Environmental Psychology

Pruitt Igoe by Minoru Yamasaki
Throughout history, architecture has never formulated organized knowledge of environmental psychology. Most prominent US architects, led until recently by Philip Johnson view their job as an art form. They see little responsibility for the social impact of their designs which was highlighted with the failure of public housing developments like Yamasaki's Pruitt. Environmental psychology has conquered one whole architectural genre however - retail stores, and any other commercial venue where the power to manipulate the mood and behavior of customers, like stadiums, casinos, malls, and airports. From Philip Kotler's landmark paper on Atmospherics and Alan Hirsch's "Effects of Ambient Odors on Slot-Machine Usage in a Las Vegas Casino", through the creation and management of the Gruen transfer, retail relies heavily on psychology, original research, focus groups, and direct observation. One of William Whyte's students, Paco Underhill, makes a living as a "shopping anthropologist".

It didn't surprise me then to find out that although we live in an age focused on 'human experience' there is only one UK institution offering Environmental Psychology study - the University of Surrey. On their website they say they are the only UK postgrad course that investigates people's interactions with the environment - their perceptions, attitudes and actions. It investigates the psychological processes which enable us to understand the meaning that environmental situations have for people acting individually or in groups, and how people create and use places.

History: Research in Environmental Psychology started in 1950 with a campaign to improve mental hospitals. Architects in charge of building these hospitals where more concerned with the structure rather than human needs. They turned to psychologists for information on cognition and social and human behavior. This collaboration between architects and psychologists created a field called Architectural Psychology. Over the years, problems expanded beyond architectural situations to parks and landscapes, thus creating Environmental Psychology. Researchers began discovering the mismatches between humans and their environment. Psychologists began trying to solve these problems through improved design. A field that had started with investigating color and chair systems in hospitals moved to tracking visitors in national parks and studying the stresses associated with urban commuting.

Comments

[Kullawine.blogspot.com]

I agree with it completely! I do not know why architects do not think about it. I am an architect myself, and I find so little opportunities to develop in this field. I think that as architects, we should focus more on research, interdiciplinary cooperation and solving real problems - including social ones - than on creating star architecture or formal aesthetics. It is really hard to find architects that understand this point of view and it is a great pity...
Great blog, btw!