Environment Behaviour Studies
Designing for people is based upon an understanding of the relationship between a person and his, or her, environment; the ambient, the built, the natural and the social environment that surrounds a person. The aim of this course is to introduce to the students the nature of this interaction, the theories that explain it, and its relevance to the design of the built environment, with application in architectural and urban design. The course draws upon social psychology, anthropology and environmental psychology to provide students with the major theoretical concepts and models that mediate the relationship between a person and the physical environment that surrounds him or her. The course introduces innovative concepts to describe the built environment such as Activity Settings and Potential Functional Opportunities. It sets the framework for students to conceptualize the built form in all design studios; it is the lens through which the student will see the relation between designed space and what it may become as a ‘place’ when it is used. Students would apply these theories later in other courses to a variety of functional settings at architectural and urban scales.
1. Understand the relation between people’s behavior and the built environment and the role played by architecture and urban design in this interaction.
2.nalyze the built environment using integrative approaches that assist in predicting human perception, cognition and behavior in a wider ecological framework.
3.assess architecture and urban design projects in terms of their implications for human perception and use, identifying their negative and positive implications
4.Assess the different needs and lifestyles of users and understand the built environment as material culture of the societies that produce them and the underlying factors at play.
5.Design more supportive environments to the function and meaning they target, in turn increasing the usability of place
6.Design with an awareness of the dynamics of change over time and better predictions as to how people will transform the built environment
7.pply the integrative approach to their own design project research and design at architectural and urban scales to create more adaptive and appropriate environments to their users.