Environmental psychology- Architecture (d)

Urban renewal and building design

Urban renewal is an attempt to rejuvenate areas of town that have become rundown. Porteus (1997) defined Urban renewal as an integrated set of steps taken to maintain and upgrade the environmental, economic and social health of an area.

1. Architectural Determinism:Is the view point that built environments directly shapes the ehaviour of people in it.
2. Architectural Possibilism :Major determinant of our behavior is the individual. A building is what we make of it.
3. Architectural Probabilism: Architecture determines the behavior of people to a certain extent but is modifiable by them.

Designing effective study environments- Stone N.J (2001)

Aim: To find out how a person's ability to study is affected by setting( open plan or private), color(white, blue or red) and type of task( reading or mathematics)

Sample:144 students

Method: Each of the students was assigned to one of the twelve combinations of above three categories.

Results:

• Participants most satisfied with their performance in white private room
• For the private room the color red bought the most positive mood
• Participants performed significantly worse if surroundings were red. They performed better in white surroundings.

Conclusion: Color and setting had an effect on the type of task performed.