Edr What Is Environmental Design Research? Design

¶ … Edr

What is Environmental Design Research?

Design and art can accept scientific principles

Environmental Design Research (EDR) = the study of the mutual relationships between human beings and the physical environment at all scales, and applications of the knowledge thus gained to improving the quality of life through better informed environmental policy, planning, design, and education. (passive and active definition)

EDR is related to many other areas of the social sciences

EDR is NOT:

building science or structural engineering

Design practice

Eg. An architect does research to apply to a single building project, but EDR applies research to things like job satisfaction and other measurable results that advance the whole field.

EDR Is:

Basic Research (generation, discovery of knowledge)

Applied Research (answering specific questions related to specific social policy or context)

Research Applications (apply research to policy, plans, designs)

**Must communicate results to policy/professional applications

EDR = Environmental Psychology = Environmental Behavior Studies

2. History and Impact of the Field

Systematic research began in 1950s:

Firey (1945) study city symbolism in sociology

Lewin (1946) child behavior and total situation

Wright (1947) geog study of changing mental conceptions

Festinger, Shacter, Back (1950) social psychology of development of informal groups in university housing as a function of design factors

Barker & Wright (1955) relationship of behavior to characteristics in small towns

Sommer & Ross (1958) territoriality in geriatric wards

Hall (1959)silent language and hidden dimensions of behavioral and perceived space in diff cultures

1960s and 1970s -- became one of fastest growing areas in psychology, architecture, anthropology

Rappaport (1969) -- relation of culture to house form

Lynch (1960) -- image of city

Larson (1965) bibliography

Gans (1959) -- study of life, space, housing of immigrant groups

Altman & Haythorne (1967) -- ecology of isolated groups

Stea (1969) -- cognitive mapping

MIT 1968 meeting -- first International Conference of the Design Methods Group

Architectural Psychology Newsletter + Design Methods Group = Environmental Design Research Association (EDRA)

EDRA first meeting in 1969**

Annual publication of EDRA = Proceedings

EDRA = oldest, largest organization in the world dedicated to environmental-behavior-design studies and its applications

Journal Environment and Behavior, started in 1969 and published in conjunction with EDRA since 1980

The Utility of Environmental Design Research

I. 1981 IAPS

Research showing the ratio of personnel to capital costs in major corporations = 30:1

First year costs = 2:1 between salaries and construction

Over 25-year life span, capital costs drop to less than 3% of total operating costs of large corporations

**establishes clear causal relationship between design of office environment and productivity of office workers

Job satisfaction affects productivity

Lower absenteeism

Lower turnover rates

Fewer grievance actions

Office environment important to job satisfaction

Privacy

Lighting

Furniture

Making investments in environment can yield cost benefits overall

Schorr, 1963, Slums and Social Insecurity

Housing impacts:

Perception of self

Stress level

Health

Social security v. insecurity

Elements of Housing most important:

Design and adequacy of house

Phys. Structure of Neighborhood

Amount and character of planned open space

II. Schorr's work led to creation of U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD)

HUD sees poverty within EDR framework

Vandalism and Crime Research:

Vandalism less likely in schools when:

Aesthetically pleasing

Good maintenance

Location of diverse usage

Natural surveillance

Area of high illumination

Led to redesigning schools

III. Newman's studies on vandalism

4 Major factors contribute to REDUCED vandalism:

natural surveillance well-defined territories image of security and upkeep proximity to safe zones

Crime Prevention through Environmental Design Program (developed by U.S. Law Enforcement Assistance Administration)

IV. Nursing Homes

Dramatic increase in mortality rate among elderly forced to move from one home to another ("transfer trauma")

Civil rights related legislation -- linked to environmental design research and the elderly led to bills and laws

US Consumer Protection Safety Commission

Stairs and children's playground -- in top ten of all consumer accidents

Research accidents and redesign stairs

V. American National Standards Institute (ANSI)

Voluntary standards for building accessibility (visually and physically handicapped)

National Fire Protection Association Life Safety Code, 1976

Conclusion: EDR = Basic and applied (research + application in law)

3. Goals, Values, Orientations

EDR is Value Explicit = make a values check, admit that values are impacting research

Different from value-free, which assumes that research is conducted regardless of any values

Eg. Important to study crime slums, poverty, worker productivity because these things have value

Problem with diverse objectives of an institution eg. Prison (is a prison to rehabilitate or to punish? That will affect design….) or School (is a school for discipline and learning or social engagement? That will affect design)

Goals of Environmental Design Research = Improving Quality of Life

Contextual Values

Commitment to better world, improving quality of life

Problem-centered focus

Ongoing communication between research, application; human + design professions (biz + psych)

Action Oriented too (effect environmental policy, urban planning, architecture and landscape)

Research and Design

All Scales of the Physical Environment

Micro-environments (interior design, anthropometrics)

Meso-scale (environmental psychology, architecture, landscape architecture)

Macro-scale (urban planning, geography, sociology)

Time, Change and Adaptation

Multidisciplinary by Nature and Necessity

Conceptual Orientations

Everyday physical environment on human experience

Study people in groups as they carry out normal activities

Integrity of Person-Environment Events

People and settings interrelated

Environment and behavior is a transactional unity -- single unit of analysis

Behavior is joint product of human forces and situations factors

Social, cultural, physical environment

Content as much as Process

Environmental Psychology = Intrapersonal processes (perception, cognition, learning) then mediate the impact of the environment on individual

Difference between Environmental Design and Environmental psychology

EDR concerned with broader questions of group behavior, social values, and cultural norms in relation to environment

Content =

Who actors are

What activities they do

In what settings they do it

Mediating Role of Psychological, Social, and Cultural Processes

Environment does not have a DIRECT impact on people, but it has an impact VIA people's perceptions

Methodological Values and Orientations

Descriptive, Exploratory, and Quasi-Experimental Research

1. Description of phenom. What variables are operating?

Causal relationship btwn independent and dependent variables