs in different
Thematic
Abstracts
Interior
Design
Interior
Architecture
Diseño
interior
Arquitectura
del interior
Thematic
Abstracts
Interior
Design
Interior
Architecture
Diseño
interior
Arquitectura
del
interior
universities vary by time, administrative settings,
educational philosophy and approaches, and even by
their names, both commonalities and differences are
evident. With educational background and teaching
experience in design programs across China, Canada
and the U.S.A., the author recognizes that the differences run deeper than variability between individual
programs. In fact, the systematic differences between
the two education systems (the American and the
Chinese systems) dominate those within the two.
This research is set forth to study the differences between the two systems. The objective is to encourage
more communications between them, which would
consequently benefit both systems by facilitating
better mutual understanding, by learning from each
other, and by incorporating a globalized perspective
in interior design education.
By examining two typical interior design programs
from respectively the American and Chinese systems
through an analysis of their history, current curricula,
and implementation of the curricula, some observations are made. 2
In the U.S.A., interior design education has been
evolving from having lots of arts education characteristics to incorporating many engineering components.
In particular, the interior design program has the
following characteristics:
• Establishment of a collaborative, multi-disciplinary learning community
• Focusing on system/process – oriented training.
One distinct feature is the emphasis on the whole
design process and its associated documentation, presentation, review and critics
• Promoting self-study ability, fostering students
study initiative
• Inclusion of new technology and notions, such as
computer technology, green design, sustainability
• Using internship as a mean that helps students
to gain practice experience from professional design
company
In China, early interior design programs mostly
reside in arts schools or departments, and have just
started to spin off from architecture design or industrial design since late 80’s. Decoration remains a very
influential perspective in interior design programs,
which reflects its artistic origination. In particular, the
following characteristics are observed:
248
• Emphasizing foundation trainings: freehand
drawing and spatial imagination skills have been
given tremendous emphasis
• Emphasizing on study of regional, national and
cultural styles
• Focusing on result, in the form of the final design
and its representations.
• Most of studio projects are real and practical
Overall, the American and Chinese interior design
programs maintain some unique characteristics.
While these two systems are not at the same maturity
level, some of their characteristics can complement
and have the potential to benefit each other. Considering interior design education is currently undergoing a major expansion and enhancement in both
countries, a larger scope of surveys and comparative
studies of these two systems could potentially offers
more insights on the future development of interior
design education in both systems.
Keywords: aesthetics / meaning / assessment, curriculum development, design education, interior
design, case study
Connecting Lighting Design Concepts
to Lighting Software through Interactive
Learning Modules
(Uniendo el diseño de conceptos luminosos
con software luminoso a través de un módulo
interactivo)
Tina Sarawgi (University of North Carolina,
Greensboro)
Today, lighting design software tools have improved
considerably in their accuracy and graphical user
interface. They allow designers to iteratively explore
different scenarios related to lighting, producing
graphics and reports that help examine and communicate the benefits of a certain design scenario.
The probability of efficient use of electric light and
daylight, and energy conservation could be higher
when lighting solutions are rigorously investigated
through such tools in the design of interior environments. However, it is unfortunate to find that the use
of lighting design software is notably limited in the
design academic community (Sarawgi, 2006). Only
42.9% of interior design and 43.3% of architecture
educators use them in their lighting design related
courses. This paper discusses a lighting design soft-
ware learning modules project designed to address
this shortcoming.
The learning modules are designed as a self-paced
discovery environment. The purpose of the interactive
modules is three-fold: to demonstrate the capabilities
of lighting design software, encourage designers to
design using photometrically sound lighting software
tools, and to integrate lighting in the overall design
process. They are built on the premise that all lighting
design software programs are based on radiosity or
raytracing or a combination of both (Rea, 2000). If
these software concepts are suitably linked to lighting
design concepts, designers would feel less intimidated
in using the programs. With this background information, users of lighting simulation tools can better
use them in their design and analysis processes.
The learning modules are thus divided into three
main components with topics hyperlinked to one another: lighting concepts (fundamental knowledge on
lighting), software concepts (related lighting design
software concepts), and lighting application modules
(application of knowledge from the other modules for
specific lighting tasks). The interior lighting design
process serves as a thread that ties the three modules
together. Hence, when faced with a lighting design
task in hand, the user has the flexibility of looking
up a topic in the lighting design process. The lighting
concepts module can help one gain a basic understanding of the lighting design issue. The chosen topic
is hyperlinked to the relevant sections in the software concepts module to understand lighting design
software’s approach. Finally, the lighting application
module can be referenced to view specific examples
of lighting applications on the topic. For specific software program issues, the users are encouraged to refer
to their respective help files. The course modules are
envisioned as being used either in parts as a reference
material, or used for the lighting design process as a
whole.
Increasing accuracy, interactivity, and iterative
interface of lighting design software tools today
make them desirable to designers (Benya, 2004). The
learning modules are designed to bring lighting concepts to life with lighting design software tools, thus
providing designers valuable information and skills to
arrive at effective lighting design solutions. Linking Differences / Defining Actions
Keywords: Technology/ computer applications, interior lighting design, simulation, learning modules
Feng Shui Analysis of Ralph Rapson Hall
and Weisman Museum at the University of
Minnesota Twin Cities Campus
(Análisis de feng shui de ralph parson hall y el
museo weisman en el campus de la universidad de
las Ciudades Gemelas en Minnesota)
Ritu Bhatt (University of Minnesota)
Feng shui is the ancient Chinese practice which
in recent years has been revived and popularized
by a broad range of teachers and practitioners who
follow different schools of Feng shui thought. The
different schools -- the Black Sect Tantric Buddhist
School of Feng shui, The Compass school, as well
as many others re-contextualize ancient knowledge
and techniques for contemporary uses. Practitioners
present Feng shui as emerging alternative science that
has parallels to environmental philosophy, psychology,
magnetism and environmental behavior research.
Despite its proliferation as a popular practice and the
distortions that are inevitable given the manner in
which it is currently being amalgamated as a modern
science, there are some potential insights that can be
derived from the techniques that Feng shui practitioners use to analyze buildings.
This poster session will present a dialogue that occurred between students of architecture from University of Minnesota and the New York based Feng shui
practitioner Alex Stark. The dialogue will be presented in the form of diagrammatic analyses of Ralph
Rapson Hall (the existing structure designed by Cerny
and Associates as well as the extension that has been
designed by architect Steven Hall) and the Weisman
Museum designed by architect Frank Gehry .The dialogue and the detailed drawings bring to the surface
a range of insights for architects and environment
behavior researchers on specific ways by which different parts of the human body respond to spatial cues
-- some of which are often missed out in the current
models of design pedagogy. Detailed drawings will
present as well as critically evaluate key concepts currently employed by Feng Shui practitioners, such as
flow of energy at the mouth of chi, area of highest land
energy, positive and negative street influences, use of
crystals in Feng shui, implications of building upon
Thematic
Abstracts
Interior
Design
Interior
Architecture
Diseño
interior
Arquitectura
del interior
parking lots, use of bagua and compass directions to
analyze existing building plans as well as the implications of creating a Flying Star Horoscope for building
analysis. This poster presentation hopes to highlight
both the overlaps and the disconnects of Feng shui
understanding with environmental behavior research
and also delve into how and why Feng shui practice
continues to evolve and thrive as an alternative science drawing co-relations between space perception,
mind-body cognition and human well-being.
Keywords: Space Perception, Feng shui, Building
Analysis, Human well-being
Thematic
Abstracts
Interior
Design
Interior
Architecture
Diseño
interior
Arquitectura
del
interior
Furniture in Oklahoma’s Indian Territory
(El mobiliario en el Territorio Indio de Oklahoma)
Mihyun Kang, Kyu-Ho Ahn, and Lynne
Richards (Oklahoma State University)
Following passage of the Indian Removal Act in
1830, the U.S. government mandated the migration of American Indians reserved land located
in Indian Territory, which eventually became the
state of Oklahoma. Native Americans relocated to
the Territory represented significant cultural and
historical diversity. Five Civilized Tribes (Cherokee,
Creek, Chickasaw, Choctaw, and Seminole) settled the
eastern Territory and brought substantially acculturated European American lifestyles. Native Americans
removed to the western Territory reflected more traditional hunting and nomadic cultures.
The years 1850-1885 were associated with the American Civil War and slow postwar recovery; during
which time Native American ethnicity was dominant.
The period 1885-1900 was characterized by a major
influx of non-Indian homesteaders and the demise of
Indian control of the Territory. In 1889, the U.S. government began opening the Territory to non-Indian
settlement and the population expanded rapidly with
European and African American farmers, tradesmen,
and merchants. The years 1900-1910 reflected the
development of statehood and subsequent political,
social, and economic adjustments.
This study investigated the furniture history of
Oklahoma’s early settlers, as experienced and described by actual residents of the nineteenth century
Indian Territory. The investigation sought to determine if the uses of furniture by territorial residents
differed based on 1) ethnicity (Acculturated Native
250
Americans, Traditional Native Americans, European
Americans, African Americans) and 2) historical
period (1850 -1885, 1885-1900, 1900-1910).
During the 1930s, as part of a project funded by the
federal Works Progress Administration, 6,300 early
residents of the Indian Territory were interviewed
concerning their memories of territorial life. These
were subsequently published as the Oklahoma-Indian
Papers. Interview statements pertaining to furniture
items were extracted, along with demographic information about the interviewees. Content analysis was
conducted and descriptive statistics were employed to
summarize the data.
Of the 6,300 interviewed individuals, 557 included
comments regarding furniture. The self-reported
ages of the informants ranged from 34 to 103. Ethnic
identity was specified by only 24.6% of the informants,
of whom 55% were acculturated Native American,
28% traditional Native American, 13% European
American, and 4% African American. An analysis of
housing types inhabited by these informants indicated that most lived in log houses.
Furniture items mentioned in the interviews included beds, cabinets, chairs, and other small items.
Most furniture was either brought with settlers when
they moved to the Territory, or was made at home
upon arrival. The memories suggested furniture in
Oklahoma’s Indian Territory was as diverse as the
informants, with the use of local materials for homemade furniture observed across all ethnicities.
However, furniture was less diverse in terms of historical periods, implying that furniture may have been
passed on to the next generation once it was made or
brought to the Territory. Also, newcomers continued
to arrive in the Territory throughout the territorial
period, and therefore furniture deprivation associated
with relocation was mentioned in regards to each period. During 1900-1910, the furniture associated with
traditional Native Americans showed growing acculturation influence. Overall, furniture in Oklahoma’s
Indian Territory reflected the historical background
and environment of each of the user/producer groups.
Keywords: Culture, history, furniture, residential.
Incorporating Green Design in Interior
Design Education
(Incorporando el diseño verde en la educación del
diseño de interiores)
Christiana Lafazani and Jennifer Hamilton
(Virginia Commonwealth University)
Green Design, LEED, and Sustainability all terms
we hear and read about daily. As architects and
designers we have been working on integrating green
methods in our practices while renovating or building
new spaces. We are constantly reminded and are
compelled to remind our clients of our responsibility
to the environment and the fragile equilibrium the
human race needs to sustain for the survival of all
species. Richard Hyde in his book called The Environmental Brief: Pathways for Green Design states:
“The concept of sustainability is seen as the key to responding to the pressures that humans are placing on
the planet’s ecosystem. Yet definitions of sustainability
can still be perplexing. Is sustainability a goal for designers, a process, an outcome or all of the above?”
As an educator in the field of Interior Design I have
been faced with the challenge of successfully incorporating sustainability issues into my classrooms. How
do we effectively drive our students to the idea that
Green Design methods should be the standard approach to every design solution and not the exception?
How do we instill in them that our actions can affect
air pollution, deforestation, health of other humans,
energy consumption and waste production.
During the past five years of teaching I have
incorporated a number of methods for my lecture
and studio courses to coerce the use of green materials and ecological methods in student projects.
Through the study of William McDonough’s and
Michael Braungardt’s Cradle to Cradle book (2002), a
number of Eco-methods and materials lectures from
local industry design professionals and the viewing
of documentaries such as “Blue Vinyl”, “The Next
Industrial Revolution” and “An Inconvenient Truth” I
ask my students to produce a paper and a poster that
promotes Ecological thinking and awareness. For a
closer physical approach to materials and construction they are asked to produce a series of two cubes
and a container using all sustainable means. I present
them with some examples from David Guthrie’s Cube
book (2004) and ask them to further explore. In
studio courses I have introduced an office/ showroom
of eco friendly materials project and invited students
to design a space where all materials are sustainable.
In all projects students have to consider minimizing
new resources and considering recycling, conserving
energy, have respect for their impact on the environment and for the health and well being of the end
users.
This paper will focus on the educational methods
used to introduce green issues to Interior Design students. A number of digital examples of student work
will be incorporated in the presentation to clearly
demonstrate the outcome.
Keywords: sustainability, academic, Interior Design,
theory /conceptualization
Integrating Creativity in the Volumetric
Design Process: Creative Concept Integrated
Wall Designs
(Integrando la creatividad en el proceso de diseño
volumétrico: un concepto creativo integrado en el
diseño de paredes)
Elizabeth Pober and Janet Biddick (University
of Oklahoma)
A concept is the main idea influencing the steps
taken and the decisions made during a design
project’s design phase (Malnar & Vodvarka, 1992).
“Concepts influence the creative process in design by
consciously guiding the decisions made while inviting
creativity” (Leigh, 2000). Thus, they affect the selection and manipulation of basic design elements and
organizational principles to be used in solving specific
design problems (Malnar & Vodvarka, 1992). When
a concept is developed and used early in the design
process, the elements selected to shape the space are
reinforced with the concept’s idea, in turn creating a
stronger design.
This project was developed to introduce creative
concept integration into the design process, to result
in a complex volumetric design solution of a component that is often quite simple. The objective was to
design three focal wall partitions to communicate and
express an associated creative design solution volumetrically for three different clients.
Methodology
The students were given three client categories to
design unique focal wall partitions for use in a main
Thematic
Abstracts
Interior
Design
Interior
Architecture
Diseño
interior
Arquitectura
del interior
Thematic
Abstracts
Interior
Design
Interior
Architecture
Diseño
interior
Arquitectura
del
interior
space within the client’s facility: one each for an
office, a retail store and a spiritual gathering center.
Each category had size limitations that restricted the
outcome of the design solutions.
The first step in the process was for each student
to choose a specific client for each category and to
research that particular client. The students then
developed a list of words that would assist them in
exploring diverse dimensions of the concept to be
conveyed for each space. These concept words would
ultimately guide and shape the design of the walls.
The overall atmosphere that was appropriate for the
client was to be the driving factor in the list of words.
The second step was to use the list of concept words
to develop abstract sketches to define and communicate the concept graphically. The students had to
group certain words together, and creatively generate
two-dimensional abstract graphic representations of
the concepts.
The third step in the process involved combining
elements from the abstract sketches and translating
them into three-dimensional abstract models. Each
student constructed models for each client category,
choosing materials to communicate their creative
concepts three-dimensionally. To assist them in
translating the abstract models into the final design
solution, the size of the models was limited to each client’s size restriction for the final design. The models
were built at ¼”=1’ scale.
The final step was to use the concept words, abstract
sketches, and abstract models to translate into a creative wall design for each client’s space. The students
had to consider the materials that would be used, the
construction method, and the way shape, size and
design would affect the surrounding spaces.
Summary: This project illustrates a method for
pairing a creative design development process with
volumetric thinking, resulting in a design solution
that communicates a conceptual idea directly to the
users of the space. The outcome generated numerous
creative volumetric design ideas for a component that
is often lacking in three-dimensional creativity.
Keywords: Creativity, Volumetric Design, Design
Concepts, Design Process, Design Development
References:
Aspelund, Karl. (2006). The Design Process. New
York: Fairchild Publications.
252
Council for Interior Design Accreditation. (2006).
Council for Interior Design
Accreditation: Professional Standards. Grand
Rapids, MI: Author.
Karlen, Mark. (2003). Space Planning Basics, 2nd
Edition. New York: Wiley.
Leigh, Katharine. (2000). Creativity and ConceptBased Design: A System for
Learning. In IDEC Celebgrate! Interior Design Education: Proceedings of the Interior Design Educators
Council Annual International Conference, Calgary,
Alberta, Canada.
Malnar, J.M. & Vodvarka, F. (1992). The Interior
Dimension: A theoretical approach to enclosed space.
New York: Van Nostrand Reinhold.
Rengel, Roberto. (2003). Shaping Interior Space.
New York: Fairchild Publications.
Van Dommelen, David. (1965). Walls: enrichment
and ornamentation. New York: Funk and Wagnalls.
Author’s Note:: The authors would like to credit
Associate Professor David Boeck as one of the additional instructors of this course. Mr. Boeck taught
the graphic’s portion of this studio; however, was still
involved with the development and execution of this
project.
A Time-Space-Physics Design Model in
Architecture: The Study of Patterns in the
Compass School of Feng Shui Theory
(Un modelo de diseño tiempo-espacio-física en la
arquitectura: el estudio de patrones en la escuela
de la teoría del Feng Shui)
An-Chi Tai (Virginia Tech)
The science of ancient civilizations usually had
viewpoints differ from today’s science to explain
their natural and social environments. Some of their
understanding of this world could be categorized as
“quasi-science” or “pseudo-science”; however, sometimes their thoughts may contain the possibility to
provide valuable perspectives for the development of
modern sciences. This interpretative study of Chinese Feng-shui Theory links the differences between
ancient Eastern architecture and modern Western
architecture design methods. Feng-shui Theory serves
as one of the major foundations in traditional Chinese
architecture. There are two schools that specialize in
the Feng-shui Theory, the Form School, and the Compass School. The form school emphasizes greatly on
analyzing landforms, and selecting suitable sites for
residency. The methods produced by the Form School
have attained creditability from modern research in
the field of Chinese architecture. On the contrary, the
theologies behind the Compass School are unclear
and being misunderstood. The aspects of the Compass
School in this research will be based on the architectural development in the Chinese historic classics and
ancient Chinese’s knowledge system. In advance, by
comparing with the analysis of the contemporary residential design process, this research also focuses on
the conversion of the feng-shui principles into present
architecture design method. It helps to establish a
research framework, which can become a communicable platform for feng-shui researchers in the future.
The Knowledge System greatly defined the Chinese
ancestors’ thoughts and behaviors. It was developed
to connect the relationships between the natural laws
and the social orders. The system was built with the
conceptual thoughts, including Chinese cosmology
and philosophy in the beginning. Eventually, it was
developed into the practical scientific subjects, such as
Chinese astronomy, earth science, geography, climatology, environmental analysis, material science,
physics, and mathematics, etc. These subjects described Chinese ancestors’ understanding of the natural laws with a basic and scientific knowledge system.
This knowledge system contains three sections: time,
space, and physics. It could be compared with today’s
metrology and basic sciences, such as mathematics
and physics. With the interaction of time-spacephysics factors as the language and the logic, feng-shui
provides a series of design patterns. These design patterns describe the principles of constructing process,
housing planning, and interior design. In addition,
the patterns offer a living model for human beings
to achieve harmony with the Mother Nature. As for
the result, two transformations will be defined and
interpreted: First, the transformation from the primitive feng-shui language and spatial patterns into the
modern architectural language. Second, the transition
from feng-shui’s conceptual and practical design patterns to a decision-making framework of the contemporary housing design process.
Keywords: Culture, Architecture, Residential
Housing, Qualitative Research
Abstracts
Interior
Design
Interior
Architecture
Diseño
interior
Arquitectura
del interior
253
Nature & Ecology /
Landscape Architecture
Design Clean Water: New Forms for Site
Specific Landscape Integration of Wastewater
Biofiltration
Thematic
Abstracts
Nature &
Ecology ,
Landscape
Architecture
Naturaleza
y ecología,
arquitectura
del paisaje
(Diseño de agua limpia. Nuevas formas para
integración del paisaje en un sitio específico y
biofiltración de agua de desagüe)
Nicole Stern (Penn State University)
Water quality and availability will increasingly
become a top global environmental issue. Through
emulating natural wetland biogeochemical processes,
wastewater biofiltration technologies convert what
is typically treated as a waste product back into a
resource. Further benefits of these systems in comparison to typical treatment solutions, or lack of treatment infrastructure, include lower environmental impact, reduced cost, increased ecological habitat, public
education and creation of aesthetically enjoyable
spaces. This study compiles a typology of existing
biological wastewater treatment systems, including
constructed treatment wetlands, reedbeds and Living
Machines, and their feasibility in various project scenarios. Through precedent study and design testing,
the method looks to distill a design process which
could be utilized by landscape architects to re-design
engineered forms of sustainable technologies for specific ecological, socio-cultural, and economic design
contexts. The review of overlapping design requirements in literature and case studies reveals a variety
of forms, configurations and materials that achieve
the basic requirements of any wastewater treatment
system. Key case studies used in this research include
reedbeds and willowbeds at the ZEGG Ecovillage
in Germany, willowbeds at Dysselkilde Ecovillage
in Denmark, the Kolding Bioworks Pyramid in
Denmark, vertical and horizontal flow sub-surface
wetlands at the Center for Alternative Technology in
Wales, the Living Machine at Oberlin College in Ohio
and the Living Machine at Julian Woods in Pennsylvania. The results of this distillation outline retention,
circulation, distribution, aeration and surface area for
microorganism habitat as the main necessary com-
254
ponents to treat wastewater. Realizing these criteria
frees the form that a system may take to satisfy the
science and engineering aspects of biofiltration. These
design goals are applied to a secondary treatment
system in a rural residential cluster scenario with a
lack of existing infrastructure and a low budget. This
experimental project is based in Harlan, KY – an area
which currently straight-pipes their residential wastewater into a local waterway without treatment. The
resulting design incorporates a vertical flow trickling
filter combined with a living wall and sub-surface
constructed wetland. The basic new options in form
freed in this study are generalizable for wastewater
treatment options in developing nations where lack
of infrastructure to deal with sewage has adverse
environmental and social health impacts. With the
challenges faced by the future population in dealing
with global water issues, innovative ideas that employ
the wisdom of biological systems offer hope for simple,
affordable solutions. There are no waste products in
nature – everything is food for something else. We
need to re-integrate our own waste streams into the
surrounding environment using efficient technology
to buffer the impact of increasing populations and
using beauty to heal the blight of current infrastructure on the landscape.
Keywords: wastewater biofiltration, biological
wastewater treatment, constructed wetlands, reedbeds,
Living Machine, waste = food.
Ethnobotanic Gardens for Georgia Schools
(Jardines etnobotánicos para las escuelas de
Georgia)
Ashley Calabria (University of Georgia)
The Ethnobotanic World Garden for Georgia
Schools project is a collaborative effort of those
working together to bring about a state wide initiative for developing formal and informal educational
training to address the emerging needs of Hispanic
students and families via environmental design and
curriculum requirements in public schools. This
project was initiated by an interdisciplinary group of
professionals including members of the State Botanical Gardens of Georgia, The University of Georgia
Center for Latin American and Caribbean Studies,
The University of Georgia School of Environmental
Design, and the Georgia State Coordinator of the
Children, Youth and Families at Risk organization.
Working together through a grant received from the
Sustainable Community Forestry Grant Program administered by the Georgia Forestry Commission, we
set out to collaboratively develop strategies to link different subcultures through an educational workshop
for public school teachers for designing, creating and
installing ethnobotanic gardens that could address a
variety of common issues impacting Georgia’s third
largest demographic population, those of Hispanic
origin.
Georgia’s classrooms are rapidly changing, mirroring national globalization. More than ever teachers
are seeking resources to equitably engage students
from different backgrounds and abilities in high
quality science activities. The project goals of Ethnobotanic Gardens for Georgia Schools is to develop
an awareness of ethnobotanical gardens as a way to
celebrate trees, plants and ethnicities and to serve as
tools for growing cultural understanding as well as
meeting and expanding many educational objectives
in schools. Each member of the collaborative brought
extensive knowledge including; specific plant selection, design criteria, installation and maintenance
issues, and an in depth look at linking Georgia Curriculum Standards to the ethnobotanic garden. Multi
cultural literature resources were also brought for
introducing community and festival interactions with
gardens, food and medicinal uses of Hispanic nature
and cultural legends and myths related to gardens.
The workshop was presented to a full class of public
school teachers over a two day period in the fall
of 2006. It consisted of presentations, educational
activities, landscape design and individual counseling
for assisting and instructing teachers on the rigor
involved in developing and incorporating garden
activities based on cultural sensitivities. Final evaluations were sent out to the participating teachers and
are being used to construct a longer, more intensive
session which will be conducted in the winter of 2008,
this time funded by the Georgia Improving Teacher
Quality Grant.
The EDRA presentation of this material will track
the schema and development of the program based on
the challenges encountered, the evolution of criteria,
and the anticipated future of the workshop based on
teacher evaluations. The presenter would also like to
include time for presentation and discussion on ideas
and follow up methods for further development and
success of the program.
Keywords: children, culture, (elementary/middle
school) curriculum development, outdoor environments, landscape architecture
Implications of Time Art Processes for the
Design Arts Workshop
(Inplicaciones de los procesos del arte y tiempo
para diseñar artes - taller)
Organizers: Duncan Case (University of Nebraska) and Thomas Mitchell (Indiana State
University)
This workshop explores the question: : What can
the “design arts” learn from the way the “time arts”
accommodate time in their design processes that will
better enable the design arts to design for digital environments? The time arts include theatre, dance, music,
film and video. The design arts include architecture,
inte

Linking Differences / Defining Actions

Transcripción

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