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Lecture Notes
1. What is the relevance of this course?
A. Relationship between society and architecture:
- the physical traces of social processes, e.g. skyscraper
- the physical structure that enables social life, e.g. communications
B. Important issues in design and professional life:
- design social relations, e.g. privacy, friendship formation, communications in an organization, security, organization
- architecture as material culture, e.g. social archaeology, structuring interaction, defining social worlds, defining cultural themes
- architecture as a social process, e.g. relations with clients, evolution of styles, media influences
- analysis methods, e.g. understanding social life in space, representing space as a social process
- criticism , e.g. integrating a social perspective, contemporary themes
How can this knowledge help architects?
- appropriateness of forms for a particular situation (not universals)
- problem solving - setting goals and priorities
- anticipation of trends in practice
- learning how to be reflective practitioners
How can we learn about these things?
- learning about social processes
- learning tools of analysis and representation
- learning to investigate and discuss the issues
- practicing the interpretion of architecture from a social perspective
What is social life?
- Social interaction - face to face contact
- Communications - sharing and withholding information
- Presentation of self - managing our identify
- Social role participation - social functions in daily life and in community, e.g. husband, mother, architect, entertainer
- Social worlds - sharing perspectives, meanings and values with others, e.g. professional, ethnic, etc.
- Social status - understanding social distance, e.g. power, class, etc.
Typical social assumptions about architectural form:
- Economic determinism - money determines everything, "I could have done a better job if I had a better budget….."
- Practice is practical - success is meeting the needs of the client and user, "Form follows function….."
- Intuitive skill - architecture is an art; "Form follows talent.."
- Power - the person with the most power decides - "The Donald will tell us what to do…"
- Connections get the job - success in the profession is based on one's connections - "From our house to Bauhaus…"
Social theory
- Codified assumptions backed up by data
- Guides search for new knowledge
- May help to redefine social assumptions be eliminating bias caused by cultural values
Social science
- Founded on a belief in observation and interpretation
- Not "social engineering"
- Much social theory has developed in response to the dangers of egocentric thinking, e.g. eurocentric, androcentric,
Some social theories with relevance to understanding space and social life
- Territoriality and personal space - claiming space in social interaction
- Privacy - control of information about the self
- Spatial syntax - the relationship of organizational structure and spatial structure
- Social semiotics - the social nature of signs and the signification process
- Symbolic interaction - the relationship of social worlds to physical worlds
Some contemporary issues
- Formal rationalization and the search for the "one best way"
- Assumptions about gender and their impact on the planning, design and use of space
- The evolution of the themed environment
- Crime and the emergence of modern fortress planning and design
Definitions
Territory - places and objects that are under the control of an individual or group
Personal Space - the spatial zone around the body used to adjust the level of information received and transmitted in face to face social interaction.
Territoriality
Marking - creating boundaries that are obvious to others
Personalization - identifying to whom a space belongs
Defense - response to encroachment
Resources - territory is useful and meaningful to people because it guaranties access to resources contained in the territory (e.g. food, a view, access to a social group)
Meaning - the significance of a territory is based on the resources available (e.g. the best territory has relatively better resources than all others in the vicinity)
Types of territory - can be arrayed in a matrix:
| Primary | Public | Range | |
| Individual | X | X | X |
| Group | X | X | X |
Many methods of encroachment
- Violation
- Invasion
- Contamination
- Conflict
Responses to encroachment
- Physical
- Markings
- Barriers
- Occupancy
- Distance
- Segregation
- Scheduling
- Social
- Legal codes
- Verbal behavior
- Social role definition
- Rituals
- Violence
Examples
- Primary - single family lot, sterile area in hospital, executive office, cubicle, staff break room
- Public - street corner, nude beach, stalls, turns
- Range - gang turf, sales district, commuting route
Architectural issues
- How much emphasis on the physical
- Best approach to physical markings, personalization and defense
- Conflict with other goals, e.g. communications, appearance
- Where resources have to be shared for benefit of organization, community
- Permanent or temporary
- Crowded places
- Public places - whose territory?
- Consequences of getting it wrong
- Influencing Factors
- Culture
- Physical/intellectual ability
- Equity
- Level of resources available
- Oppression
Personal Space
Portable - fixed to self rather to space
Dynamic - adjusts to the situation
- "Interaction Sets (American)" based on sensory information needed/wanted with others
- Intimate (0-18"): smell, feel, see wrinkles and blemishes, eyeball, twitches
- Personal (18"-4' ): intrusion uncomfortable, beyond 2.5' outside reach range
- Social (4'-12'): heat, smell touch all relatively unimportant for the communication
- Public (12'-25'): formal interaction, requires amplified signals, e.g. louder voice
People have culturally learned expectations for use of these sets
Personal space extends to environment around us
- Props used to claim space temporarily
- Informal rules about crowding - intruding into others' personal space, e.g. library tables
Responses to Intrusion or misuse of appropriate set
- Physiological reaction (stress)
- Discomfort , anger, mistrust, flight
- Lack of social reciprocity (e.g. that guy is unfriendly)
- Adjustment to reduce stress or demonstrate reciprocity
Impact of furniture arrangement
- Sociofugal
- Sociopetal
Architectural implications
- Crowding is psycho-social, not just physical
- Purpose of room - control or affiliation
- Geometry is important
- Size of space - is largest always best?
- Furniture layouts - what kind of interaction and who will be involved?
- Shape of room changes interaction distances
- Who will be using the space
- Stressful places - personal space has higher criticality
- Vulnerable people - greater importance
- Friends or strangers
Influencing Factors
- Age
- Sex
- Personality
- Culture
Alternative Views of Environment-Behavior Relationship
Conceptual models of environment:
- Personality model -> clothes, personal space, territory are successively remote levels of the self
- Dramaturgical model - > props used to play a role
- Resource utilization model - > set of resources offering potentials to be exploited
- Communications model - > network of information flows
None of these are mutually exclusive, e.g. claiming space
Conceptual models of the E-B relationship
- Determinism
- environment causes behavior
- individual and groups can overcome any environmental influence
- Probablistic (Interactionism) - behavior is a product of both person and context (environment); effects will vary depending on the people and the environment
Probablistic position seems to make the most sense, based on our everyday experience and the evidence.
Environment as a Field of Information
Basic concepts - "arrangement of the physical environment regulates distribution of information upon which all interpersonal behavior depends" (Archea)
- People process information to coordinate their activities with those of others
- They adjust their own actions according to the flow of information they perceive
- Adjustments constitute new information
- New information is distributed and redistributed as the environment allows or supports
Privacy is key attribute of information flow in the environment
- Control over access to information about the self
- Selective concealment and exposure
- Norms of information flow govern our behavior (both in terms of exposure and intrusion on others)
Characteristics of privacy behavior
- Dynamic optimization process
- Methods used to achieve privacy
- Reserve
- Clothing and adornment
- Personal space
- Territory
- Distance
- Visual access/exposure
- Many potential states of information control
- Solitude - physical separation
- Intimacy - selective access
- Anonymity - camouflage or disguise
- Reserve - physically accessible but socially withdrawn
- Purposes
- "Self" control - confidentiality, presentation of self
- Self observation
- Self esteem
- Emotional release
- Satisfaction achieved
- Autonomy is the goal, not the state itself
- Fit with cultural expectations, e.g. public toilet
- Fit with individual expectations, e.g. celebrities, low cost housing
- Design issues
- Avoiding unwanted isolation, intrusion or exposure
- Benefit of the organization - maintaining stability
- Obtaining knowledge about the state of the organization
- Social control of "deviance" and "pathology," e.g. illegal activity, dangerous secrecy, information overload, undesirable exhibitionism.etc.
How the environment influences information flows:
Access:
- Amount of information available
- Rate at which information is obtained
- What types of information are available
- Social responsibility
Exposure:
- Degree of exposure
- Rate of exposure possible - preparation
- Social accountability
Critical features:
- Barriers
- Gradients
- Terminals
- Gates
- Trace information available - impressions (e.g. warm seat cushion)
Modifying factors
- Freedom of action - even very subtle actions can make big differences
- Decoding abilities - detection and assessment
- Encoding - expressive abilities, e.g. strategic placement of trace information
- Previous experience - expectations, e.g. "eye's in the back of one's head"
- Latitude for correction
- Cultural differences
Unit of analysis - isovist field
Two main points of course:
- the form of buildings reflects social relations
- social life is influenced by the building form
Claiming space
- More powerful get the most desirable spaces (those with the valuable resources)
- Territoriality and personal space regulate social relationships, e.g. who meets whom, who socializes with whom, who gets access to whom, etc
- Where resources are limited or boundaries are not well defined, conflict can result.
Information flows
- the pattern of exposure and concealment desired by the organization (privacy) will be embedded in the building form.
- information flows will regulates social relationships, e.g. who knows what, who has access to what data, degree of obligations to others, etc.
- where privacy norms are thwarted, e.g. too much exposure or too much isolation, social stability is affected.
Likewise -
Spatial organization or spatial syntax
- reflects the social relationships between individuals inhabiting a building, e.g. relative status, social roles, function in the organization.
- regulates the relationships between people, reinforcing and reproducing status, power, freedom of choice, opportunities and other aspects of social life.
Basic concepts of spatial syntax (Hillier and Hanson) :
All users of buildings can be categorized as:
- "inhabitants" (those in control, those with the most power and knowledge) and
- "visitors" are those who are under the power of the "inhabitants."
Two fundamental types of spatial relationships (in plan):
- Asymmetrical: tree-like organizations
- Symmetrical: Ringy organizations
It is important to note that syntax is independent of geometry (vocabulary):
Social implications of spatial syntax:
Penetration into the building
- Entering into a building and proceeding into the depths of it implies some selection process that allows access. Some are allowed and others are not. Some are given permission to enter further than others.
- Barriers to access reflect social limitations, i.e. in status, power, stigma, etc.
Social integration (solidarity) and segregation
- Social integration between people is enhanced by direct access and thwarted by indirect access. Thus the spatial syntax can affect social relations (with certain qualifying conditions).
- Overall social integration of inhabitants and visitors in a building is enhanced by a larger number of circulation paths connecting spaces (ringiness).
- The deeper one finds oneself in the spatial system of a building, the more isolated one is from the 'public" realm. Those that inhabit the "deep" end tend to become isolated or insulated from those that cannot enter the system or penetrate very deeply.
Control
- Freedom of action is enhanced by choices of paths through the system (ringiness).
- Control is enhanced by strategic spaces that separate paths (tree-like).
Identity
- Spatial syntax reflects the social identity of building inhabitants and the purposes of spaces (e.g rooms in English home).
- The inhabitants of the building usually occupy the deeper spaces.
Contradictions and Responses
- The actual syntax as used may not be in harmony with the expressive formal vocabulary associated with spaces:
- inconspicuous spatial strategies are used to overcome functional difficulties, e.g. "stage door"
- rules established to regulate access, e.g. factory floor
Themes of spatial syntax:
- Elementary building form - single space with territories differentiated within
- The central space building - central space with individual function spaces pinwheeling off it
- Ritual buildings - composed of "closed" and "open" cells with a "common ground" cell (transpatial space), e.g. shrines or churches
- Most buildings reflect accommodations to the main purpose
- Department stores maximize ringiness on the selling floor and minimize control in space by staff. Staff gain control by their location behind counters.
- Museums typically have a series of assymetrical rings to divide the building into departments but let the visitors penetrate deeply and have freedom of movement. Control is maintained by channeling at entrances and the presence of uniformed security.
- "Reversed buildings" - usually highly tree like but visitors occupy the deep spaces of the building while inhabitants are distributed throughout
Beyond Hillier and Hanson's model:
- Visual links without physical contact.
- Territorial control over the links in the system
- Impact of link length
Part 1: Space as Symbolic Interaction
Key Concepts:
Meaning - what is significant, to the individual, to the group, to the culture
Self - identity as understood by the individual
Social network - the individuals with whom one has regular social interaction, e.g. family, friends, work group, etc.
Social world - those with whom one has common communication channels through which are developed a unique perspective, an organized outlook
Symbolic Interaction Theory
Developed as a reaction to the stimulus-response theory of human behavior
S-R Model
B = f(E)
Where: B = Behavior
E = Environment (social and physical)
- All behavior is a funciton of environment
- Through feedback from the environment, we are reinforced to behave in a certain way
- What we believe is a separate "mind" and fee will is really a conditioned response that is unique to our culture
SI Model
B = f(P, E)
Where: B = Behavior
E = Environment (social and physical)
P = Person
- Recognizes that humans have a greater capacity for interpretation than other animals - e.g. baseball player with a bat vs. man with a club
- Thought and its product, mind, are real; consciousness is the result of internalized social interaction - acting toward oneself - imagination
- Identity is constantly being "constructed" as individuals interact with society over time and take the perspective of the "other" in self-reflection
- Social status changes over the course of the life span - status passages, e.g. graduation, licensure, marriage, retirement
- An individual's sense of who they are (self perception), their presentation of self, and others' perception of the individual may be consistent or inconsistent
- Self deception, misinterpretation and imagination all play an important role in the construction of identity
- Products of human origin (e.g. language, literature, art, music, architecture) involve a social process, e.g. negotiation, presentation of self
- All human behavior is symbolic - material culture is a reflection of the social proces, socially constructed, e.g. Vietnam Veterans Memorial
Key vehicles in construction of identity:
- social network
- social world
Space as a Structure for Social Networks
- Face to face interaction is determined by spatial proximity (geographic distance), e.g. living in the same neighborhood, working in the same office, etc. and functional distance (spatial syntax), e.g. location of desks with respect one another, location of entry doors in housing, location of mailboxes, etc.
- There is a direct (positive) relationship between spatially determined face to face contact and probability of friendship formation in homogeneous groups (e.g. same age, same income, same ethnic group) and groups with high needs for mutual support (e.g. families with young children, older people, new residents).
- Over time, consensus of values and outwardly observable behavior evolves within a group having a high level of face to face contact, even when the group is spatially determined.
- In heterogeneous groups and those that perceive themselves to be heterogeneous, spatial determinism is less powerful, especially over time.
- In other words, distance and spatial syntax supports the development of social worlds through the level of social interaction among individuals that they promote in the normal course of daily life.
- Spatial syntax seems to be more critical in friendship formation than simple distance.
- Strategically located secondary territories (shared by a group of people) increase the probability of friendship formation (spaces with high control values in spatial syntax terminology but where territorial control is shared by the group, not and individual), e.g. shared hallways, front stoops, etc.
- Visual access and exposure influences friendship formation as well by increasing awareness of others, e.g. doors opposite one another.
Space and Social Worlds
- Clustering people together creates higher probability of face to face contact, especially when they already share some perspectives, e.g. ghetto (forced clustering) and ethnic enclave (voluntary clustering).
- The result is the development of a rich social world in which space
plays a major role in defining identity:
- locus of the social network (often exclusive)
- belongingness to a group (territoriality)
- spatial continuity in language and culture (can even avoid majority culture)
- ready access to places for religious observance and clergy
- daily access to familiar food, clothing and other aspects material culture
- characteristic patterns of using space, e.g. neighborhood as extension of home
- historic continuity
- distinctiveness - physical boundary separates "us" from 'them"
- Example - West End
- loss of "home" - fragmentation of spatial identity
- destruction of both physical and social world
- people needed to relocate and were spread out spatially in the metropolitan area
- social networks destroyed
- intensity of ethnic culture could not be sustained when members of the group are dispersed
- health impact: grief - loss of family or friend, depression, anxiety
- greater impact: tendency to depression, more socially involved, more difficulty adapting
Spatial Identity
- integration of self and geography through spatial memory
- knowledge of the spatial pattern in social life
- confirming identity through daily routines
- confirmation of status through physical place
- stability and continuity of daily life
- evidence of belongingness to larger group
- commitment to the social life of a place
Implications for Design
- design of space has an influence on social network
- impact is different for different people
- learn how to facilitate formation of social networks and social worlds
- need to understand cultural and sub-cultural differences in use of space
- take care in making interventions in existing environments that support thriving social worlds
- understand how to identify and document the essentials of spatial identity
Cognitive Mapping - way to study spatial identity
Part 2: The Architectural Profession as a Social World
Ideology
- definition: doctrines, opinions or way of thinking.
- hegemonic views emerge organically that become very powerful in social relations, e.g. economic determinism in the business world, newness in the art world
- how do they get established?
- what implications do they have for architecture?
The Concept of Reference Group
- standard of comparison
- a group in which one desires to participate
- a group whose perspective is one's frame of reference (direct or vicarious) - structures the perceptual field (foreground world)
- a reference group could become a social world, if conditions are right
Culture and Individual Action
- what one does depends on the definition of the situation - one's "perspective"
- perspective is ordered view of one's world
- outline scheme which organizes and guides experience
- relationship to cognitive map?
- culture is shared perspective by a particular group of people
- culture is dynamic - product of communication
- socialization is assuming the role of the "generalized other" - a dynamic occurring within a particular social network or at a larger level, even the entire world (e.g. environmentalism)
- cultural pluralism - internalize several perspectives, some imaginary
Professions as Social Worlds
- modern societies - simultaneous participation in several social worlds, some spatially bound, others not
- variation in outlook through education, restricted professions and mass communication
- differential contact/isolation and association/segregation
- common roles, relationships and responsibilities
- insiders and outsiders
- no one escapes this process - avant garde and intellectual elites are as culture bound as anyone else - restricted communication channels
- communication channels give rise to separate social worlds; every social world has such channels
Incongruity and Conflict
- divided loyalties
- inconsistencies, e.g. compartmentalization
- marginality
- displacements
Implications for Architecture
- formation of professional doctrines and opinions
- differences from clients? inhabitants of buildings? regulatory officials? the general public?
- incongruities ?
- conflicts?
Part 3: From Space to Place - Creating Meaning in Buildings and Landscapes
Structures for experience - development of self identity
- access to resources (territoriality)
- usability (cognition)
- communication patterns (affiliation and privacy)
- control over behavior (autonomy and power)
- confirmation of desired selves
Significance to various reference groups
- where do things happen
- who gains/loses
- what are the impacts (see #1)
- why things are like they are
- to whom are they important
- what orders were negotiated
Social processes and ideologies represented
- clarification/confusion about goals/values
- continuity/discontinuity with the past
- continuity/discontinuity with the context
- harmony/contradiction between values
- established status vs. counterculture
- control or repression vs. liberation
- social cohesiveness/divisiveness
- stability/change
Semiotics
- the study of signs
- sign is something that stands for something else, a representation
- origins in ancient medicine - study of symptoms
- more generally, the nature of representations
Two theoretical traditions
French - following Saussure (linguist)
- sign has a signifier (e.g. word) and a signified (image called forth in the mind of the recipient, e.g. meaning)
- meaning based on relations
- two types of relations
- relation to context (syntagmatic axis)
- relation to alternatives (paradigmatic axis)
- code exists as rules of combination (e.g. grammar and vocabulary)
- all cultural phenomena are systems of signification, e.g. cuisine, fashion, architecture, etc.
American - following Peirce (philosopher)
- based on concept of truth claims
- truth claims or "meaning" arise when an idea or concept can be related to by something else already existing in the mind of the interpreter
- sign is a relation between a vehicle that conveys an idea to the mind, an idea that interprets the sign and an object for which the sign stands
- tied system of signification to the real world
- development of sign is recursive; one sign can be used to refer to another ( a representation of a representation , e.g. sport utility vehicle)
- behind the recursive sign is an "absolute object"
- signification (production and consumption of signs) is a mental process at the root of which there is a material experience (e.g. unicorn)
Types of signs
From Pierce
- symbol - idea in the mind of the interpretant based on rules or laws (pi)
- icon - close reproduction of the original object (pointing finger)
- index - established through pragmatic understanding or experience (lightning symbol)
From Barthes
- second order - connotes cultural aspects of culture like status (jewelry)
- myth - images of colonialism
Post structuralist critique
- there is not necessarily a one-to-one correspondence of signifier and signified, e.g. happy face
- the volitility of meaning is ignored in structuralist conceptions of the sign
- signifiers can be ambiguous
- polysemy - multiple interpretations
- logotechniques - ideological mechanisms of normalization and control - e.g. fashion industry
- hyperreality - universe of images; meaning is created by the free play of signifiers ( e.g. Calvin Klein ads associating designer clothes and fragrances with street life-styles)
Socio semiotic principles
- importance of context - semantic "field"
- constraints to meaning reign in the free play of signifiers
- signs have a connection to the material context of daily life
- connotation precedes denotation - signs are codified ideologies
- meanings are grounded in everyday life experience
- new signifieds are created through social interaction and personal experience (in social worlds)
- signs circulate between their denotative meaning as lived personal experience, connotative meaning through their value in everyday life and their expropriation and manipulation by systems of power
- polysemy - one cannot explain the signification system without understanding the differences in connotative meaning among participants.
Signification Process
SIGNIFIER > SIGNIFIED
Examples: a) MICHAEL JORDAN > SUCCESS
b) SWOOSH > NIKE
Associational System
SIGNIFIER(a) + SIGNIFIER(B) > SIGNIFIED
Example: MICHAEL + SWOOSH > SUCCESS
Translation: BE LIKE MIKE > BUY NIKE > BE SUCCESSFUL
Example : Architecture in Advertisements
- the media shapes connotative meaning - facilitates the circulation and evolution of signs
- Marshall McCluhan was a pioneer in understanding how the media affected society and culture
- He completed a sophisticated analysis of ads
Objectives of Advertisements
- include the audience in the experience of using the product - "The Pepsi Generation"
- unite the product and the response - "Mazda - Because it Feels Good"
- present the product as part of larger social purposes and processes - "Micky D's"
- ad associates the product with something beyond its function - gives it connotative meaning
Impact
- advertisements have become more powerful than the content information in print media, e.g. the news itself
- in order to compete for attention, the content has been compressed and simplified like in advertisements, e.g. Time, Newsweek, USA Today, "mosaic news"
- onslaught of the unconscious
- in fact, ads often seem ridiculous when treated consciously - taken out of the "semantic field"
Impact of Television as a Medium
- TV that put distance between content and audience; it created a semantic field apart from reality
- ideal ground for advertisement
- importance of advertisement in our culture is so great that, even at that time, more money spent on it than on education
- "historians will discover that ads are the richest and most faithful reflections that any society ever made of its activities"
Social Implications
- homogenization of social life by bringing public values and attitudes into line with the desires of the producers, e.g. deodorant
- conditioned us to the "mosaic form" of communication
- we are seduced away from the literate and private point of view to the inclusive world of the group icon
- ad copy is often used simply to distract the reader so that the image can have its impact without our critical faculties coming into play
- the movies unleashed the power of fantasy for use in advertisement
- the continued sophistication of advertisements has made the past look quaint, drab and innocent
The Popular Design Press
- popular magazines about architecture and design have been very effective in using advertising techniques
- original focus on education has turned to an emphasis on advertisement
- stage management of culture
- obvious examples:
- life styles of rich and famous
- designer styles - beyond fashions
Examples:
- Martha Stewart Living
- spacious Bauhaus layout
- coordinated articles and ads
- ad emphasis on traditional feminine issues
- target audience of urban/suburban sophisticates
- incorporates traditional hand crafts and modern design techniques
- total look - understated, non-intrusive, spacious, upbeat, minimal
- goes with chamber music, Ann Taylor and Chardonnay
- Bob Villa’s American Home
- crowded traditional layout
- not coordinated
- ad emphasis on traditional masculine interests
- suburban and rural American upper middle class
- decorating and construction emphasis
- total look - dense, detailed, textured, diverse, regional
- goes with: Bluegrass music, banana Republic and micro-brews
Architectural Press
- in the architecture print media, there has been a steady simplification and de-emphasis of print, reducing these journals to coffee table picture books
- it is increasingly more and more difficult to distinguish the ad from the content
- buildings use some of the same techniques as advertisements to attract attention as ads, e.g. unusual special effects
- in essence, the ethic of advertisement has become a way of life, including professional life
- a seamless system of televisual, print and architectural media has evolved
- wherever we go, the iconography of advertisements is recalled by the images we see
- this type of experience and constant recycling of images has created an aesthetic of appropriation and transformation
- the "free floating signifier", originally conceived as a distraction from the real message, has now become a common part of "serious" life
Examples: Gehry, Tschumi, Hadighi