Proceedings of the 46th Annual Conference of the

Proceedings of the 46th Annual Conference of the Environmental Design Research Association Los Angeles, California May 27 - 30, 2015

Editors: Nisha A. Fernando, Ph.D., & Greg Allen Barker, AIA Associate Editors: Janice Bissell; Jill Eyres; Gowri Betrabet Gulwadi; Esperanza Harper; Nana Kirk; Seunghae Lee; Myra Miller; Kate O’Donnell; Sarah Schuster-Tucker; Zhe Wang; Helena Yoon

EDRA46LosAngeles Conference Co-Chairs Greg Allen Barker, AIA, Programming Co-Chair Nisha A. Fernando, Ph.D., Proposals Co-Chair

EDRA46LosAngeles Conference Committee Mary Anne Akers Cherif Amor Janice Bissell David Boeck Lynne Dearborn Jill Eyres

Jay Farbstein Gowri Betrabet Gulwadi Tasoulla Hadjiyanni Esperanza Harper Nana Kirk Eunsil Lee

Seunghae Lee Georgia Lindsay Myra Miller Joni Palmer Lubomir Popov Ipek Rohlof

Henry Sanoff Kapila D. Silva, Sarah Schuster-Tucker Zhe Wang Jeremy Wells Helena Yoon

EDRA46LosAngeles Sponsors and Exhibitors Urban Communication Foundation

Ball State University

Radford University

EDRA Board of Directors Shauna Mallory-Hill, Chair Gowri Betrabet Gulwadi, Chair-Elect Paula Horrigan, Secretary David Boeck, Treasurer Marwa Abdelmonem, Student Representative Mallika Bose, Ex-Officio

Jennifer Senick Rula Awwad-Rafferty Lubomir Popov Nick Watkins Lynda Schneekloth, Emeritus

EDRA Organizational Members

EDRA Placemakers

American Art Resources Andrews University BBH Design HKS Inc Kansas State University Kuwait University Rutgers Center for Green Building The Pennsylvania State University Texas Tech University - College of Architecture Universite de Montreal University of Colorado Boulder Program in Environmental Design University of Idaho - College of Art & Architecture University of Manitoba Urban Communication Foundation WorkingSpaces

Gowri Betrabet Gulwadi Keith Diaz Moore Peter Hourihan Susan Mazer Lynn Paxson EDRA Wayfinders Sherry Ahrentzen Cherif Amor David Boeck Paula Horrigan Robin Moore Katherine Morris Thierry Rosenheck April Spivack Dan Stokols Rich Elliot Wener

Copyright © 2015, The Environmental Design Research Association (EDRA) www.edra.org 22 N. Carroll Street, Suite 300 • Madison, WI 53703 ISBN 978-1-329-09136-8 All rights reserved. No part of this book covered by copyright herein may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means – graphic, photocopy, recording, taping, or digital – without written permission of the publisher.

Table of Contents Introduction..........................................................................................................................................................v Keynote Address Towards a Neuroscience for Architecture................................................................................................................1

Plenary Sessions Cinema and the People-Environment Relationship: Cities on the Silver (and other) Screens................................2 Designing for the Spectrum: From Neuroscience to Design Actions .....................................................................3

Mobile Sessions Mobile Intensive: Share/Collaborate/Learn/Advance: Democratic Design Without Borders.................................7 Mobile Session I: Sustainable Connections - Aging in Community in Los Angeles..............................................7 Mobile Session II: Palos Verdes Estates: The Romantic Dreams of a New California City...................................8 Mobile Session III: Google Glass Navigation - Testing Parahippocampal Place Area Involvement......................9 Mobile Session IV: The Big Wild Wilderness Parks: Sex, Lies, and Real Estate...................................................9

Career Award Craig Zimring, PhD, College of Architecture, Georgia Institute of Technology...................................................13

Service Award Atiya Mahmood, PhD, Department of Gerontology, Simon Fraser University ....................................................14

Michael Brill Award Seunghae Lee, Associate Professor, Oregon State University and Paul Platosh, PhD, Student, Oregon State University...................................................................................................................................15

Refereed Full Papers Neuroaesthetic Studies in Architecture: Insights From Neuroscience on Aesthetic Experience...........................19 Older People’s Well-being Affordances at the Local High Street: A Study of Local Town Centres in Edinburgh..............................................................................................................................26 Wayfinding Design as a Tool for Community Empowerment and Storytelling: A Case Study From Central Appalachia...........................................................................................................35 Leveraging Urban Ecosystems for Comprehensive Climate-Adaptive Design: An Approach Framework for Landscape Architects........................................................................................42 A Green Lesson: Measuring the Impacts of LEED Certification Credits on People, Planet, and Profit of K-12 Schools...................................................................................................................48 Challenges and Opportunities in the Formation of Design Professionals.............................................................60 Generational Differences in Project Research Approaches...................................................................................66 Designing for Diversity: A Research Informed Design Study on Universal Workspaces.....................................74 Inclusive Educational Spaces for Children with Autism; Development of Ethically Appropriate Research Tools.............................................................................................................................81 iii

Refereed Full Papers (continued) The Artifact Model of Architecture: Integrating Buildings and Social Environments..........................................90 Social Interaction in Student Residence Halls Through an Architectural Lens: A Method for Categorizing Student Residence Halls......................................................................................96 Scholastic Restorative Environments: Architectural Settings: Their Effects on Our Perceptions, Spearheading New Cognitive and Neural Restoration Methods...............................................106 Walking With Your Head in the Clouds: The Influence of Pathway Design on Mindfulness, Recall, and Affective State.............................................................................................................................111

Empowering Young Children: Multi-Method Exploration of Young Children’s Preference for Natural or Manufactured Elements in Outdoor Preschool Settings..........................................................118

Thematic Abstracts Action Research...................................................................................................................................................127 Active Neighborhoods.........................................................................................................................................129 Autism and Environment.....................................................................................................................................131 Building Performance..........................................................................................................................................133 Children’s Environments.....................................................................................................................................135 Cross-Cultural Issues...........................................................................................................................................137 Design Education.................................................................................................................................................145 Environmental Perception....................................................................................................................................160 Everyday Environments.......................................................................................................................................164 Gerontology.........................................................................................................................................................165 Health and Active Living.....................................................................................................................................167 Healthcare Environments.....................................................................................................................................171 Healthy Environments.........................................................................................................................................176 Lighting in Environments....................................................................................................................................178 Natural Settings....................................................................................................................................................180 Neighborhoods.....................................................................................................................................................186 Neuroscience Related To Environment-Behaviors..............................................................................................188 POE/Programming...............................................................................................................................................195 Preservation of Heritage......................................................................................................................................198 Publishing............................................................................................................................................................201 Reflective Environments......................................................................................................................................203 Research Practice.................................................................................................................................................204 Residential Environments....................................................................................................................................209 Restorative Environments....................................................................................................................................215 School & Educational Environments...................................................................................................................216

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Thematic Abstracts (continued) Socio-Politics of Environments...........................................................................................................................220 Sustainable Design...............................................................................................................................................222 Theory Development...........................................................................................................................................229 Universal Design..................................................................................................................................................230 Urban Greening....................................................................................................................................................233 Urban Planning....................................................................................................................................................237 Urban Public Spaces............................................................................................................................................241 Walkability...........................................................................................................................................................243 Wayfinding...........................................................................................................................................................247 Women’s Healthcare Environments.....................................................................................................................249 Work Environments.............................................................................................................................................251

EDRAShorts......................................................................................................................................................257 Display Poster Presentations.......................................................................................................................271 Author Index....................................................................................................................................................285 EDRA46LosAngeles Reviewers..................................................................................................................290

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Introduction

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uilt or natural, micro or macro, personal or collective, environments are the stages where human actors live, play, work, relax, and heal. We are intricately connected to our immediate and imaginary environments through the functional affordances they create, embracing the symbolic meanings they offer. We also constantly shape and reshape the environments we inhabit based on our physical, social, cultural, and psychological needs. These ever-changing human connections to their environments are invariably critical to our deeper understanding of processes, products, and policies in environmental design research and practice. Through decades of incisive dialogues, insightful theories, empirical research and critical practice, we have built a strong foundation of environment-behavior knowledge through EDRA. In keeping with this robust tradition, EDRA46 takes a leap in a new direction and introduces an imperative opportunity to add a neurobiological dimension to the rigor of the Environmental Design Research discourse. Neuroscience brings forth a different perspective of human responses to environments; it posits the reasoning of environment-behavior interactions and reactions within a biological realm. Our brains reveal to us, with enormous clarity, the hidden mechanisms of environmental preferences, feelings, emotions, and sentiments. Neuroscience can provide a substantive theoretical knowledge base connecting our brains to our behavior and explain to us how we can map the dynamic interactions between human behavior and built or natural environments. We act and react to our surroundings because of the ways we are wired both as a neuro-biological entity and as a product of social, cultural, and psychological factors. To fulfill this multi-dimensional inquiry, EDRA46 formally joins hands with neuroscientists for the very first time to bring forth a unique platform to create a collective body of scholarship linking the built environment, behavior, and neuroscience. The stimulating landscape of Los Angeles has provided EDRA46 with a wealth of issues and opportunities to foster a contemporary exchange of ideas among academics and professionals from a broad range of disciplines. The juxtaposition of this large, thriving urban area bordered by mountain wilderness and the Pacific Ocean has presented opportunities to explore the relationships between the built and natural environments, health, sustainability, and distribution of economic resources. The proximity of institutions of higher learning and research with major neuroscience programs, within Los Angeles and relatively close

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in La Jolla and San Diego has provided the opportune conditions to invite and engage some of the world’s foremost neuroscientists in our explorations of human behavior and the built environment. This year, EDRA46 attracted a variety of submissions (530 overall) with an acceptance rate of 63%. Amongst the accepted submissions are 17 full papers, 122 abstracts, 14 symposia, 6 workshops, and 3 professional development tutorials. Additionally, it hosts 148 posters, 24 EDRAShorts, 4 half-day intensives and 3 full-day intensives. The conference also hosts international presenters from 28 countries. The conference is organized to present a variety of themes, including neuroscience related environmentbehavior under which oral presentations are grouped. While neuroscience is the main focus of the collective conference, the thematic presentations offer an array of research topics that are of interest to the breadth of disciplines represented at the conference. EDRA46 reinforces this interdisciplinary core of environmentbehavior research and practice by linking its critical discourse with neuroscience. It delivers an important message that the silos do not exist in environment-behavior research and its realm is truly boundless.

Greg Allen Barker, AIA EDRA46LosAngeles Co-Chair

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Nisha A. Fernando, Ph.D. EDRA46LosAngeles Co-Chair

Invited Papers and Special Presentations

Invited Papers & Special Presentations

Keynote Address Towards A Neuroscience for Architecture Thomas D. Albright, Professor and Conrad T. Prebys Chair in Vision Research, Salk Institute for Biological Studies Thursday, May 28, 2015 6:00pm-7:00pm

Neuroscience is a new research discipline in the armament of longstanding efforts to understand the influence of built environments over human mental function and behavior. Using a variety of powerful experimental approaches, and focusing efforts on the information processing capacities of the brain, we have begun to develop an empirical understanding of how design features influence the acquisition, organization and use of information present in the built environment. Based on this understanding, we argue that selective pressures over the course of human evolution have yielded a visual brain that has highly specific and tunable organizational properties for representing key statistics of the environment, such as commonly occurring features and conjunctions of features. Simple visual pattern types, which are commonly used in architectural and decorative design, mirror these environmental statistics. These patterns are readily seen without scrutiny, yielding a “sense of order” because they tap into existing neuronal substrates. A fuller understanding of these relationships between organizational properties of the brain and visual environmental statistics may lead to novel design principles. Thomas D. Albright is Professor and Conrad T. Prebys Chair in Vision Research at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies, where he joined the faculty in 1986. Albright is also Director of the Salk Institute Center for the Neurobiology of Vision, Adjunct Professor of Psychology and Neurosciences at the University of California, San Diego, and Visiting Centenary Professor at the Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore. Albright is an authority on the neural basis of visual perception, memory and visually guided behavior, probing the relationship between the activity of brain cells and perceptual state. His laboratory seeks to understand how visual perception is affected by attention, behavioral goals, and memories of previous experiences. His discoveries address the ways in which context influences visual perceptual experience and the mechanisms of visual associative memory and visual imagery. An important goal of this work is the development of therapies for blindness and perceptual impairments resulting from disease, trauma or developmental disorders of the brain. A second aim of Dr. Albright’s work is to use our growing knowledge of brain, perception and memory to inform design in architecture and the arts, and to leverage societal decisions and public policy. Albright received a Ph.D. in psychology and neuroscience from Princeton University. He is a recipient of numerous honors for his work, including the National Academy of Sciences Award for Initiatives in Research. Albright is a member of the National Academy of Sciences, a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and an associate of the Neuroscience Research Program. He is past-president (2012-2014) of the Academy of Neuroscience for Architecture, a member of the National Academy of Sciences Committee on Science, Technology, and Law, and serves on the Scientific Advisory Committee for the Indian National Brain Research Center.

May 2015 – brainSTORM

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Plenary Sessions Cinema and the PeopleEnvironment Relationship: Cities on the Silver (and other) Screens Friday, May 29, 2015 10:30am-12:00pm

Our vision of the city is not dependent upon “being there” because media “take us there.” Our preconceptions precede an experiential reality. The photographer and reporter, the computer and the media take us there. We have all been there without having been there. The media/city relationship is central to understanding these sites as lived communicative environments. The Cinema is a uniquely significant and powerful medium influence on perceptions of the city. Cities are frozen in time by cinematic imagery. How do filmmakers make use of urban spaces? How does the cinema shape our conception of urban people-environment relationships? How is the architect and urban planner influenced by the cinematic. This plenary will explore the diverse intersections between cinema, cities, and environmental design. Moderator Gary Gumpert (Ph.D, Wayne State University) is Emeritus Professor of Communication at Queens College of the City University of New York and President of the Urban Communication Foundation. His creative career as a television director and academic career as a scholar spans over 60 years. In 1960 he directed the Gutenberg Galaxy in which Marshall McLuhan articulated the premise of his forthcoming book. He is series editor of Urban Communication Series for Peter Lang Publishing. He has authored and edited books include Talking Tombstones and Other Tales of the Media Age (Oxford University Press), The Urban Communication Reader (Hampton Press), Regulating Convergence and Regulating Social Media: Legal and Ethical Considerations (in press) (Peter Lang). He is a recipient of the Franklyn S. Haiman Award for distinguished scholarship in freedom of expression (NCA), the Louis Forsdale Award for Outstanding Educator in the Field of Media Ecology (MEA), and in 2011 received The Neil Postman Award for Career Achievement

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in Public Intellectual Activity. His primary research and theory agenda focuses on the impact of communication technology upon social and urban space. He has been a faithful EDRA member since 1990 and co-chair of the EDRA Communication network. Vincent Brook teaches media studies at UCLA, Cal-State LA, and Pierce College. He has published dozens of journal articles and anthology essays and is the author, co-author, editor, or coeditor of six books, most recently Land of Smoke and Mirrors: A Cultural History of Los Angeles (Rutgers 2013), Woody on Rye: Jewishness in the Films and Plays of Woody Allen (Brandeis 2013, co-editor), and Silver Lake Chronicles: Exploring an Urban Oasis in Los Angeles (History Press 2014, co-author). Alex Cutler’s career spans three decades of media administration, film production, and teaching. While attending UCLA’s MFA producer program and Southwestern Law School, Cutler began his media career at Republic Pictures, where he was responsible for business and legal matters relating to one of the industry’s most extensive motion picture and television libraries including Bonanza, Get Smart, It’s A Wonderful Life, High Noon and The Quiet Man. After relocating to Sydney to join his wife, he worked for Australia’s two largest production companies, where he was closely involved in many of the country’s best-known film and television productions such as Sale of the Century, Neighbours and Prisoner at Grundy Television, and Colleen McCullough’s An Indecent Obsession, Burke and Wills and The Coolangatta Gold at Hoyts Theatres. His own Australian producing career culminated with the Warner Bros-released THE DELINQUENTS, one of the highest-profile Australian films of all time, partnered with David Bowie and starring Kylie Minogue in her feature film debut. After returning to the U.S. he became a distinguished schoolteacher, administrator, and charter school developer. Since arriving in New York in 2009, Cutler co-produced an award-winning new feature film, PIG, completed a master in media studies at New School University, and has consulted to non-profit youth media pioneer, Educational Video Center, and the Urban


Communication Foundation. He is the executive producer of The Taking of Deborah Logan (2014) and Don Peyote (2014) Louis Wasserman graduated from the University of Illinois and Harvard’s Graduate School of Design. Prior to establishing his own office, Louis Wasserman gained experience in the offices of Ben Thompson, Cambridge Seven, ADD Inc., Harry Weese, and the City Architect of Chicago. Louis also taught in architectural programs in Massachusetts, California and Wisconsin. Wasserman & Associates was established by Louis Wasserman and M. Caren Connolly as a multidisciplinary firm concentrating on architecture, landscape architecture, award winning research and publication. Louis Wasserman and Associates is unique in its use and application of research. While the funding available for architectural related investigations is limited, their success is documented in the national recognition that this inquiry has received. Their examination of Theme parks/recreational planning is the only research work ever to have received the Progressive Architecture First Award. The companion study on Film Design received a Citation from Progressive Architecture Magazine. Work on recreational planning has received national recognition from Design Arts Magazine, The Urban Land Institute and Progressive Architecture Magazine. Louis and Caren feel it is very important to ask architecturally significant questions, and they are fortunate both in finding funding to ask those questions, and also in the opportunity to apply the results to their professional practice. Their bestselling books for Taunton Press: Updating Classic America: Bungalows, Updating Classic America: Ranches, Cottage: America’s Favorite Home are derived from their work and research. Most recently they were commissioned by the State of Wisconsin to write and illustrate the award winning Wisconsin’s Own: 20 Significant Homes. Mr. Wasserman and his coauthor M. Caren Connolly are frequent guest lecturers, at academic, professional and civic venues and on radio and television programs nationwide discussing their books, research and work.


Designing for the Spectrum: From Neuroscience to Design Actions Saturday, May 30, 2015 10:30am-12:00pm

This plenary demonstrates how environment-behavior research and theory can build upon neuroscience research to apprise how the physical environment can be designed and developed to enhance the daily lives and aspirations of a broad spectrum of individuals – with the focus on adults with autism living in their homes and residential communities. With backgrounds in environment-behavior studies, housing, architecture and landscape architecture, presenters Sherry Ahrentzen and Kim Steele faced a challenge in 2008 when asked to consider the best ways to design housing for adults on the autism spectrum and what the evidence showed as most effective strategies for doing so -- because the research was thin and examples scarce. Since then they have developed a researchinformed approach that they will share with the audience, demonstrating how neurobiological/perceptual research findings of autism often reverberate with fundamental environment-behavior principles and theories. They will draw on the work described in their book At Home with Autism: Designing for the Spectrum, being published by Policy Press in summer 2015. A number of architects and housing developers have used their work to design and construct residences for adults with autism, and examples of this built and occupied work will be presented. Following the presentation, discussant Eve Edelstein will comment upon the merits, limitations, and potentialities of the process from the perspective of neuroscience and the emerging changes in the design profession; and bring to the discussion a neuro-architectural process that she developed and used in practice that applied game-changing neuroscientific and engineering technologies and long-standing methods from environmental psychology. The plenary is relevant to a broad spectrum of audience members, as the primary focus is not autism per se, but processes of bridging neuroscience, environmental-design research, and application to design and development of the built landscape. Sherry Ahrentzen, PhD, is Shimberg Professor of Housing Studies at the University of Florida. Prior, she was Associate Director of Research at the Stardust Center for Affordable Homes, Arizona State University; and before then, Professor of Architecture at University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. Dr. Ahrentzen is a recognized

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leader in understanding the social justice dimensions within the built environment and design education, championing the needs of underserved and marginalized populations who are often left out of the design and planning process. Her research focusing on housing and community design that fosters the physical, social and economic health of households has been published extensively in journals and books, and presented at national and international conferences. She has over 60 published articles, chapters, and reports, and has received more than 30 research and instructional grants from various agencies. A book she co-authored with Kim Steele on designing and developing housing for adults with autism will be published by Policy Press in summer 2015. In 2003 she received the Distinguished Professor Award from the Association of Collegiate Schools of Architecture; in 2009 she received the Career Award from the Environmental Design Research Association; and in 2014, she was the recipient of the ARCC James Haecker Award for Distinguished Leadership in Architectural Research. Her doctorate in Social Ecology from the University of California, Irvine reflects the collaborative and multidisciplinary nature of her research and teaching practices. Kim Steele is Director of Urban and Health Initiatives at The Elemental Group where she works with communities and organizations to develop policies and strategies to increase opportunities for healthy, active living. Prior to this position she was Associate Professor at Arizona State University in the Design School and Assistant Professor at Auburn University in the School of Architecture, Planning and Landscape Architecture. Ms. Steele received a Master of Architecture and Master of Landscape Architecture from the University of Colorado, Denver, as well as a Master of Arts from the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. Her research and professional work focuses on improving community health through design across multiple scales, which she is further advancing in her doctoral research at UCLA. She has published numerous research reports and routinely presents her work at national and international conferences. As a parent of a severely autistic child, Ms. Steele devotes significant time to researching issues related to disability and the environment. Currently, she is complet-

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ing a book addressing design and residential options for adults with autism. The Policy Press will publish it in summer 2015. Dr. Eve Edelstein is the first, and only specialist known, to have degrees in Neuroscience (Ph.D. University College London), Architecture (M.Arch. NewSchool of Architecture & Design) and Anthropology (B.A. University California Berkeley). Dr. Edelstein consulting on the world’s largest NICU and infant hearing screening program, and NASA’s noise-induced hearing loss in space station astronauts. Edelstein’s scientific research and clinical practice at top academic medical centers includes the National Hospital Neurology & Neurosurgery UK, the US Naval Medical Center, University California San Diego, and the Harvard/ MIT Hearing Science laboratory. With the Academy of Neuroscience for Architecture, NewSchool of Architecture, the Salk Institute, and the University of California San Diego, Edelstein developed and taught courses, internships and research studies that apply neuroscience to architecture. Dr. Edelstein is a Fellow of the Berkeley Prize, integrating neuroscience, architecture and universal design objectives. As Principal Investigator for the AIA College of Fellows Latrobe Prize, she studied the influence of circadian light on heart-rate and proposed design recommendations for a broad range of settings. Innovations with UCSD include synchronous tracking of vision and brainwaves in immersive virtual CAVE simulations, and novel real-time immersive digital modeling and sonic simulations. Dr. Edelstein consults with Innovative Design Science to inform design decisions (via observation, sensors, acoustic & visual CAVE simulations) that influence cognition, error, intelligibility, wayfinding, well-being and human outcomes. Her practice-based ‘neuro-architectural’ process informed large through small-scale international architectural projects, now built in Canada, China and the US. Edelstein is faculty at the NewSchool of Architecture & Design, and as a member of the AIA Design + Health Research Consortium, leads an innovative translational center for healthy environments, a collaborative with the University California San Diego and international leaders in planning and public health.

Mobile Sessions


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EDRA45NewOrleans Track Descriptions

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Mobile Sessions

Mobile Sessions Mobile Intensive: Share/ Collaborate/Learn/Advance: Democratic Design Without Borders Wednesday, May 27, 8:30am-5:30pm Session Leader: Jeffrey Hou, Ph.D., M.Arch, M.L.A., Professor, University of Washington Democratic design in forms of citizen participation and community engagement has risen in prominence in areas around the world. From North America to East Asia, community design practitioners and advocates have made significant progress in democratizing environmental design and planning practice in one project after another. Founded in Berkeley in 1998, the Pacific Rim Community Design Network has been a forum that facilitates continued exchange and learning between community designers in East Asia and North America. The network has further led to active collaboration between individuals across the Pacific. The purpose of this Intensive is to bring the ongoing exchange to EDRA to engage a broader audience beyond the Pacific Rim. More specifically, the program is intended to foreground democratic design as continuously evolving practice that can be enriched through critical sharing and exchange of experiences, success stories, and pitfalls. This daylong Intensive will include presentations by practitioners and scholars, roundtable discussion, and a field trip to a local site in Los Angeles. Topics will include broad reflections on democratic design practices in diverse settings as well as case studies of projects that address issues ranging from the use of social media to the participation of elderly and young people. The daylong session will focus simultaneously on how democratic design can transcend border and how such practices operate in particular cultural, geographical, and institutional contexts. Presenters will come from Hong Kong, Japan, Russia, South Korea, Taiwan, and throughout the United States. Participants are invited to join actively in the discussion. Jeffrey Hou is Professor and Chair of Landscape Architecture at the University of Washington in Seattle. His work focuses on community design, design May 2015 – brainSTORM

activism, public space, and transcultural placemaking. He is the editor of Insurgent Public Space: Guerrilla Urbanism and the Remaking of Contemporary Cities (2010) and Transcultural Cities: Border-Crossing and Placemaking (2013). He is also the co-editor of a new book Now Urbanism: the Future City is Here (2015). In a career that spans across the Pacific, he has worked with indigenous tribes, farmers, and fishers in Taiwan, neighborhood residents in Japan, villagers in China, and inner-city immigrant youths and elders in North American cities, in projects ranging from conservation of wildlife habitats to design of urban open space. Hou is a recipient of Places Book Award in 2010 and 2012, and was the City of Vienna Visiting Professor at the Vienna University of Technology (TU Wien) in 2013. He is also a co-founder of the Pacific Rim Community Design Network.

Mobile Session I: Sustainable Connections - Aging in Community in Los Angeles Saturday, May 30, 1:30pm-5:30pm Session Leader: Emily Roberts, Ph.D., M.A., M.Arch, Assistant Professor, Oklahoma State University The impending age wave can be a creative motivator and Los Angeles has both a creative and aging population who wish to remain in community. While policy in urban communities like Los Angeles should be accessible, adaptable and healthful for older residents, it also needs to be sustainable for healthy environments in terms of energy, water use, and waste. Crafting communities that address all of these issues concurrently is a special challenge for planners, and designers, creating national and international opportunities for change. This tour of two Los Angeles landmarks will include one creatively renovated historic hotel as well as new construction housing in a vibrant arts community. The first stop will be the Dunbar Hotel, an adaptive reuse project which is now senior and family apartments in Watts. The Dunbar, which opened in 1928, was designated as a city Historic-Cultural Landmark in 1974 and

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Mobile Sessions

placed on the National Register of Historic Places two years later. The original Art Deco motif has been preserved through a collaboration between Thomas Safran & Associates, the nonprofit Coalition for Responsible Community Development and the city’s Housing Authority and Community Redevelopment Agency. Once home to the LA African- American music scene, the hotel welcomed guests like Cab Calloway, Billie Holiday and Louis Armstrong. There are 115 units and the $30-million renovation includes another 42 apartments in two neighboring buildings that have also been refurbished for low-income family housing. The second stop will be the North Hollywood (NoHo) Senior Arts Colony, a new construction senior residence apartment community for active senior artists. Residents are given the opportunity to live in housing within an artistic community with courses and tools to engage in theater, art, exploration and education. This is a $42 million community with 126 one and two bedroom units for renters 62 and older. As an Environmental Gerontologist, Dr. Emily Roberts studies the impact of the physical, social and psychological elements of the environment on older adults and their families. She is currently an Assistant Professor in the Department of Design, Housing and Merchandising, College of Human Sciences at Oklahoma State University. Dr. Roberts has research interests which include the factors involved in aging in place and evolving models of long-term care, particularly for older adults with dementia and their families. She has a research background in the relationships between design and gerontology, as well as policy issues which impact these areas of study. She has conducted research in Canada, focusing on government funded community based programs for aging. More recently she worked with her local Area Agency on Aging as an Aging and Disability Program Associate in the development of programming to support older adults and their families living in community. Dr. Roberts has been chair of the Environment-Gerontology network of the Environmental Design Research Association since 2009 and is a founding member of the Culture Change in Aging Network of Buncombe County, NC, (CCAN-BC), a coalition of private individuals and policy-makers focused on educating older adults and their families about alternative housing options and opportunities for living in community.

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Mobile Session II: Palos Verdes Estates: The Romantic Dreams of a New California City Saturday, May 30, 1:30pm-5:30pm Session Leader: Christine Edstrom O’Hara, Associate Professor, California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo The evolution of the city of Palos Verdes Estates extends over 75 years and continues today. The site for the new city has a storied land-use history: from Native American villages to Spanish ranchos, and home to Portuguese whalers and Japanese farmers. However, even with centuries of diverse land occupation, the landscape was still largely un-developed by the early 1900s. Beginning in 1914, The Palos Verdes Project was designed as a complete new town, the city developed during a period of critical regionalism. Its aim was to showcase the native California landscape and a new approach to design in architecture and planning, specific to the history and ecology of California. Modeled after Mediterranean city, architectural and landscape design, Palos Verdes Estates blended the design concepts of developer Frank Vanderlip, the Olmsted Brothers landscape architecture firm, city planner Charles Cheney and architect Myron Hunt. Looking to other regions with the same ecology provided a design framework to develop a new American typology uniquely Californian. Together their 1920s visions resulted in Palos Verdes Estates representing the paradigm of an American expression of Mediterranean design and an early ecological approach to landscape design in arid California. And through architectural control, the historic design has remained intact since the city’s inception. Christine Edstrom O’Hara holds degrees from Stanford University in English and Art History and from the University of Washington in Landscape Architecture and Preservation Planning. Her Masters thesis was on the regional design by the Olmsted Brothers landscape architecture firm in Palos Verdes as well as their unbuilt proposal for Balboa Park in San Diego. She is currently pursuing her PhD in Landscape Architecture at University of Edinburgh, focusing her research on the Olmsted Brothers’ work in Los Angeles in the 1920s. On the faculty at Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo, Professor O’Hara has lectured both nationally and internationally on landscape preservation as well as its application to sustainable

Mobile Sessions

landscape design and construction. She has published articles in The Journal for the Society of Architectural Historians, Pacific Horticulture, Journal of Green Building, and Pioneers in Landscape Architecture. She also practices landscape architecture and historic landscape restoration. Christine is on the advisory board for the Dana Adobe in Nipomo, CA, on the board of the California Garden and Landscape History Society, as well as a trustee for the National Association of Olmsted Parks.

Paul Platosh is a PhD student and researcher at Oregon State University in the department of Design and Human Environment. He focuses his research on technologically mediated wayfinding, cartography, and applications of GIS to societal problems. Prior to pursuing his PhD, Paul was as Associate Professor of Communication Design at the Pacific Northwest College of Art. He works to unite design thinking with spatial thinking by applying geospatial information technology and remote sensing to everyday human problems.

Mobile Session III: Google Glass Navigation - Testing Parahippocampal Place Area Involvement*

Mobile Session IV: The Big Wild Wilderness Parks: Sex, Lies, and Real Estate

Saturday, May 30, 1:30pm-5:30pm Session Leader: Paul Platosh, PhD Scholar, Design and Human Environment, Geospatial Information Systems, Oregon State University Human wayfinding behavior is a complex interaction of perception, spatial cognition, sense of direction, and memory systems. We employ different strategies to navigate in spaces such as survey, landmark, route, and pointer. Each of these strategies relies on a different form of cognition and to some extent, activates different parts of the brain. Because of the complex nature nature of wayfinding, humans have long relied on technology to mediate between environment and their spatial recollections. Since GPS and other stimulus-response wayfinding strategies are less effective at promoting the accurate creation of cognitive maps, could other technological interventions offer better results? The formfactor and interface of an optical head-mounted display (OHMD), like Google Glass, is different than that of hand-held devices, potentially providing more successful cognitive mapping and spatial recall. This session will allow participants to test Google Glass to experience an alternative way of viewing their environment, navigating various waypoints in the neighborhood. *Note: Participants will need to have a 4G smartphone with the ability to download the MyGlass application and activate the Bluetooth capabilities as the Glass can only receive signal when “tethered” to a 4G cellular network. May 2015 – brainSTORM

Saturday, May 30, 1:30pm-5:30pm Session Leader: Randy Hester, Director for the Center for Ecological Discovery, University of California Berkeley The Big Wild was developed by the Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy to provide both wilderness recreation for adjacent communities and migratory support for species such as the mountain lion. Separate community participation processes for each segment and adjacent community served as a foundation for the design and development of the string of parks. Complicating the process were wide variations in different community’s interests, politics, a competing freeway proposal, and hidden agendas and relationships among the parties. Randy Hester will be joined by some original members of the design and development team to describe the process and challenges that had to be overcome for these parks to reach successful completion. The tours will focus on two very different segments: LA96C, a former Nike missile site that utilizes some ruins of the facility in the design and Marvin Braude Mulholland Gateway Park, a major trailhead with gorgeous city and mountain views. Randy Hester’s firm worked as environmental planners/landscape architects on Big Wild since 1985.The resulting greenbelt is one of the most extensive urban wildernesses in the country serving diverse cultures and the mountain lion ecosystem.

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Award Winners


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Award Winners

2015 CAREER AWARD WINNER The EDRA Career Award is given in recognition of a career of sustained and significant contributions to environment design research, practice, or teaching. Candidates in the area of design research shall have produced a body of work that provides significant insights into the relationship between environment and behavior. Candidates in the area of practice shall have made significant and lasting contributions to the planning and design of the environment through the application of design research. Candidates in the area of teaching shall have made positive, stimulating and nurturing influences upon students over an extended period of time and have inspired a generation of students who have contributed to environmental design research.

Craig Zimring, PhD Director, SimTigrate Design Lab and Professor of Architecture and of Psychology, Georgia Institute of Technology Craig Zimring has been one of the most important contributors to the field of Environmental Design Research for more than three decades, during which time he has also been an outstanding educator and mentor to his students, many of whom have now taken their places among the most respected researchers and professionals in our field. Craig co-authored Environmental Design Evaluation in 1978, one of the first compilations of methods and practice in the field and followed that, in those early years, with a series of articles in both scholarly and professional outlets, including AIA Journal and Progressive Architecture that helped define the field. He has contributed outstanding work with rigor, a conceptual base, and attention to detail, all while providing a focus on application to practical design issues. More recently he was one of the first to write about “evidence-based design” and, again, his publications have helped to define the term and have played a significant role in making this a widespread and accepted practice. Craig has been at the cutting edge of environmental design research almost since the field began. This is being demonstrated again in his new SimTegrate Design Lab, a center devoted to understanding the relationships between clinical processes, the designed environment and health-related outcomes. Craig is today one of the field’s most active and recognized authorities. As one metric of his level of activity, Craig has been the recipient, largely as principal or co-principal investigator, of more than 40 grants, largely in the areas of health care, active living design and the development of design evaluation tools. He has published more than 50 articles, chapters, monographs and books in those same areas, and serves on numerous editorial and advisory boards. Craig’s research, working with colleagues and May 2015 – brainSTORM

students, has contributed greatly to the evidence base that gives EBD its meaning, particularly in, but not limited to, health care design and active living through design. There is no individual who has done more to shape how we approach health care facility evaluation or, through the work and practice that comes from such research, done more to make such facilities safe, efficient, and humane. The admiration of Craig’s current and former students is manifest, and is recognized with comments like “insatiable curiosity and desire to make the world a better place,” “continues to expand the reach of environmental psychology through…novel methodologies to understand the relationship between space and behavior,” “insane dedication to the profession.” The New York City Active Design Guidelines he helped organize and write was the first document of its kind and is changing the way buildings are designed in New York City. He chaired the Health Environments Research Summit (2006) and the EBD 2.0 Summit (2008), which, again, are changing the way design research is done. For what Craig has done for the field of EDR, for EDRA, for critical environments in the U.S. and worldwide, and for his students and colleagues, EDRA is justifiably proud to recognize him as the recipient of the 2015 Career Award.

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Award Winners

2015 SERVICE AWARD WINNER The EDRA Service Award is given in recognition of a specific contribution of service to the field or the organization that advances the field of environmental design research. It may be someone outside EDRA who has advanced EDRA’s cause through publications, or through the support of knowledge produced by EDRA members.

Atiya Mahmood, PhD Associate Professor, Department of Gerontology, Simon Fraser University Atiya Mahmood’s contributions to the EDRA are numerous and have served to strengthen the foundation of the organization in myriad ways. In 2005, Atiya served as a member of the EDRA 36 Program Committee in Vancouver and artfully organized the many aspects of which she was in charge. Her dedication to the complicated task of coordinating the many events associated with the conference was admired by many, as she worked every day and evening, as long as was needed, remaining cheerful and inspiring. Atiya always showed awareness of group interaction, and was able to motivate everyone to pull together and get things done. She is one of those rare people who can effectively assume a leadership role, without making other people feel left behind or irrelevant. Atiya’s volunteer leadership continued as she served as secretary of the EDRA Board of Directors in 200910 and chaired EDRA’s communications committee. In 2012-13 she agreed to serve in the role of ex-officio board member, extending her term on the board by one additional year so that another individual could run for a second term. She took on the various roles of the ex officio board member including chairing the governance and awards committees even though she had many other personal and professional pressing matters. However, while her assistance as a volunteer and member of the EDRA Board of Directors has been considerable, it is Atiya’s work in support of EDRA’s membership development that is one of her most significant contributions to the organization. In 20092010 in became clear to the EDRA Board that the process by which EDRA maintained its membership was not keeping pace with technology and did not enable the organization to keep accurate records of membership and membership renewals. Atiya chaired a membership task force working with the EDRA Business Office to identify individuals whose membership had lapsed and to contact those individuals to alert them to the lapse, to address their membership

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concerns as well as to communicate more broadly the benefits of membership. The efforts that she spearheaded have enabled EDRA to develop an accurate database of association members and grow the organization’s membership. In turn, this has allowed EDRA to better act on the organization’s goals of promoting and disseminating scholarship about person-environment relations. While Atiya’s leadership in addressing EDRA membership is only one of her many contributions to the organization, it has proven critical to the progress of the organization over the past five years, and it is with great respect we award her the 2015 EDRA Service Award.

Award Winners

MICHAEL BRILL AWARD, Co-Sponsored by the Urban Communication Foundation Seunghae Lee, Associate Professor, Oregon State University and Paul Platosh, PhD, Student, Oregon State University are the recipients of the 2015 Michael Brill Grant in Urban Communication and Environmental Design. Named in honor of Michael Brill, architect and longtime EDRA member, for his leadership in workplace environments and communication, this grant is funded by the Urban Commu¬nication Foundation and administered in conjunction with the Environmental Design Research Association. The goal of this grant program is to encourage innovative research projects that provide a bridge between the fields of communication and environmental design. Wayfinding and Augmented Reality

The ability to imprint and recall spatial information is known as cognitive mapping. Cognitive maps are a form of spatial shorthand that is developed when humans navigate unfamiliar environments, and are accessed in subsequent visits. It is a function of the part of the brain called the Parahippocampal Place Area (PPA), an area whose sole function is spatial cognition, and coincidentally, is also affected by Alzheimer’s disease (Maguire, Woollett, & Spiers, 2003). As technologies advance, location-aware technology such as GPS has been popularly used for wayfinding while driving. However, it is debatable whether the technology can aid or hinder the formation of accurate cognitive maps. For example, researchers have linked direction-based navigation with decreased formation of accurate cognitive maps (Bohbot, Iaria, & Petrides, 2004). Studies about GPS, one of the direction-based technologies, has shown results that support this link (Bohbot, Del Balso, Conrad, Konishi, & Leyton, 2013). It has been reported that upon navigating May 2015 – brainSTORM

Lee

Platosh

to an unfamiliar destination using the GPS, users’ recollection of the route they travelled is dim. There is a tacit understanding that reliance on the device retards the formation of cognitive maps, and perhaps affects spatial thinking in general as demonstrated in Bohbot et al. (2013) in an experimental setting. Additionally, due to neuro-plasticity in the Hippocampus, overreliance on GPS can accelerate loss of spatial cognition. This is especially problematic as older adults are relying on GPS with increasing numbers. The recent developments of wayfinding aid technology with even higher accuracy enabled wayfinding while walking. The Google Map app is a GPS system used for wayfinding while walking. Another wayfinding aid technology useful for wayfinding is wayfinding aid with Augmented Reality technology (AR). AR enables wayfinding intervention overlaid in the visual field of view, making wayfinding much easier. An exemplary AR wayfinding tool is the Penguin Navi for an aquarium in Tokyo. Moving penguins were used instead of arrows on the field of view to guide users. AR wayfinding technologies can also superimpose landmarks as well as arrows or other pointers on the field of view. As this AR wayfinding technology can incorporate aids for sound and vision and help more intuitive wayfinding with pointers and landmarks, it has great

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potential to help people with limited physical and cognitive abilities. It also has a potential impact on people with Alzheimer’s disease due to its connection to PPA. The PPA is highly relegated to navigational tasks and binds highly with item location (Albasser, Dumont, Amin, Holmes, Horne, Pearce, & Aggleton, 2013; Bohbot et al., 2004; Banner, Bhat, Etchamendy, Joober, & Bohbot, 2011; Baumann & Mattingley, 2014). A positive association of AR use with cognitive mapping may have implications for non-pharmaceutical interventions in early dementia, since stimulating the PPA can help clear Amyloid-β, associated with Alzheimer’s disease (Adlard, 2005; Konishi & Bohbot, 2013). This study will test two wayfinding aids in natural settings; 1) GPS using Google Map and 2) Augmented Reality (AR) using wayfinding application in Google Glass. The study will explore and compare the level of accurate cognitive map developments that stimulates activity in the PPA. It will also examine wayfinding performance successes depending on different types of wayfinding aids.

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About the Researchers:

Seunghae Lee is an Associate Professor in the School of Design & Human Environment, College of Business at Oregon State University. She previously served as an assistant professor at Purdue University and California State University in Northridge. She received her doctorate in 2004 at Michigan State University. Her research specializes in wayfinding and design for older adults. She has a strong interest in using technologies in design and research. Her current research explores the use of digital aids for wayfinding such as interactive maps, Google glasses, eyetracking systems. Paul Platosh is a PhD student and researcher at Oregon State University in the department of Design and Human Environment. He focuses his research on technologically mediated wayfinding, cartography, and applications of GIS to societal problems. Prior to pursuing his PhD, Paul was as Associate Professor of Communication Design at the Pacific Northwest College of Art. He works to unite design thinking with spatial thinking by applying geospatial information technology and remote sensing to everyday human problems. He lives in Portland with his family and enjoys geocaching with his boys.

Refereed Full Papers


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Refereed Full-Papers

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Neuroaesthetic Studies in Architecture: Insights From Neuroscience on Aesthetic Experience Troy Brummel (Kent State University), Ji Young Cho (Kent State University) Introduction

The field of architecture has a long tradition of aesthetic consideration, dating back to antiquity when Vitruvius wrote the famous architectural treatise The Ten Books on Architecture (15 BCE/1914). In this treatise, Vitruvius declared that architecture has three fundamental requirements: firmitas, utilitas, and venustas (15 BCE/1914). That is structural firmness, usefulness, and beauty; however, the last 20 years of architectural thought has avoided formal aesthetic consideration for the sake of concept development and critical theory, rendering architecture misunderstood by those not educated in the field (Gage, 2011; Winters, 2007). Gage suggests that refocusing on the aesthetics of architecture might recapture architecture’s relevance to public perception (2011). At the same time, development within a young field of neuroscientific research on aesthetics (e.g., CelaConde et al., 2011; Cinza & Vittorio, 2009; Nadal & Pearce, 2011) has begun to contribute significant understanding to the neural processes associated with the perception of artistic works and has utilized architectural stimuli that affect aesthetic appraisals (e.g., Aguirre, Zarahn, & D’Esposito, 1998; Oppenheim et al., 2009; Vartanian et al., 2013). As this field of neuroaesthetics has shown interest in architecture, it is timely for a critical review of neuroaesthetic findings relevant to the field of architecture. Thus, the purpose of this paper is to investigate those studies in neuroaesthetics that utilized architecture as stimuli and report the main findings. In addition, this paper aims to suggest potential areas for future collaborations between neuroscientists and designers. Neuroaesthetics

Historically a philosophical study, aesthetics has recently engaged the field of neuroscience to better understand the neural basis for aesthetic evaluations. The term neuroaesthetics, as coined by neurobiologist Semir Zeki, encompasses all neuroscientific research dedicated to understanding the neural processes of May 2015 – brainSTORM

evaluation and perception of a work of art or otherwise artistic object (Cinza & Vittorio, 2009). Following the Copenhagen Neuroaesthetics conference in 2009, researchers have chosen to keep the definition of neuroaesthetics broad and inclusive as the field of study is still young (Nadal & Pearce, 2011). Stimuli classes, or various types of artistic objects under investigation, vary from visual arts to music, sculpture, human beauty, and also architecture. Researchers generally seek to better understand both sensory processing and cognitive processing of the aesthetic experience. Sensory aspects comprise physical stimuli properties, such as shape, proportion, and color. Cognitive aspects include thought processes of viewers, such as experience level, memory, and perceived reward values (Reber, Schwarz, & Winkielman, 2004). It may be argued that neuroaesthetics emerged as early as 1757, from the theorizing of philosopher Edmund Burke (Nadal & Pearce, 2011). In his treatise A Philosophical Enquiry into the Origin of the Sublime and Beautiful (1757/1998), Burke asserted a two-part model of the human body that consists of a physical mechanical body and a controlling ‘animal spirit’ that are connected by a network of threads. Conceptually, this model resembles the human nervous system. Since Burke, many physiological and neurological discoveries have contributed to understanding the human body. Two major developments can account for the current state of neuroaesthetic studies (Nadal & Pearce, 2011). First, the finding that aesthetic evaluations are dependent on various factors succeeded the traditional notion that aesthetic appraisals were based on merely objective characteristics, such as ideal proportions (Nadal & Pearce, 2011). Those various factors include both objective stimuli characteristics, such as proportion, symmetry, content complexity, and clarity (Reber et al., 2004), and subjective perceptual processes, such as embodied empathy, reward value, and emotional affective responses (Cinza & Vittorio, 2009). This perspective of aesthetic evaluations can be described as an interactionist aesthetic experience (Reber et al., 2004). In other words, aesthetic evaluations can be described as a viewer’s neural processing of an art work’s sensory characteristics in combination with the viewer’s history with, and understanding of, the art work. The second development accounting for current neuroaesthetic studies was the advent of non-invasive imaging techniques, such as functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) and electroencephalogram (EEG) (Nadal & Pearce, 2011). These technologies have allowed researchers to hypothesize on and test neural responses to aesthetic stimulation, whereas prior research-

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ers were limited to behavioral observations of subjects with and without visual processing disorders. Researchers utilize them to observe neural activity elicited by certain stimuli and determine which parts of the brain are recruited when making aesthetic evaluations. To be clear, these technologies each allow researchers to observe changes in neural activity, but monitor different aspects of the brain. The fMRI is used to detect changes in cerebral blood flow associated with neural activity (Huettel, Song, & McCarthy, 2004). It allows researchers to identify areas of the brain to which new oxygen rich blood is distributed. Figure 1 depicts an example of fMRI imagery used to isolate

slices of the cerebral cortex and highlight areas of blood concentration. EEG technology, on the other hand, utilizes a series of sensors, distributed across an observer’s scalp, to monitor voltage fluctuations resulting from ionic current flows of the neural network (Niedermeyer & da Silva, 2005). EEG recording is especially useful in determining event-related potentials (ERPs), a method of identifying the activation of various parts of a neural network over time (Sur & Sinha, 2009). ERPs are generally classified as early- or late-wave events. Early-wave events are considered sensory in nature and account for the processing of objective properties, while late-wave

Figure 1: Example of fMRI data identifying concentrations of blood flow within slices of the brain (image courtesy of Joel Martìnez-Soto).

Figure 2: (A) EEG recording process. (B) Recording of EEG data. (C) Sections of EEG data extracted for comparison of subject neurological responses (Luck, 2005, p. 8). Note. From Steven J. Luck, An Introduction to the Event-Related Potential Technique, published by The MIT Press. Reprinted with permission of MIT Press.

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potentials comprise cognitive processing or subjective evaluation (Sur & Sinha, 2009). Figure 2 shows the EEG process and a typical visualization of data. Neuroaesthetics and Architecture

John P. Eberhard may be considered the grandfather of cross-pollination between the fields of architecture and neuroscience. As the inaugural president of the Academy of Neuroscience for Architecture (ANFA), Eberhard won the AIA Latrobe fellowship and wrote the seminal book on neuroscience and architecture Brain Landscape: The Coexistence of Neuroscience and Architecture in 2008 (Whitelaw, 2013). Eberhard presented following five areas of study that may provide a framework for studying neuroaesthetics in architecture: • Sensation and Perception (How do we see, hear, smell, taste, etc.?)

• Learning and Memory (How do we store and recall our sensory experiences?)

• Decision making (How do we evaluate the potential consequences of our actions?)

• Emotion and affect (How do we become fearful or excited?)

• Movement (how do we interact with our environment and navigate through it?) (Eberhard, 2009, p. 755) Of these five areas of study, the categories of sensation/perception and emotion/affect most closely related to or categorize neuroaesthetics. Following is a discussion of major theories in neroaestheitcs that are highly relevant to the field of architecture. Those theories were identified by reviewing recent findings in neuroscience that used architectural form and space as stimuli and assimilating concurrent findings into theoretical interest groups. A summary table of major empirical studies of the neurological findings involving architecture is presented in Table 1.

Table 1: Summary table of key neurological studies involved architectural stimuli.

Note: ERP stands for Event-Related Potentials; PET stands for Positron Emission Tomography


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Table 2 is a summary of extracted thematic areas from major studies in neurological findings related to architecture. Parahippocampus Place Area

Some of the first studies in neuroscience related to architecture were developed from neuroscientific studies seeking to identify regions of the brain sensitive to recognition and evaluation of buildings. In 1988, using fMRI observation, Aguirre, D’Esposito, et al. identified areas of the brain that is activated when participants viewed imagery depicting buildings (1998). This study followed similar studies that identified specific areas of the brain vital to processing faces (Allison, Zarahn, & D’Esposito, 1994a; Puce, Allison, Gore, & McCarthy, 1995; Kanwisher et al., 1997; Puce, Allison, Spencer, Spencer, & McCarthy, 1997) and words (Allison, McCarthy, Nobre, Puce, & Belger, 1994b; Polk & Farah, 1998). Aguirre et al. (1998) hypothesised that regions of the brain that are sensitive to building information could be identified in patients suffering from topographical agnosia, a condition categorised by difficulty in using topographical landmarks for orientation and way find-

ing due to lesions within the brain. Upon study, Aguirre et al. identified the posterior hippocampal region as significant to landmark navigation by noting lesion locations in patients with landmark agnosia. Aguirre et al. then observed the posterior hippocampal region using fMRI and found significantly more activation when stimulated by images of buildings compared to objects and human faces (1998). Further research showed that a portion of the hippocampal cortex was responsible for spatial orientation and landmark processing (Epstein & Kanwisher, 1998). Epstein and Kanwisher acknowledged that the region they identified, and subsequently termed the Parahippocampla Place Area (PPA), could arguably be the same region identified in the study by Aguirre et al. (1998). Other studies utilizing virtual reality environments and fMRI found the parahippocampus to be activated when navigating environments containing textures and landmarks, but not for the environments comprised of only different geometric shape rooms (Maguire et al., 1998). Above studies revealed that architectural form is encoded within the parahipocampal cortex as a landmark for spatial orientation.

Table 2: Summary of neural-scientific areas of study relevant to architecture.

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Contour Bias

Another main finding in neuroscience regarding architecture is contour bias. The term contour bias first emerged from the design industry in a book titled Universal Principles of Design (Lidwell, Holden, & Butler, 2010). The contour bias principle suggests that humans instinctively prefer curved contour objects over similar non-curvilinear objects. It is based on studies of shape contour affect on preference. Using geometric objects and 2D patterns consisting of curved, semi curved, and non-curvilinear forms, researchers found that strong positive correlation exists between curved form and preference (Bar & Neta, 2006). A subsequent study by Bar and Neta (2007) tested the hypothesis that preference for curved form was associated with avoidance of sharp objects that could be perceived as threatening. Their fMRI study showed correlation between sharp objects and activation of the amygdala, a portion of the brain associated with the processing of fear, pain, and anxiety, which supported their initial hypothesis (Bar & Neta, 2007). The concept of contour bias has recently been brought into the field of architecture with a study on the affect of room shape (contour) on beauty and approachavoidance decisions (Vartanian et al., 2013). Vartanian et al. (2013) hypothesized that curvilinear spaces would elicit greater beauty judgements and less approachavoidance than rectilinear spaces based on previous notions of primal aversions to sharpness. The study found a positive correlation between curvilinear space and beauty judgements but no correlation associated with approach-avoidance decisions (Vartanian et al., 2013). Contrary to their hypothesis, the amygdala (fear/anxiety processing) was not found to activate in relation to approach-avoidance decisions. The researchers provide numerous potential explanations for these unexpected results, including reduced amygdala reaction due to excess exposure to interior environments, emotional context, and lengthy response times that allow cognitive (subjective) processing. Additionally, one could attribute variance to a participant’s preference of stimulus style, rather than how safe or unsafe the viewer assumed the room to be. Sharp contour in representational art is known to elicit less amygdala response than sharp contour in abstract art (Bar & Neta, 2006). Nanda et al. (2013) further explored the affective nature of curve bias and made two neuroarchitectural hypotheses: 1. Formal elements of a designed visual environment can be rapidly extracted to trigger a response in the limbic system. 2. Curvature in the form can change the quality of the May 2015 – brainSTORM

above response and affect subsequent emotional experience. (p. 72) To sum up their argument, Nanda et al. (2013) found that visual processing of general information imagery, as opposed to small detail, activates the amygdale more frequently when stimulated by angular form. This finding supports the hypotheses that danger avoidance is a basis for human primal aversions to potentially harmful sharp forms. Familiarity and a Sense of Place

The issue of familiarity has recently been addressed in a series of studies regarding ornament and classical building elevations (Mecklinger et al., 2014; Oppenheim et al., 2009; Oppenheim et al., 2010). In an initial study, Oppenheim et al. sought to further architectural understanding as opposed to neurological science. The research design focused on understanding architectural familiarity, as Oppenheim et al. (2009) give credit to familiarity with environment for “enhanced quality of life and functional integrity” (p. 157) and a sense of place. Using ERPs, Oppenheim et al. found high-ranking western architectural facades in decorum evoked neural familiarity, even though the building elevations were invented for the study and did not represent any actual building (2009). Questions raised by Oppenheim et al. spurred subsequent research into the role of the hippocampus, or PPA, in the evaluation of high and low-ranking facades in decorum (Oppenheim et al., 2010). This additional study found the hippocampus to be significantly active in later-stage ERPs, suggesting that the hippocampus is involved with cognitive aesthetic processing. Further research sought to address whether the ranking of architectural ornament used in previous studies was universally affective or a product of western cultural expertise (Mecklinger et al., 2014). Mecklinger et al. presented historically western architectural facades to both German and Chinese students but found familiarity to be elicited only in German students. Implications of Expertise

Psychological models of aesthetic evaluation have generally held that aesthetic experiences are modulated by a viewer’s experience level with the stimuli. In a study using fMRI observations, Kirk et al. (2009) hypothesized architecture imagery would elicit greater neural activity in the reward processing centers, namely the Anterior Cingulate Cortex (ACC) and Orbitofrontal Cortex (OFC), of architecture-related experts compared to non-expert participants. The study found positive correlation of aesthetic preference and reward center

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activation. As hypothesized, expert activation of the ACC and OFC were significantly greater than that of non-architecture participants (Kirk et al., 2009). Further research by Wiesmann and Ishai (2011) extended the use of architecture and non-architecture experts to evaluate expertise related phenomena called repetition suppression, a decrease in neural activation following numerous encounters with stimuli (2011). Wiesmann and Ishai (2011) hypothesized that architectural experts would show reduced neural activity and quicker identification of buildings compared to nonarchitectural experts when asked to identify duplicate images from a set of architectural images. Wiesmann and Ishai (2011) found that architectural experts did not exhibit greater repetition suppression compared to nonexperts; however, interestingly, non-experts required the use of a greater neural network to perform at the same speed as experts, similar to neural activity associated with the aging. The observed use of additional processing areas suggested that non-experts rely on different subjective processes than experts (Wiesmann & Ishai, 2011). Based on the above studies, it can be assumed that architectural designers develop neural cognitive processes different than non-experts in aesthetic evaluations. Discussion

As the literature review indicates, a large portion of neural-scientific studies related to architectural cannot truly be considered neuroaesthetic in nature. As expressed by Chatterjee (2011), there is a distinction between using art/aesthetics to probe the workings of the brain and probing the brain to test hypothesises of aesthetic experiences. It seems clear, by noting the institutional affiliations of many cited authors, that the architecture field is not significantly represented in the current field of neuroaesthetics, including the neuroaesthetic studies involving architectural stimuli. For those in the architectural research field, Nanda et al.’s study (2013) might serve as a prototypical model for developing neuroaesthetic design theories. Their study outlined a successful method of delving into the neuroscience field and drawing out architecturally useful theory by providing a comprehensive understanding of an aesthetic element: contour. Reber et al. (2004) presented a comprehensive understanding of aesthetic components, including proportion experience. Future studies could draw from previous psychological models of aesthetics to suggest collaborations with neuroscience (2004). The field of neuroscience is a specialized field and hard to translate for those not trained in the field; however, current studies in neuroaesthetics can offer a great

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deal of knowledge to the architectural field, provided that architectural professionals and academics are willing to engage in the neuroscience discourse. Designers must become literate in the discourse of neuroscience and provide motivation for further studies specifically related to testing architectural aesthetic process. References

Aguirre, G.K., Zarahn, E., & D’Esposito, M. (1998). An area within the human ventral cortex sensitive to “building” stimuli: evidence and implications. Neuron, 21(2). 373-383. Allison, T., Ginter, H., McCarthy, G., Nobre, A. C., Puce, A., Luby, M., & Spencer, D. (1994a). Face recognition in human extrastriate cortex. Journal of Neurophysiology, 71, 821-821. Allison, T., McCarthy, G., Nobre, A., Puce, A., & Belger, A. (1994b). Human extrastriate visual cortex and the perception of faces, words, numbers, and colors. Cerebral Cortex, 4(5), 544-554. Bar, M., & Neta, M. (2006). Humans prefer curved visual objects. Psychological science, 17(8), 645648. Bar, M., & Neta, M. (2007). Visual elements of subjective preference modulate amygdala activation. Neuropsychologia, 45(10), 2191-2200. Burke, E. (1998). A philosophical enquiry into the sublime and beautiful. Penguin: UK. (Original work published 1757) Cela-Conde, C.J., Agnati, L., Huston, J.P., Mora, F., & Nadal, M. (2011) The neural foundations of aesthetic appreciation. Progress in neurobiology, 94(1), 39-48. Cinza, D.D., & Vittorio, G. (2009). Neuroaesthetics: a review. Current oppinion in neurobilolgy, 19. 682687. Chatterjee, A. (2011). Neuroaesthetics: a coming of age story. Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience, 23(1), 53-62. Eberhard, J. P. (2009). Applying neuroscience to architecture. Neuron, 62(6), 753-756. Epstein, R., & Kanwisher, N. (1998). A cortical representation of the local visual environment. Nature, 392(6676), 598-601. Gage, M. (Ed.). (2011). Aesthetic Theory: Essential Texts for Architecture and Design. New York: WW Norton & Company. Huettel, S.A., Song, A.W., & McCarthy, G. (2004). Functional magnetic resonance imaging (Vol. 2). Sunderland, MA: Sinauer Associates.


Kanwisher, N., McDermott, J., & Chun, M. M. (1997). The fusiform face area: a module in human extrastriate cortex specialized for face perception. The Journal of Neuroscience, 17(11), 4302-4311. Kirk, U., Skov, M., Christensen, M. S., & Nygaard, N. (2009). Brain correlates of aesthetic expertise: a parametric fMRI study. Brain and Cognition, 69(2), 306-315. Lidwell, W., Holden, K., & Butler, J. (2010). Universal principles of design, revised and updated: 125 ways to enhance usability, influence perception, increase appeal, make better design decisions, and teach through design. Rockport, WA: Rockport Pub. Luck, S.J. (2005). An Introduction to the Event-Related Potential Technique. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press. Maguire, E., Frith, C., Burgess, N., Donnett, J., & O’Keefe, J. (1998). Knowing where things are: Parahippocampal involvement in encoding object locations in virtual large-scale space. Cognitive Neuroscience, Journal of, 10(1), 61-76. Martínez-Soto, J., Gonzalez-Santos, L., Pasaye, E., & Barrios, F.A. (2013). Exploration of neural correlates of restorative environment exposure trhough functional magnetic resonance. Intelligent Buildings International 5(Supplement 1), 10-28. Mecklinger, A., Kriukova, O., Mühlmann, H., & Grunwald, T. (2014). Cross-cultural differences in processing of architectural ranking: evidence from an event related potential study”. Cognitive Neuroscience, 5(1), 45-53. Nadal, M., & Pearce, M. T. (2011). The Copenhagen Neuroaesthetics conference: Prospects and pitfalls for an emerging field. Brain and Cognition,76(1), 172-183. Nanda, U., Pati, D., Ghamari, H., & Bajema, R. (2013). Lessons from neuroscience: form follows function, emotions follow form. Intelligent Buildings International, 5(sup1), 61-78. Niedermeyer, E., & da Silva, F. L. (Eds.). (2005). Electroencephalography: basic principles, clinical applications, and related fields (5th ed.). Baltimore, MD: Lippincott Williams & Wilkins. Oppenheim, I., Mühlmann, H., Blechinger, G., Mothersill, I. W., Hilfiker, P., Jokeit, H., ... & Grunwald, T. (2009). Brain electrical responses to high- and low-ranking buildings. Clinical EEG and Neuroscience, 40(3), 157-161. Oppenheim, I., Vannucci, M., Mühlmann, H., Gabriel, R., Jokeit, H., Kurthen, M., ... & Grunwald, T. (2010). Hippocampal contributions to the processing of architectural ranking. NeuroImage, 50(2), 742752. May 2015 – brainSTORM

Polk, T. A., & Farah, M. J. (1998). The neural development and organization of letter recognition: Evidence from functional neuroimaging, computational modeling, and behavioral studies. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 95(3), 847-852. Puce, A., Allison, T., Gore, J. C., & McCarthy, G. (1995). Face-sensitive regions in human extrastriate cortex studied by functional MRI. Journal of Neurophysiology, 74(3), 1192-1192. Puce, A., Allison, T., Spencer, S. S., Spencer, D. D., & McCarthy, G. (1997). Comparison of cortical activation evoked by faces measured by intracranial field potentials and functional MRI: two case studies. Human Brain Mapping, 5(4), 298-305. Reber, R., Schwarz, N., & Winkielman, P. (2004). Processing fluency and aesthetic pleasure: is beauty in the perceiver’s processing experience? Personality and Social Psychology Review, 8(4), 364-382. Sur, S., & Sinha, V. K. (2009). Event-related potential: An overview. Industrial Psychiatry Journal, 18(1), 70-73. Vartanian, O., Navarrete, G., Chatterjee, A., Fich, L. B., Leder, H., Modroño, C., ... & Skov, M. (2013). Impact of contour on aesthetic judgements and approach-avoidance decisions in architecture. Proceedings of the national academy of sciences, 110(Supplement 2), 10446-10453. Vitruvius, MP. (1914). The ten books on architecture (M. H. Morgan, Trans.). Cambridge: Harvard University Press. (Original work published 15 BCE) Wiesmann, M., & Ishai, A. (2011). Expertise reduces neural cost but does not modulate repetition suppression. Cognitive Neuroscience, 2(1), 57-65. Whitelaw, A. (2013). Introducing ANFA, the Academy of Neuroscience for Architecture. Intelligent Buildings International, 5(Supplement 1), 1-3. Winters, E. (2007). Aesthetics and Architecture. London: Continuum International Publishing Group.

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Older People’s Well-being Affordances at the Local High Street: A Study of Local Town Centres in Edinburgh Luca Brunelli (Heriot-Watt University) The Public Realm of High Streets

Recent research on the liveability of North American “Main Streets” demonstrated how they no longer cater just for commercial activities but also as social hubs (Mehta, 2013). Within the United Kingdom, their equivalent, the local High Streets, or Town Centres as they’re called in Edinburgh, are the places where most informal social interaction was and still is conducted. Traditionally high streets were a focus of activity in towns and cities due to their “dual function as ‘links’ in a movement system that connects places and as destinations, or ‘places’, in their own right” (Jones et al., 2007, p.xi). It is this “place” function that may offer opportunities to support the well-being of older adults. Outlining a mutually supportive scenario in which High Streets and Older People are at play, “the British High Street in 2030” (RIBA, 2013) becomes a hub of social and economic activity where the “place” function is therefore prevailing. In a recent study on London local High Streets, Griffiths et al. (2008, p.16) define them “as the public space through which a significant proportion of Britain’s sizeable urban population are able to access a range of consumer, commercial, and community services”, and particularly those “disadvantaged members of the society” with lower income and restricted mobility, i.e., the elderly, among others. The local High Street is considered in this paper as a spatial frame for older people and well-being, and more in particular its Public Realm, whose definition, albeit not unequivocal (Madanipour, 2003), may refer both to the public space of the street but also to the publicly accessible facilities and shops. Similar to the famous 1748 Nolli’s plan of Rome (Madanipour, 2003), where all public accessible outdoor and indoor spaces were represented as a continuum, Public Realm is where “all the parts of the urban fabric to which the public have physical and visual access” and where “the greatest amount of human contact and interaction takes place” (Tibbalds, 2012, p.1).

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Well-being and the Built Environment

Research on well-being is predominantly focused on the “content” or psychological origins of well-being, rather than on the “context” (Fave et al., 2011). Developments from positive psychology have contributed to understanding the psychological mechanisms that foster well-being through two principal dimensions: eudaimonic well-being related to the actualization of one’s potential (Ryff, 1989), and hedonic well-being, related to the “positive state of mind” or the “pleasantness” of emotional life (Kahneman et al., 1999). Both eudaimonic and hedonic dimensions of well-being are linked to everyday life and perceptions of the built environment, and they give some analytical insight into how well-being is an outcome of person-environment interaction. The eudaimonic dimension is, for example, embedded in everyday activities and “lifestyle” (Steger et al., 2008), grounded on “eudaimonic behaviours”, and in social connectedness (Ong & Bergeman, 2010); the latter is also linked to positive emotions that relate both to emotional attachment to place (Atkinson et al., 2012) and to the aesthetic, “sensorial”, experience of the environment (Cold, 2001) or the experiential and existential dimensions of residential environments (Day, 2008) . A “behavioural approach to space” (Madanipour, 1996) recognizes the relevance of subjective engagement with the built environment that “has emerged strongly in research planning in contrast to existing convention of describing and assessing environment through objective measures” (Atkinson et al., 2012, p.6). Older people’s well-being is understood in this paper as being “grounded on the complexities of older people’s everyday experiences”, so as to cross “the boundaries between academic disciplines and traditions and unite the physical, psychological and social realms of wellbeing and the self” [(Bowling, 2005) cited by (Ziegler & Schwanen, 2011, p.746)]. Older people’s perceptions of the “things” that give their lives quality and their underlying reasons correspond to what Bowling & Gabriel (2007) defined as “lay perceptions” of well-being, which correspond to themes emerging from research conducted with older people (Bowling, 2005). Similarly, in the pilot for the larger study described here, ground-up research elicited lay perceptions of well-being. Well-being and Salutogenesis

Within people-built environment literature, the “salutogenic” concept has been frequently used as an overall theoretical reference (Vӧlker & Kistemann, 2011), and in its etymological meaning (Ward Thompson, 2013) in


relation to those environments that “create health”, i.e., afford better physical conditions like air quality or the presence of green spaces. In line with previous studies on indoor spaces (Golembiewski, 2012; Golembiewski, 2010), this research proposes a translation to the urban environment of the “salutogenesis” theory, as originally developed by medical sociologist Aaron Antonovsky (1979). Central to this theory is the idea that life contains a number of threats to health and well-being. “Tension” is immanent in our life, and our ability to manage it is what situates us on the “ease/dis-ease continuum”. People keep themselves healthy leaning on resources, defined as “General Resistance Resources”, (GRRs) (Antonovsky, 1979). GRRs are an open and inclusive concept, framed by the socio, cultural and historical context in which life is lived and resources are available. They can be described as personal assets like education, financial resources, and lifestyle in general, but also features of the physical environment, such as housing and workplace quality, and neighborhood space, as well as resources to be found within the social environment, e.g., family, friends, and social networks. Having access to GRRs is nevertheless not enough for managing tensions and overcoming stressful situations. Antonovsky acknowledged that what makes possible the use of resources and to remain healthy is the Sense of Coeherence (SOC), a “global orientation that expresses the extent to which one has a pervasive, enduring though dynamic feeling of confidence that one’s internal and external environments are predictable and that there is a high probability that things will work out as well as can reasonably be expected” (Antonovsky 1979, p.123). The SOC is not a personal trait, but is a dispositional orientation to the specific context of culture and society (Antonovsky, 1987), and while mainly shaped from childhood to young adulthood, it is also valid for older people (Antonovsky, 1993) . The SOC is not a “well-being construct”. However, the human features it embraces such as the pursuit of goals and the search for meaning in life events are coherent with an “eudaimonic” approach to well-being (Fave et al., 2011) and even to more specific constructs such as Ryff (1989) Psychological Well-being. The “salutogenesis” theory and the SOC locate the focus of health and well-being creation less on the individual and more on the societal context and therefore away from dominant neo-liberal ageing models (Katz, 2009) that situate health and success within the personal sphere. The link with the public realm is therefore significant as it is the same social context framing health creation that determines the material conditions of production and use of the built enviMay 2015 – brainSTORM

ronment. Antonovsky always stressed the relevance of the impact of society and social conditions on people’s health and well-being. For him the responsibility in moving to the health end of the “ease/dis-ease continuum” is not one’s personal choice but one that resides in the interplay of the individual and society, and as such is very much a collective endeavour. SOC is broken down into three main constructs— comprehensibility, manageability, and meaningfulness —that resonate with similar concepts in urban design, as in fact they “reflect the interactions of an individual with the environment” (Naaldenberg et al., 2012, p.713). The close link between GRRs and SOC makes it possible to think of supportive environments whenever their resources are meaningful, comprehensible, and manageable and therefore foster the Sense of Coherence (SOC) (Antonovsky, 1996; Eriksson & Lindstrӧm, 2007). In this study, the SOC and its breakdown constructs help in framing an interpretive approach to older people’s experience of the environment in order to assess how the latter may contribute to subjective well-being. They are adopted as a proxy between the local High Street and health and well-being as elicited through people’s behaviours and feelings. Comprehensibility, Manageability, and Meaningfulness of the Public Realm

Comprehensibility can be considered as a matter of spatial cognition which resonates with wayfinding issues and related urban design concepts such as imageability and legibility. Comprehensibility also has to do with some of the qualities a successful place should embody, like being distinctive and easy to move around (Gehl & Svarr, 2013). Familiarity, distinctiveness, accessibility, comfort, and safety, besides legibility, contribute to make the environment age- and also dementia-friendly (Burton & Mitchell, 2006). Not surprisingly therefore, the extent to which one is capable of finding his/her way in the environment, and to comprehend it, is directly related to his/her well-being (Lynch, 1960). Antonovsky warned us, however, that comprehensibility can also have a flipside: “for someone who saw everything as comprehensible, boredom would become a profound stressor, likely to erode the sense of meaningfulness” (Antonovsky 1987, p.25). Daniel Geller (1980) and, more recently, Gabriel Moser (2012) pointed out how people also have a need for complexity, novelty, excitement, and exploration within the urban environment. Rapoport & Kantor (1967) discussed the value attached to complexity and ambiguity in the built environment and linked them to its aesthetic appreciation. Later Lynch (1984) also related surprise

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to ambiguity and mystery in the urban environment. He pointed out that enjoyment was linked to a sense of “internal security” resonating with Antonovsky’s Sense of Coeherence. Pleasurabilty is also linked to imageability (Mehta, 2014), bringing back the focus on (older) people’s experience and to the emotional impact of the environment, connected with the meaningfulness dimension of the salutogenic model discussed later. Manageability may translate to the urban environment through three main strands: as related to the experience of stress and the correspondent capacity to cope; in terms of availability of resources and the ability to make use of them; and finally as a perception of one’s own capacity of being influential in shaping the environment. The experience of the urban environment as a whole has been often associated with the idea of environmental stressors, and the negative impact on mental health of stimuli “overload” (Milgram, 1970), including overcrowding, traffic noise, and safety concerns in the struggle between anonymity and familiarity. The “overload” is an inevitable side effect of the modern way of life, leading to adaptive social and moral behaviours of urban citizens. However, not everybody is equally affected by the urban environment. On the contrary, suffering of underload in a too-quiet setting may be equally stressful as overload (Krupat, 1985). High Streets are (or should be) lively places, and “going out and about” in such locales is a matter of personal choice. What might have been of Antonovsky’s interest, and is central to this research, is in fact exploring how older people might engage with the environment outside the comfort zone of the person-environment fit. Manageability as related to local High Streets also brings into the discussion the availability of those services and facilities necessary for carrying out everyday life and therefore may raise issues of land use planning and management policies. Finding resources “at one’s disposal” is at the core of Antonovsky’s concept and is also inextricably linked to the perception of places. Golant (2014, p.9) refers to this aspect as “residential mastery zones”, places where people “feel competent and in control of their life and surroundings” and where they are able to perform their everyday activities. The instrumental value of the public realm suggests to record the resources available, including places and people, and the ways in which are used. It should be mentioned, however, that “usefulness”, as fostering engagement and increasing frequency of use, translates into space-time routines that inevitably accrue to familiarity and place attachment (Mehta 2014, p.59) and therefore address meaningfulness as an important dimension.

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Manageability understood as “being in control” might also shift the focus to those opportunities for empowering people in making decisions to shape their environment. At a local level, this can be articulated through the informal political dimension of community. The idea of community, however, should not necessarily be attached as in the past to a socio-spatial unit, as there are both place-based communities and communities of interest (Madanipour, 2003). Moreover, social change may also have an impact on the “models of aging” and the conception of community. It can be argued that “impersonal” High Streets, more than the “semi-public realm” of neighbourhoods, may still contribute in providing opportunities and spaces, both formal and informal, for “an exploration of difference and identity” and for an “examination of the relationship between particular and general, personal and impersonal” (Madanipour, 2003, pp.206, 209). Finally, meaningfulness as related to the built environment echoes intuitively with a burgeoning literature on sense of place and place attachment theories (Lewicka, 2011). Antonovsky’s construct refers to the general understanding and self-confidence in the pursuit of tasks and objectives, as well as to the expectations of emotional rewards that life experiences may provide. Rephrasing Antonovsky’s words (Antonovsky 1987, p.18), being motivated to “go out and about” depends on how much the demands posed by the environment are welcome and are seen as challenges worth investing energy in rather than burdens. This has to do with the cognitive processes that underpin familiarity (and therefore comprehensibility) and meaning of place as related to eudaimonic dimensions of well-being (Atkinson et al., 2012). It is also associated to affect and emotions in the experience of the urban environment, in particular with reference to the experience “of the body in movement” (Miaux et al., 2010) as related to aesthetics and sensorial aspects of well-being. Place meaning, according to Mehta (2014), depends both on individual and collective experiences, and it is usually built “by the bonds and shared values created through perceptive experience” (Smith et al., 2012). Attention to the process of place attachment has been reinforced by the work of James Gibson (1979). Gibson challenged the traditional dualism between mind and body and between individual and environment, opening to revision the person-place dichotomy in the process of creating meaning and place attachment. As social anthropologist Tim Ingold (2000, p.173) points out, “it is through being inhabitated […] that the world becomes a meaningful environment for people” and therefore people-environment interaction resides on a perception


of the environment that is always given through action (Ingold, 1992). Indeed, as Lewicka (2011, p.225) points out, research in cognitive psychology and neuroscience is demonstrating how sensory-motion is essential for human perception and that “the meanings that things have for us are a product of our movements”. But “things” is too general term as it may refer to physical features and people as well. We should not forget that for the salutogenic model meaningfulness “is developed on the basis of consistently friendly, open and accepting responses of significant others” (Wiesmann & Hannich, 2010), placing social interaction at the centre of the meaningful experience of places. Mehta (2014) also offers a definition of “meaningful place” as being supportive for activity and sociability, which fits into the salutogenic model. As mentioned previously, according to Antonovsky a meaningful place is a “useful” place, i.e., one that is capable of satisfying “basic needs, for shopping, eating, entertainment, and so on, and special needs to gather, display, express, discuss, debate, demand, and protest” (Mehta, 2014, p.58). As this author suggests, not every meaningful place has to be sociable, however it is the social dimension of public space that according to the psychosocial salutogenic model may contribute to personal well-being. Informal social activity has proved to be linked to life satisfaction and happiness and the latter to health and positive feelings. Pleasure, joy, or delight are also partially achieved by observing other people (Shaftoe, 2008, p.111) and therefore are a function of the opportunities the public realm affords to watch and encounter. Moreover, happiness and the hedonic aspects of well-being are contingent and as such immersed in the unfolding experience of the environment (Ahmed, 2008). The latter is achieved mostly through walking (and other pedestrian-like forms of movement), when both our body and the environment are perceived. It is a multisensory and mundane experience that through habit induces “sensori-value (aesthetic) judgements” (Wunderlich, 2008, p.128). Difficult to capture, emotions and feelings are, however, topics of contemporary burgeoning literature rooted in phenomenology, environmental psychology, and in the ecology of perception. The Well-being Affordances of the Local High Street

Gibson’s work bridges the historical gap in many disciplines between human beings seen as “organisms within systems of ecological relations” and as “persons within systems of social relations” (Ingold, 2000, p.3). His ontology sustains the recent convergence of perspective among ecological psychologists, cogniMay 2015 – brainSTORM

tive scientists, philosophers, and neuroscientists on the “intimacy” of mind, body, and the world (Good, 2007). Recognizing this “intimacy”, however, does not help in explaining “the direction of any relationship between attractive environments (natural or otherwise), physical activity, mental health, social engagement, and wellbeing” (Ward Thompson, 2013, p.82) A second layer of analysis should therefore gather the specificities of the people/environment interactions from which well-being stems. They can be material and non-material aspects of the environment, i.e., a pavement, a bench, a shed, a tree, a sound, a smell, or a particular atmospheric condition, but also a shop or a facility; or a cashier in a supermarket, and social events and encounters. But once the transactional nature of people-environment is considered, something apparent in a non-reflective transaction, affordances (Gibson, 1979), as a conceptual tool of analysis, help in focusing on the transaction itself. An affordance has been defined as a relation between the ability to act of a person (or an animal) and certain aspects of the environment (Chemero, 2003). They can be physical but also social, i.e., other people offering opportunity for interaction or help. They can also be emotional, i.e., specific locations that may provoke positive feelings, and they are actualized according to socio-cultural norms (“right” or “wrong” doings) (Kyttä et al., 2010). They are a relational concept of “possibilities of action” (Withagen et al., 2012; Reed, 1993), pointing “at both ways, to the environment and to the observer”. Affordances offer a greater analytical perspective on the complexity of the environment, both in its material and social dimensions. Recent research in the field of neuroscience, cognition, and body responsiveness (Rietveld et al., 2013) discloses how we are constantly switching between different types of affordances, in a so called “landscape of affordances” which is mainly characterised by the “interrelatedness of the available affordances”. According to Rietveld & Bruineberg (2014), this “landscape” can be actually perceived from a phenomenological point of view, as “a field with some solicitations standing out” or, from a structural perspective and more in line with Gibson’s original thought (1979), as a “niche” of nested affordances. The latter approach is perhaps more instrumental in urban design. Hence the High Street can be seen as a niche of affordances, or “behavior setting” (Mehta, 2013), e.g., a socio-cultural milieu that “pre-structures” the affordances available and influences their actualization. Accordingly, the public realm of High Streets could be defined as a structure of “nested behaviour settings”. For example, Oldenburg’s (1997) “third

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places”—restaurants, cafés, and to some extent shops— are “behaviour settings” themselves but also part of the larger setting represented by the whole High Street. The same spatial articulation can be related to single or multidimensional affordances, like social encounters, possibilities of use, or material and social “emotional affordances” (Roe & Aspinall, 2011). At greater scale, the entire High Street as a whole in its sensorial perception (Adams, 2014) could be a “niche”. In recent phenomenological and sensorial literature about urban space, this level of cognizance has been referred to as “atmosphere” (Thomas, 2008; Griffero, 2013) or “ambiance” (Thibaud, 2002). Methods: Mapping and Walking Interviews

A pilot was conducted to test the theoretical framework discussed above, exploring how the public realm of Leith Walk, one of the main local High Streets (local Town Centres as defined by the local plan) in the city of Edinburgh, is supportive for older people’s wellbeing living in the community. It was conducted with two women G. And I., aged respectively 70 and 78, recruited through personal contacts, and interviewed in two stages. First, in a face-to-face session in a café in the area, they were asked to fill in an activity diary and to trace on a map of the area the location of the spots referred to in the diary. Second, a walking interview was undertaken with both women along the High Street, which was recorded and transcribed for thematic analysis. This data has also been enriched by field observation and behavioural mapping in the area [see map of Leith Walk area at the end of this paper]. During the pilot, the activity diary and mapping resulted in a constructive activity, both in terms of data elicited and as useful props as visual-elicitation for the interviews. The sheets provide quite an accurate view of weekly and daily visits local High Streets and shopping centres and of the main modes of transportation. As (I) says during the walk interview with reference to “going out and about”, it is a matter of “Just [see] few things for a wee change”. Both interviewees also agree, commenting on their activity diaries and city wide maps, that they really enjoy urban life. They couldn’t live in the country, and they rather enjoy the liveliness of the urban environment. The personal mapping carried out with I., who lives in the Leith Walk area, was focused on locating on the map the most important spots of weekly activity, like shopping and personal care (hairdresser, nail bar), GP, and family (daughter). It also allowed the tracing of the most frequent itineraries in the area, most of them on foot but also combined with bus as in the case of the

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Leith library [see map]. The interviewee was quite surprised at the end of the process to see her daily movement patterns annotated on a map. She also commented, as it became evident on the map, that she does not have a preferred path to walk when she needs to get to Leith Walk. The walking interview lasted in total one hour. Photographs were taken along the walk to document the salient features of place commented on by the interview participant. Preliminary Findings

Comprehensibility: Walking, wayfinding and routes [see map for reference to streets and places]. The interviewee who lives close to the foot of Eastern Road says that she basically comes up to the Top of the Walk by bus and that she might walk here only if it is a nice day. She walks around smoothly, she knows perfectly well all the places, but even so she can appreciate some views, like when crossing London Road: “That`s a nice view..St James is there”. Crossing side streets does not seem to be a concern for them, although they complain that “Sometimes it takes ages to change,” referring to traffic lights and pedestrian crossing. Even so, (I) recognises that she tends to use just one (eastern) side of the street: “I usually walk on this side of the road. It just depends..I just come out from this side and walk up”. Whether this is due to the size and traffic intensity of the street, to the variety of shops and amenities on each side, or simply because of habit is not clear but possibly a combination of all factors. She walks mostly in the central and northern segment of Leith Walk. Her paths are embedded in her daily routines. She acknowledges, in fact, that she usually walks from home to the Leith Walk picking different, shortest routes according to the final destination. However, she’s also aware that occasionally she enjoys changing itinerary for its own sake. Manageability: Functional use. The lady who does not live in the area said that she only visits Leith Walk if she has a purpose, like going to a specific shop. The other participant, who lives in the area, uses the central segment and the Foot of the Walk quite often for her errands, albeit she basically does not do any more shopping in traditional or local shops. Now she prefers to “go to one place where you buy everything [...] where you’re sure everything is fresh”. (I) refers to the shopping center where she goes by car every Sunday with her daughter for the main shopping. Another superstore in Duke Street which has (G) “no cafe”, is used by (I.) “Just [for] small shopping...anything I’ve forgot I pick up.” Other comments about the “manageability” of the area come out during the conversation.


Figure 1: Map of Leith Walk Area


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(I) said: “Doctor’s across the road there for me there.. nice [because of the flowers] and handy” and “Handy for the buses here..there are quite bus stops ..all the buses go in them” [Leith stop, opposite Casselbank Street]. Urban change may also impact manageability. For example, when referring to the Water Centre which is now closed: I.: “It’s a shame because it was good...it was handy”. Meaningfulness: Social interaction. Informal interaction in shops seems to be much less frequent now as compared to the past. Still it is a component of visiting on a weekly basis the “functional” spots located in the personal mapping, basically the Hairdresser, the Nails bar, and the two public libraries. Well-being affordances in this case were for (I.) the whole area as built in her “sense of place”, “her home”, and nested in it the places she visits on a weekly basis, like the Hairdresser and Nails bar. While visiting her daughter is also a weekly routine for her, usually on Mondays, no other social affordances were mentioned, beside casual encounters that we did not have the opportunity to record. Asked if they lose informal interaction by not shopping any longer in local stores, the women said that they usually chat with supermarket cashiers. (I.) said that she usually bumps into 4 or 5 acquaintances during her walks in the High Street. Unfortunately, during the interview we did not come across anybody. Once we reached the end of Leith Walk, (I) remarked quite surprised: “We came all the way down Leith Walk ..and I haven’t met anybody yet!. Meaningfulness: Perception of the environment and memories of the area. Along the walk, both interviewees seem not to be annoyed by the traffic and the noise. When prompted about it, they rather say “busy” than noisy. As they mentioned before walking, they both enjoy “urban life” and lively places. “I couldn’t think anything worse than being stuck in the house and not being able to go out” and “..or taken away the bus pass!”. Independence and control of one’s own life outside home emerge here as a strong component of meaningfulness of life. (I) overall does not seem to be concerned in excess by urban change, on the contrary, she dislikes when buildings or land remain empty. She appreciated the new Youth Hostel as an improvement in the area because it occupied an empty building that was an “eyesore”. For both women, the southern part of Leith Walk has always been a place for dining and meeting up, easily accessible by bus. A private home where a former friend used to live raises “happy memories”. (G): “We had nice times in that house”, “We did have very happy

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times in this area”. “On a Monday night we went to the Lantern restaurant, top of the Leith Walk and then to the Casino”. Several “nice” and “lovely” shops were also spotted along the walk while enjoying “window shopping”. A group of houses, apparently empty, also attracted their attention: “You wonder if anybody stays in these houses right now...used to be the ones who had money”. Overall (I) is aware that she’s been living most of her life in the area. She does not have strong feelings of place attachment, “nothing really enjoyable”. As the other lady, (G) points out during the conversation: “it’s home for you”. To which (I) replied “So I’m sort of being in the area all the time”... “feels all right”, although she also remarked that “I’m never out at night very often so I don’t know how night life would be”. Conclusion

The three main categories adopted, comprehensibility, manageability, and meaningfulness, seem to provide a useful framework for articulating the landscape of well-being affordances emerging from the interviews and field observation. Comprehensibility was in this case largely due to a high degree of familiarity with the environment, basically due to the fact that the interviewee has spent most of her life in the area. Manageability, too, with regard to functional aspects was also evident, even if limited to certain activities and less to shopping. Meaningfulness was largely due to a strong “sense of place”, again due to the long established patterns of daily life. References

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Ingold, T. (2000). The perception of the environment: essays on livelihood, dwelling and skill, Psychology Press. Jones, P., Roberts, M. & Morris, L. (2007). Rediscovering mixed-use streets: the contribution of local high streets to sustainable communities, Policy Press in association with the Joseph Rowntree Foundation. Kahneman, D., Diener, E. & Schwarz, N. (1999). Wellbeing: Foundations of hedonic psychology, Russell Sage Foundation. Krupat, E. (1985). People in cities: The urban environment and its effects, Cambridge University Press. Kyttä, M., Kahila, M. & Broberg, A. (2010). Perceived environmental quality as an input to urban infill policy-making. Urban Design International, 16(1), pp.19–35. Lewicka, M. (2011). Place attachment: How far have we come in the last 40 years? Journal of Environmental Psychology, 31(3), pp.207–230. Lynch, K. (1984). Reconsidering the image of the city, Springer. Lynch, K. (1960). The image of the city, MIT. Madanipour, A. (1996). Design of urban space: An inquiry into a socio-spatial process, Wiley Chichester. Madanipour, A. (2003). Public and private spaces of the city, Routledge. Mehta, V. (2014). Evaluating Public Space. Journal of Urban Design, 19(1), pp.53–88. Mehta, V. (2013). The street: a quintessential social public space, Routledge. Miaux, S. et al. (2010). Making the narrative walk-inreal-time methodology relevant for public health intervention: Towards an integrative approach. Health \& place, 16(6), pp.1166–1173. Milgram, S. (1970). The experience of living in cities. Science, 167, pp.1461–1468. Moser, G. (2012). Cities. In Clayton, Susan D, ed. The Oxford Handbook of Environmental and Conservation Psychology. Oxford University Press, pp. 203–220. Naaldenberg, J. et al. (2012). Aging Populations’ Everyday Life Perspectives on Healthy Aging New Insights for Policy and Strategies at the Local Level. Journal of Applied Gerontology, 31(6), pp.711–733. Oldenburg, R. (1997). The great good place: Cafes, coffee shops, bookstores, bars, hair salons, and other hangouts at the heart of a community, Da Capo Press.

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Ong, A.D. & Bergeman, C. (2010). The socioemotional basis of resilience in later life. New frontiers in resilient aging: Life-strengths and well-being in late life, pp.239–257. Rapoport, A. & Kantor, R.E. (1967). Complexity and ambiguity in environmental design. Journal of the American Institute of Planners, 33(4), pp.210–221. Reed, E.S. (1993). The intention to use a specific affordance: A conceptual framework for psychology. Development in context: Acting and thinking in specific environments, pp.45–76. RIBA (2013). Silver linings. The active third age and the future of the city. Rietveld, E. & Bruineberg, J. (2014). Self-organization, free energy minimization, and optimal grip on a field of affordances. Frontiers in Human Neuroscience. Rietveld, E., De Haan, S. & Denys, D. (2013). Social affordances in context: What is it that we are bodily responsive to? Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 36(04), pp.436–436. Roe, J. & Aspinall, P. (2011). The emotional affordances of forest settings: an investigation in boys with extreme behavioural problems. Landscape Research, 36(5), pp.535–552. Ryff, C.D. (1989). Happiness is everything, or is it? Explorations on the meaning of psychological well-being. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 57(6), p.1069. Shaftoe, H. (2008). Convivial urban spaces. Earthscan: United Kingdom and United States of America. Smith, H., Soledad Garcia Ferrari, M. & others (2012). Waterfront Regeneration. Steger, M.F., Kashdan, T.B. & Oishi, S. (2008). Being good by doing good: Daily eudaimonic activity and well-being. Journal of Research in Personality, 42(1), pp.22–42. Thibaud, J.-P. (2002). From situated perception to urban ambiences. In First international Workshop on Architectural and Urban Ambient Environment. Thomas, R. (2008). The power exerted by urban atmosphere over our choice of walk. Barcelona Walk 21. Barcelone, 8-10 octobre 2008 [CD-ROM]. Tibbalds, F. (2012). Making people-friendly towns: Improving the public environment in towns and cities, Taylor \& Francis. Vӧlker, S. & Kistemann, T. (2011). The impact of blue space on human health and well-being-Salutogenetic health effects of inland surface waters: A review. International Journal of Hygiene and Environmental Health, 214(6), pp.449–460.

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Wayfinding Design as a Tool for Community Empowerment and Storytelling: A Case Study From Central Appalachia Emily Carlson (Penn State University), Mallika Bose (Penn State University) Introduction

This paper charts a process that began as an exploration of ecotourism as a strategy to foster a more equitable economic development practice in comparison to resource extraction in Central Appalachia. We pursued this through a focus group session with community members of Hinton1 to understand community members’ comprehension of ecotourism and related concepts. In the focus group, the community identified wayfinding design as an initial step towards realizing the possibilities discussed about ecotourism. To develop the wayfinding plan, a community-based approach was used to understand the important features of the place that the community desired to share and celebrate through ecotourism. An open-ended planning process was devised that could be used by the community to implement the wayfinding plan. In this paper, we present this case study with the objective of showcasing an alternative model of design/ planning that is fluid and adaptive, involves task sharing with community members, and furthers the notion of design/planning as democratic practice (Dzur, 2004) that seeks to enhance community resilience. The Setting

Hinton is a sleepy train town full of historic character, curving along the New River, cradled between steep green mountains in West Virginia (Summers County Government, 2009). The town is split in two by the confluence of the Greenbrier River, making navigation a bit unwieldy. The building boom between

1895 and 1907 resulted in the historic character of today’s National Hinton Historic District (Welcome to Hinton, n.d.). In the late 19th and early 20th century, the surrounding coalfields kept the trains moving through Hinton, and its economy strong. The advent and success of the automobile along with the decline of the coal industry slowed economic activity in Hinton. In 1907, the population of Hinton was about 6,000 (Welcome to Hinton, n.d.), while the 2010 Census reveals a population a little more than 2,600 (U.S. Census Bureau, 2015). The City of Hinton is the county seat of Summers County, and is located in close proximity to numerous recreational areas and cultural attractions. The town supports a small tourism industry, but is earnestly seeking to attract more visitors. The sinuous length of the town, combined with little in the way of signage, makes it difficult for visitors to pleasantly navigate the landscape. The Study Process

This study consists of two primary components: a focus group session (July 2013) followed by a participatory design workshop (March 2014). IRB clearance was received from Penn State University prior to beginning work on the project. Information about the focus group was posted in the local paper, fliers were distributed in local community forums/churches, and a local group (the Blueprint Community Group) helped publicize the event to the Hinton community. The focus group session consisted of six participants2. It was tape recorded and transcribed. The transcription was analyzed using qualitative methods of open coding in which themes and patterns were identified and classified (Strauss and Corbin, 1998) to develop an understanding of how Hinton community members perceive of ecotourism as an economic development opportunity and come up with first steps towards revitalizing Hinton. The idea of developing a wayfinding plan surfaced during the focus group session. Next steps consisted of review of planning documents to develop a preliminary wayfinding plan, which was then vetted through a participatory design workshop. The workshop was publicized through the local

Hinton was selected based on several criteria, including: (1) its location in the Appalachian Regional Commission’s list of distressed counties; (2) existence of established social and professional contacts; (3) community leaders’ interest in the project; and (4) presence of social capital crucial for the long-term success of the project. 1

The focus group participants ranged in age from 25 – 64 years, and were equally divided between males and females. Two participants were familiar with ecotourism and had participated in activities related to ecotourism, while the other four had not. Of the six focus group participants, one was a community organizer, three were small business owners, one was affiliated with the Blueprint Community group, and another was affiliated with Pipestem Resort Park. 2


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paper, radio, and through e-mail to local contacts. It was attended by 12 people and lasted for about two hours. Information from notes and annotated drawings generated during the workshop were combined to develop the final wayfinding design packet submitted to the community Focus Group

The focus group session probed the following questions: what are the perceived opportunities of and obstacles to ecotourism, and what are the perceived benefits and disadvantages of ecotourism development? The focus group revealed existing conflicts and opportunities3. Sources of conflict included tensions between locals, transplants, and visitors; lack of funding; and miscommunication between different groups. The existing opportunities included local businesses, potential for creative uses of trails, the underutilized marina on Lake Bluestone, proximity of the New River Gorge Recreational Area, the Boy Scouts of America High Adventure Camp, the existing train station, local and adjacent events and festivals, and the cultural allure of a quiet southern town with its southern hospitality. The group also discussed things they would like to see that could compliment their community such as new trails, new businesses, and new services such as recreational and ecological guiding and transportation services. The focus group participants made clear that the community, in its journey towards improved economic development (through ecotourism), wanted to ensure that Hinton became a better place to visit AND live. As a first step, the community wanted to capitalize on the marketing of its existing assets—leading to the selection of a wayfinding plan as its first project. In other words, wayfinding provided a hook through which the community could begin to realize their vision of economic development through ecotourism while controlling how it presented itself to the world. Wayfinding

Wayfinding is a “cognitive psychological process for finding a pathway from an origin to a specified destination” (Xia et al., 2008, p. 447). Getting lost is generally unpleasant, irritating, and imposes a poor impression of a destination in which a visitor is attempting to navigate and explore. This process differs between individuals and their purpose for engaging a destination or the environmental context in which they find themselves.

As expected, the wayfinding strategies also differ between newcomers and those who are familiar with the environment (Xia et al., 2008) . Both movement and decision-making define wayfinding. The attributes of wayfinding include a route of motion, the direction and timing of that motion, and the mode of movement (Xia et al., 2008). Research indicates that if a person has never been to a place before, they will draw from their immediate environment to make navigational decisions (Passini, 1996). A clear wayfinding design would be able to influence those immediate navigational decisions. Today, a host of mobile technology allows for possible supplementation of wayfinding schemes. With a touch of the smartphone, a visitor can know where they are, what resources and attractions surround them, and how to get there. Without technology, landmarks provide spatial reference points that people use to organize cognitive space. Good wayfinding design helps a person quickly create a cognitive map of an area. A cognitive map is sketched out to represents a person’s perception of their physical environment. According to Lynch (1960), the five basic building blocks to cognitive mapping are landmarks, nodes, paths, edges, and districts. Wayfinding design anticipates people’s behavior in a stimulus-dense environment and preemptively designs for their interpretation of spatial characteristics and their movements through these spaces. For people with disabilities, if an area lacks wayfinding, navigation can become frustrating and may inhibit movement altogether (Passini, 1996). The Participatory Design Process

Getting Ready After the development of a wayfinding plan had been identified as the vehicle to achieve the community’s goal of economic development through ecotourism, we collected information on circulation, local and regional points of interest, and current signage. By pulling objectives relevant to wayfinding design out of identified planning documents and combining them with ideas that arose from the focus group, we created a matrix of overlapping design objectives and grouped them according to potential phasing options (see Figure 1). Phase One, “Connecting existing assets,” consists of the lowest hanging fruit which could be immediately addressed with minimal funding. Phase One is categorized into signage, gateways, and connectivity in order

Limitations on paper length do not permit a discussion of the details of the focus group session. Interested readers are referred to Carlson, 2014. 3

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Figure 1: Wayfinding Design Objectives used for Community Workshop

to organize the myriad of design objectives that overlap yet could be tackled separately. Although signage could include gateway development, gateways require an additional level of detail and design. Connectivity issues will be integrated into signage content, but necessitate a level of systems thinking to decide which spatial relationships to highlight and orient circulation around. Phase Two, “Build connective infrastructure,” intends to build the connectivity between existing assets and in turn, making these new connections assets in and of themselves. These connections include trail development, additional parking, and accommodating ADA requirements to facilitate a diversity of movement through Hinton. Phase Three, “Improve and increase destinations,” came from the ideas that had sprouted from the focus group and the planning documents. This phase would build upon the existing assets and new May 2015 – brainSTORM

connective infrastructure to create complimentary spaces, services, and destinations. This phase would include restoration and repurposing of the historic architecture as well as creating new nature-based destinations and programming. The next step was to seek community expertise to fill in the blanks, and determine the relevance of the identified design objectives from the planning documents. A community workshop was held to help re-define and/ or confirm the original design objectives (illustrated by Figure 1), fill in the missing gaps, and address points of conflict in the proposed preliminary wayfinding design. Wayfinding Design Workshop

On a relatively warm spring day in early March, twelve residents and leaders of Hinton gathered in the Summers County Memorial Building to participate in

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the wayfinding community design workshop. The main objectives of the workshop were to:

• present, rank, and receive feedback on the design objectives (identified from planning documents and focus group) by voting on top priority objectives, • identify gaps, opportunities, and conflicts on the location, connective points, and content of the wayfinding design, and • work in small groups to discuss and sketch out improvements.

To begin the process, the following elements of wayfinding analysis and design were presented to the group: • existing roads, identified trails, railways, and other circulation infrastructure,

• a map indicating points of interest and destinations identified through review of planning documents and internet searches, • proposed locations for directional signage and gateways, and

• precedent examples of wayfinding design and signage in other communities. After introducing the project’s background, analysis, and proposed design objectives, each participant cast two votes with sticky notes for the design objectives which were most important to them (Figure 2). Two

Figure 2: Voting on wayfinding design objectives by workshop participants

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concentrations emerged: a cluster of votes around sign locations, and another cluster around the regional points of connection that Hinton should draw from and circulate to. Two working groups were established corresponding to the two concentrations (Connections working group and Signage working group), and each began sketching and discussing issues and possibilities at the county and city scale. Underutilized river access points, confusion arising from circulation patterns, and the existence of distinct neighborhoods were some of the relevant insights that emerged on trace paper (Figure 3). After 45 minutes of productive dialogue and sketching, the workshop came to a close. The main points emerging from the dialogue and mapping activity are listed in Table 1 below. The data from notes, map sketches, and our own observations were used to come up with the final wayfinding design proposal. The final design proposal packet consisted of the following: • Identification of neighborhoods and access points/ zones in and around Hinton • Location of proposed signage (including content) in and around Hinton

• Detailed location of signage (including content) in downtown Hinton

Figure 3: Annotations produced by Connections Working Group


• Jurisdictional map of road network in and around Hinton to assist with planning for the wayfinding plan implementation • Gateway design option at the North-eastern entry to town, and

• Possible greenway corridor connections with Hinton parkways. In addition, a phasing plan was developed to help the community with short, medium, and long-term goals (Table 2). The prepared maps included in the design proposal packet plan offer illustrative directions towards a comprehensive wayfinding plan. The plan allows for adaptability by providing a phased, multidimensional approach, which can be implemented in parts or by layers depending on the desire and resources of the Hinton community.

Conclusion

This flexible and participatory process has not only reaffirmed that a community holds a great deal of expertise about itself, but also serves as a reminder that community members also have good and creative ideas about how their home can be a better place to live and visit. By combining participatory methods with the innovation of the design/planning process, the community was given the opportunity to engage in task sharing and through it empowered to manifest its own vision for the future. In this study, the designer/planner was not only an expert, but was more importantly a facilitator of a public deliberation process on the economic development path to be followed by the community. In doing so, an alternative model of practice—that of democratic professionalism—was followed (Dzur, 2008). In this model, the professional (in this case, the designer/ planner) seeks to achieve public good with and not for

Table 1: Existing opportunities and impediments to wayfinding in Hinton

Existing Opportunities and Impediments: From Workshop Discussion Session

From Workshop Mapping Session

1. Ken Allman, a Hinton native and successful businessman, is interested in the development and design of Historic Hinton. His emergent local businesses would greatly benefit from a quality wayfinding scheme. 2. Two main obstacles impede the development and implementation of wayfinding signage in the community: a.Lack of financial resources b.Lack of local political support 3. The city of Beckley might be a source of guidance since they installed wayfinding signage 5 years ago. 4. Existing park and recreational signage need an inventory. No shape files have been procured through the National Park Service or WV DOT. 5. New one-way traffic patterns have improved circulation.

1. Need specific signs for/to the following: a. Boat launches b. Mary Ingalls trail c. Car Pick-up service from Amtrak station d. Shopping centers e. Hospital f. Existing parks g. Avis bridge as trainspotting platform 2. More river access sites exist than previously assumed. Some concern over the lack of river access from the historic district. 3. Distinct local districts (or neighborhoods) exist that could help build Hinton’s identity. 4. Bikeways and tours should be developed linking Sandstone with downtown 5. Interest exists in creating new greenways/ parks but also improving circulation to existing parks and river access points. 6. Route 3 arriving from west of Hinton is also an important entryway into Hinton that needs signage. 7. Old gas station at Hinton’s northern entrance would make a great gateway point, but may be on a contentious piece of private property.


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the public. This is achieved by having a worldview that recognizes the legitimacy of lay people’s role in decision-making on issues that impact their lives, and a commitment to sharing knowledge and authority with the public through task sharing (in contrast to task monopoly) (Dzur, 2008). By choosing wayfinding as a starting point for economic development, Hinton community members are asserting their right to control its identity and its story portrayed to outsiders and each other. In doing so, Hinton residents are empowering themselves to influence the change they want to see in the landscape around them. This was made possible by the adoption of an open-ended and flexible design/planning process. It is our belief that the pride that the people of Hinton feel for their home, alongside the realistic comprehension of the obstacles impeding the change they wish to

see, will help them shape their own future on their own terms. This project began with investigating ecotourism as a strategy for diversifying a resource-extraction based economy due to the rich biological diversity, impressive mountainous aesthetic, and numerous recreational assets of the Central Appalachian landscape. The flexibility of the design/planning process followed allowed the project to evolve into a wayfinding project through which the community is preparing to inventory valued places and working to develop the narrative that will be shared with visitors. We conclude by putting forward two recommendations: (1) Adaptability and flexibility are needed when engaging in participatory community design activity.

Table 2: Phasing Plan

Phase 1

• Make an inventory of all existing signs in Summers County • Using the recommended signage locations and content listed in this document, finalize this proposed plan with local leaders and stakeholders • Working with regional planning entities agree on branding scheme • Plan several community meetings to gather feedback, input, and buy-in from community • Network with Charleston and Beckley for wayfinding design advice and support. • Collaborate with state highway departments to gain permission for road signage • Contract with a graphic designer to design signs with local/regional branding in mind • Have signs manufactured and installed • Finalize design and build main gateway/kiosks into Hinton • Establish a maintenance plan for keeping signage areas clear, tidy, and updated if signage includes calendars or changing information • Develop, print, and stock kiosks with brochures and walking tours of Hinton • Establish and maintain river access sites and include signage in wayfinding plan.

Phase 2

• Create a county-wide trail plan • Network with regional trail and recreational groups to build connectivity and marketing • Consider hiring a recreational planner to design and oversee implementation of new trail construction • Explore parking alternatives and specific visitor parking that could serve as an orientation gateway into town (perhaps at train station or near Council on Aging Center) • Repair sidewalks and create ramps in order to accommodate visitors with varying abilities and to be ADA compliant

Phase 3

• Identify potential natural destinations such as nature walks, rope bridges, canopy tours, botany walks, additional river access points etc. and develop these into destinations with partners within wayfinding design • Create a marketing scheme and programing for Hinton as a train and trail town. Consider partnering with Amtrak and surrounding towns on the Cardinal Line • Begin development of Cultural district, including restoration of the Freight Depot

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(2) An open-ended design/planning process centered upon task sharing enables discipline-based expertise to be combined with community knowledge/ wisdom in the preparation of community development plans, and such plans have a higher likelihood to be carried forward by the community. References

Carlson, E. N. (2014). Sustainable Tourism Development As A Strategy for Economic Diversification in Central Appalachia. Master’s Capstone Project. University Park, PA. Dzur, A. W. (2008). Democratic professionalism: Citizen participation and the reconstruction of professional ethic, identity, and practice. University Park, PA: The Pennsylvania State University Press. Dzur, A. W. (2004). Democratic professionalism: Sharing authority in civic life. The Good Society, 13 (1), 6-14. Lynch, Kevin. (1960). The Image of the City. Cambridge, MA.: MIT Press. Passini, Romedi. (1996). Wayfinding design: Logic, application and some thoughts on universality. Design Studies 17(3), 319–31. doi:10.1016/0142694X(96)00001-4. Strauss, A., and Corbin, J. M. (1998). Basics of Qualitative Research: Techniques and Procedures for Developing Grounded Theory. Newbury Park, CA: Sage Publications. Summers County Government. (2009). Summers County 2020: A community vision shared. Summers County Commission, WV. U.S. Census Bureau. (2015). Hinton City, West Virginia. Retrieved January 22, 2015, from http://factfinder. census.gov/faces/nav/jsf/pages/community_facts. xhtml Welcome to Hinton, WV. Accessed January 3, 2014. http://www.hintonwva.com/. Xia, J., Arrowsmith, C., Jackson, M., Cartwright, W. (2008). The wayfinding process relationships between decision-making and landmark utility.” Tourism Management 29(3), 445–57. doi:10.1016/j. tourman.2007.05.010.


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Leveraging Urban Ecosystems for Comprehensive ClimateAdaptive Design: An Approach Framework for Landscape Architects Joshua F. Cerra (Cornell University) Introduction

While the science of climate change has been developing strongly, and the anticipated impacts of climate change on urban infrastructure are becoming clearer, the design community is just beginning to confront climate change as a critical influence on design approach and execution. Climate change impacts are projected to have broad and far-reaching effects affecting multiple aspects of public health, safety, and welfare. While addressing coastal climate change impacts is a critical climate-adaptive response for many cities, climate change actually presents a broader portfolio of urban design impacts that landscape architects should be responding to adaptively. Additionally, many site planning and design methods and practices already possess climate-adaptive potential, but they are not yet assembled and calibrated as a comprehensive scope of services for climate adaptation. Landscape architecture can further enhance its design impact by leveraging ecological processes in cities (Pickett and Cadenasso, 2008). Urban ecosystems can provide important benefits for cities in the form of ecosystem services (Mooney and Brown, 2013), and there is increasing interest in intentionally incorporating urban ecosystems and biodiversity into project planning and design frameworks (see for example, Muller and Werner, 2010; Secretariat of the Convention on Biological Diversity, 2012; Colls et al., 2009). Recognition of the value of ecological processes and ecosystem services as agents for climate mitigation and climate adaptation is also increasing (see for example Douglas, 2011; Secretariat of the Convention on Biological Diversity, 2012; Secretariat of the Convention on Biodiversity, 2009). Urban ecological design and green infrastructure techniques can guide these processes for climate adaptation benefits (Steiner, 2014; US EPA, 2014). Climate change is coming to every city, and many cities, whether subject to coastal climate change impacts or not, will experience dramatic climate change-associated extremes in temperature and precipitation with serious impacts on human and natural systems. Depending on

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location, these impacts may include extreme precipitation, flooding, heat waves, drought, excessive energy demands, shifting plant communities, and other effects that threaten city infrastructure and public health, safety, and welfare (Melillo et al., 2014). A more comprehensive approach to climate-adaptive design could provide an expanded scope of services that combines existing capabilities in landscape architecture with emerging capabilities in urban ecological design as a set of solutions to address multiple impacts of climate change. How do we generate a more comprehensive design response to climate change? This paper presents a comprehensive climate-adaptive design approach framework, which I developed and then tested in a graduate ‘design research laboratory’ studio in Spring 2013. While the test project is in a non-coastal location, the overall approach framework would also be valuable for coastal, tidally influenced locations. This work has continued to expand beyond the studio into my own research. As a practitioner, I see strong potential for using this approach framework to expand the scope of services for landscape architects as leaders on climate-adaptive design teams. Approach

I tested the approach framework in the graduate “Urban Resilience + Ecosystem Services Design Laboratory” studio I led in Spring 2013. The study location centered around a park in downtown Ithaca, N.Y., which was (a) bounded by an urban creek that periodically flooded downstream; (b) adjacent to a north-south collector street serving multiple bus lines; (c) across the street from a cluster of commercial and mixed-use buildings, and (d) surrounded by dense urban neighborhoods composed of single family and multifamily housing. The framework approach is composed of the following four steps, detailed below. Understand Climate Change Effects National-level and state-level climate change assessments should be used to determine the effects of climate change on local and regional weather patterns. For the proposed design project in the studio research case study, I provided student design teams with documents from the 2011 ClimAid Report for New York State to understand climate projections and anticipated impacts in our project site (Rosenweig et al., 2011a; Rosenweig et al., 2011b; Cornell Cooperative Extension, 2011). I also had the students consult chapters of the 2013 National Climate Assessment and Development Advisory Committee’s Federal Advisory Committee Draft Climate Assessment Report (NCADAC, 2013). This report was later finalized in 2014 (Melillo et al., 2014).


Assess Climate Change Impacts Using the above documents and other documents specific to a proposed project location, potential climate change impacts that can be expected at the design location need to be identified. Evaluate potential climate change impacts based on their primacy and relevance to the proposed project based on site features, local ecosystems, and contextual infrastructure. Comprehensive land use plans and related municipal policy documents should also be reviewed to understand future planning goals for the proposed project site and its vicinity, and how these goals may also be impacted by climate change. Develop Climate-Adaptive Design Options Develop climate adaptation measures that respond to key climate change impacts. These can be developed by selecting design responses from precedent studies or through new design innovation that can offset climatebased impacts. In the studio case study, we reviewed New York State ClimAid documents, select journal articles (e.g., Hunter, 2011), municipal climate action planning and policy documents and dozens of case studies (beginning with those in Landscape Institute, 2008; Shaw et al., 2007; Kazmierczak and Carter, 2010)

to develop a database of climate-adaptive responses to respond to projected climate impacts. We particularly sought adaptation options that provided compounded, inter-systemic benefits to both the built and natural environments. Conduct Design and Evaluate Proposals Adaptation measures need to be incorporated into the project during project design in ways that are compatible with the project program, desired future conditions, and site opportunities and constraints. During this process, performance metrics should be used to periodically evaluate the effectiveness of project design options in meeting climate adaptation objectives. These metrics provide important opportunities for designers to “tune” their design project during design development to optimize the benefits of their climate adaptation proposals. Results

During the studio research investigation, it was determined that the projected climate change effects for the studio project location include (a) increases in average temperature and annual precipitation; (b) overall increased frequency of intense precipitation events; (c)

Table 1: Example comprehensive climate-adaptive design approach framework showing linkages between priority climate change effects, impacts, and adaptation responses selected during the 2013 studio project. An asterisk (*) indicates a condition that is not a climate change effect or impact per se, but a contributor to severity of climate change effects.


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greater likelihood of warmer temperatures, increased precipitation, and decreased snow cover in winter; (d) decreased precipitation in the summer or fall; and (e) greater likelihood of drought and summer heat stress (Rosenweig et al., 2011a; Rosenweig et al., 2011b; Cornell Cooperative Extension, 2011) . We determined that the key climate change impacts likely to affect our project study area would include (a) increased risk of flooding; (b) increased stormwater runoff; (c) shifting plant communities and local plant species suitability; (d) vulnerability and additional stresses on ecosystems and species; (e) amplified species dispersal and connectivity risks, (f) risk of heat waves and increased urban heat island effect; and (g) continued dependence on carbon-based fuels. We then developed compatible adaptation strategies that fit into three general framework headings - water systems support, ecosystem support, and built environment support—of which six core climate adaptive design strategies emerged. They were (a) floodplain storage; (b) low impact development; (c) resilient planting design/ecological resilience (combined); (d) dispersal support/landscape connectivity; (e) urban heat island mitigation; and (f) multi-modal mobility. Table 1 illustrates how projected climate change effects and impacts correlate with the project team’s adaptation response strategies. These climate adaptation strategies were incorporated into the project design and development process. During this process, projects were periodically evaluated using a series of landscape performance metrics specific to each strategy. Each of the climate adaptation strategies incorporated into the studio research project case study are described in further detail below. Floodplain Storage High rates of impervious surfaces area and efficient stormwater conveyance infrastructure in cities already generate higher runoff volumes and velocities entering many urban streams (Arnold and Gibbons, 1996). This can result in higher peak flows within an urbanized watershed (Paul and Meyer, 2001). With greater likelihood of extreme precipitation events in New York State, elevated risks of flooding also increase (Rosenweig et al., 2011b). Increasing the size of the floodplain to store greater volumes of floodwater can help reduce flood risks either onsite or downstream of a site. To understand the nature of flooding at a certain location, watershed flood models (e.g., HEC-RAS) or flood frequency analyses (where USGS stream gauge data is available) should be used so that designers can access design flood elevations. These key elevations (e.g., 25-

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year design flood, 50-year design flood, etc.) can then be cross-walked to key site elevation data to determine opportunities to create floodplain storage adjacent to a stream channel via excavation within a project. Storage benefits can be calculated using cut-fill calculations of flood storage volumes (e.g., cubic yards or acre-feet) for specific design floods. Depending on the degree of grading relative to the water table and flood elevations, different hydrological and soil conditions may also facilitate creation of favorable plant communities in the designed floodplain area, including lowland forest, floodplain wetland communities, and other community types that may be in short supply in the local region. Low Impact Development As described above, climate change will bring extreme precipitation that contributes to flooding in susceptible areas. Many storm sewer catch basins drain to urban streams that may be at risk of flooding in cities. In addition to providing floodplain storage once high volumes have reached the stream channel, a complementary strategy for mitigating flood risk is to limit the volume and/or rate of stormwater actually entering into the stream channel itself. Low impact development (LID) techniques can reduce or delay delivery of stormwater to systems during periods of climate-associated flood risk (US EPA, 2014a). In July 2014, seven federal agencies launched the Green Infrastructure Collaborative, acknowledging the benefits of green infrastructure (another term for LID) as a valuable tool for managing extreme precipitation events and flooding, both of which are associated with climate change (Green Infrastructure Collaborative, 2014). Sites can be retrofitted for stormwater detention and/or infiltration by mapping stormwater catchments within the project limits, and identifying and implementing suitable low impact development design solutions. Landscape performance metrics for evaluating the effectiveness of proposed LID techniques are diverse, and can be measurable (e.g., areal reduction of impervious area), calculable (e.g., water quality volume treated by the design), or determined using models or calculators (e.g., the EPA Stormwater Management Model or EPA National Stormwater Calculator, US EPA, 2014b). Resilient Planting Design/Ecological Resilience Climate change will bring significant stresses to plant communities and specific plant species in the form of temperature fluctuations, heat waves, drought, heavy rainfalls, and other environmental factors. In 2011, Mary Carol Hunter described a method for resilient planting design that selects a palette of plant species


that taken together possess degrees of plasticity or tolerance with respect to hardiness, heat tolerance, soil moisture tolerance, and other environmental factors. Hunter proposes that by selecting a planting palette that collectively exhibits functional redundancy and response diversity, designers could improve the likelihood that project installations will persist in the landscape in today’s climate as well in future climate change scenarios (Hunter, 2011). Hunter also highlights the critical importance of incorporating aspects of ecological resilience when designing for climate change. A design approach that intentionally incorporates specific response diversity (Elmqvist et al., 2003; Hunter, 2011) and functional redundancy (Hunter, 2011) criteria during planting design can improve ecological resilience by maintaining ecological function with the onset of environmental disturbances. For example, a planting design palette that is composed of multiple plant species that bloom when pollinators need pollen and nectar resources (functional redundancy) and is also composed of plant species with a range of tolerances to possible plant stresses associated with climate change (response diversity) can improve the persistence of these pollinator resources in the landscape, therefore improving ecological resilience (Hunter, 2011). Performance measures for this strategy can be derived from the functional redundancy and response diversity criteria described by Hunter. Dispersal Support/Landscape Connectivity Widespread shifts in plant species composition are expected in New York State landscapes (Rosenweig et al., 2011b). Accompanying these shifts in plant communities will also come shifts in ranges and distribution of animal species (Groves, 2012; Groffman et al., 2014). Habitat fragmentation over time has significantly reduced the permeability of the matrix and connectivity of the habitats in the landscape (Rosenweig et al., 2011b). This is particularly true in cities. Even in the absence of climate change, habitat corridors and stepping stones can support urban ecosystem networks by improving connectivity and therefore facilitate species movement and dispersal (Opdam and Steingrover, 2008). Improving landscape connectivity between patches of habitat has also been identified as a part of a climate adaptation-oriented conservation planning strategy (Groves, 2012; Nunez et al., 2013; Stein, 2013). Within the constraints of site location and overall planning objectives, when suitable, projects that improve landscape connectivity have the potential to support current ecosystems while facilitating shifts in species distribution and range anticipated with climate May 2015 – brainSTORM

change, thereby improving the resilience of ecosystems to disturbance brought on by climate change (Groves, 2012). For example, while protecting riparian zones and movement corridors is a generally practiced conservation planning approach today, these measures may also facilitate natural adaptation for species in future climate change scenarios. (Rosenweig et al., 2011b). Models for species movement and dispersal support can be complex, but some metrics can serve as relatively simple measures for connectivity including degree of corridor continuity, distance gaps between stepping stones, distance between patches along corridor, and corridor width. Urban Heat Island Mitigation Heat waves are predicted for New York State (Rosenweig et al., 2011b). Areas already experiencing the urban heat island effect, where air and surface temperatures in cities are higher than nearby rural areas, may experience even higher temperatures during a heat wave (Nowak, 2010). Urban heat islands already contribute to higher cooling costs, air pollution, and heat-related illness (Nowak, 2010). Climate-adaptive design projects can respond to intensifying urban heat island effects due to climate change via strategic planting of trees, other vegetation and green infrastructure features. Vegetation in the landscape can moderate temperatures by shading impervious surfaces from solar gain, cooling air through transpiration, and blocking winds (Nowak, 2010). In addition to the benefits of greater vegetative cover, shade analyses can direct designers toward strategic planting locations where canopy cover can shade impervious surfaces like buildings for reduced solar gain and associated energy costs for cooling in summer, particularly in locations south and southwest of target surfaces in the northern hemisphere (Brown, 2010). Use of green roofs, cool roofs, cool pavements and other hard infrastructure strategies can also offset urban heat island effects (US EPA, 2013a). Evaluation metrics can include areal changes in vegetative cover, impervious surface shading, proportion of cool roof/pavement, and impervious surface reduction. Evaluation tools like i-Tree (www.itreetools.org) and others model can also estimate reductions in building energy use and costs. Multi-Modal Mobility Vehicular transportation contributed 27 percent of all greenhouse gas emissions in 2011 (US EPA, 2013b). Design strategies that promote alternative modes of transportation can facilitate reduction of the number of vehicle trips and associated emissions. For example,

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nodal development, which concentrates daily needs of citizens into a compact, mixed use location, is an urban design strategy that can reduce vehicle trips, which contribute greenhouse gas emissions to the atmosphere (Smart Growth BC, date unknown; US EPA, 2013). While not a climate adaptation measure per se (it’s technically a climate mitigation measure, or an effort that seeks to limit the amount of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere), urban design strategies like nodal development that are oriented toward pedestrian-oriented and transit-oriented design can be part of a comprehensive climate-sensitive design approach. Ways to measure landscape performance benefits could include measuring project proximity to bus or other mass transit stops, number of connections to bicycle and pedestrian paths, or changes in “walk score” by third-party evaluators. Metrics could also be derived from Sites v2 Credit 6.9 Encourage Fuel Efficient and Multi-modal Transportation design criteria, which specify alternative transportation amenities like bike parking, bus shelters, carshare facilities, or reduced numbers of single vehicle parking spaces (Sustainable Sites Initiative, 2014). Conclusion

Fundamentally, comprehensive climate-adaptive design can be viewed as an exercise in scales—understanding a global issue, sizing up its regional impacts, interpreting the potential for these impacts to affect local systems, and responding comprehensively to these impacts via site-based design. A more comprehensive approach to climate adaptation will become increasingly necessary as landscape architects (and their clients) prepare for a changing future. New design innovation that reorients existing practices while seeking new ways to reinforce urban ecosystems can in turn result in improved project resilience and sustainable outcomes. The climate-adaptive design approach framework shared here provides a platform for designers to tune and expand their own project frameworks based on site location and program, anticipated regional climate impacts, climate science and policy, and design innovation. Opportunities remain for refining how to best develop and apply methods for measuring ecosystem services within design processes to demonstrate project landscape performance benefits (Steiner, 2014). Quantifiable measures of ecosystem services and landscape performance are not currently standardized, and can be calculated both in simple and in complex ways (e.g., estimation of SF impervious area reduction v. water quality volume calculations or models for low impact development). For a landscape performance or ecosystem service metric to be useful however, the methods

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for measuring and evaluating it should be clear cut, credible, and within reach of a designer’s capabilities. A comprehensive climate-adaptive design services continue to mature, they offer a compelling value proposition to project clients and society. Executed within the context of good design practice, climate-adaptive design can “stack” human and natural systems benefits into confined urban spaces and balance performance with project program and aesthetics. This kind of approach is compatible with many project types. By preparing urban landscapes for a climate-changed future, designers can make our urban environments more livable, adaptable, and enjoyable for generations to come. References

Arnold, C. L. and C. J. Gibbons (1996). “Impervious Surface Coverage - The Emergence of a Key Environmental Indicator.” Journal of the American Planning Association 62(2): 243-258. Brown, R. (2010). Design with Microclimate: the Secret to Comfortable Outdoor Spaces. Washington: Island Press. Colls, A., N. Ash and N. Ikkala (2009). Ecosystembased Ad¬aptation: A Natural Response to Climate Change. International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources. Accessed 9/21/2014. http://iucn.org/news_homepage/events/unfccc2/ events/2011_durban/ publications/?uPubsID=3944 Green Infrastructure Collaborative (2014). Federal Agency Support for the Green Infrastructure Collaborative. July 16, 2014 Press release. Accessed 7/23/2014. http://water.epa.gov/infrastructure/ greeninfrastructure/upload/Federal-Support-forGreen-Infrastructure-Collaborative_508.pdf. Groffman, P. M., P. Kareiva, S. Carter, N. B. Grimm, J. Lawler, M. Mack, V. Matzek, and H. Tallis (2014). “Ecosystems, Biodiversity, and Ecosystem Services.” Climate Change Impacts in the United States: The Third National Climate Assessment, J. M. Melillo, Terese (T.C.) Richmond, and G. W. Yohe, Eds., U.S. Global Change Research Program, 195-219. Groves, Craig R., Edward T. Game, Mark G. Anderson, Molly Cross, Carolyn Enquist, Zach Ferdaña, Evan Girvetz, et al. (2012). “Incorporating Climate Change into Systematic Conservation Planning.” Biodiversity and Conservation 21 (7): 1651-1671. Hunter, Mary Carol (2011). “Using ecological theory to guide urban planting design: an adaptation strategy for climate change.” Landscape Journal. 30 (2): 173-193.


Kazmierczak, Aleksandra, and J. Carter (2010). Adaptation to Climate Change Using Green and Blue Infrastructure. http://www.grabs-eu.org/membersArea/ files/Database_Final_no_hyperlinks.pdf Landscape Institute (2008). Landscape Architecture and the Challenge of Climate Change: Landscape Institute position statement. Accessed 1/25/2013 at http://www.landscapeinstitute.org/PDF/ Contribute/ LIClimateChangePositionStatement.pdf Melillo, Jerry M., Terese (T.C.) Richmond, and Gary W. Yohe, Eds. (2014). Climate Change Impacts in the United States: The Third National Climate Assessment. U.S. Global Change Research Program. Muller, Norbert and Peter Werner (2010). “Urban Biodiversity and the Case for Implementing the Convention on Biological Diversity in Towns and Cities. In Urban Biodiversity and Design. Müller, Norbert, Peter Werner, and John G. Kelcey (2010). Chichester, UK: Wiley-Blackwell. NCADAC (National Climate Assessment and Development Advisory Committee) (2013). Federal Advisory Committee Draft Climate Assessment Report. 1/20/2013. http: ncadac.globalchange.gov Nowak, David J. (2010). “Urban Biodiversity and Climate Change.” Urban Biodiversity and Design, 1st Edition. Edited by N. Muller, P. Werner,and John G. Kelcey.101-117. Blackwell Publishing Ltd. Opdam, Paul, Steingrover, Eveliene (2008). “Designing Metropolitan Landscapes for Biodiversity: Deriving Guidelines from Metapopulation Ecology.” Landscape Journal. 27 (1): 69. Paul, M.J. and J.L. Meyer (2001). “Streams in the Urban Landscape.” Annual Review of Ecology and Systematics 32:333-365. Pickett, Stewart and Mary Cadenasso (2008). “Linking Ecological and Built Components of Urban Mosaics: an Open Cycle of Ecological Design”. Journal of Ecology. 96 (1): 8-12. Rosenzweig, C., W. Solecki, A. DeGaetano, M. O’Grady, S. Hassol, P. Grabhorn (Eds.) (2011a). Responding to Climate Change in New York State: The ClimAID Integrated Assessment for Effective Climate Change Adaptation. Technical Report. New York State Energy Research and Development Authority (NYSERDA), Albany, New York. Rosenzweig, C., W. Solecki, A. DeGaetano, M. O’Grady, S. Hassol, P. Grabhorn (Eds.) (2011b). Responding to Climate Change in New York State: The ClimAID Integrated Assessment for Effective Climate Change Adaptation. Synthesis Report. New York State Energy Research and Development Authority (NYSERDA), Albany, New York. May 2015 – brainSTORM

Secretariat of the Convention on Biological Diversity (2009). Connecting Biodiversity and Climate Change Mitigation and Adaptation: Report of the Second Ad Hoc Technical Expert Group on Biodiversity and Climate Change. Montreal, Technical Series No. 41, 126 pages. Secretariat of the Convention on Biological Diversity (2012). Cities and Biodiversity Outlook. Montreal, Accessed 9/21/2014. http://www.cbd.int/doc/ publications/cbo-booklet-2012-en.pdf. Shaw, R., Colley, M., and Connell, R. (2007). Climate Change Adaptation by Design: a Guide for Sustainable Communities. Accessed 9/21/2014. http://www.tcpa.org.uk/data/files/bd_cca.pdf. Smart Growth BC. Date unknown. Nodal Development: Creating Compact, Complete, Mixed-use Communities. http://shapingourfuture.ca/downloads/ Mixed_Use_Centres_Brochure.pdf. Stein, Bruce A., Amanda Staudt, Molly S. Cross, Natalie S. Dubois, Carolyn Enquist, Roger Griffis, Lara J. Hansen, et al. (2013). “Preparing for and Managing Change: Climate Adaptation for Biodiversity and Ecosystems.” Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment 11 (9): 502-510. Steiner, Frederick (2014). “Frontiers in Urban Ecological Design and Planning Research.” Landscape and Urban Planning. 125:304-311. Sustainable Sites Initiative (2014). SITES v2 Reference Guide for Sustainable Land Design and Development. Sustainable Sites Initiative. US Environmental Protection Agency (2013a). Reducing Urban Heat Islands: Compendium of Strategies. Accessed 9/1/2014. http://epa.gov/ heatisland/resources/compendium.htm . US Environmental Protection Agency (2013b). Fast Facts: U.S. Transportation Sector Greenhouse Gas Emissions 1990-2011. Office of Transportation and Air Quality. EPA-420-F-13-033a. Accessed 8/24/2014. http://www.epa.gov/otaq/climate/ documents/420f13033a.pdf US Environmental Protection Agency (2014a). Green Infrastructure for Climate Resiliency. http://water. epa.gov/infrastructure/greeninfrastructure/climate_ res.cfm US Environmental Protection Agency (2014b). EPA National Stormwater Calculator User’s Guide Version 1.1. http://nepis.epa.gov/Adobe/PDF/ P100HD4J.pdf

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A Green Lesson: Measuring the Impacts of LEED Certification Credits on People, Planet, and Profit of K-12 Schools Ihab M.K. Elzeyadi (University of Oregon) Introduction

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) estimates that 40 percent of our nation’s 115,000 schools suffer from poor environmental conditions that may compromise health, safety, and learning of our future generations. The substandard indoor and outdoor environmental quality of many of these facilities is a result of unsustainable building and planning practices such as lack of safe bike and walking routes, poor accessibility to neighborhoods, lack of playground space for schools, low ventilation rates, non-operable windows, as well as lack of potential for daylight and views. The combined effects of these factors have been associated with multiple health symptoms and low academic performance for children in K-12 schools (NRC, 2006). There is a current knowledge gap in the reliability of findings linking liveable communities (USDOTLC), SRTS engineering interventions, and LEED-rated schools in general, and transportation strategies in particular to human performance, health, and well-being of children. This problem is magnified in school environments as most previous research has resulted in inconclusive evidence leading to speculative relationships between alternative transportation policies and their application in schools (Elzeyadi, 2008). This knowledge gap is due to three main reasons: First, previous studies that focused on case studies tended to be anecdotal and lacked external validity beyond the case in question or the context of the findings (Kats, 2006). Second, studies that focused on broader strategies studying larger populations—such as transportation policies and education on commuter behaviour—used a survey approach with weak internal validity (Heschong et al., 2001; Hardy et al., 2007). These studies could not confirm a relationship between specific transportation design elements, such as availability of bike shelters and changing rooms in schools, and their impact on biking behavior (Boarnet et al., 2005; Cash, 1993). The third, and perhaps the most important, gap in

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knowledge is the failure of both approaches to uncover the meditational effects between transportation-related physical elements of the environment and human health. The lack of clear differentiation between the impacts of programs that target physical environmental changes in transportation patterns and programs of an educational nature that address commuter and consumer awareness complicates the applicability of previous findings (CPAHTL, 2005; Klesges et al., 1990; Shlossberg et al., 2005). These mediational mechanisms, might include but not limited to, circadian rhythms, body-mass index (BMI) hypertension, physiological effects that help induce alertness, and other mechanisms that impact occupants performance in buildings (Elzeyadi, 2008). To overcome limitations in previous studies, this interdisciplinary/inter-institutional research project targeted this problem through a comparative quasi-experiment study of transportation and neighborhood design strategies of four pairs of schools in Oregon, four of which are LEED-rated/green schools well matched with four non-LEED schools within the same districts and having the same social, economic, and organizational variables yet differing in their physical environments. The study assess the impacts of green school planning and performance of the physical environment on transportation behavior and perceptions of the students in a 4x4 comparative experimental design measuring their impacts on transportation behavior and energy expenditures. As some of these settings were targets for more livability and planning interventions, the study will evaluate the impacts of these interventions in combined and aggregated impacts that would result in robust body of evidence to develop cost and financial benefits models. Findings and the tools developed from this study could create a market transformation in the way we design, cost-estimate, and operate schools and their transportation programs in green and livable communities that encourage better levels of activity and active commuting behavior to schools for children and youth at risk of higher obesity levels. Schools are responsible for the transportation energy use of the people getting to and from them (USGBC, 2007). To date, relatively little attention has been paid to the transportation component of a school’s overall energy footprint, even though this transportation energy use can be very significant, especially relative to greenhouse gas emissions. An investigation by the Environmental Building News (EBN, 2007) suggests that, averaged nationally, a typical work environment building—including schools—built to the ASHRAE 90.1-2004 energy code will consume nearly 2.4 times as


much energy per square foot for occupants commuting to and from the building than the building itself consumes for operation. Should these findings be supported by more thorough peer reviewed research, there may be reason to give more weight to location- and transportation-related measures in the planning, siting, and design of green buildings—and in the priorities represented in green building rating systems. A wide range of factors influence the transportation energy intensity of buildings. These include land-use density, diversity of building uses and services in the area, availability of public transit and other alternatives to private automobile transportation; distance to public transit, availability and convenience of parking, walkability of the area, suitability for bicycle commuting, and incentives offered to building occupants for using lower impact transportation alternatives. In addition to the energy consumption resulting from the transportation energy intensity of schools, their location and the transportation options available students and teachers also affect their productivity (especially time wasted in traffic), health, commuter and pedestrian safety, infrastructure costs, and ecosystem health (Porter, 2000). Increasing the awareness of these potential health and economic gains, combined with other factors, could help bring about a shift in the way we design, construct, operate, and occupy schools. The current goal of providing marginally adequate indoor/outdoor environments could be replaced by the goal of providing environments that maximize the health, satisfaction, and performance of school children [6, 9]. School Performance Hypotheses

Based on the previous assumptions, this study started with a general question: Do LEED-rated schools, which achieved sustainable site credits, improve alternative transportation commuting over non-LEED schools in Oregon? This question was further modified during the field research based on grounded theory epistemology and resulted in three main research questions:

(1) How do LEED-rated and non-LEED rated comparative schools perform? How do these schools compare in terms of energy and water consumption as well as CO2 emissions? (2) What impact does the physical environment in terms of street networks, zoning, and walkability indicators have on this commuting behavior in the studied schools? (3) What is the carbon and energy expenditure implications related to actual commuting behavior and modes of getting to and from the studied schools?


(4) What are the impacts of the indoor environmental conditions in the classroom on perceived as well as experienced IEQ parameters? A Unique Research Setting

As reported in the USGBC’s National Green Building Research Agenda (2007), every day, 50 million students attend schools and classrooms in poorly designed schools that suffer from a host of environmental and physical barriers that limit children’s activity levels and learning. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) estimates that 40 percent of our nation’s 115,000 schools suffer from poor environmental conditions that may compromise health, safety, and learning of our future generations (Moglia et al., 2006). The substandard indoor and outdoor environmental quality of many of these facilities is a result of unsustainable building and planning practices such as lack of safe bike and walking routes, poor accessibility to neighborhoods, lack of playground space for schools, low ventilation rates, non-operable windows, as well as lack of potential for daylight and views (Davison et al., 2004; Daisey, Angell & Apte, 2003). The combined effects of these factors have been associated with lack of activity levels for children both for outdoor as well as indoor activities that promote an active living lifestyle and programs (NRC, 2006). The problem is confounded by a host of health issues in addition to obesity that includes respiratory illnesses, asthma, allergies, and sick building syndrome symptoms. Since such problems are compounded by density, as educational facilities have four times the number of occupants per square foot than most offices, the American Society of Civil Engineers reported that current educational buildings are in worse condition than prisons. Decreasing the prevalence or severity of these health effects on students could lead to higher academic achievements, lower health care costs, reduced sick leave, and shorter periods of illness-impaired performance, resulting in annual economic benefits for the U.S. in the tens of billions of dollars (USGBC, 2007). To overcome this problem, a market transformation program led by the U.S. Green Buildings Council (USGBC) has been influential in setting guidelines and certification process to promote, build, and renovate schools into LEED-rated green facilities. The rating system gives schools credits for implementing alternative transportation strategies, sustainable land use and open space availability, as well as environmental quality credits that promote healthy indoor and outdoor environmental quality (IOEQ) strategies. One of the goals of the LEED Schools rating program is to reduce

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obesity rates and improve health and students’ physical activity in K-12 schools. Due to a lack of evaluation and assessment of this school certification program, however, the effects of these guidelines on students’ health and activity levels remain contested. This gap in knowledge related to green schools design have resulted in a low market penetration of these strategies in new school construction, in general, as well as LEED and green schools in particular (Elzeyadi, 2008). Conceptualizing School Environments

This project builds on the conceptualization of school environments from a place-based experience perspective (Cotton, 2001). This perspective (Figure 2) relies on the general assumption that green schools are composed of “students” and “schools” on the macroscale as well as the overall “neighborhood” and systems of settings on the mega-scale. The framework treats students and their school environments as interdependent elements of a system. Obesity and activity rates are viewed as both an outcome variable of this system and as mediational variables that impact students’ health as well as physical and academic performance in schools. In addition to neighborhood physical structure, the school site itself is an important determinant of commuting behavior. Due to economic and political reasons, the development of new schools in remote areas is

increasing (US EPA, 2003). Zhu and Lee (2009) question whether the Safe Routes to School (SRTS) program will have measurable impact on commuting behavior if the school location and development have not been considered first. Correspondingly, traffic reduction in volume and speed is identified most often as barrier to walking and bicycling (Hume, Timperio, & Salmon et al., 2009; Carver, Timperio, & Crawford, 2008; Kerr et al., 2006). This is another illustration of how the physical environment directly influences parents’ perception of safety and thereby their students’ commuting behavior. It is recommended that future studies consider school buildings and site-related factors when accessing the impacts of the physical environment on school commuting behavior and not merely the neighborhood planning and physical setting (McMillan, 2007). Only 13.4 percent of 424 school districts surveyed in the U.S. in 2006 had policy to include green design features when constructing new or renovating existing buildings (Jones, 2006). Furthermore, only 7.6 percent of these districts had policies or programs that encouraged the use of alternative transportation, such as walking and biking to school. This statistic offers an opportunity to address the decline in the number of school-age children nationwide who commute to school by walking or bicycling from 42 percent in 1969 to 13 percent in 2001 (USDOT, 2001). The USDOT and U.S.

Figure 1: Research Conceptual Framework

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Figure 2: Research Methods

EPA established a number of relevant priority areas and guidelines for adopting neighborhood levels physical changes in and around schools that would encourage alternative transportation and enhance livability. Many of these changes, such as presence of sidewalks and bike lanes, access to public parks, safer street crossings, and connectivity, have all been identified in previous studies as indicators of active living (Cohen, 2007; Kerr et al., 2006; Fulton, 2005; Lee & Moudon, 2004). School Settings Metrics and Methods

The study used a comparative survey research design using school physical assessments, mapping and Geographic Information Systems (GIS) analysis, transportation energy intensity metrics, and cross-sectional observations in a multi-method research paradigm. The diverse methods enhanced the research’s external and internal reliability as well as provided rich data that could cover the phenomena under study from different perspectives and viewpoints. The implemented methods aim to exemplify a model and state of the art for school transportation performance and impact evaluation. The multi-phase research design facilitated a grounded theory approach where the results of each May 2015 – brainSTORM

phase informed and focused the direction of investigation and provided action items and design patterns for the development of the evidence-based design guidelines. The research setting consisted of four school districts, each of which included a LEED certified school and a matched pair of a non-LEED certified school in a 4x4 research design model, varying variables between and within the settings of the sampled sets. Each LEED school was matched to another school within the same district with careful attention to maintaining similar numbers of students, numbers of teachers and staff, and student socio-economic variables (including free/ reduced lunch recipients) between each member of the pair. The schools studied were carefully matched to control for their social, organizational, and economic environment, yet different in their physical characteristics of the environment between and within LEED and non-LEED schools (Figure 2). School Performance and Consumption

Analysis of site performance and resource consumption involved development of transportation energy intensity metrics and baseline data for the studied

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districts. Data were gathered regarding the physical, organizational, and socio-psychological environmental variables of the study schools. Over 100 variables were collected from primary and secondary sources in the following categories: climate, site area, building area, cost, occupancy, energy, carbon dioxide emissions, water usage, and LEED score. Over 50 additional variables were measured onsite relating to indoor environmental quality, assessing visual, acoustic, and thermal comfort inside the classroom. Findings from this phase established a broad baseline survey across the different variables and school programs under study. It also can serve as a baseline against which the impact of the proposed project technology transfer and proposed guidelines can be quantified in the future. Analysis of site characteristics involved a SchoolIn-Use assessment of the school settings covering the performance of buildings and outdoor space use as well as transportation strategies and programs employed. A mapping procedure was carried out by overlaying Google maps and school district zoning maps from the city and municipality where the school is located. The environmental variables related to safety, bike and pedestrian amenities, traffic control, and land use were geo-located on the map and coded to document their category. The site context variables were quantified and spatially located, then cross-tabulated with walking and biking radii at the 0.5, 1, and 1.5 mile radii all generating from the school. See Appendix C for the full slides of the maps and the site context analysis for the eight schools under study (Figure 3). Variables and associated metrics are enumerated below (Table 1):

Table 1: Site Characteristics Variables Collected

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School Socio-Spatial Analysis

The intent of the socio-spatial analysis methods was to document the physical features and limitations of the school site and routes to school that may influence students’ mode of transportation beyond those that were initially assessed during site characteristics analysis. The socio-spatial methods were conducted using onsite observation and site audit survey. Surveyors on bikes toured the entire 0.5 mile area surrounding the schools

Figure 3: Mapping analysis of the street network, traffic, and amenities (e.g. site # 1)


to document livability facilitators and inhibitors on site area surrounding the school. The audits were performed in the early morning and mid-afternoon in the same time frame as typical children and parents would commute to and from schools. Surveyors used documented paths on a map similar to the paths typical commuters would take and recorded the information on an audit checklist at the same time photographs of the incident and variables were recorded and geo-coded and numbered on the context map (Figure 3). School Site Observation and GIS

This analysis used Geographic Information Systems (GIS) data manipulated using transportation analysis methods to assess connectivity and walkability as outlined by Schlossberg and Brown (2004). The analysis assessed 11 variables quantifying the pedestrian network, including minor and major road density, dead end density, impedance-based intersection density, and impeded pedestrian catchment area. As a method for studying people-environment interactions, site observation provides insightful data and context documentation. According to Jorgensen (1989), “...through participation the researcher is able to observe and experience the meanings and interactions of people from the role of an insider” (p. 21). The onsite observation helped in providing a good account of the actual number of students commuting to and from school on a typical day together with their mode of transportation and transportation behavior. In doing so, a number of techniques were employed. These were: (1) direct or simple observation (behavioral mapping and tracking and physical observation with the researcher’s interpretation of the behavior it represents), and (2) indirect observations through photography and field notes. Direct observation included techniques were employed by research surveyors to map the means by which children got to and from school. Tools included tally counts, behavioral mapping, tracking, and photography. A minimum of two surveyors monitored every access point where children are either dropped off by car or arrived to school using alternative commuting options (walking, bicycling, or using public transportation). Surveyors observed school commuting attitudes for one hour in the morning drop off time and one hour in the afternoon pick-up time. The observations took place 30 minutes before school start time in the morning and lasted for 30 minutes after the time to ensure that any tardiness or late arrival was captured in the data set. In the afternoon, observations started 15 minutes before May 2015 – brainSTORM

Figure 4: Site analysis for GIS based street network and connectivity metrics (e.g. site # 1)

the school release time and started for 45 minutes after this time to ensure late pick-ups were recorded. School Findings

The data gathered on the eight schools included in the data set was comprehensive in scope and included 350 separate variables for each of the eight schools. A standard data reduction technique was used to summarize and combine the variables into scales that could be used to describe the eight sites in a more parsimonious manner. In most cases, factor analysis was used to reduce the data, employing a varimax rotation and saving the factor scores. In a few cases the inspection of correlation matrices, reliability coefficients, and summated scales were performed. In all cases we examined the scores on the variables for each site and compared the average scores for the LEED and non-LEED sites, using t-tests and Cohen’s d, a measure of effect size. After developing the various summary measures, these were correlated with the results from the transportation audit using correlation coefficients. There are at least three notable elements in the quantitative results. First, they illustrate the way in which an extraordinarily rich data set can be developed regarding

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Table 2: Demographics of the Study Settings

Note: There were two sets of summary measures using the site characteristics data. Those labelled “a” involved measures based on square footage and volume. Higher scores on factor 1a indicate a larger footprint and surface area, higher scores on factor 1b indicate more playground area and more classroom window and wall area, and higher scores on factor 1c indicate more skylights and daylit area. The results for the second analysis of site characteristics used the data reflecting percentage of area. Higher scores on 2a represent higher wwr, classroom sfr, daylight efficiency and classroom daylight factor values; and higher scores on 2b represent sites with built up and paved areas as a higher percentage of the total area.

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the characteristics of buildings and corresponding sites. Second, they provide important nuances to summary characterizations of buildings and sites as “LEED” compatible, for the four “LEED” buildings were far from identical on the various summary measures. Third, they show how these quantitative descriptions are associated with actual behavior of users of the site, confirming the results of earlier work regarding the role of the built environment in an active lifestyle, but expanding this work to include very detailed site descriptions that might be especially useful to architects and planners. The results below are grouped into discussions of variables regarding the demographic characteristics of the sites (Table 2), energy use and emissions (Table 3), and surrounding streets (Tables 4 through 7). Demographic Characteristics of School Sites. The eight sites in the study were carefully matched to ensure that they were similar in socio-demographic and community characteristics. Table 2 provides summary information on the demographic characteristics of the sites. Higher scores on the first factor indicate a site with higher community incomes and lower rates of free or reduced lunch at the school. Higher scores on the second factor indicate a site with a larger percentage of minority students. The data presented in Table 2 indicate that the pairs of schools are closely matched, with the two schools in each site having very similar scores on each factor. Similarly, as would be expected, the average values within the LEED and non-LEED schools (second panel of Table 2) are very similar. Results in the third panel, where the LEED school in site 4 is added to the non-LEED group, alter because of the lower socioeconomic status of the Site 4 schools. Note also that the sites exhibit variability in demographic characteristics. For instance, Site 3 has higher incomes than the other three, while Site 4 has lower incomes. Site 1 has substantial representation of minority groups, while Site 2 has the least representation. Table 3 reports data on energy use and emissions. Two summary factors were used to indicate energy use, with higher scores on Factor 1 indicating higher consumption and lower performance ratings and high scores on factor 2, indicating higher utilization intensity and higher Arch 2030 benchmark EUI. A higher score on the CO2 measure indicates more emissions. The results indicate clear patterns for sites 1, 2, and 3, with the LEED schools having lower scores than the nonLEED schools. In other words, as expected, the LEED schools at these three sites had lower energy use. Results differed markedly, however, for the schools at site 4, where the LEED school had strikingly higher values on both factor 1 and the measure of CO2 emissions. It


is for this reason that the second grouping of schools has been included, with the “LEED” school in site 4 being grouped with the non-LEED schools in the bottom panel of all tables. Conclusion: Quanitfying Green School Impacts

This study investigated the relationship between schools’ physical site and neighborhood conditions in green LEED and non-LEED schools in Oregon and their impact on active transportation behavior by school students. It also places a value on the impact of the physical environment of school sites and their surrounding neighborhoods by correlating their degree of availTable 3: Energy Consumption of Study Settings

Note: High scores on factor 1, regarding energy consumption, indicate more consumption and lower performance rating; high scores on factor 2 indicate higher energy utilization intensity and higher Arch 2030 benchmark EUI. Higher values on the CO2 measure indicate more emissions.


ability and the number of sustainable site LEED credits earned to commuting behavior, energy, and carbon expenditures of school sites. Following a triangulation of research methods and an extensive data collection and analysis procedures, the study’s results positively supported correlations showing that changes in the built environment strongly influence active travel patterns. Even though there was no clear pattern of difference in activity pattern between the groups of LEED and nonLEED schools, there were numerous associations of activity with other LEED credits earned that are specific to sustainable sites. The differences are not trivial, especially with respect to the school boundary areas, suggesting that smaller boundary areas of schools within the 0.5 mile radius are positively correlated with increased active transportation. Similarly, the school’s footprint affected transportation patterns with smaller footprints, built up and paved areas showing positive correlation with and lower levels of CO2 emissions. As would be expected, most of the measures related to the walkability of surrounding streets were associated with the percentage of

Figure 5: School neighbourhood amenities, LEED SS credits earned, and relationship to total Carbon emissions of LEED credits earned across the eight pairs of schools.

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travel that was active. Active travel was more common transportation engineering interventions in the form of easier to navigate intersections for street widths between 20’-28’, more medians, roundabouts, islands, and pinch-points and curb extensions. Dead-end streets show lower connectivity rates of the neighborhoods and reduced walkability and bicycling behavior. It was interesting to note that these sites have earned higher walkscores and were associated with LEED and green schools, a finding that could impact the LEED revision and walkscores indicators used to calculate such scores. Active travel was also more common in sites that include more amenities and support for pedestrians, including more marked crosswalks at .5 miles, bike/ pedestrian signals, bike racks, bus shelters, and bus stops that were all associated with more active travel. It is interesting to note that the study also confirmed previous findings regarding correlations between active transportation and certain land use zoning. Active travel was less in neighborhoods with low density residential, light industrial, agricultural, or un-zoned areas. Active transportation benefited from livability metrics on the neighborhood scale, such as more planters, attractive architecture, art and activities, fewer fire and hospital facilities, more benches for sitting, and more animals. The better performing school sites in terms of active transportation patterns show strong correlations with physical indices related to street connectivity and livability metrics, in addition to LEED SS credits earned. This could suggest the possibility of additional inputs to improve the SS credits of the LEED certification. Findings of the study suggest a strong correlation between green LEED schools site and land use conditions, sustainable site achieved credits, and their impact on quantifiable transportation behavioral outcomes of students in the studied schools. This information will be invaluable to school designers and planning professionals in designing green schools for future generations of healthy students. References

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Challenges and Opportunities in the Formation of Design Professionals Margarita Greene (Escuela de Arquitectura, Pontificia Universidad Catolica de Chile), Yves Schoonjans and Kris Scheerlinck (KU Leuven) A CHANGING CONTEXT

Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) face a permanent challenge of preparing future professionals in a changing world. This is especially critical for the ADU disciplines—Architecture, Design, and Urbanism— whose emblematic instrument and method has been the ‘project’ that normally involves a proposition of intervention in the built environment. In recent years, new expectations and demands on the built environment have been imposed by a complex social, economic, and spatial process. European cities are transforming into a post-industrial landscape with acute economic and social challenges for designers and planners. Urban conglomerations do not stop at the borders of their countries, creating large regional entities (i.e., the Euroregions) that encompass countries (Antrop, 2004; Mehlbye, 2000). At the same time, many local and global transformations have taken place (increasing specialization and segregation of urban space, aging society, migration flows, the rise of the knowledge economy, and the digital revolution together with new models of productivity and related mobility), bringing profound changes in public space and everyday life in the city. All these phenomena present acute challenges for architects, designers, and planners who are continuously confronted with the redevelopment, regeneration, and renewal of the existing urban fabric. In Latin America, the rapid urbanization process has changed the environment and the lives of most inhabitants. The urbanization process was expected to bring better education, health, and access to culture and facilities to the population. But in reality, it has not always been the case. Most Latin American cities have grown inorganically, creating vast areas with insufficient urban services and equipment, while many of their central areas have suffered from abandonment and decay (Rojas, 2010). Technological developments like intelligent buildings, communication networks, and sophisticated infrastructure that have arrived to many of Latin America’s major cities establish isolated areas

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of prosperity and development. At the same time, the region has been affected by a string of natural disasters and instability that have damaged urban areas, forcing quick responses from the authorities and professionals. It will take years to improve this footprint of physical, economic, and social problems and turn it into a proper and enriching urban fabric. All together, the increasing specialization, along with new models of productivity and related mobility, define the way these environments change in a physical, social, or cultural way. The transformation of traditional production chains into post-Fordist economies, the increasing importance of the service and leisure industries, and the demand for rapid consumption—together with an extreme reliance on Internet and related technologies— have changed the way space is produced and inhabited. The changes occur at an increasing speed, and they certainly change the way architecture is made and perceived. However, these changing phenomena cannot be put into one single category: local circumstances, on one hand, and larger political or social-economic scenarios, on the other, ask for different strategies, each time demanding another attitude from the architect or urban designer (Cowen, 2002; Tewdwr-Jones, 2011; Crysler, Cairns, and Heynen, 2012). Professionals realize that the radical change of scale occurs at an increasing speed, demanding architects and planners to update their reading and intervention techniques to respond to multiple scenarios. Indeed, multiplicity has become a key word to describe the wide range of phenomena that define the daily environment on a global scale: many different phenomena appear, one next to (and on top of) the other, all part of the accelerated, simultaneous processes of producing space. On one hand, a reconfiguration and often neoliberal re-branding of more traditional cities is happening that defines new models of space production and related architecture. Here, the image of a building has become as important as the structural qualities, innovation strategies, functionality, or permeability of a building or site. On the other hand, in the last few decades, the world has seen exponential growth of the non-traditional, informal city. These two linked or adjacent processes of space production, possessing formal or informal qualities, define new realities for the architect to work on a global scale. The Challenges of the Profession

Because of the nature of the field, the traditional disciplines involved in the built environment have been project oriented; that is, their main objective and educational strategy has focused on the solution of a problem,


on the proposition: on the project. Probably due to this project orientation strategy of education that showed some effectiveness, this attitude resulted in an encouragement of the schools in architecture, design, and urbanism to carry out their studios and courses about real and relevant world problems. However, this strategy does not seem to be able to provide future students with the methodological and theoretical tools necessary to intervene in the current built environment in a comprehensive manner. As a result, the ADU disciplines have lost presence in the professional world and among public bodies, leaving the field with little direction towards new market forces, political decisions, or emergency actions. In this complex setting plagued by poverty, inequality, low social sustainability, and emergencies with a strong technological development at arm’s length, there is a need to rethink the traditional built environment field on a human base, and understand it as an expanded field. That is, not only the ADU professionals’ field, but also one where many disciplines converge and have to interact. A new generation of ADU professionals is needed where not only critical thinking, but especially creative design, sustainable articulation, and trans-disciplinary communication are essential (Janssens, 2012; Cross, N., 2007; Benson and Treleven, 2011). The required skills and competences in the education of architects, designers, and urban planners, which are crucial to be more responsive to the changing societal and professional needs, have a specific complexity (Doucet and Janssens, 2011; Spiridonides, C. and Voyatzaki, M., 2010). Unlike the hard sciences, the ADU disciplines both shape and reflect the very specific characteristics of the regions in which they are practiced. Thus the formation of these professionals needs to include the knowledge of specific and necessary subject-related skills, but also some common and regional specific competences that will allow them to respond to society’s changing needs in the built environment appropriately. The training of ADU professionals is being currently questioned within the HEIs, but there is no consensus about new curriculum directions and the refined particular competences that these new professionals should have. In an open world, there is a real need for a better intercultural understanding of global and local parameters. In recent years, important steps have been taken in this line through previous European Union funded ALFA Projects: the Tuning Project-LA and ENHSA/ LA–Project. These projects pinpointed new challenges for the education of designers in the 21st century: (i) further defining of competences in relation to regional needs; May 2015 – brainSTORM

(ii) identifying actions to move towards competence based education; and (iii) developing new performance competence-based educational techniques and strategies in relation to the specific global/local context (EAAE, 2008). The European Community funded ALFA project, ADU 2020, presented in this paper aims to take the results already achieved into a next phase, expanding them to a broader area that we have called the expanded field. THE ADU 2020 PROJECT

The overall objective of this project is to develop measures and actions for restructuring the HEIs in ADU of LA and the EC to the demands of the 21st century, improving the future employability of their graduates, and the quality of life of the urban population in a sustainable way, especially the traditionally excluded urban poor. This overall objective was summarized in four ADU questions: • What are the new professional areas and how will they affect education?

• What is the role of design thinking and transdisciplinarity?

• Can common and regional specific competences be defined? • What new educational strategies are needed to achieve those goals?

To answer the previous questions, the ADU 2020 project contains a system of six interrelated actions or activities. The first action was structural, and it involved the organization of the partners in six Work Teams, each responsible of previously defined goals: Team 1: Mapping existing programs; Team 2: New professional areas; Team 3: Creative-design and trans-disciplinary thinking; Team 4: Common and regional specific competences; Team 5: New educational strategies; and Team 6: Propositions to update and synchronize university curricula in ADU. The second to fourth actions were operative. The second involved a set of seven Network Meetings, where all partners would meet twice a year for managing, assessing, and developing strategies and actions, with internal discussion about the results of the actions. The third involved a set of Visits, where the partner institutions, in groups of six, carried out visits to each other’s institutions. The fourth activity involved Annual Conferences, where the project results and state of the art was discussed.

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The fifth and sixth actions were experimental, laboratory exercises where innovative educational strategies were tested. The fifth action is a set of Parallel Design Studios (PDS), where partner institutions work in parallel during a semester (four months) on a common issue keeping a close virtual link through the web. During the first year of the ADU 2020 project, 18 PDSs were carried out on three topics: ‘social housing’, ‘urban growth’, and ‘sprawl and community buildings’. During the second and third year of the project, 20 PPPs are being carried out on ‘public space’, ‘heritage and local identity’, and on ‘emergent systems’. Students are confronted not only with the different attitude and focus due to the specific locality, but also by the different teaching and learning methodology. The sixth action is a set of nine Workshops carried out in different partner HEIs with the participation of the host plus 11 visiting partners. Here the students are confronted face-to-face with lecturers of different countries, backgrounds, and teaching methodologies for a short period (usually ten days). The workshops are proposed to refine and specify the detected ‘common’, ‘regional specific’, and ‘trans-disciplinary’ competences in relation to the renewed professional areas; here the new teaching methods in lieu of the objectives of the project are being tested. Examining the First Workshops

A workshop is a familiar action in project oriented and ADU education. Students and visiting professors of different countries interact in a design-studio methodology on a precisely defined common issue and urban site. During 10 days, 11 visiting professors of different schools in ADU meet in a place to work with an equivalent or greater number of local lecturers and approximately 100 mainly local students as a design studio. The students are divided in smaller groups with one to three guiding tutors, usually including one invited lecturer. Within those small groups, comparative design research is performed. The objective of the workshops is to enhance a multicultural design experience, test new teaching methods, and induce the participation of local governments and professional bodies of the host country. Thus a variety of points of views and approaches are shared, while at the same time the ADU questions are mapped to a common phenomenon. The ADU 2020 specific objectives, present all through the Workshop period, can be translated into the following attitudes: (i) to conceive the educational process from a competence-based view, focusing not on certain knowledge to transmit, but on the construc-

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tion of specific profiles; (ii) to go beyond the traditional architectural practice and promote a trans-disciplinary thinking through creative design and design thinking in the ADU expanded field; (iii) to identify new professional areas in order to expand the occupational field; and (iv) to share and make explicit the different educational strategies. The three first workshops took place at the Department of Architecture at the University San Carlos in Guatemala City, at the School of Architecture, Universidad Central de Venezuela at Caracas, and at Strathclyde University at Glasgow, UK. The theme of the Workshop in Guatemala City was hunger, a chronic problem in some regions of Guatemala. It was part of a bigger design exercise, namely the project of the “Research Institute for Nutrition and Food Safety” (NUTRIUSAC) that gathers the whole of the University of San Carlos in contributing to the solution and eradication of the national famine. The exercise lasted a full semester and incorporated the workshop. The project of the workshop itself was carried out in Finca San Julian, located 135 km to the west of the university campus, with an area of 7,325.7 ha. It included a number of human settlements, as well as productive areas and the remains of a coffee plantation. The architectural programme contained four functions: Administration and General Services, Research Centre, Communication Facilities, and Dormitories. The workshop in Caracas aimed at two goals: to solve basic infrastructure needs and to generate new forms of community life. It recognized the urban void as a meeting place in the city and as valuable places of public life, defining three oppositions to be analyzed: (i) Centrality-Periphery, (ii) Interstice-Mass, and (iii) Border Fabric. The Workshop proposed to test the possibility of generating new sources of citizenship on locations throughout the city of Caracas, new areas of contact between different frames: border areas, voids systems in consolidated areas; and to test situations where a fragment of the city could be activated through an intervention re-qualifying the sector and restoring its significance. The final aim was to propose an urbanarchitectural solution of occupation and reinvention of the void for setting up new public spaces and social activation of the place. The Workshop was structured in 12 groups with two local teachers, an international visiting lecturer, and between 12 to 20 students from first to tenth semester. Younger students were distributed among the 12 workshops, assigned by the organizing committee to be supervised by advanced students, who ensured their participation and support. Additionally, there was a team of six teaching consultants in specific


areas of knowledge to work with all groups. The theme of the UK Workshop was ‘Experiencing Architecture’. The Workshop intended to introduce the participants to the architectural context of Scotland’s social, urban, and architectural culture within which Strathclyde teaches architecture. It was a different sort of Workshop since the invited lecturers did not have students directly to work with, but were invited to ongoing activities. The idea was that invited lecturers with local staff discuss new methods of research-based teaching, curriculum design, assessment strategy, the future needs of the profession, and the place of architectural education related to new pedagogical directions. The Workshop programme contemplated six daily sessions at Strathclyde, two days of site visit and one day of technical visit. The Workshop sessions were about assessment philosophy, MSc students work, architectural features, and participation in study sessions of 3rd and 4th years. In the three workshops, the underlying emphasis was the ADU questions that were tested beyond the topic the students worked on. At the beginning of the workshop, the host together with the invited lecturers had to agree and commit to a brief, which was the basis of the final evaluation done by students and professors through a questionnaire. In this way, the aim was to see and understand how the ADU questions were approached and new knowledge was constructed. The ADU 2020 Workshop Questionnaires

At the end of each Workshop, questionnaires according to selected competences were applied to students and local and invited teachers. According to the information in the questionnaires, the Guatemala workshop was more focused on the cultural and social role of the architect. This is consistent with the competences selected in the Brief and was accentuated by a certain interdisciplinarity, which was widely noted by the participants. The Venezuelan workshop also emphasized these aspects, but with less strength, as it prioritized technical ADU aspects. This is consistent with the main competence selected in Caracas, “Capacity to design buildings and structures that will respond well to the bioclimatic, landscape, and topographical conditions of the region in question,” which is a competence that focuses on a very specific theme, not mingling with other disciplines. In the same line, the interdisciplinary aspect in the Venezuelan workshop was perceived as an aspect that could have been developed further. Although professionals from other disciplines were included and gave lectures, the general opinion is that they did not parMay 2015 – brainSTORM

ticipate as much in the workshops, where the creative process really happened, and where more interaction with other professions is needed. Students from Guatemala were not familiar and had difficulty understanding and responding to the questionnaire, since they did not handle concepts such as creative thinking, creative design, or nonhierarchical learning methodology. However, they had a positive attitude and appreciated the opportunity to have been involved in the experience, emphasizing the richness of what had been taught. The Venezuela students demonstrated a high technical knowledge level in these areas, giving very complete and highly argued responses. Both teachers and students, especially among the latter, showed a strong awareness of social problems to be addressed by architecture, design, and urbanism providing solutions. In this context, there is a real concern for integrating the research and creative process to other disciplines such as sociology, economics, anthropology, and others. This was observed not only in Guatemala and Venezuela, but also in the UK, where the students explicitly signaled this aspect. Also, the teachers considered the interaction with other areas as a central element. An added concern that appears as central to Guatemala, Venezuela, and the United Kingdom, which again is more evident at the level of students than teachers, is the concern for the environment. In the three countries, it was emphasized that architecture, design, and urban planning today have to be conceived in affordable and sustainable forms. There is a strong awareness of the environmental catastrophe of the planet, and it is understood that the ADU disciplines cannot be part of the problem, but on the contrary, should be part of the solution. It seems important to emphasize at this point that the UK shows greater concern in this area. To Guatemala and Venezuela it is a central theme, but so are the problems of poverty and underdevelopment of their countries, areas in which it is considered that ADU has a role to play. All three countries showed, although more strongly in the UK, that students have a convincing concern for their future careers. They feel that there are too many professionals being formed in this field (especially architecture) and that the professional field is increasingly scarce and competitive. Students emphasize the importance of staying at the forefront of change, both in technology and trends. Particularly in the UK, they sense that the recent economic crisis has had negative effects on their country and that this makes it increasingly unlikely to find and keep a job in the ADU field.

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Among the teachers, both local and guests, there was criticism of the organization of the workshops. This critique was stronger in the case of the UK, because of the special format with no direct students. One aspect that was criticized was that little previous information on the contents, participants, and activities was given beforehand, making it difficult for teachers to prepare properly for the experience. The three countries suggested the presence throughout the workshop of professionals from other areas, not only giving seminars, but also directly involved in workshop groups. It seems important to note that in the three countries, both teachers and students made a positive evaluation of the experience of the workshop. All felt it was hard work concentrated in a short period of time but believed it was an enriching experience that stimulated their creativity and insight. FINAL REMARKS

During recent months, nine programmed Workshops and 34 Parallel Design Studios have been finished, while four Parallel Design Studios are still being carried out. Although the main data in this paper refers to the first three workshops, all of these activities have given the insights and provided material for these final remarks. The workshops showed interesting processes and results. Appealing design solutions to the problem formulated at the workshops were proposed in both the Guatemala and Caracas workshops, while interesting discussions on educational strategies in project oriented disciplines were carried out at the Glasgow workshop. The presence of professors from different countries stimulated the students towards innovative design methodology and enriched the exchange of ideas and discussion among professors. Also, important issues were raised regarding the ADU questions. In a later Network Meeting, when discussing the results, the ADU coordinating groups believed that the workshops could increasingly be used to obtain what could be described as ADU knowledge. The learning environment was seen as an open studio: a place where you can openly discuss different approaches or proposals without prejudice or top-down attitude. One important agreement reached is to carefully record the process, analyze the results or performance, and openly reflect on the outcomes without fear of failure. Given that in most workshops multiple parallel groups address the same topic, the research agenda or question that identifies each group’s profile is very relevant. It was decided to have open methodologies. Visiting professors and students were encouraged to

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develop and propose their own methods in order to have a wider range of approaches and solutions. Together, professors and students could define and propose the best methodology to understand the situations found and to make a deeper analysis considering its specificities and particularities. In some of the experiments, the traditional master plan (often understood or used to deliver a series of design artifacts at different scales) was avoided and replaced by a more research-oriented way of working. Knowledge produced had a changing hierarchy, alternating between bottom-up and top-down stages. Lecturers were also developing the brief of the design studio—with the students—so there was little possibility to impose, but rather to learn from what students could map from the reality. By this, the students were often empowered to lead as much as possible. More than ever, it became essential that the profession stay in permanent interaction with research, focusing beyond the production of artifacts towards the production of knowledge. The new added layers that have appeared in the built environment come together with a growing specialization. It is the main goal of research to help to bridge that increasing gap and create an extended knowledge through the layers. ADU research should not only focus on the results of specialized research per discipline (such as building techniques, zero energy building, water-engineering, and Gis applications), but should also concentrate on the interaction between the different layers within the complex multiple reality, creating and testing academically strategies and models. In recent years, it became clear that to be more responsive to changing societal and professional needs, it is necessary to go beyond object-oriented knowledge production towards a system-oriented approach and insight, related to the questioning of the already acquired knowledge. Here, as part of this system-oriented approach, the act of creative design becomes especially important because it holds competences that bring together in a synthesis way, or perhaps better in a syncretic way, different and very varied aspects, questions, and demands (Janssens, 2012). In the educational and scientific world, design is increasingly considered an important innovative competence to, at the one hand, investigate complex interdisciplinary issues in a non-linear way and, and at the other, synthesize solutions from it (Cross, N.; Benson and Treleven, 2011). It is in this sense that it is possible to understand that the project and the design process towards it embodies both the challenges faced by the ADU disciplines and the opportunity to overcome them and respond to the changing,


multivariable, and often contradictory contemporary world. In different workshops and parallel pilot projects, a multi-layered approach of the main subject was addressed. The most interesting results of the studios were achieved when the multidisciplinary team of teachers was considered equally important to give input, talk to students, follow presentations, or evaluate the projects. The transdisciplinary approach stimulates a new understanding of reality, integrating components beyond disciplines, generating awareness of complexity, and openness to absorb other knowledge. Because of the multiple and crosschecked approaches to the sites and proposals, students adopted a more critical and creative attitude towards the design task. The decision to choose a transdisciplinary approach allowed the students to tackle the urban, architectural, social, and theoretical issues related to the design proposal and certainly enriched the overall experience. Traditionally, architects and designers have a strong experience in working with other professions. However, this collaboration often followed a hierarchical structure, where the designer, after comparing all visions and outcomes, took the final decision. The complexity and multiplicity of the built environment today as well as of the professional conditions to work in, has made this impossible: it forces the ADU professionals to multitask, with the risk of losing efficiency, lacking depth and a long-term and broad vision of the subjects they are dealing with. In the new conditions and with the future challenges, a non-hierarchical structure is required. Here, a new generation of ADU professionals, embedded within intertwined research and practice environments, is needed. Diving into the essence of their own expertise and discipline in an advanced way, they will become ‘strong partners among other strong partners’. In this renewed modus operandi, where critical thinking, but especially creative design, sustainable articulation, and trans-disciplinary communication are essential, more guarantees can be given for coherent, critical, and sustainable attitudes in the related disciplines and expertise. In other words, there is an increasing need to form teams, to share authorship, without imposing traditional hierarchical structures that do not allow a project to be coherently conceived or developed. Thus it is precisely through the project that the current changing society, hence a changing built environment, gives both the challenge and the opportunity to rethink the discipline and practice of architecture, design, and urbanism.


BIBLIOGRAPHY

Antrop, M. (2004) Landscape change and the urbanization process in Europe in Landscape and Urban Planning, Volume 67, Issues 1–4, 15, Pages 9–26; Benson, C. and Treleven, T. (2011) Designerly Thinking in the Foundation Stage, International Technology Education Studies, Volume 7, Part B, 137-150. Cowen, T. (2002) Creative Destruction – How Globalisation is changing the World’s Structure, New Jersey: Princeton University Press. Cross, N. (2001) ‘Designerly Ways of Knowing: Design Discipline Versus Design Science’ Design Issues (Summer 2001), Vol. 17, No. 3, Pages 49-55. Cross, N. (2007) ‘From a Design Science to a Design Discipline: Understanding Designerly Ways of Knowing and Thinking’, Board of International Research in Design Part 2, 41-54. Crysler, G., Cairns, S. and Heynen, H. (2012) Eds. The SAGE Handbook of Architectural Theory, Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications. Doucet, I. and Janssens, N. (2011) Transdiciplinary Knowledge Production in Architecture and Urbanism. Eaae (2008) Reflections on and outlook for higher education in Latin America, 2008, pp.82-101. Eldemery, I.M. (2009) Globalisation challenges in Architecture, Journal of Architectural and Planning Research, 26 (4). Janssens, N. (2012) Utopia-driven Projective Researcha Design approach to explore the theory and practice of meta-urbanism, Götheborg: Chalmers University of Technology (PhD Dissertation) , p.188.. Mehlbye, P. (2000) Global Integration Zones. Neighboring Metropolitan Regions in Metropolitan Clusters, Informationen zur Raumentwicklung Heft 11/12, p 755-762. Rojas, E. (2010) Building Cities, Neighborhood Upgrading and Urban Quality of Life, Washington D.C.: Inter-American Development Bank. Spiridonides, C. and Voyatzaki, M. (2010) Educating architects towards innovative architecture. Tewdwr-Jones, M. (2011) Urban Reflections: Narratives of Place, Planning, and Change, Bristol: Policy Press.

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Generational Differences in Project Research Approaches Amy Huber (Florida State University) The qualities of the built environment, and the behaviors of the occupants therein, are by in large a direct result of decisions made by the project’s design team. However, if research findings remain unknown to the design team, or are not understood, the findings will not inform their decision making. As the use of evidencebased research within the design process continues to gain momentum, constructing an understanding of how design practitioners approach and process research findings is an important task. Armed with this foreknowledge, design researchers may be better equipped to communicate their findings to those who could directly apply the information to the designs of the built environment. Complicating this understanding, however, is the dramatic shift in the workforce. As Baby Boomers are phasing into retirement, the Millennial generation is rapidly gaining a foothold in the workplace. While stereotypes about this generation abound, empirical research has illustrated generational differences between Millennials and their predecessors relative to learning styles (Dede, 2005), communication patterns (Howe & Strauss, 2000), and career aspirations (Gerdes, 2006). This study explores generational differences in how interior designers’ approach, process, and recall information, and what that might mean for those disseminating research findings. Increasing Influence of Design Research

Processes of Design Thinking (Brown, 2009; Dorst, 2011, Lockwood, 2009) and Evidence-Based Design/ EBD (Hamilton & Watkins, 2009; Nussbaumer, 2009) have been a subject of focus in multiple business sectors. Case studies citing the benefits of these processes have increased the demand for useable empirical evidence as an antecedent to design decision making. Relative to interior design, Dickinson, Anthony, and Marsden’s (2012) survey findings suggested that younger, more educated interior designers that practiced commercial design were significantly more likely to value research. However, the degree to which empirical research manifests within the design process largely depends on the scale, scope, and needs of a project, as well as the background and behaviors of the design team.

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Literature Review

Literature on the research of design (i.e., researching how designers generate solutions) is prevalent, however less can be found on research in design (i.e., how research is used during design). This literature review creates a summary of information processing preferences, how those preferences may be evident within the design process, and generational differences in learning and design processes. Information Processing

Studies rooted in cognitive science have provided models illustrating information processing preferences, including the Heuristic-Systematic Model (Chaiken, 1980, 1987; Chen & Chaiken, 1999) and the Elaboration Likelihood Model (Petty & Cacioppo, 1986; Petty & Wegener, 1999). These models, commonly referred to as Dual Processing Models (Stanovich & West, 2000), share the premise that individuals use two modes or systems for processing information (Kahneman & Frederick, 2002; Stanovich, 1999). System 1 is gut level processing and relies on intuitive associations requiring little mental effort (Stanovich, 1999). In contrast, System 2 cognitive level processing is more systematic, deliberate, and requires the use of central working memory to allow advanced reasoning (Evans, 2003). It is suggested that the sufficiency principle guides individuals in choosing between System 1 and 2 processes. When an individual perceives their desired and actual levels of knowledge to be at different intensities, the person feels compelled to learn due to this perceived disequilibrium (Chaiken, Giner-Sorolla, & Chen, 1996). Further, this disequilibrium triggers a process of transformation from effortful System 2 to effortless System 1 processing, as the individual develops a level of expertise for the content knowledge or tasks at hand (Kahneman & Frederick, 2005, pp 267-291), thus suggesting that as an individual gains experience, they are more likely to utilize System 1 processes. Decisions made about which system to use is instantaneous and situational. What remains to be seen is if these preferences change over time, with age, and to what degree does experience and expertise alter these preferences. System 1 information processing. The basic premise of System 1 is that an individual judges information quickly, maximizing mental output with minimal cognitive load. To do so, quick mental processes requiring little thinking (e.g., heuristics) are enacted (Chen & Chaiken, 1999). Heuristics can be efficient, yet also inaccurate (West et al., 2008). Within the context of design, heuristics implies the design method provides


‘quick and dirty’ processes familiar to the designer. These processes lead to acceptable solutions, yet offer no guarantee of reaching the best solution (Yilmaz & Seifert, 2011). However, Yilmaz’s et al. (2010) findings present support for heuristics in increasing creativity in design solutions. System 1 processes often parallel what’s commonly referred to as designer’s intuition. System 2 information processing. System 2 cognitive-level processes are considered to be more evolutionary recent and arguably exclusive to human thinking (Evans, 2003). This type of processing is often slower, more deliberate, and entails analytic treatment of information; thus requiring the use of central working memory (Evans, 2003). System 2 ‘cognitive’ processes prompt an individual to include as much information as possible in reaching optimal, rather than merely satisfactory, results (Kahneman & Klein, 2009; Pahl, Beitz, Feldhusen, & Grote, 2007). While slower, System 2 processing is thought to be more fluid, allowing for flexibility in judgment as new information is uncovered (Kahneman, 2002). Deliberative processes in design have largely been studied in the realm of defining a design problem and its context. Goel and Pirollis’ (1992) observational studies uncovered System 2 strategies during the design process when designers were observed accessing information, monitoring their progress, clarifying concepts, and verifying how their design solutions met the given objectives. Schӧn (1983) highlighted the usefulness of deliberation in the design process in terms of framing a design problem through a process of active reflection. Processes in Design. Designers call upon System 1 and System 2 processes during their design process. However, the literature suggests designers are more apt to use System 1 processes when they: • have familiarity or a high expertise level with the associated information;

• have little time to process information and solution options; or • are processing multiple tasks simultaneously.

As designers are often juggling multiple projects, it is surmised that they may often meet these criteria. Generational Differences in Learning Style

Specific characteristics of generational cohorts are influenced by cultural trends, events, and societal factors affecting their beliefs, values, and attitudes (Coomes & DeBard, 2004). Generations typically span about 20 years; however, the oldest Millennials, at 33, may not have much in common with their younger counMay 2015 – brainSTORM

terparts, now at age 13. Howe & Strauss (2000, 2006) in coining the term Millennial, created the opportunity for researchers to identify four generations currently co-existing in the workplace, with the next generation of post-millennials as yet unnamed: • Silent Generation born between 1925–1942 • Baby Boomers born between 1943–1960 • Generation X born between 1961–1981 • Millennial born between 1982-20--

While the Silent Generation has now by in large exited the workforce, there remains three different generations at work today, and design firm demographics are rapidly changing. To understand the impact of these changes, an examination of learning is necessary. Research is a learning task; and parallels may be drawn from studies conducted on generational learning differences. Longitudinal studies have revealed the impacts of fastpaced changing technologies and societal changes on learning tendencies. One example is the Cooperative Institutional Research Program (American Freshman: Forty Years of Trends), where it was found that while changes in learning paradigms have generally been incremental, over time, they have become significant. From 40 years of data collection, their researchers posit that students are becoming more diverse, self-confident, achievement orientated, and have a greater orientation toward technology (Eagan, Lozano, Hurtado, & Case, 2013). Further, with the primacy of computer technology, younger brains may be developing differently than those of previous generations; however, to what degree remains to be seen (Junco & Mastrodicasa, 2007). In the workplace, younger workers are commonly observed to be multitasking and seeking breadth rather than depth of information; searching for networks of ideas rather than traditional linear information gathering (Dede, 2005). As a result, instructors of these students attempted to capitalize on these tendencies by encouraging learning based on seeking and synthesizing multiple information sources rather than integrating knowledge from a single source. Young designers taught under these paradigms may subsequently approach research and information very differently than their predecessors. Several studies have outlined innovative strategies in terms of teaching Millennial students design-based skills (Ahmed, Wallace, & Blessing, 2003; Lee & Breitenberg, 2010; D’Souza, Yoon, & Islam, 2011). Yet, empirical studies have not determined how these characteristics and situational influences might impact

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the way in which designers pursue research tasks. Visualization Versus Content This study hypothesized that while designers likely use both System 1 and 2 information processing preferences, despite relative inexperience, many younger designers might prefer System 1 preferences even while conducting project-related research. As such, younger designers may reflect a greater attraction to information sources that allow quick interpretation by providing greater breadth, but that offer less depth of information. Further, they may prefer messages that are succinct and provide opportunity for the use of heuristic maneuvers. Thus, visualization and layout of information may be especially important in both attracting these designers to a resource and assisting them in processing the information therein. Approach to the Study

The literature was mined for similarities and empirical studies that might shed light on this inquiry. Using this information, an electronic survey was devised to capture practitioner self-perceptions of their research processes, thus allowing for comparison between generational cohorts. Online Survey and Sample An online questionnaire was used to collect data and was administered using Qualtrics software. This survey took less than 20 minutes to complete and consisted of three sections. The first section ascertained demographic information, the second sought information regarding participants’ current research practices, and the third asked how respondents they processed the information uncovered. Sampling. The target population for the study was interior designers actively practicing within the United States. The participants were recruited using the membership list of the American Society of Interior Designers (ASID), the older of the two large professional organizations serving interior designers, with the largest body of membership. Further, this organization represents residential and commercial designers as well as related industry members. A recruitment email was sent to a random sample of 6,849 Associate, Allied, and Professional members—these membership types generally infer that these members are actively involved in the design process and are qualified to do so. The email included a direct link to the survey providing consent, and two reminders were sent. The only identifier for each completed questionnaire was an IP address, unless participants offered to share their email addresses

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to volunteer additional information. The protocol was approved by the Florida State University Institutional Review Board on March 26, 2014. Three hundred and sixty-six ASID members responded to the survey; a response rate of approximately 5.3 percent. Table 1 summarizes the respondent’s demographic information. Respondents represented a proportionately large sample of practicing interior designers; however, it is skewed toward older, residential practitioners in sole proprietorships. Analysis. Responses were analyzed using descriptive statistics (e.g., frequencies, percentages) and comparison between groups was conducted using correlational and Chi Square statistics. Findings

Responses suggest the generational cohorts exhibit similar characteristics relative to research methodologies and sources. Yet they differ in what attracts them to a body of information, the time they allocate to an information source, and their information processing preferences. Similarities Age relative to types of research conducted. Designers were asked to indicate what types of project related research they typically conduct (i.e., design business trends, product research, client research, sustainability, ethnographic and behavioral queries, interviews, post occupancy studies, and/or precedent analysis. Generally, responses, across age groups, suggest research being conducted is largely pragmatic in nature, focusing on the use and not the generation of new knowledge. Further, the research methods used do not significantly vary between the representative age groups. Age relative to information sources. Designers were asked to specify what types of sources they used for research. Respondents indicated using similar sources for information; however, older practitioners were more apt to use academic journals (Figure 1). Differences Distinctions were evident between age groups in terms of sources of attraction, time allocation, and processing preferences. Age relative to attraction to information sources. To understand how designers judged an article and determined its worth, participants were asked what specific attributes would attract them to sources of information (Figure 2). Responses indicated that while the topic is important, many designers also judge information sources based on the graphic style in which the infor-


mation is presented; this was more prevalent in younger designers. Conversely, the authors of the article and the source of the information were of greater importance for older designers, suggesting validation may be more important as one gains experience. Age relative to time allocation. Designers were asked how much time they would devote to reviewing specific sources of information. Overall, 57 percent indicated a time span of less than 10 minutes. Those who respond-

ed their time allocation may vary indicated they would decide based on perceived topic relevance, article length, and writing style. Younger designers indicated they would spend less time on specific information sources, often less than 10 minutes. Older designers indicated more time spent, and were somewhat more likely to indicate their time allocation would depend on the factors identified in Figure 2. Age to processing information. When asked how they

Table 1: Summary of Participant Demographics


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preferred to process complex information, the youngest and the very oldest designers were more likely to leverage visuals and captions in processing information (Figure 4). The younger baby boomers and Generation X designers were the most apt to read an article verbatim. Age relative to recall. In an effort to understand what

types of information are easiest to recall, survey respondents were asked if they felt more likely to remember images or words. Generally most respondents did indicate a preference for image recall; however, this was more apparent with younger (Millennial) designers (Figure 5). Study Limitations

The limitations of this exploratory study include the use of an experimental survey instrument, limited internal consistency testing, and a relatively high representation of older designers (skewness = .279), who practice predominantly in the residential market sector (skewness= .561), which may limit generalizability. Further, these designers might require relatively less empirical knowledge in their work and may have skewed the results. Increasing the number of respondents (especially representative of younger designers) may help

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to strengthen the study findings. Finally, as with any survey, situational influences are lacking and respondents may have inaccurately responded to the questions as compared to their actual practices. Reliability and Validity The instrument was reviewed by two distinguished researchers, a statistical consultant, and ASID’s Director of Market Research, and pilot-tested with three separate groups of researchers and design practitioners to confirm content reliability. Chi Square statistics were calculated to determine strength of relationships and statistical significance. To be considered a difference among age groups, the following criteria had to be met: Pearson Chi-Square value of 5 or above and pvalue of .10 or lower, whereas lower p-values indicate higher statistical significance (Vogt, 2007). The researcher sought to establish content, predictive, and construct validity (Creswell, 2009, p. 149) through the development of the questions and series of pilot tests with revisions. The pilot testing process included sending the instrument to two groups of expert researchers (one group familiar with the study, the other not), one group of practicing professionals, and a final review by ASID’s Director of Market Research. The survey was modified based on recommendations. The pilot responses offered by the practitioners allowed for establishing predictive validity by examining responses against previously published research findings, and where possible, comparing their responses to known information about their research practices. Following instrument revisions, construct validity was verified through a crosscheck of the instrument with the research questions. Several items were retested to determine internal consistency; yet this was balanced with overall instrument brevity to increase the completion rate. Discussion and Implications

This study’s findings confirm earlier findings that interior design practitioners commonly seek pragmatic research types and sources (Dickinson, Anthony, & Marsden, 2012); however, the findings suggest new information regarding how interior design practitioners conduct project research by establishing the types of information currently accessed, what attracts them to a piece of information, and how they preferred to process the information. Following analysis of survey responses, the following assumptions are offered: younger interior designers are more attracted to visual sources, spend less time on pieces of information, and feel somewhat more likely to remember images over May 2015 – brainSTORM

words. Older interior designers are more interested in validating information and place more emphasis on the author and the source of the information (where it was published). Older designers may be more likely to consider multiple factors when judging information. This outcome contradicts previous findings that the use of heuristics is more apt to be practiced when high content knowledge and high experience levels are in evidence (Lawson & Dorst, 2009). Additionally, the low time allocation indicated by younger designers may infer their use of heuristic methods to quickly evaluate information sources, potentially due to the breadth of sources they are seeking. What remains to be seen if these practices will change over time, given added age and experience. The decisions of a design team can have profound consequences (positive or negative) on the built environment and subsequently how a building’s occupants behave, heal, learn, or live within a space. If a design team is composed of younger (Millennial) designers, their research practices will likely differ from those of older generations. Thus, their design outcomes may also differ, even if presented with the same information. With the composition of today’s workforce changing, along with their respective values and behaviors, design researchers may want to tailor their communication methods to balance System 1 & 2 processing. To do so, visual stimuli could be offered, to first garner attention and allow for the use of heuristics (i.e., System 1 processing), but also to balance these stimuli with rich contextual description, thus allowing for deeper engagement with the information and subsequent evaluation of its validity and applicability (System 2 processing). This balance may prove difficult, but if designer researchers want their findings to be more wholly incorporated into the decisions made for a space, it is a necessary task, and could have far reaching implications. Future Directions

While, the study sought to elaborate on System 1 or System 2 information preferences during a design research task, more studies need to be conducted to determine specific practices relative to research tasks. Future research should seek to determine which heuristic maneuvers are commonly used by design practitioners of all ages when evaluating information sources. These studies could be conducted using onsite observations to allow for contextual nuances. This information may further aid researchers to communicate findings in manners that acknowledge and better support both processing preferences. Further, experimental research may

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seek to understand what, if any, physical attributes (e.g., color, layout, presentation hierarchy) might best garner the attention of design practitioners and convey the appropriate meaning of the information (i.e., aiding designers’ information comprehension). While this study is exploratory in nature and more research is needed, it does further efforts to cross perceived borders between practice-based design processes and peer-reviewed research findings. This may be increasingly important as knowledge continues to inform design practice, and decisions made by more informed designers could positively impact building occupants for years to come. References

Ahmed, S., Wallace, K. M., & Blessing, L. T. M. (2003). Understanding the differences between how novice designers and experienced designers approach design tasks. Research in Engineering Design, 14(1), 1-11. Brown, T. (2009). Change by design. New York, NY: Harper Collins. Chaiken, S. (1987).The heuristic model of persuasion. In M. P. Zanna, J. M. Olson & C. P. Herman (Eds.), Social Influence: The Ontario Symposium, 5 (pp. 3-39). Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates. Chaiken, S. (1980). Heuristic versus systematic information processing and the use of source versus message cues in persuasion. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 39(5), 752-766. Chaiken, S., Gener-Sorolla, R., & Chen, S. (1996). Beyond accuracy: Defense and impression motives in heuristic and systematic information processing. In P.M. Gollwitzer & J.A. Bargh (Eds.), The Psychology of Action: Linking Cognition and Motivation to Behavior, (pp. 553-578). New York, NY: Guilford. Chen, S. & Chaiken, S. (1999). The heuristicsystematic model in its broader context. In S. Chaiken & Y. Trope (Eds.), Dual-process Theories in Social and Cognitive Psychology, (pp. 73-96). New York, NY: Guilford. Coomes, M. D., DeBard, R. (2004). Serving the millennial generation: New directions for student services. New York, NY: Wiley. Creswell, J. W. (2009). Research design: Qualitative, quantitative, and mixed methods approaches. Los Angeles, CA: Sage. Dede, C. (2005). Planning for Neomillenial Learning Styles. Educause Quarterly. Retrieved from http:// net.educause.edu/ir/library/pdf/eqm0511.pdf

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Dickinson, J. I., Anthony, L. & Marsden, J. P. (2012). A survey on practitioner attitudes toward research in interior design education. Journal of Interior Design, 37(3), 1–22. doi: 10.1111/j.19391668.2012.01078.x Dorst, C. H. (2011). The core of ‘design thinking’ and its application. Design Studies, 32(6), 521-532. DOI: 10.1016/j.destud.2011.07.006 D’souza, N. Yoon, S-Y., & Islam, Z. (2011). Understanding design skills of the next generation of designers: An exploration through the VR-KIDS Project. Journal of Design Studies, 32(2), 180-209. Eagan, K., Lozano, J., Hurtado, S., & Case, M. (2013). The American Freshman: National Norms. Cooperative Institutional Research Program and the Higher Education Research Institute at UCLA. Retrieved from http://www.heri.ucla.edu/ publications-brp.php Evans J. St.B.T. (2003). In two minds: Dual process accounts of reasoning. Trends in Cognitive Science, 7, 454–59. doi: 10.1016/j.tics.2003.08.012 Gerdes, L. (2006, September 18). The best places to launch a career. Business Week, 64-80. Los Angeles, CA: McGraw Hill Companies, Inc. Goel, V. & Pirollis, P. (1992). The structure of design problem spaces. Cognitive Science, 16, 395-429. Hamilton, D. K., & Watkins, D. H. (2009). Evidencebased Design for Multiple Building Types. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Howe, W. & Strauss, N. (2006). Millennials and the Pop Culture. Great Falls, VA: Life Course Associates. Howe, W. & Strauss, N. (2000). Millennials Rising: The Next Great Generation. New York, NY: Vintage Books. Junco, R. & Mastrodicasa, J. (2007). Connecting to the Net Generation. National Association of Student Personnel Administrators. Retrieved from http:// blog.reyjunco.com/pdf/NetGenerationProof.pdf Kahneman, D. (2002, December). Maps of bounded rationality: A perspective on intuitive judgment and choice. Presentation given for Nobel Prize for Economics. Retrieved from http://www.nobelprize. org/nobel_prizes/economic-sciences/laureates/2002/ kahneman-lecture.html Kahneman, D. & Frederick, S. (2005). A model of heuristic judgment. In K. Holyoak & R. Morrison (Eds.), The Cambridge Handbook of Thinking and Reasoning, pp. 267-294. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.


Kahneman, D., & Frederick, S. (2002). In T. Gilovich, D. Griffin, & D. Kahneman (Eds.), Heuristics of Intuitive Judgment. New York, NY: Cambridge University Press. Kahneman, D., & Klein, G. (2009). Conditions for intuitive expertise: A failure to disagree. American Psychologist, 64(6), 515-526. Lee, H-K. & Breitenberg, M. (2010). Education in the new Millennium: The case for design-based learning. International Journal of Art & Design Education, 29, 54–60. Lockwood, T. (2009). Design Thinking. New York, NY: Allworth Press. Nussbaumer, L. (2009). Evidence-based design for interior designers. New York, NY: Fairchild. Pahl, G., Beitz, W., Feldhusen, J., & Grote, K. (2007). Engineering design: A systematic approach (3rd ed.). Berlin, Germany: Springer Sciences & Business Media. Petty, R. & Cacioppo, J. (1986). The elaboration likelihood model of persuasion. In L. Berkowitz (Ed.), Advances in Experimental Social Psychology, 19, 123-205. San Diego, CA: Academic Press. Petty, R. E. & Wegener, D. T. (1999). The elaboration likelihood model: current status and controversies. In S. Chaiken & Y. Trope (Eds.), Dual-process Theories in Social Psychology (pp. 41-72). New York, NY: Guilford Press. Schӧn, D. A. (1983). Reflective Practitioner: How Professionals Think in Action. London: Temple Smith. Stanovich, K. E. (1999). Who is rational? Studies of Individual Differences in Reasoning. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Inc. Stanovich, K. E., & West, R. F. (2000). Individual differences in reasoning: Implications for the rationality debate? Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 23, 645–726. West, R. F., Toplak, M. E., & Stanovich, K. E. (2008). Heuristics and biases as measures of critical thinking: Associations with cognitive ability and thinking dispositions. Journal of Educational Psychology, 100, 930–941. Vogt, W.P. (2007). Quantitative Research Methods for Professionals. Pearson: Boston, MA. Yilmaz, S., & Seifert, C.M. (2011). Creativity through design heuristics: A case study of expert product design. Design Studies, 32, 384-415. doi:10.1016/j. destud.2011.01.003


Yilmaz, S., Seifert, C. M., & Gonzalez, R. (2010). Cognitive heuristics in design: Instructional strategies to increase creativity in idea generation. Journal of Artificial Intelligence in Engineering Design and Manufacturing, 24, 335-355.

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Designing for Diversity: A Research Informed Design Study on Universal Workspaces Gourab Kar (Cornell University), Abir Mullick (Navrachana University) Introduction

By 2030, one-fourth of the working U.S. population will be comprised of older adults over the age of 55 (Mitra, 2002). Globally, labor force participation rates for older adults have increased and forecasts show that this trend will continue (ILO, 2006). A rise in the world’s aging workforce in the years ahead poses the crucial challenge of retaining this group in the labor force. Consequently, it is essential to carry out research on work-related challenges confronting older adults and people with disabilities, and to identify environmental barriers to employment. This will ensure that workplaces compatible to the diverse needs of users across a wide range of ages and abilities can be designed. This is a research and design development project that addressed workplace issues confronting a diverse population, including older people and those with disabilities; research informed the design process, and design propelled further research and investigation. Human diversity is key to social inclusion, and this project examined the challenges of behind-the-counter (BhC) work in context of the working population in the United States. A range of workplaces, especially for older people and those with disabilities, were studied to focus on minimum requirements for diverse users. Research questions focused on aspects such as: Are there different work related needs for older and younger workers, and what are the consequences of unmet needs on these workers? What environmental barriers challenge older workers and how do these challenges affect their safety, productivity, and wellbeing? Are the environmental needs of older workers different from their younger colleagues and do they have different coping strategies? Do accessible workspaces improve functional performance of workers and does the level of access have to be different for younger and older workers? What are the characteristics of accessible and universal workspaces and are they the same or are they different?

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Design Research

A human-centred design (HCD) methodology was adopted for the design and development process (Norman et al., 1986). The methods helped the design team gather evidence of what is appropriate in user-centric terms, interpret this evidence as decisions that confront the design team, and communicate the evidence through practical design specifications. The broad outlines of the design research methodology adopted for this project are: Literature Review Background research employed a variety of sources including articles, journals, books, electronic databases, and other sources of verifiable data. Five broad themes emerged: (i) Work and Occupational Health: There is increasing evidence that sedentary office work and other work that require constrained sitting or standing postures are associated with a high incidence of Musculoskeletal Disorders (MSDs) (Atwood, 1989; Westgaard, 1997). Risk factors causing MSDs in service work have been identified as relating to both physical (Aaraas, 1997; Pustinger, 1987) and psychosocial factors (Hagen, 1998; Smith, 1999). (ii) Work and Disability: 19.1 million people or 9.9 percent of the civilian non-institutionalised population aged 16 to 64 have a disability (US Census Bureau, 2009). (iii) Work and Aging: Estimates suggest that by 2030, one-fourth of the working population in the U.S. will comprise older adults over age of 55 (Mitra, 2002), which necessitates developing design research approaches to support physical and cognitive demands of a job encountered by all workers, including older workers (Harvey, 1994). (iv) ADA and Workspace Design: The ADA Accessibility Guidelines (ADAAG, 2002) specify basic dimensions and provisions for equivalent facilities for wheelchair access. (v) Universal Design in the Workspace: Universal Design is defined as: “The design of products and environments to be usable by all people, to the greatest extent possible, without the need for adaptation or specialized design” (Mullick, 1997). The need for social inclusion is urgent and it requires that products, services, and environments be developed to reflect accurately the diverse demands of today’s users and include the needs of an increasingly greying demographic (Clarkson, 2003). In context of BhC workspaces, a holistic approach that employs human-centered design principles; devel-


ops solutions that incorporate flexibility, adjustability, and modularity; simplifies construction; optimizes production; and improves appearance can create universally designed BhC workspaces for everyone. Environmental Study Observing people in their own environment helps understand their relationship with the environment, especially how physical environment supports or interferes with behaviors taking place within it (Zeisel, 2006). Environmental study examined the role of physical environment in BhC workplaces and offered a comprehensive understanding of how environmental design influences user performance. Five BhC workspaces—library circulation counter, hotel check-in counter, airport check-in counter, office reception counter, and registration counters—were studied. User consent was obtained in writing prior to study and confidentiality of research data respected. Each work environment was observed for two separate days during a normal workweek. On each day, observations were made for two hours: (a) an hour during the peak work period (as reported by users), and (b) another hour during a lean work period between peaks. The researcher assumed a marginal participant vantage point during the study, and informal user interviews complemented observational research. Notes related to events, annotated diagrams, and digital photographs captured people-environment relationships. The number of subjects studied varied according to the nature of work and scale of the facility. The following came within the purview of the observational study: Four employees worked at the library counter at peak hours and two employees during non-peak periods; two employees worked at the hotel reception counter


at both peak / non-peak periods; at the airport checkin, two check-in counters managed by a single staff member each was studied; for the office reception area, two separate reception counters within administrative offices of a university, each with a single receptionist, were studied; and at the registration desk used for conference registrations, there were four members at peak hours, and two during non-peak hours. Airport Counter: An Example from the Environmental Study Airport check-in counters were observed at the Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport in Atlanta. Observations were made at a check-in airline counter, and in a typical check-in scenario, staff stands behind counter and checks passengers’ identities, provides boarding passes, collects and tags luggage, and loads them on the conveyor belt. The work is a combination of cognitive tasks (identity card check, processing ticket data, printing ticket and luggage tag) as well as physical tasks (attach tag, load the luggage onto a conveyor belt) and has a high incidence of work-related musculoskeletal disorders. Figure 1 shows one such check-in counter at the Delta Terminal. Key findings of the environmental study included: (1) Environmental Audit: The environmental audit is an assessment to identify environmental barriers and outline corrective actions. The observational study resulted in an environmental audit of each work environment and tabulated data on horizontal surfaces, vertical planes, storage areas, type of seating arrangements, and technologies used at work. Annotated illustrations of BhC workspaces were created to reveal

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environmental design characteristics that hinder or aid work performance. The environmental audit identified elements comprising the BhC workspace—horizontal planes, vertical surfaces, storage, seating, and structure. (a) Airport counters, hotels, and registration counters had split-level countertops; library and office receptions featured countertops on a single level. (b) All counters featured fixed height surfaces with independent seating for counter staff (except at the hotel reception area and airport check-in). (c) Storage zones were located below the countertop for all BhC workspaces; office receptions and library counters had additional stand-alone storage units. (2) Movement Patterns: Study of movement patterns on both sides of the counter captured the dynamic nature of work behind the counter (BhC). (a) The range of user activities in BhC workspaces is spread over and beyond the counter with frequent movements to adjoining spaces for storage and retrieval tasks. (b) Airport and hotel counter staff work in standing postures and make frequent movements from the counter area to the conveyor belt/storage zones. (c) Library and registration counter staff work in sit-and-stand positions. (d) Office reception work is mostly sedentary, with occasional movements to adjoining storage zones. (3) User Insights: Users shared their preferences and dislikes pertaining to physical characteristics of their workspaces. (a) Staff at the airport counter complained of pain in the lower back and arms. (b) Library staff described problems while scanning bar codes and ‘desensitising’ books. (c) Hotel reception staff spoke about occupational health injuries of the lower limbs. (4) Environmental Factors: The effect of environmental factors such as ambient noise levels, HVAC (heating, ventilation, and air conditioning), glare, task-lighting, and visual privacy on BhC work featured prominently in discussions with users. (a) Airport staff reported high levels of ambient noise and on-screen glare. (b) Hotel and library staff talked about problems with indoor air quality and lack of task lighting. (c) Office reception staff mentioned lack of visual privacy, on-screen glare, and inability to regulate HVAC systems (localised temperature regulation) to suit their needs. (5) Technology Audit: The audit revealed permeation of information technology across all BhC workspaces. (a) Monitors, keyboards, mouse; CPU, and printers are ubiquitous across workspaces. (b) Devices such as barcode scanner, credit-card reader, and book demagnetiser were used in high transaction workspaces (airport, library, and hotel receptions). (c) Common patterns of mismatch between technology and its integration into physical workflow was evident through cluttered lay-

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outs, unhappy customers, and disgruntled employees. Usability Study The usability study focussed on effects of workspace designs on user workflow. The study elicited information about how people use workspaces, their likes and dislikes about current workspaces, and possible improvements through redesign. Five specific work areas—library counter, hotel check-in counters, airport check-in, office reception, and registration counters were studied. Analyses involved simultaneous examination of work videos and informal interviews. Usability audits of work environments highlighted positive and negative features associated with each workspace. Inferences generated from the observations helped outline specifications for design and development of a new range of BhC workspaces. Airport Counter: An Example from the Usability Study The usability study for the airport counter is presented visually through the following images. Each image has annotated observations at the bottom, inferences on the right top section, and corresponding design specifications below (See Figure 2). Key findings of the usability study are: (1) Identifying usability issues: Naturalistic observation techniques, combined with video analysis of BhC workplaces, offered a visceral feel of usability conflicts in real time. (a) Airport check-in counters showed usability conflicts. Fixed counter heights, lack of adjustability in positioning devices, and the need to lift and transfer luggage were primary usability concerns. (b) Library counters revealed usability issues related to positioning of the book demagnetiser below the counter, and monitor and keyboard positions coming in the way of book transactions. (c) Fixed counter heights, lack of useable countertop space, and conflicts between device placement and workflow emerged as usability issues in hotel and office reception counters. (2) Translating observations into inferences: Findings from usability research were translated into inferences that informed design directions. (a) Observations at airport check-in counters revealed the need to provide inclusive access to weighing scales, space to keep carry-on luggage during transactions, grab bars at both staff and passenger sides for luggage weighing and transfer, and optimized counter layout and device placement to augment workflow. (b) Library counters outlined the need to integrate bar code scanners and book demagnetisers on the counter top, as well as provision


for body support devices in place of chairs. (c) Hotel reception areas revealed need for inclusive access, storage, and retrieval within the optimal reach envelope of users, as well as integration of transactional devices into work surfaces. (d) Office receptions suggested adoption of flexibility and adjustability in the location of devices and opportunities for customisation. (3) Translating user responses into inferences: User responses complimented research findings, provided insights about BhC workplaces, and informed future design directions. For instance, hotel receptionists complained of pain in lower limbs due to counter work for long hours while standing. Airport employees talked about occupational injuries due to the repetitive nature of lifting and placing luggage on conveyor belts. (4) Synthesising inferences into design specifications: Inferences from observations and user responses were synthesized into preliminary design specifications. Video analysis revealed postural shifts to relieve pressure on legs by partially resting hands on the counter and frequently shifting body weight from one leg to another. The idea to reduce stress on lower limbs was the inference, and the body support was the design specification.


Design Thinking

Environmental and usability studies informed fundamental thinking about designing a new range of BhC workstations. Inferences and insights from research are categorized under four broad headings—Access, Flexibility, Integration, and Environment. (1) Access: The accessibility issues of primary concern include: (a) wheelchair access on both sides of the counter, (b) storage zones within the optimum reach envelope of users, and (c) ease of use in material exchange (documents, books, and luggage) across counter space. (2) Flexibility: Flexibility issues of primary concern were: (a) variability in working heights—sit and stand counters, (b) adjustable split level surfaces to allow for independent use on both sides, (c) flexibility in device and storage locations, and (d) customisable aesthetics. (3) Integration: Work technologies integrated within the work surface will allow for a more efficient workflow. Primary issues in the technology-environment domain are: (a) positioning devices based on frequency of use, (b) integrating cable management in counter designs, (c) consolidating devices into the planes and surfaces for efficient workflow, and (d) combining devices to aid workflow.

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(4) Environment: Literature on environmental design indicates that environmental parameters such as degree of enclosure and layout of workspaces have significant impact on work performance (Brill et al., 1984). Specific environmental features of the design that aid performance at work are (a) provision of privacy screens and (b) design superstructure to integrate environmental systems such as lighting, HVAC, and security cameras, among others. Design Development

Commonalities in BhC workspaces across range of work environments were mapped to develop a systems approach to the design scheme (Table 1). The base module served requirements for library, registration, and hotel reception counters. Additional storage spaces for office counters and weighing scale for airport counters can be integrated with the module. Common

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design specifications for the range of BhC workspaces offered a quick transition to design development stage. Concepts were sketched and prototyped iteratively to refine transition of ideas from two-dimensional sketches to three-dimensional models. Prototyping simulated assembly sequence and understanding of materiality and structure. Designs explored concepts for inclusive access, variable work heights, technology integration, modularity, and flexibility (Figure 3). Designs were digitally modelled and photorealistic visualizations were developed in a software package, enabling a quick and highly accurate method for visualising the concepts. The basic modules for hotel, library, and registration counters included variable work heights, work in seated and standing postures, and wheelchair access on both sides of the counter. Critical dimensions for work surface height, counter width, clearance, and reach were determined from published


anthropometric data (Diffreint et al., 1974; Panero et al., 1979) and ADAAG guidelines (ADAAG, 2002). Common features included storage below counter level, monitor on floating arms, and a ridge at counter edge that serves as a service raceway. The counter surface has provisions to integrate work technologies such as book demagnetiser and bar code scanner, among others. Modular design allows for parts to be easily arranged, swapped, and reconfigured, thus offering a wide range of layout possibilities by permutation and combination of parts. User Feedback

Evaluation of design simulations by actual users provides an opportunity to examine how the particular solution influences the actual context of use (McClelland & Suri, 2005). Computer generated renderings of BhC workspace designs were used to elicit user responses. A handout comprising renderings of newly designed workspaces along with explanations of design features and modes of operation was circulated among users from the five specific workspaces. After perusing the handout, participants answered three open-ended questions:

(a) What do you think are the strengths of the design? (b) What do you think are the weaknesses of the design? (c) Any suggestions for improving the design?

Analysis of feedback provided a qualitative understanding of user response to the new designs. (a) Variable counter heights for working in sitting and standing positions, wheelchair access on both sides, and customisation of the workspace were appreciated by all potential users. (b) There were suggestions regarding the manner of integration of work technologies into surfaces. For example, library staff pointed out that they needed a handheld barcode scanner in addition to the counter integrated version. (c) The countertop ridge for device integration was perceived as a barrier for book transactions. (d) Some users raised questions about location of controls for the variable height mechanism and time required for changing counter height. Suggestions from users ranged from broad overarching ideas to specific design changes. Users wanted wider workspace counters and more storage space. Popular suggestions include counters with wheels for easy movement, variations in surface materials and finishes, and separate monitors for customers. These changes can be easily integrated into the current design.


Design Outcomes

Universal Design Principles provide a well-accepted framework for evaluating usability of new designs of BhC workspaces. (a) Primary goals of Universal Design such as equitable use and flexibility in use were addressed by providing increased accessibility by accommodating users working in standing and sitting positions (including wheelchair users). (b) Task demands and occupational injuries associated with current counter workspaces were analyzed, and key contributing factors were identified to provide efficient solutions eliminating or reducing bending down or over-extension during work. (c) Integrating technologies into the physical infrastructure enable efficient usage of space and enhances across the counter communication. (d) Eliminating multiplicity of devices and providing locations for devices based on workflow speed up work. The finalized design was evaluated in terms of the principles of Universal Design (Story, 1998) to get an objective idea of inclusiveness of the solution. This project provides a case study for understanding challenges of adopting a universal design approach in a specific workspace context, and the successes and potential barriers thereof. It is also a point of reference for future work in this domain. Given the global demographic projections for the coming decades, relevance of such designs that cater to basic and extended needs of people with a diverse range of abilities is going to be increasingly relevant. Conclusion

This project shows that Universal Design philosophy in combination with human-centered research methodology can create equitable, accessible, and empowering solutions that benefit society and foster employment. User feedback loops throughout the design process led to iterative refinements in the design and helped communicate ideas with end-users. With the projected greying of the workforce in coming decades, relevance of inclusive designs that cater to the basic and extended needs of people with a diverse range of abilities is becoming socially imperative. Future work should include a broader range of service environments for comprehensive understanding of the commonalities in BhC workspaces across professions. Studies should involve building full-scale simulations of the BhC workspaces and testing them with intended user groups. While the research data used to develop the designs and guidelines was obtained through extensive user-centered research, the final design need to be validated by testing them in real work environments. Achieving this objective

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requires conducting extensive study of new designs involving intended users and developing BhC standards that will increase safety, convenience, and productivity for everyone. Acknowledgements

The National Institute on Disability and Rehabilitation Research (NIDRR), U.S. Department of Education (Grant H133E070026) supported this project. The opinions contained in this publication are those of the grantee and do not necessarily reflect those of the U.S. Department of Education. References

Aaraas, A., Fostervold, K. I. Ro. O. Thoresen, M. Larsen, S. (1997). Postural load during VDU work: A comparison between various work postures. Ergonomics, 40(11), 1255-1268. Americans with disabilities act accessibility guidelines (ADAAG, 2002). Retrieved Jan 5, 2012, from Attwood D. (1989). Comparison of discomfort experienced at CADD, word processing and traditional drafting workstations. International Journal of Industrial Ergonomics, 4, 39-50. Brill, M., Margulis, S., Konar, E., & BOSTI (1984). Using office design to increase productivity. New York: Workplace Design and Productivity. Bureau of Labor Statistics (2009). Non-Fatal Occupational Injuries and Illnesses Requiring Days Away from Work, 2008. Retrieved Jan 5, 2012 from http://www.bls.gov/news.release/archives/ osh2_12042009.pdf Clarkson, J., Coleman, R., Keates, S., Lebbon, C. (2003). Inclusive Design, Design for the whole population (pp. 88-108). London: Springer-Verlag Publishers. Diffrient, N., Tilley, A. R., & Bardagjy, J. C. (1974). Humanscale I/2/3. Cambridge: MIT Press. Hagen, K.B., Magnus, P., Vetlesen, K.(1998). Neck/ shoulder and lower back disorders in the forestry industry: relationship to work tasks and perceived psychosocial job stress. Ergonomics, 41(10), 15101518. Harvey L. Sterns, Gerald V. Barrett, Sara J. Czaja, and Judith K. Barr. (1994). Issues in work and aging. Journal of Applied Gerontology, 13(1), 7-19. Hunting, W., Laubi, T., Grandjean, E. (1981). Postural and visual loads at VDT workplaces. I. Constrained postures. Ergonomics, 24(12), 917-31.

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International Labour Organisation. (2006). Changing patterns in the world of work. Proceedings of the International Labour Conference, Report 1(C): 22. McClelland, I., Suri, J.F. (2005). Involving people in design. Evaluation of human work (3rd ed.). CRC Press: 281-333. Mitra, T. (2002). A century of change: the U.S. Labor Force 1950–2050, Monthly labor review, 15-28. Retrieved Jan 5, 2012, from Mullick, A., Steinfeld, E. (1997). Universal designWhat it is and isn’t. Innovation: Journal of IDSA (Spring), 16(1), 14-18. Norman, D. A., & Draper, S. W. (Eds.). (1986). User centered system design: New perspectives on human-computer interaction. Annals of Physics (pp. xiii, 526). New Jersey: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates Inc. Panero, J., Zelnick, M., (1979). Human dimension and interior space: A source book of design reference standards. New York: Watson-Guptill Publications. Pustinger C., Dainoff M. J., Smith M. (1987). VDT workstation adjustability: Effects on worker posture, productivity and health complaints. In Eberts, R, E., Eberts, C,G. (Eds.). (1987). Trends in ergonomics/ human factors II (pp. 445-451). North-Holland: Elsevier Science Publishers BV. Smith, M, J., Haims, M.C., Carayon, P. (1999). Work organization, job stress, and work-related musculoskeletal disorders. Human Factors, 41(4), 644-663. Story, M. F. (1998). The universal design file: Designing for people of all ages and abilities. Retrieved Jan 5, 2012, from U.S. Census Bureau, American Community Survey (2009). Westgaard, R, H., Winkel, J. (1997). Ergonomic intervention research for improved musculoskeletal health: A critical review. International Journal of Industrial Ergonomics, 20(6), 463-500. Zeisel, J. (2006) Inquiry by Design: Environment/ Behaviour/Neuroscience in Architecture, Interiors, Landscape and Planning (pp.191-201). New York: W.W. Norton & Co.


Inclusive Educational Spaces for Children with Autism; Development of Ethically Appropriate Research Tools Rachna Khare (School of Planning and Architecture, Bhopal, Madhya Pradesh), Abir Mullick (School of Planning and Architecture, Bhopal, Madhya Pradesh) Introduction

Autism is a developmental disorder that leads to a different and characteristic pattern of perceiving, thinking, and learning. ‘Autism is a developmental disability significantly affecting verbal and nonverbal communication and social interaction, generally evident before age three that adversely affects a child’s educational performance. Other characteristics often associated with autism are engagement in repetitive activities and stereotyped movements, resistance to environmental change or change in daily routines, and unusual responses to sensory experiences’ (Individuals with Disabilities Education Act-IDEA, USA). Several authors have described autism and have grouped its features and behavior in their own way, but the present research takes widely accepted DSM-IV (DSM-IV, 2000) as the defining tool for autism that is based on a ‘triad’ of deficits (Wing, 1988). Every child with autism is impacted differently; as a result, some people who are highly functioning individuals are taught in classrooms with able-bodied children, whereas others with more unique needs get their education in specialized schools. But for all of them, the environment serves as an important teaching tool; their education is enhanced by well-designed environments and negatively affected by ill conceived spaces (Jordan, 1997; Seigel, 1998). Because of its complex nature, autism has remained underrepresented in the building standards and design guidelines. Even with its overwhelming prevalence, architects and designers have overlooked it as a condition that influences building design (Khare & Mullick, 2009). Most environmental research projects have excluded participants with autism, as their involvement is restricted by the Institutional Review Board (IRB). Consequently, users with autism have been not studied and their needs are not considered in the design of built environment. With escalating incidence of autism and emphasis on inclusive education, it has become vital to May 2015 – brainSTORM

explore the scope of inclusive environments for everyone, including users with autism. There is an urgent need to develop investigative tools that identify the needs children with autism and conduct environmental research that complies with the IRB statute (Khare & Mullick, 2009; Fitch, 2005). The current research study outlines enabling environments for children with autism in educational spaces and measures the environment’s impact on their performance. Though the study employs multiple methods in multiple sequential stages, the current paper only reports the use of newly developed, ethically appropriate research tools during the study. Methodology and Research Tools

The process began with identification of environmental issues of importance for children with autism based on an extensive literature survey and study of environmental traces in the classrooms for children with autism. This resulted in identification of 18 design parameters. Then a set of evaluating tools was developed to validate these 18 design parameters in existing educational settings. The parameters were tested in different types of educational settings, ranging from inclusive to specialized institutions, using developed multiple tools. The overall study is conducted in five sequential phases: (1) Establishing the relation between environment and the needs of children with autism; (2) Developing environmental design considerations to address these needs; (3) Deriving Design Parameters to present tangible and testable ideas; (4) Conducting evaluations to validate identified Design Parameters; and (5) Preparing autism friendly Design Guidelines based on these evaluated Design Parameters. No children, with autism or able bodied, were involved in the study; only teachers who work very closely with children were involved and the environment was examined. Finally, the high performance and high-rated design issues laid the foundation to develop design guidelines for autism-friendly educational settings. All children with autism have some degree of communication impairment, regardless of their functioning level and age. The lack of ‘theory of mind’ and perception make it difficult for them to learn and implement language for the purpose of communication (Siegel, 1998, p 59). With this deficit of autism, the most challenging part of the research design was to get informed consent from the subjects and collect data involving them without bias. ‘Using multiple research techniques to study a problem increases reliability and decreases the chances of falsely constant results. Collecting different kinds of data from the same phenomenon with

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several techniques counterbalances bias inherent in any one technique with the biases of others’ (Zeisel, 2006, p.122). Thus, this multi-stage research study employed multiple research tools in an orderly way to achieve the research objectives. The following sections describe the ‘Trace Study’, ‘Environment-Performance Tools’, and ‘Environment Rating Tool’ developed in the current research for collecting and validating data; these tools comply with statute for ethical practices in research. Observing Physical Traces

In the preliminary diagnostic exploration, a field study was taken up together with an extensive literature survey to understand the educational needs of children with autism. Environmental adaptations by teachers and therapists to assist pupils with autism were observed in different types of educational spaces in Germany, the United Kingdom, the United States, and India. This helped to spot the similarities and differences in the enabling aspects of environment between those mentioned in literature (Siegel, 1998; Jordan, 1997; Schopler, 1995) and those provided by the teachers in existing educational spaces. Case studies in different countries helped to identify relevant environmental aspects without any socio-cultural prejudices. The technique adopted for this qualitative field study was ‘observing physical traces’ (Zeisel, 2006); the physical surroundings were observed to find reflections of the activities that were not produced in order to

be measured by the researcher. This is an unobtrusive method and did not influence the behavior that caused the valuable traces in the educational setting. Drawings, annotated diagrams, and photographs were used to observe the traces in the classrooms with children with autism (on walls, ceilings, furniture layout, and floor, please refer to Figure 1). Different types of schools were observed during field visits, including an early childhood program, autism school, inclusive school, vocational unit, and a school with residential facility. The environmental interventions by the teachers in existing classrooms with children with autism reflected the teaching methods adopted to combat autism conditions. Structured teaching, behavioral modification, and one-to-one teaching, were the most visible amongst all. They were supported by visual cues for improving communication, through visual schedules and visual instructions, for daily and individual activities. Curriculum modifications were done to accommodate the needs of children; varied activities were included in their curriculum, including self-help training or vocational training. Other characteristics observed in these educational spaces atypical to the regular school environment were different sized teaching areas, withdrawal spaces, calm environments, and sensory rooms. An extra effort for safety and supervision reflected in almost all settings. These features were observed irrespective of the type of setting (special education in Germany and India, inclusive education in the U.S.) and the resources for

Figure 1: Observation of Physical Traces in an Autism Classroom in Special Schools

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special education in different countries (UK, Germany, India, and the U.S.). When findings of this ‘preliminary diagnostic study’ were analyzed and summarized, it provided a set of qualitative open-ended ‘eighteen environmental design parameters’ to conceive an enabling environment for children with autism. Environment-Performance Tools

To make a strong argument, it was necessary to further validate these design parameters quantitatively for their relevance in improving the quality of the physical environment for children with autism. The quantitative data not only contributed precision to the knowledge but also made research convincing to others. The present section discusses the development of the multiple evaluation tools to test these identified environmental design parameters in the preliminary diagnostic study. Since the major concepts to be tested in the present research were well defined, standard questionnaires were developed based on design parameters. These questionnaires helped to discover regularities of opinion amongst different groups of people working for children with autism such as teachers, therapists, or experts. The research developed two interdependent testing tools to evaluate the design parameters; these tools were the environmental assessment and performance measure for children with autism. Environmental assessment (EA) and performance measure for pupils with autism (PMPA) validated the environment and performance inter-relationship for children with autism. Both tools were based on rehabilitation studies (Steinfeld & Danford, 1999) and post occupancy evaluation studies in architecture, where existing buildings were evaluated for their functional performance and the resulting body of knowledge is used to design similar buildings in future (Zeisel, 2006; Preiser, 2001; Zimering et al., 1978). The environmental assessment (EA) was a checklist of parameters derived from the 18 environmental design parameters for autism, and their presence was expected to improve educational performance. The performance measure for pupils with autism (PMPA) was derived to test the performance of children in presence of the parameters. The major factors that guided the development of evaluation tools were: (1) The tools were designed to be tested in the existing educational environment, as it was difficult to construct new designs for evaluation. (2) As it was difficult to get accurate responses from low-functioning children with autism due to their limitation in communication, the tools were


designed to collect data from the people who work very closely with them.

(3) Since the research dealt with vulnerable human subjects, the tools and survey procedure were designed keeping the ethical and privacy issues in mind.

Environmental Assessment (EA): The 18 design parameters formed the basis of the environmental assessment checklist. These 18 items on the checklist were intended to prompt inspection so that their extent of presence in the environment can be recorded on a fivepoint scale from exceptionally high to unusually low level (Table 1). The researcher surveying a facility was supposed to check the building features that matched the checklist of design parameters in the environment, and the assessment criteria depended upon the degree of their presence in the environment. The environment was assessed on a five-point scale (points in parentheses). For exceptionally high level, ‘design parameters’ had to be strongly present in all areas (5); for high level, they had to be strongly present in the classroom and related spaces (4); for moderate level, they had to be moderately present in classroom (3); for low level, they had to be present in at least a few activities in the classroom (2); and absence of design parameters in the environment marked unusually low level (1). There was also a possibility to include any other features noticed in the environment as comments. Performance Measure for Pupils with Autism (PMPA): Performance Measure for Pupils with Autism was a sequential evaluation by teachers and therapists that measured performance of the pupils in an existing educational environment that had already undergone environmental assessment. This was expected to help in understanding the interrelation between environment and performance of children. The questions to assess the performance were derived from the earlier developed 18 design parameters. Teachers were asked to respond to a questionnaire (Table 2) about the educational performance of children in the existing environment. Their responses were supposed to be based on the broad performance of children with autism in the present environment, and not on any specific child. The answers were pre-coded (points in parentheses) in mutually exclusive categories; if more than two thirds of the total low-functioning pupils with autism perform the activity, then the response was ‘Yes’ (2); if less than one-third do, then the response was ‘Some’ (1); and if no child was able to do the activity, then the answer was ‘None’ (0). Although there were no open-ended questions, in all answers there was a possibility for the respondents

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Table 1: Tool for Environment Assessment (EA)

to write individual opinions, which were not covered in the given categories of answers. Environment Rating Scale (DPRS)

Environment serves as an important teaching instrument for all children with and without autism. To address this, teachers were asked to review the 18 environmental design parameters and rate them for their importance in education and development (Please refer to the Design Parameter Rating Scale-DPRS in Table 3) according to their past experiences and future expectations. The rating was done on a five-point scale and answers are pre-coded (points in parentheses) as highly recommended, when they strongly recommend it for whole school building (5); recommended, when they strongly recommend it for classrooms and related spaces (4); recommended with reservations, when they recommend it for classrooms with certain reservations (3); not sure, when they are not confident about the design parameters (2); and not recommended, when they reject the environmental design parameters (1). Us-

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ing this scale, the 18 design parameters were rated for kids with autism by autism experts and for able-bodied kids by regular education experts. All experts rating the parameters were thoroughly informed about the formulated ‘environmental designed parameters’ as conceived by the researcher. Survey Design

After preparation, the evaluation tools were pretested with a few autism teachers to understand the unintended side effects during survey. The comments were received and tools were revised incorporating the feedback from the participants. After pretesting, the survey was carried out in the existing educational setups in a naturalized environment that was familiar and comfortable for children. The standardized questionnaires were repeated in the same way by the interviewer to avoid differences in understanding. The survey was done in two stages; in the first stage, data is collected from educational settings in the U.S. to validate the formulated environmental design parameters, and in the


Table 2: Tool for Performance Measure for Pupils with Autism (PMPA)


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second stage, data was collected from various educational settings in India to ascertain cross-cultural validity. Data from autism experts in India help to understand the cross-cultural dimension of design parameters. The representative samples in the survey were comprised of (1) Low-functioning children with autism with high autistic features, as the children with autism vary widely in abilities, intelligence, and behaviors. This was done with a belief that if the environment is supportive for complex conditions in low-functioning children, it will also be supportive for high functioning and mildly effected children. (2) All age pupils between 5-18 years, to understand the usefulness of an enabling environment for different age groups in educational spaces. (3) Different types of educational settings based on their restrictiveness, from inclusive to specialized. The samples were selected randomly, but represent different types of educational settings, including public schools with autism classes, public schools with special needs classes, public schools with fulltime inclusion in inclusive settings, and special schools, special schools for autism, and specialized therapy centers in specialized settings. Evaluation tool preparation and most of the field survey in the present research was done in the United States, during a Fulbright Doctoral and Professional Research Fellowship at the College of Architecture of the Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, U.S. Thus the present research abides by the federal rules of conducting research in human subjects. All tools and questionnaires in the present research were reviewed by the Institutional Review Board (IRB) of Georgia Institute of Technology prior to the field survey.

Results

Research results show the new tools were very effective in collecting environmental information. The trace study identified ‘Environmental Design Parameters’ that were important for children, and the environmentperformance tools validated the ‘Environmental Design Parameters’ at several testing levels (primary/ middle/high schools and inclusive/special schools), and contexts (U.S. and India). All this was done without involving children, just the environment and people caring for children with autism. To establish the relationship between environment and autism, the environment (EA) and performance of children with autism (PMPA) were assessed for the same educational environment. The data was then compared and analyzed. The environment was assessed in 16 educational spaces at the primary, middle, and high school level, of which eight were inclusive and eight were specialized settings. The empirical data that was collected using the above two tools show strong correlation between an identified enabling environment and educational performance of children with autism (Figure 2). The objective of this analysis was to understand how the quality of environment in educational spaces affects the performance of children with autism. It attempted to analyze EA and PMPA data for all 16 schools and compared average data for different age groups. The schools those had high environmental assessment (EA) values also had high performance measure (PMPA) values for identified design parameters. Environment and performance of children with autism were interdependent at all age levels. Some variations in the graph profile, between

Figure 2: Environment Assessment (EA) and Performance Measure (PMPA) Relationship in Schools

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Comments

Not Recommended

Not Sure

Recommended with Reservation

Recommended

Highly Recommended

Table 3: Tool for Environmental Rating-Design Parameter Rating Scale (DPRS)

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Figure 3: Design Parameter Rating Scale (DPRS) Mean Rating

environment (EA) and performance (PMPA), depicted that the performance was not exclusively dependent on the environment. There were many other factors affecting performance, ranging from educational to social. The data was also collected using the environment rating scale (DPRS) from 18 experts working with low-functioning children with autism and also from 14 regular education experts. 95.3 percent of autism experts and 86.3 percent of the regular education experts rated the design parameters as highly recommended on a five-point scale. This confirms that the identified design parameters were not only favorable for kids with autism but were also beneficial for all school children. The universal consequence of the design parameters to the educational environments was furthermore defined by the mean values of DPRS, Figure 3 illustrates this mean value as a universally beneficial, inclusive, autism friendly, recommended value for design for all. Conclusion

To understand the needs of children with autism in the physical environment, it is necessary to develop research tools that help explore interconnection of their behavior and environment. These tools should not only be effective but also comply with the ethical considerations involved in researching vulnerable populations. This paper presents the preliminary diagnostic exploration, supported by literature on autism and trace-study. The trace study was done in Europe, the U.S., and India to observe environmental interventions/adaptations done by autism teachers and therapists. The paper also attempts to present validation tools to evaluate identi-

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fied environmental parameters and their implications in designing educational spaces. Although school environments can be confusing, overwhelming, and fearful for children with autism, these common evidence-based environmental design parameters may be applied to achieve enabling environments which improve their responses to teaching and therapies. The newly developed research tools address the impossibility of involving children with autism in environmental research. The tools have been successfully tested and the results offer important information that have the potential to influence building design, revise building codes, offer new design guidelines, and develop inclusive built environments for children with autism and able-bodied children. References

Fitch, Kristine L. (2005). Difficult Interactions between IRBs and Investigators: Applications and Solutions, Journal of Applied Communication Research, Vol. 33, No. 3, pp. 269–276. Routledge-Taylor and Francis Group. Jordan, R. (1997). Education of Children and Young People with Autism. UNESCO. Khare, R., Mullick A. (2009). Incorporating Dimension of Behavior in Inclusive Learning Environment Design for autism, International Journal for Architectural Research (IJAR), Vol.3 Issue 3. Archnet- MIT, USA


Maurice, C., Green, G. & Luce, S. C. (1996). Behavioral Intervention for Young Children with Autism: A Manual for Parents and Professionals. Pro-ed, Austin, Texas. Preiser, W.F.E. (2001). Towards Universal Design Evaluation, Universal Design Handbook. Chapter 9, W.F.E.Preiser, and E. Ostroff (Eds.). McGraw-Hill, New York. Schopler, E., Lansing, M. & Waters, L. (1983). Individualized Assessment and Treatment for Autistic and Developmentally Disabled Children (Vol. III): Teaching Activities for Autistic Children. TEACCH, NCSU. Siegel, Bryna, (1998). The World of the Autistic Child: Understanding and Treating Autistic Spectrum Disorders. Oxford University Press. Steinfeld, Edward, Danford, Scott G. (1999). Theory as a Basis for Research on Enabling Environments. Enabling Environments, ed. Steinfeld, Edward, Danford, G.Scott. Plenum Press, New York. Ziesel, J. (2006). Inquiry by Design. W. W. Norton and Company, New York. Zimering, C. et al. (1978). The Effect of Environment on Living of the Mentally Retarded (ELEMR) Project, Environmental Design Evaluation. Plenum Press, N.Y. DSM, (2000). Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (Fourth edition—text revision (DSM-IV-TR). Pervasive developmental disorders, American Psychiatric Association, Washington, D.C.


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The Artifact Model of Architecture: Integrating Buildings and Social Environments Lubomir Popov (Bowling Green State University) Introduction

A key to understanding the social fallacies of the contemporary built environment may be the way different participants in the facility development process conceptualize architecture. There is a large body of literature on the failures of modern architecture spanning several decades. Starting in the 1960s, Jane Jacobs (1961), James Bailey (1965), Ada Louise Huxtable (1970), and Brent Brolin (1976) have demonstrated that the major problem with the inadequate social functioning of contemporary buildings comes from adhering to dominant architectural conceptualizations, beliefs, and values. A second generation of architectural researchers and critics goes even further, revealing the patronizing and patriarchal arrogance of architects, dissecting their attitudes and looking for evident disregard of users’ actual needs and values (Franck & Lepori, 2007). When the dominant views and mindsets seem to be ineffective in producing well-functioning architecture, the simple strategy is to search for a new conceptual apparatus. One possible methodological procedure for developing new conceptualizations is to employ a wider interpretation of the object of study. Such an approach presupposes expanding the conceptual boundaries of the architectural object in order to create a new way of looking at it, interpreting it, and conceptualizing it (Balint & Shelton, 1996; Gelatt, 1989; Roth, 1999). The purpose of this paper is to suggest a new way of thinking about environmental design and design projects that will allow design agents to view their roles and the product of their work in a new light. The goal is to develop a broader model of the architectural object for analyzing its social functioning and for examining a number of theoretical issues in this respect. Here, the notion of model is interpreted as a conceptualization of the object of study at a very high level of abstraction, relevant to philosophical and theoretical pursuits. The methodology of developing the new model is grounded in ideas about the artificial (Simon, 1969, 1996), ideas from new product design and development (Florman, 1994; Morris, 2009; Norman, 2002), and

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systems thinking (Hubka, 1988; Nadler, 1981; Stengers, 1997). Simon’s philosophy of the artificial is reinterpreted from a systems point of view and codified as a conceptual model intended for methodological application. This way of thinking produces a “social” view of built environment, an “external” model of architecture—a macro model—which expands the boundaries of the architectural object to include its functional environment (Simon, 1969, 1996). From this perspective, the building by itself cannot comprise the artifact. The artifact consists of the building plus its social functional environment. Different disciplines and different purposes have resulted in a number of other views about the artifact (Krippendorff, 1989, 2006). However, the model proposed here is not intended for a discourse on topics like poetics of space, meaning, and architectural composition. All these alternative or complimentary concerns remain beyond the scope of the current discussion. The paper is organized in two main parts which are related methodologically and functionally. The first part offers a methodological instrument for discussing the issues expanded upon in the second part. The author presents a systems model of the artifact, followed by its adaptation to the architectural realm. The second part shows the application of this new model for developing alternative ways of conceptualizing a number of problems and suggesting ideas for resolving them. The Artifact Model of the Architectural Object

From a systems perspective, the artifact can be viewed not only as an object, but also as a system (Simon, 1996). This assumption provides the foundation for developing a systems model of the artifact for the specific purpose of the present study—to create a broader model of the architectural object, an instrument for analyzing the social functioning of the spatial-material morphology. Next, the systems model is “filled” with architectural content and will become the artifact model of the architectural object. The systems model selected for the current project describes an artifact system composed of two subsystems—one is the morphology (material) and the other is the functional environment of the morphology. These two subsystems interact with each other in constant processes. In these processes, multiple relationships between the subsystems emerge. The categories constituting the systems model of the artifact are outlined below: (a) morphology of the artifact, which also can be viewed as the spatial-material subsystem of the artifact system;


(b) functional environment of the morphology, which also can be interpreted as the functional environment subsystem; (c) processes of interaction between the morphology and its functional environment, or sociospatial interactions; (d) relationships that emerge through these interactions; (e) laws that regulate the interactions and relationships;

(f) outcomes of the interactions, or effects of the spatial-material morphology on the social functional environments;

(g) the system—the systems model of the artifact, or the morphology and its functional environment as an entity;

(h) the system’s environment, denoting a context broader than the immediate functional environment of the morphology. Morphology of the architectural artifact. Following the model presented above, the artifact is a system comprised of two main subsystems: morphology and its functional environment. “Morphology” is the material organized in a particular way. From the point of view of human perception and architectural theory, morphology can be described in terms such as shape, form, solids, and voids, mass and space, and, more technically, layout of space and building structures. The goal of architectural design is to organize the spatial-material morphology. However, the morphology has no importance or meaning by itself and for itself. It acquires importance and meaning only in relation to its social functional environment. Functional environment of the morphology. Environment is the medium in which morphology is functioning. The functional environment influences the constitution of the morphology. Nowadays, it is a common truism in the domain of evolutionary biology that the aquatic environment has shaped marine creatures (Rose, 1998). The shape of the fuselage of aircraft is a function the properties of the atmosphere regarding different speeds of flight. In mechanical engineering, the shape and the material of the drill heads are calculated on the grounds of the resistance of the materials to be drilled. In all these fields, scientists and engineers conduct methodical studies of the functional environment in order to calculate the shape and structure of morphology. Therefore, the functional environment is not one monolithic component. It is composed of several difMay 2015 – brainSTORM

ferent domains: geographical, social, and economic, as well as other potential domains depending on the goals of the specific study. In this paper, the social domain of the functional environment will be referred to as social functional environment. It can be understood in two ways. First, it can be viewed in a “social science” mode, describing users and their cultural characteristics, needs, and activities, as well as their organizations and modes of operation. For example, such terminology is used in functional programming. Second, the social functional environment can be described in a design mode, which consists of design requirements and related statements. For example, this is the type of terminology typically used in space programming. Processes of interactions between the morphology and its social functional environment. The process aspect of any state of being or existence can be described in terms of interactions and natural laws that regulate these interactions. Processes and interactions constitute the mode of existence of social agents and their organizations. The processes of interactions can be viewed as a medium in which the morphology and its social functional environment interface and relate to each other. These interactions generate the relationships that sustain the morphology and its functional environment as a single entity; they also create bonds and regulate the relationships between all components of the system/ artifact. The interactions between the morphology and its social functional environment comprise the process aspect of the architectural artifact. These interactions are of major interest to the environmental design community because they involve not only the components of building morphology, but also the social functional environment comprised of individuals, groups, and organizations which take place in various formats within the framework of human activity. The interactive aspect is materialized in everyday action, routine operations, rituals, and so forth. This domain has a distinctive social nature. In terms of disciplinary expertise, it is the realms of sociology, culture studies, theory of action, organizational theory, and operations management. It is important to note that any type of interaction involving social agents possesses a distinctive social essence. Therefore, the interactions of material objects and social agents should be categorized as social phenomena. This type of socialness engenders in the architectural artifact a social nature. As a consequence, anyone who studies or engineers the architectural artifact system assumes the responsibility of being competent regarding the social functional environment. The social essence of the interaction between building morphology

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and its social functional environment provides one more argument in favor of construing architecture as a social entity. Relationships that emerge in the interaction. Relationships emerge in the process of interaction. In philosophy, relationships are often viewed as properties or qualities of the objects, and conversely, properties are produced by relationships that emerge in the process of interaction. In systems theory, relationships constitute the structure of the system. In the social sciences, relationships emerge in social action and when institutionalized, comprise the structures of society (Giddens, 1984). The relationships between morphology and its social environment emerge in the processes of human activities and reveal the qualities of the social agents regarding their environment and vice versa. Accordingly, environmental relations should be interpreted as social relationships. Every time we have relationships between social agents and other objects, these relationships are social by nature. The implication is that they need to be studied with the apparatus of the social sciences. Laws that regulate the interactions and relationships. In the realm of sociospatial interactions, the “laws” regulating the functioning/interaction and the subsequent relationships can be conceptualized as basic regularities exhibited in the process of appropriation of space. Such regularities appear in common behavior patterns, patterns of use of space, likes and dislikes, preferences, attitudes, and so forth. They display persistent associations with social groups, cultures, or situations. These regularities are important predictors of sociospatial interactions and their possible outcomes. The “laws” that “regulate” sociospatial interactions are social by nature. Therefore, the study and understanding of the underlying behavioral regularities is in the realm of the social sciences. Outcomes of the interaction. The outcomes of interaction are effects or impacts of the spatial-material morphology on its social functional environment. Morphology (the building) influences human behavior and the organization of people. Buildings have effects on people and influence their activities both in positive and negative ways, providing support for human activities or producing unintended side effects and consequences. Buildings have major impact on user operations, wellbeing, and mood. Thus the outcomes of the sociospatial interactions may be expressed in terms of impeding and even blocking particular behaviors, which can produce stress, frustration, and so forth. Alternatively, people may feel comfortable and satisfied, and thereby may become more productive. Hence, if architects wish to

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deliver buildings that function successfully, the study of the sociospatial structures of social reality should become a major concern and professional domain in architecture. The system—the artifact model of the architectural object. The interacting spatial-material morphology and its social functional environment work together as a system that can be interpreted as the model of the architectural object. This model broadens the boundaries of the current object of architecture. From this perspective, we can talk interchangeably about a broader model of the architectural object, an artifact model of architecture developed from a system’s perspective, as well as a sociospatial system or artifact. The social implications of the spatial-material morphology and the social nature of its functional environment provide the grounds to treat the architectural object as a sociospatial artifact and a system that belong to the class of social phenomena. Without a social environment, the morphology will be only a mechanical structure devoid of purpose, human meaning, and utilitarian benefits. Caverns deep in the earth’s crust are not architecture; underground engineering structures that have no contact with people are categorized in a different realm and treated predominantly as objects of mechanics and statics. What makes human-made structures real architecture is the appropriation by people in the process of human action. Hence, architectural objects can be viewed as sociospatial systems and artifacts with all the ensuing complexities and considerations. The system’s environment—mega-environment. In the present paper, the term “mega-environment” denotes a context that is broader than the social functional environment of the morphology. It also includes the natural environment, the societal system, and any other artifacts. Competing or cooperating social institutions and organizations are taken into account. Accordingly, we can speak about interaction between the artificial system and its broader environment or megaenvironment. For example, the city structure and the local community constitute the mega-environment of a community center. It is important to consider the demographics and economics of the serviced district, the transportation and accessibility options, and the existing recreational facilities, businesses, and schools. Hence, we can envision a new nested system of systems—the city and community mega-environment and the architectural artifacts nested in it.


Using the Artifact Model as Analytical Lens

The model of the architectural object as an artifact, presented above, facilitates the development of alternative ways of conceptualizing a number of problems in the domains of environmental design, architectural theory, and environment and behavior studies. The initial intent of the model makes it most productive in the area of sociocultural dimensions and the problems of built environment. Selected theoretical implications and possible practical applications are discussed below: expanding the boundaries of the architectural object; relational representations of the architectural morphology and its social functional environment; social design in architecture; strengthening the case for design programming; the programmatic and evaluative moments in the design process; facility development as new product development; research utilization; and evidence-based design. Expanding the boundaries of the architectural object. The artifact model may prove highly instrumental in a debate about the boundaries of the object of architecture. Traditionally, mainstream environmental designers are concerned predominantly with the spatialmaterial object by itself and for itself. For all practical purposes, they narrow the object of their engagement to the spatial-material subsystem of the artifact. Their major preoccupation is with materiality and its organization according to the laws of nature and art. The social functional environment is ignored or at least, the attention to the social dimensions of the artifact is insignificant. From the position of the artifact model, the object of interest of architecture can be viewed as a complex sociospatial phenomenon, and not just the building or the material shell. This position may serve as an argument that architectural studies should look beyond the spatial (or building) morphology and into the social functional environment. Architects should explore selected aspects of the social environment or they should develop sophisticated mechanisms for interdisciplinary collaboration and exchange with the social sciences. The implications are that architectural design should not be viewed only in terms of art or civil engineering, but as social design as well. Relational representations of the architectural morphology and its social functional environment. In this paper, relational representations are conceptualized as descriptions of one subsystem from the standpoint of another subsystem. Systems theory provides a general framework to present the morphology in terms of its social functional environment. Therefore, architectural morphology can be described in relational terms, charMay 2015 – brainSTORM

acterizing the social effects that spatial-material structures create in the functional environment. Conversely, the social functional environment of the building (the users and their activities) can be described both in social science terminology (users, activities, needs, values, preferences, etc.) and as a list of design requirements derived from these social science descriptions (spaces, adjacencies, environmental quality, finishes, etc.). These relational representations are particularly important for formulating research problems in the programmatic phases of the project delivery process. From this perspective, morphology should be organized on the grounds of information about the social components of the architectural artifact—the social functional environment, the laws of functioning/interaction, and the desired effects that the morphology should create in the functional environment. Since the organization of morphology is predicated on the properties of the social functional environment, the study of the social realm becomes a crucial prerequisite for good architectural programming and design. Social design in architecture. The artifact model presented here increases visibility of the social functioning of architectural objects. When the object of design is viewed as a spatial-material morphology functioning in a social environment, then designers’ sensitivity to sociocultural issues might grow rapidly. This can bring new positive effects into the project delivery and facility development processes. The artifact model increases the awareness of architectural designers regarding the social nature of spatial-material morphology functions and the consideration of the social aspects in the organization of the spatial morphology. Designers will develop a better comprehension of the architectural artifact as a sociospatial system. This perspective can be extended one step further to prepare architects for more active social design involvement. The conceptualization of the architectural object as an artifact allows for the formulation of design problems, as well as their solutions, in a predictable way, similar to current engineering practices. If the social functional environment of the spatial-material morphology is codified in research findings, then the structure of morphology can be “calculated” on the basis of such findings. This leads us again to the idea of social design and engineering in the sense of using theory and research for predicting the social functioning of the artifact’s spatial-material morphology. Such a view emphasizes the possibility of developing user-friendly architectural designs by considering the social environment and the patterns of interaction between users and the building.

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Strengthening the case for design programming. The model of built environment as an artifact presents architectural design as the process of shaping the morphology in relation to its functional environment. In this process, the designer should obtain a description of the functional environment, the laws of functioning (interaction), and the desired functions (effects that are to be achieved). The job of the designer is to organize, to “shape” the spatial morphology according to these requirements. The assumption that the functioning of the morphology depends on the characteristics of its environment leads to the idea that these characteristics should be made explicit in advance and taken into consideration throughout the design process. The understanding that the organization of the morphology should correspond to the functional environment advocates the necessity for facilities programming at the front end of design. From such a perspective, programming becomes an important phase that delivers the functional description of the spatial morphology. It assists design decision makers in producing a well-functioning building. This can be used to highlight the importance of programming, developing it more extensively, and investing more resources in it. The programmatic and evaluative moments in the design process. The artifact concept also introduces a substantive dimension to the “analysis-synthesisevaluation” model of the design process. In this case, the analysis stage is predominantly about researching the social functional environment. The research process leads to developing a list of requirements, and thereby formulating the system of problems that needs to be resolved. In other words, this is programming. In addition, in each design act, there might be instances of reconsidering user requirements and reformulating the specific design problem. The synthesis stage is the solution-generating part of the design process, the production of tentative design options, or the organization of the spatial-material morphology. The evaluation stage is about testing the fit, the congruence between the spatial/material morphology (the design solution of the problem) and its social functional environment. Such a viewpoint makes a new type of argument for the importance of both programmatic and evaluation thinking within the framework of a single design act. It also implies that decision-making in the design process should be viewed not only in terms of organizing space, structures, and materials, but also with respect to instances of programmatic analysis that alternate with instances of organization of materiality and solution evaluation.

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Facility development as new product development: Consumer research as an analog for user research in architecture. In general, models with a wider scope enable researchers to see their area in a different light, to formulate new problems, and to generate unconventional solutions to existing problems. The artifact model directs environmental researchers to other fields where they can find analogous problems and study their solutions. One such field is new product development with its tradition of using consumer research. Consumer research has well developed procedures for interacting with design and a long record of contributions to improving the usability of artifacts. It is defined as a field, institutionalized, and recognized as a profession in several industries. Hence, the artifact model suggests the institutionalization of user research in architecture as a well-defined specialty contributing to the facility development process. This presupposes the organization of a new allied profession with its distinctive educational programs and degrees. On a parallel note regarding facilities programming, by referring to such analogs and precedents in other industries, the artifact model suggests a similar approach and actions to programming. From this perspective, programming is conceptualized as an allied profession in the facility development process that has very close and continuous interaction with the participants in the core design phases. The artifact model and research utilization: Learning from new product development. The artifact model facilitates the reformulation of the problem of environment and behavior research utilization in new ways. First, it directs researchers to investigate the solutions of this problem in an analogous domain—research utilization in new product development. Industries that are more advanced regarding research utilization might offer precedents for productive utilization practices. We can study the way these fields have formulated and resolved the “utilization” problem. Second, the artifact model leads to the reformulation of the research utilization problem. It suggests moving beyond the objective to make knowledge usable and delving into the problem of coordinating research and design activities within the framework of artifact development. The idea is that design decision makers initiate the process of knowledge production. They will outline their information needs and submit them as a research brief. This approach will provide better chances for producing knowledge that can be utilized in architectural design decision-making. Evidence-based design. The artifact model has a number of important implications for evidence-based design (EBD). First, the model provides philosophical


foundations for strengthening the argument in favor of EBD and encourages more design firms to use that approach. The artifact model also provides grounds for making a complimentary argument for evidence-based design, inscribing it into the broader model of architecture. This model will also stimulate and motivate designers to learn more about and better understand the social functioning of the spatial-material morphology. In this way, they will be able to more productively communicate their needs for user information to environmental researchers. Second, the artifact model can provide a broader platform for conceptualizing and organizing a research agenda for EBD. The major categories of the model can guide the definition of important content areas of a forthcoming EBD research program. Third, the model will better relate the concepts of research utilization and evidence-based design. Fourth, by fostering the notion of social design in architecture, the artifact model will contribute to the development of a social engineering attitude in the profession, which will lead to expanding and augmenting the scope and depth of the EBD movement. Concluding Remarks This paper introduces the artifact model of the architectural object developed from a systems perspective. It offers a broader view on architecture and a productive conceptual instrument for integrating buildings and social environment as well as for introducing a social science perspective to the architectural realm. The notion of a spatial-material morphology functioning in a social environment changes the traditional views about the architectural object. It empowers researchers and designers to interpret many facilities development problems in a new way, which in turn helps in finding more efficient and productive facilities planning and design solutions. This new way of thinking allows for sharing experience, practices, and achievements from a number of academic disciplines and practice domains that usually do not communicate with each other. The issues and solutions outlined in this paper will be developed further in more detail in a series of future projects. There are many other issues that are still in a process of exploration and reformulation facilitated by this model, for example, the issue of environmental congruence; the conceptualization of user needs regarding architectural design; research-based processes of developing design requirements; the issue about the body of knowledge of the architectural profession; teaching environment and behavior research in the architectural curriculum; etc.


References

Bailey, J. (1965). The case history of a failure. Architectural Forum 123 (12): 22-25. Balint, J., & Shelton, W. (1996). Regaining the initiative: Forging a new model of the patientphysician relationship. JAMA 275(11), 887-891. Brolin, B. (1976). The failure of modern architecture. New York: Van Nostrand Reinhold. Florman, S. (1994). The existential pleasures of engineering. (2nd ed.) New York: St. Martin’s Press. Franck, A., & Lepori, B. (2007). Architecture from the inside out: From the body, the senses, the site and the community. (2nd ed.). Chichester, England; Hoboken, NJ: Wiley-Academy Press. Gelatt, H. (1989). Positive uncertainty: A new decisionmaking framework for counseling. Journal of Counseling Psychology, 36(2), 252-256. Giddens, A. (1984). The constitution of society: Outline of the theory of structuration. Berkeley: University of California Press. Hubka, V. (1988). Theory of technical systems: A total concept theory for engineering design. New York: Springer-Verlag. Huxtable, A. (1970). Will they ever finish Bruckner Boulevard? New York: Macmillan. Jacobs, J. (1961). The death and life of great American cities. New York: Random House. Krippendorff, K. (2006). The semantic turn: A new foundation for design. Boca Raton, CA: CRC/Taylor & Francis. Krippendorff, K. (1989). On the essential context of artifacts or on the proposition that “design is making sense (of things)”, Design Issues, 5(2), 9-39. Morris, R. (2009). The fundamentals of product design. AVA Publishing. Nadler, G. (1981). The planning and design approach. New York: Wiley. Norman, D. (2002). The design of everyday things. New York: Basic Books. Rose, M. (1998). Darwin’s spectre evolutionary biology in the modern world. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press. Roth, S. (1999). The state of design research. Design Issues, 15(2), 18-26. Simon, H. (1996). The sciences of the artificial. (3rd ed.). Cambridge, MA: MIT Press. Stengers, I. (1997). Power and invention: Situating science. (Translated by Paul Bains). Minneapolis, MN: University of Minnesota Press.

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Social Interaction in Student Residence Halls Through an Architectural Lens: A Method for Categorizing Student Residence Halls Sohrab Rahimi (Penn State University), Alexandra Staub (Penn State University) During the past decade, there has been a considerable increase in student enrollment in post-secondary institutions nationwide. These increases have encouraged universities to plan new student housing at the same time that family and student expectations have led to a reconsideration of residence halls and their amenities. Many universities have sought to keep students, especially upperclassmen, in on-campus housing to increase their income from residence halls as well as to create a sense of affiliation to the university community and minimize the dropout rate. Facilitating social interaction among students has been one of the salient objectives in the new trend of on-campus housing developments. Social interaction aids student retention, helps students to integrate themselves into broader student communities, increases learning opportunities and helps students adjust to the university’s educational goals, integrates minority students into the university’s social system, and cultivates long term relationships among students. While university administrators try to promote formal interactions in residence halls by organizing programs such as meal plans and social events or by manipulating the number and diversity of inhabitants (e.g., separating or mixing underclassmen and upperclassmen), less attention is often paid to physical design factors. It is these physical factors, however, which are essential for stimulating environmental conditions that help students to interact. Despite an increased interest in residence halls in the last decade, no recent study has presented a coherent compendium of physical design factors as they relate to the residence halls’ sociability from an architectural design standpoint. This paper has two objectives: first, to summarize the physical factors that exert an influence on social interactions in student residence halls through an analysis of existing literature, and second, to provide a method for categorizing dormitory buildings based on their sociospatial attributes that we extract from the first step.

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Three major criteria for residential halls were extracted based on a meta-analysis: average number of bedrooms per auxiliary common space (ACS), average number of bedrooms per service space (SS), and corridor traffic flow. Using these criteria, 148 residence halls from four universities were analyzed and five different typologies developed. The overview that we provide in this study provides a basis for architects and sociologists in both the design and assessment of the sociability level in various types of residence halls. The Advantages of On-Campus Housing

According to the National Center for Education Statistics, the number of college students in the United States has significantly increased during the past few decades and was 21.6 million in 2011—a 40 percent increase in slightly more than a decade (National Center for Education Statistics, 2012). This has affected the demand for student housing, which is directly related to the number of students enrolled in postsecondary institutions (Ong, 2013). Eighty percent of universities in the United States are expected to have at least 15 percent growth in student enrollment, and not all will be capable of providing housing for their growing student body (Ong, 2013). While off-campus housing fulfills part of the need for student housing, there are many reasons that on-campus living is a better option. Pike (2002) argues that students who live on campus are more open to diversity. Multiple studies have shown that schools that manage to provide students with sufficient on-campus housing have higher retention rates (Fidler & Moore, 1996; Wisely and Jorgensen, 2000; Stephens, 2000; Kuh, 2001; Ong, 2013). Gebhardt (2000) shows that a lack of regulations in off-campus housing leads to excessive use of alcohol among students (Gebhardt, 2000). On-campus life also reduces the need for cars and consequently the need for parking spaces on campus (Stephens, 2000). Ong et al. assert that on-campus housing is often more affordable for students, especially in large cities, and overall this issue is an important factor for students in deciding their college options (Ong, 2013). Because of these reasons as well as the fact that on-campus housing is an important financial resource for universities (Hill, 2004), postsecondary institutions are attempting to increase the number of students living on-campus. Despite the growing demand for student housing, the past three decades have seen relatively little research on the quality of residence halls. This issue might be in part due to the temporary nature of student housing, where quality is not seen as essential as compared to


regular housing (Thomsen, 2008). Another reason might be the moderate financial status of students (Meyer, 2002; Devlin et al., 2008). Nevertheless, changes in family expectations as well as the financial and educational advantages that are associated with on-campus housing have encouraged university administrators to promote the quality of life within residence halls (Tibbitts, 2005; Hill, 2004; Devlin, 2008). One of the salient objectives that college administrators have tried to pursue in their recent policies is to engender an outgoing atmosphere in residence halls by encouraging social interaction among students (Biliczky, 2005; Miller, 2005). There are many advantages associated with social interaction. Social interaction increases retention rates (Tinto, 1988; Wisely and Jorgensen, 2000; Deci et al., 1991; Osterman, 2000; Hoffman et al., 2002/2003), improves educational performance (Palmer et al, 2008), helps students align with college values (Berger, 1997; Wisely and Jorgensen, 2000; Kuh, 2001; Hill, 2004), helps integrate minorities (Bowen and Bok 1998; Bowen and Levin 2003; Epstein 2002; Marmaros & Sacerdone, 2006; Richards, 2002), and helps generate a friendly and favorable campus atmosphere (Pretty & Ward, 2001; Marmaros & Sacerdone, 2006). The Question of Spatial Typology

There are two types of social interaction: passive and active. Passive interaction consists of “unintentional encounters” such as greetings, making eye contact, or shaking hands. This form of communication can increase social support and the feeling of security and wellbeing in a group. Active interaction, on the other hand, includes intentional encounters such as meeting someone for coffee or a study date (Abu-Ghazzeh, 1999). Since passive interactions are the first step towards active ones, physical environments in dormitories become important for the way they provide this type of encounter. Researchers have found several architectural design factors that affect passive interaction in general, with most literature suggesting that proximity is a key factor (Abu-Ghazzeh, 1999; McPherson et al., 2001; Butts, 2002; Williams, 2005; Marmaros & Sacerdone, 2006; Tsai, 2006; Wineman et al., 2009; Sailer & McCulloh, 2012; Preciado et al., 2012). It is important to note that both physical distance and functional distance are inherent to the concept of proximity. While physical distance simply refers to the measurable distance between two points, functional distance has to do with many design factors, such as site design and the geometry of corridors (Abu-Ghazzeh, 1999; Sailer, K., & McCulloh, I., 2012). May 2015 – brainSTORM

While the importance of proximity in creating passive interaction is clear, there are studies that assert that too much density (crowdedness) in residence halls has destructive psychological consequences and lowers social interaction and a sense of belonging to the community (Valins and Baum, 1973; Coleman, 1990; Evans et al., 1996). Studies looking at space arrangements in residence halls have investigated the effects of crowdedness, usually by comparing suite-style dormitories with traditional corridor styles. Most of these studies assert that suite-style dorms provide a better social climate, since this type of dorm divides the students into smaller groups and thus helps them develop a sense of community (Harpin and Valins ,1975; Baum and Valins, 1979; Rodger and Johnson, 2006). Yet some studies have shown the opposite—that the students living in suite-style dormitories are affected by a greater depth of space (the number of steps one needs to take to get from one space to another), and in comparison to students in traditional corridor-style dorms are less likely to interact with other students (Morris and Whalen, 1989; Hill et al., 1999; Devlin et al., 2008). The conflicting results indicate that the spatial typology that these studies have used does not take all pertinent spatial factors into consideration. This study seeks to fill this gap: first, by providing a compendium of environmental factors that may influence social interaction in residence halls through a meta-analysis of the literature, and second, in providing a more sophisticated typology model based on the contributing spatial factors that result from the analysis performed in the first step. Environmental Predictors of Social Interaction in Student Residence Halls

While college policy-makers try to promote formal interactions in residence halls by organizing various programs such as meal plans and social events or by manipulating the number and diversity of inhabitants (e.g., separating or mixing underclassmen and upperclassmen or increasing the diversity of residents), environmental factors play an important role in creating appropriate spaces for students to interact. In this section, we will try to distill the predictors of social interaction in residence halls by analyzing the existing literature in this area. (1) Spatial scale and group size: The literature suggests that the size of a community is an influential factor in the creation of social interaction and friendship ties (Baum & Valins, 1977; Fischer et al., 1977; Birchall, 1988; Coleman, 1990; Fromm, 1991). Williams (2005) suggests that social ties in larger communities are weaker because residents are less likely to

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know one another. Brown and Devlin (2003) suggest that because large dorms are more exposed to vandalism, this indicates less sense of belonging in large communities. On the other hand, extremely small communities are prone to having trouble with privacy issues (Williams, 2005). It is important to notice that the size of community is not necessarily related to the size of the building. A residence hall can be divided into a number of self-sufficient “spatial packages” according to the way the shared activity sites are distributed throughout the building. These spatial packages might have their own vertical and horizontal access points and common areas that would leave no reason for one to move from one area to another, or interact with other students from other parts. (2) Organization of common and private spaces: Typically residence halls have three major types of spaces: common spaces, rooms, and corridors. The ability of residents to observe others using common spaces highly influences the chance to meet and interact (Williams, 2005; Fromm, 1991; McCammant & Durrett, 1994; Abu-Gazzeh, 1999). In the literature on the arrangement of common and private spaces, some studies assert that common spaces should thus be central and easily accessible, located on shared pathways where residents are more likely to interact (Fromm, 1991; McCammant & Durret, 1994; Abughazzeh, 1999; Durrett , 2009). Helmaa (2013) suggests that common spaces can be either centralized or decentralized. According to Helmaa, decentralized common spaces can serve a range of common activities, provided that the common spaces are large or numerous. Common spaces can also be used as buffer zones between public areas (outdoor spaces in the case of student housing) and private spaces (Helmaa, 2013). The organization of spaces can also affect the privacy and quietness of residence halls. Some studies show that residence halls that are organized into smaller groups of bedrooms provide quieter, more private spaces than dorms which do not follow this pattern, which in turn increases the students’ control over their environment and makes such dorms more suitable for activities such as studying (Devlin et al., 2008). One important factor that affects the relationship between outdoor and indoor spaces is the number of stories in residence halls. Some studies assert that indoor spaces can provide an intimate atmosphere since as they are not affected by inclement weather (Helmaa, 2013). Other studies suggest that low-rise buildings function better in terms of social interaction due to their stronger connectivity with the surrounding outdoor spaces (Williams, 2005; Abu-Ghazzeh, 1999).

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(3) Geometry and quality of shared pathways (corridors): A great deal of the literature suggests that shared pathways can play a significant role in increasing the opportunities for interaction (Cooper, Marcus, & Sarkissian, 1986; Gehl, 1987; Fromm, 1991; McCammant & Durrett, 1994; Abu-Gazzeh, 1999). Overall, the literature suggests that physical distance is extremely influential in the formation of networks. “Natural movement” is the term used by Hillier et al. (1973) to indicate the relation between interaction and the movement flow in the built environment. In the case of residence halls, corridors are the spaces through which such natural movement is most likely to occur. Natural movement has been recognized as an important factor in fostering social interaction (Heilweil, 1973) as well as the perceived crowdedness of corridors, although here again, the studies do not agree. Some show that long double-loaded corridors in residence halls increase the perceived crowdedness of space (Baum & Davis, 1980; Heilweil, 1973), while Hill et al. demonstrate that such corridors do not account for higher degree of perceived crowdedness (Hill et al., 1999). More recent studies assert that the angular attributes of corridors, the axial and segment steps, and the metric distance are contributing environmental factors in creating social networks (Sailer & MaCulloh, 2012). (4) The ratio of common spaces to private spaces: It seems logical that more common spaces in residence halls lead to more social interaction among students. The literature suggests that in general, limiting private spaces in housing increases residents’ chances to interact (Fromm, 1991; Marcus & Dovey, 1991; McCammant & Durrett, 1994). Studies on residence halls also emphasize the inevitable role of adequate common spaces on the way students interact (Fondacaro et al., 1984). Implications of the Typological Study

In this section, we will explain the criteria from the first part to develop a refined categorization of residence hall typologies. This categorization allows us to better define and examine elements that contribute to student satisfaction and success in the residential environment. First, however, we define several terms used in describing elements used in student housing. Dormitory buildings consist of a set of bedrooms (individual or shared) and service spaces that are connected by means of corridors. Service spaces are those spaces that provide the basic housing needs for students beyond their bedrooms, such as bathrooms, laundry, kitchen, and vertical access. These spaces are used by almost all students and can be either private or shared


by a number of students. Some residence halls also provide auxiliary common spaces such as study rooms, lounges, game rooms, or lobbies. These rooms are not as essential as the service spaces and students may or may not use them. Sometimes these spaces are designed to increase social interaction among students, as in the case of lobbies and lounges. The distribution of these spaces is important in determining who meets whom and how frequently, since organization of these spaces can divide each floor plan into self-sufficient spatial packages that leave no reason for a student to move from one self-contained area to another. In this system, each area has its own common and service spaces as well as an independent vertical access point. Harris Hall at Pennsylvania State University, for instance, is composed of three self-sufficient spatial packages as a result of certain relationships between component parts: bedrooms, service spaces, corridors, and auxiliary common spaces as illustrated bellow (Figure 1). Through an analysis of 148 residence halls from four educational institutions (Penn State University, Ohio University, Boston University, and University of Massachusetts Amherst), this study has developed three major criteria that distinguish residence hall types according to their socio-spatial attributes: average number of students per space for auxiliary common spaces, average number of students per space for service spaces, and corridor traffic flow.

(1) Average number of bedrooms per Service Spaces (SS): This number indicates the average number of bedrooms that share service spaces (bathroom, laundry, kitchen, and vertical access). For simplification, we have not considered frequency of use. The value has been calculated for each self-sufficient spatial package in a typical floor plan and the final value is the average between all self-sufficient packages in the floor plan (Figure 2). (2) Average number of bedrooms per Auxiliary Common Spaces (ACS): This indicator refers to the number of bedrooms that share a common space such as a lounge or study area. To simplify this calculation, all common spaces (e.g., study rooms, game rooms, living rooms) are considered as equivalent common spaces. The method used is exactly the same as the calculation for the service spaces. Figure 2 indicates the distribution pattern of auxiliary common spaces in one of the spatial packages in Harris Hall. Since in the case of Harris Hall all three spatial packages have the exact same spatial arrangement, the values for the whole floor plan remains constant. Accordingly: Average number of bedrooms per service spaces in Harris Hall: 3.94 Average number of bedrooms per auxiliary common spaces in Harris Hall: 15

Figure 1: Harris Hall consists of three independent districts (Left), spatial Organization in Spatial Package 3 (right).


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(3) Corridor traffic flow: Corridors play an important role in determining who meets whom as well as the frequency of encounters. In order to calculate the traffic flow in each corridor, the first stage is to detect visually independent corridors in each spatial package. The Isovist Analysis conducted by Depthmap 4 software determines the visual domain of each corridor. As seen in figure 3, Corridors A, B, and C are visually independent, meaning that a person who is passing through any one corridor will not be able to see people in the other two corridors.

In a second stage, we determined the paths that students take to move between their bedrooms and shared activity sites. If we consider all these paths, it becomes obvious that corridors A and B are likely to be used by only the residents of the adjacent rooms, while corridor C is probably used by all 15 rooms because of its adjacency to service spaces. Accordingly, the average traffic flow for this spatial package will be: (4+6+15) ÷3= 8.33 After analyzing 148 dorms, it became clear that in some buildings the self-sufficient spatial packages’ do-

Figure 2: Distribution pattern of service spaces in one of the spatial packages in Harris Hall, Penn State University (top), Distribution pattern of auxiliary common spaces in the same spatial package (bottom).

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Figure 3: Isovist Analysis for three points in the middle of each corridor indicates that there are three visually independent corridors in this spatial package (left) and three major paths that connect groups of rooms to shared spaces (middle) after considering the paths that students take to get from their bedrooms to shared activity sites the traffic flow for each corridor can be calculated.

main is limited to each floor. In other words, students do not need to use vertical access points in order to fulfill their basic needs (except for entering the building and exiting from it). Most of these buildings have typical floor plans that are independent from other floors. This type can be further categorized according to the characteristics of their typical floor plans by assessing the criteria that we discussed in the previous section. By contrast, some buildings require the students to use staircases and move vertically within the building in order to fulfill their basic needs. All of the cases that fall into this category were between 1 to 3 stories high with relatively small occupied areas. These buildings usually have their kitchens, living rooms, and other major common spaces on the ground floor so students will have to move between floors to fulfill their basic needs. Thus, the vertical domain of self-sufficient spatial packages should be also considered to empirically capture how the spatial configuration affects the way students encounter one another. While the literature suggests that the number of stories is directly related to the linkage of interior and outdoor spaces (Williams, 2005; Abu-Ghazzeh, 1999), surrounding outdoor spaces as places where students can get together and interact would considerably lose functionality if one considers the harsh climate in many areas of the country that do not allow outdoor activities for the major part of the period that students live in May 2015 – brainSTORM

residence halls. All case studies considered are located in northern areas where outdoor spaces are not as frequently used by students for a large portion of the year. Therefore this study assumes that the number of stories is not a determining factor in the way students interact. Results

Of all the 148 dorms that we analyzed in this study, 43 buildings had no auxiliary common spaces in their self-sufficient spatial packages. Therefore the only chance for students to encounter each other was in the corridors and service areas. Our analysis shows that the majority of these buildings (more than 80 percent of the total number) have a traffic flow from 10 to 25 (High) and the average number of bedrooms per service space falls in the 9 to 16 (High) domain. We have categorized this type as “type 5”. About one-fourth of the 148 case studies fall into this category. Of the studied buildings, 106 had at least one common space in their self-sufficient spatial packages. These spatial packages were categorized according to the three criteria discussed earlier (average number of bedrooms per service spaces, average number of bedrooms per auxiliary common spaces, and corridor traffic flow). Figure 4 illustrates the way these buildings are distributed according to these criteria. Four overall types have been identified in these buildings.

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Figure 4: 106 buildings of 148 case studies have at least one auxiliary common space in their self-sufficient spatial package; this diagram shows the 3d scattered chart for these buildings produced by Matlab 2012a.

Here we will briefly explain the overall characteristics of the four categories of those residence halls that have at least one auxiliary common space in their selfsufficient spatial packages: Type 1: In these residence halls, service spaces are shared between 1 to 5 bedrooms on average (low number of bedrooms per service space). 1 to 20 bedrooms share each common auxiliary space (low number of bedrooms per auxiliary common space), and fewer than 15 bedrooms share the corridors (low corridor traffic flow). Twenty-six percent of the dorms examined fall in this category. Type 2: Service spaces in these buildings are shared between 5 to 20 bedrooms on average (high number of bedrooms per service space). Fewer than 20 bedrooms share common auxiliary spaces on average (low number of bedrooms per auxiliary common space), and corridors are shared between 5 to 10 bedrooms (low corridor

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traffic flow). Twenty-two percent of the analyzed dorms fall in this category. Type 3: Service spaces in these buildings are shared between 5 to 15 bedrooms on average (high number of bedrooms per service space). Common auxiliary spaces are shared between 10 to 16 bedrooms (low number of bedrooms per auxiliary common space), and corridors are shared between 10 to 20 bedrooms (high corridor traffic flow). Eleven percent of the studied residence halls fall into this category. Type 4: In type 4, the auxiliary common spaces are shared between more than 20 bedrooms (high number of bedrooms per auxiliary common space). Other categories: Seven percent of dormitory buildings that were analyzed in this study did not fall into any of above mentioned categories. The overall result of this typology can be seen in Chart 1, below:


Chart 1: Final typology of 148 dorms; 93% of dorms fall into this typology.

Conclusion

Through a meta-analysis, this study reviewed and categorized the environmental factors that have a certain impact on the way students interact in student residence halls. We concluded that there are three major criteria that affect the level of interaction in dormitory buildings: the average number of bedrooms per service space, average number of bedrooms per auxiliary common space, and corridor traffic flow. Based on these criteria, we categorized 148 dormitory buildings from four universities and identified five final spatial types. In a next step, we will use environment-behavior analysis in the form of direct observation and surveys in order to determine the degree of social interaction in the five dormitory types found. Bibliography

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Bowen, William G., and Sarah A. Levin. Reclaiming the game: College sports and educational values. Princeton University Press (2003). Bowen, William G., Derek Curtis Bok, and James Lawrence Shulman. The shape of the river: Longterm consequences of considering race in college and university admissions. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press (1998). Brown, Gregory, and Ann Sloan Devlin. “Vandalism: Environmental and social factors.” Journal of College Student Development 44, no. 4 (2003): 502-516. Carley, Kathleen. “Spatial models of large-scale interpersonal networks.” PhD diss., Carnegie Mellon University, (2002) Coleman, Alice. Utopia on trial: Vision and reality in planned housing. London: Shipman (1985) Cooper, Clare, and Wendy Sarkissian. “Housing as if people mattered” (1986) Deci, Edward L., Robert J. Vallerand, Luc G. Pelletier, and Richard M. Ryan “Motivation and education: The self-determination perspective” Educational psychologist 26, no. 3-4 (1991): 325-346 Devlin, Ann Sloan, Sarah Donovan, Arianne Nicolov, Olivia Nold, and Gabrielle Zandan. “Residence Hall Architecture and Sense of Community Everything Old Is New Again.” Environment and Behavior 40, no. 4 (2008): 487-521. Durrett, Charles, and Kathryn McCamant. “Cohousing: A contemporary approach to housing ourselves.” (1989) Durrett, Charles. The senior cohousing handbook: A community approach to independent living. New Society Publishers, (2009) Epstein, Richard A. “A rational basis for affirmative action: a shaky but classical liberal defense.” Michigan Law Review (2002): 2036-2061 Evans, Gary W., Stephen J. Lepore, and Alex Schroeder. “The role of interior design elements in human responses to crowding.” Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 70, no. 1 (1996): 41.

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Fidler, Paul P., and Philip S. Moore “A comparison of effects of campus residence and freshman seminar attendance on freshman dropout rates”, Journal of The First-Year Experience & Students in Transition 8, no. 2 (1996): 7-16 Fischer, C., R. M. Jackson, C. A. Stueve, K. Gerson, and L. M. Jones with Baldassare, M. (1977). “Networks and places: Social relations in the urban setting.” Fondacaro, Mark R., Kenneth Heller, and Mary Jane Reilly. “Development of friendship networks as a prevention strategy in a university megadorm.” The Personnel and Guidance Journal 62, no. 9 (1984): 520-523. Fromm, Dorit. Collaborative communities: Cohousing, central living, and other new forms of housing with shared facilities. New York: Van Nostrand Reinhold, (1991) Gebhardt, Thomas L., Kimberly Kaphingst, and William DeJong. “A campus-community coalition to control alcohol-related problems off campus: An environmental management case study.” Journal of American College Health 48, no. 5 (2000): 211-215 Heilweil, Martin. “The influence of dormitory architecture on resident behavior.” Environment and Behavior (1973) Helamaa, Anna. “The extended home: On design solutions for community oriented housing.” Social Sciences Directory 2, no. 4 (2013) Hill, Brian D., Mark D. Shaw, and Ann Sloan Devlin. “Sense of community in cluster versus corridor dormitory design” The power of imagination: EDRA 30 Proceedings. EDRA, Orlando, FL, USA (1999) Hill, Christopher. “Housing Strategies for the 21st Century: Revitalizing Residential Life on Campus.” Planning for Higher Education 32, no. 3 (2004): 25-36. Hillier, Bill, Alan Penn, Julienne Hanson, Tadeusz Grajewski, and Jianming Xu. “Natural movementor, configuration and attraction in urban pedestrian movement.” Environ Plann B 20, no. 1 (1993): 29-66. Hoffman, Marybeth, Jayne Richmond, Jennifer Morrow, and Kandice Salomone. “Investigating” sense of belonging” in first-year college students.” Journal of College Student Retention: Research, Theory and Practice 4, no. 3 (2002): 227-256 Kuh, George D. “Organizational culture and student persistence: Prospects and puzzles.” Journal of College Student Retention 3, no. 1 (2001): 23-39 Marcus, CC. “Cohousing, an option for the 1990s.” Progressive Architecture 72, no. 6 (1991): 112-113.

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Marmaros, David, and Bruce Sacerdote. “How do friendships form?” The Quarterly Journal of Economics (2006): 79-119. McPherson, Miller, Lynn Smith-Lovin, and James M. Cook. “Birds of a feather: Homophily in social networks.” Annual review of sociology (2001): 415444. Miller, K. “Old dorms soon will be history at FAU.” Palm Beach Post, Local, 1C. (2005, June 12). National Center for Education Statistics, http://nces. ed.gov/ Ong, Seow-Eng, Milena Petrova, and Andrew C. Spieler. “Demand for University Student Housing: An Empirical Analysis.” Journal of Housing Research 22, no. 2 (2013): 141-164 Osterman, Karen F. “Students’ need for belonging in the school community.” Review of educational research 70, no. 3 (2000): 323-367 Palmer, Carolyn, Ellen M. Broido, and Jo Campbell. “A commentary on the educational role in college student housing.” The Journal of College and University Student Housing 35, no. 2 (2008): 86-99. Pike, Gary R. “The differential effects of on-and offcampus living arrangements on students’ openness to diversity.” NASPA JOURNAL 39, no. 4 (2002): 283-299 Preciado, Paulina, Tom AB Snijders, William J. Burk, Håkan Stattin, and Margaret Kerr. “Does proximity matter? Distance dependence of adolescent friendships.” Social networks 34, no. 1 (2012): 18-31. Pretty, Jules, and Hugh Ward. “Social capital and the environment.” World development 29, no. 2 (2001): 209-227. Rodger, Susan C., and Andrew M. Johnson “The impact of residence design on freshman outcomes: Dormitories versus suite-style residences.” Canadian Journal of Higher Education 35, no. 3 (2005): 83-99 Stephens, Suzanne. “The American Campus”, Architectural Record 189, no. 2 (2000): 77-79 Tibbitts, T. “Learning to live in luxury.” Crain’s Cleveland Business, Special Report (2005) Tinto, Vincent. “Stages of student departure: Reflections on the longitudinal character of student leaving.” The Journal of Higher Education (1988): 438-455 Tsai, Ming-Chang. “Sociable resources and close relationships: Intimate relatives and friends in Taiwan.” Journal of Social and Personal Relationships 23, no. 1 (2006): 151-169.


Valins, Stuart, and Andrew Baum. “Residential group size, social interaction, and crowding”, Environment and Behavior (1979) Valins, Stuart, and Andrew Baum. “Residential group size, social interaction, and crowding.” Environment and Behavior (1973) Williams, Jo. “Designing neighbourhoods for social interaction: The case of cohousing.” Journal of Urban Design 10, no. 2 (2005): 195-227 Wineman, Jean D., Felichism W. Kabo, and Gerald F. Davis. “Spatial and social networks in organizational innovation.” Environment and Behavior 41, no. 3 (2009): 427-442. Wisely, N., and M. Jorgensen. “Retaining students through social interaction: Special assignment residence halls.” Journal of College Admission (2000): 16-27. Image References

Floor plans of Harris Hall, courtesy of the Office of the Physical Plant, Penn State University.

Floor plans of Bigler Hall, courtesy of the Office of the Physical Plant, Penn State University. Floor plans of Chace Hall, courtesy of the Office of the Physical Plant, Penn State University. Floor plans of Watts Hall, courtesy of the Office of the Physical Plant, Penn State University. Floor plans of Atherton Hall, courtesy of the Office of the Physical Plant, Penn State University.

Floor plans of Nittany Apartment #60, courtesy of the Office of the Physical Plant, Penn State University.


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Scholastic Restorative Environments: Architectural Settings: Their Effects On Our Perceptions, Spearheading New Cognitive And Neural Restoration Methods Peter Floyd Smith (University of Illinois) Many students today are surrounded by electrical technologies, such as computers and cell phones. Research indicates that intense use of these devices produces chronic stress and fatigue, with an inability of our strained cognition to re-focus adequately, and to restore what was lost (Emoto, 2007). Through restoration of depleted neural attention, the ability to maintain centered consciousness for longer periods of time is possible (Kaplan, 2013). A positive change (physiological) activity that takes place within 4-40 minutes is called ‘restoration’, and the environments that produce these changes are called ‘restorative environments.’ (Hinds and Sparks, 2009). ‘Attention’ here is defined as ‘being in the present moment’ (mindfulness). (Kaplan, S., 2001). In “Pattern of the Past,” Underwood, G. (1973) suggests that certain individual features of sacred environments are marked with their own particular restorative characteristics. This leads to the question: Can neural feedback (EEG) join meditation and Kaplan’s Attention Restoration Theory (ART) to be an effective tool to quantitatively and qualitatively together better measure the restorative qualities of interior and exterior sacred architectural environments? After the qualitative (surveys) and quantitative data from an electroencephalograph (EEG) brainwaves from sacred spaces are collected and analyzed, a list of sacred restorative environmental properties will be provided. These ‘characters’ hold the potential to provide attention restoration quotients derived from the five sacred places studied, restore fatigued minds back to a rested state, and promote better cognition and perception for academic pursuits. The results from the first pilot study (Chapel) were successful, as they showed a substantial difference between outside and inside ‘sits’. The next phase of this project is to conduct pilot study 2, an outside cathedral sit, inside transept sit, and inside next to the altar sit. This is the first time measure-

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able electronic brainwaves have been used to possibly accompany ART (Kaplan, S., 1995) in its definitions and research of restorative environments. Extending Kaplan’s research methods can greatly help both the fields of psychology and architecture in a pursuit of restful and restorative interior and exterior sacred environments. Research question: Can neural-feedback (EEG) join meditation and Kaplan’s ART to be an effective tool to better measure the quantitative and qualitative restorative qualities of interior and exterior sacred architectural environments? My hypothesis is using a mixed-method research platform with new EEG technology (based partially on the analysis of electro-encephalograph (EEG) brain waves), correlated by meditation wavelengths, to quantitatively and qualitatively better measure the restorative qualities of interior and exterior place. Rationale: Kaplan’s research is ordered around external restorative visual environments. This paper’s research adds new sacred architectural characters (Smith, P., 2015) that better evaluate sacred restorative environments. This is the first time measurable electronic brainwaves have been used to possibly accompany ART in its definitions of restorative environments. Continuing Kaplan’s research can greatly help both the fields of psychology and architecture in pursuit of restful and restorative sacred interior and exterior environments. Methodology: (1) Evans, J.R., (1999) Quantitative EEG and neuro-feedback, Handbook of Neurofeedback, same author. For the survey, Zeisel, J., Inquiry by Design, and Kaplan, (2001) Nature: A Psychological Approach, and the Restorative Benefits of Nature: Toward an Integrative Framework (1995). Description of EEG Neuro-feedback: Neurofeedback is also called EEG biofeedback because it is based on electrical brain activity (measured by electroencephalogram, or EEG). Brainwave change is indicative of states of consciousness in four general types: Delta (below 4 Hz.), Theta (-4-7 Hz.), Alpha (8-13 Hz.), and Beta (1438 Hz.), and are associated with higher mental activity and consolidation of information. Alpha waves are very important in these four types and are discussed later in this research study. (2) Pilot Study 2: Using IRB allowances, this study will employ eight University of Illinois undergraduate and/or graduate architecture students (including myself)


as study participants. Through the use of EEG, survey, B&W photographic representations w/1-5 measuring scale, Franciscan Prayer/meditation (eyes open in surveys/photographic choices), and EEG testing (eyes closed), 20 minutes outside, then the same twice inside of the Roman Catholic cathedral setting. The three ‘characters’ which represent successive restorative environments are (1) Outside Cathedral, (2) Inside Cathedral at Transept, and (3) Inside Cathedral at Altar. I first measured inside and outside characters in Spring 2014, at the Chapel at St. John’s Catholic Newman Center, University of Illinois campus, in Champaign, Illinois. This was successful Study 1. With IRB, I will recruit eight volunteer architecture students (including myself) from the University of Illinois Champaign campus as study participants during spring semester 2015. Analysis: After all quantitative and qualitative data is collected; I will analyze the results and provide a list of sacred restorative environment properties, or resulting ‘characters’. These data hold the potential to provide attention restoration quotients from the three sacred characters proposed, to better restore fatigued minds back to a rested state, and to promote better cognition and perception in their academic pursuits.

Historical research plan and proposed methods: Mixed – method research approach: Qualitative and Quantitative following a case study of Carmelite nuns (Beauregard, M. & Paquette, V., 2008). EEG studies (Beauregard & Paquette, 2008) suggest EEG activity in Carmelite nuns during a mystical experience quantitatively measure brainwaves digitally. These electroencephalograph (EEG) studies will be reviewed, along with peer reviewed journal articles by Stephen Kaplan (2005) on monasteries (Kaplan, 2001), meditation, restoration, and management of mental fatigue (Kaplan, 1995). Kaplan’s ‘The Restorative Benefits of Nature: Toward An Integrative Framework’ (1995). Kaplan’s attention restoration theory (ART) will also be included in this review. Below is Character One & Two, Pilot Study 1 at St. John’s Catholic Newman Center, University of Illinois, Champaign-Urbana. This initial research was completed on May 30, 2014, by myself, alone. Descriptive exterior and interior photographs and EEG data are shown below. Data was recorded on the Quantum Infinity software, placed on a spreadsheet, and EEG brainwave numbers recorded inside the chapel subtracted from outside chapel numbers. The difference was substantial.

(Smith 2014) Outside & Inside Chapel


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Results of the EEG data:

Chart One (Smith, 2014)

Research Safeguards: Student volunteers will complete an informed consent document, with no risk, and provisions included that they can leave at any time during the research if they so choose. Volunteer architecture students will also view three B&W “Kaplan” photographs of the inside/outside and altar of the chapel

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and be asked to rate them for restorative potentials with a graphic rating scale, on a 1 to 5 scale (dislike to like). A 12-question survey will also be completed by the volunteers. (Please see survey questions below). Pilot Study 2: The representational photographs of the Roman Catholic Cathedral in Peoria, Illinois:


Some thought here about how I arrived at the sequence in a traditional cathedral, which reveals why they unfold as one proceeds intuitively. When one stops, and closes one’s eyes, there is a 30 percent higher Alpha brain wave jump, which adds to the experience of restoration (Squire, I., 2013). It is said that our brain waves have a frequency component that matches that of the 7.83 Hz earth base resonance. (Schumann; The Sedona Effect; Miller, I., 2003). This frequency (8.73 Hz.) is strongest when most individuals meditate and, interestingly, pray. (Alpha brain waves: 8.7-12.7 Hz.) These ‘character steps’ shown in the picture were included in my personal Anglican Catholic seminary experience. Entrance: “en-trance” (1) Narthex (prelude). Leads to (2) “nave” or in Latin, “navis” and means boat or ship, transports you to (3) “alter” and this word becomes altar: the focal point of worship, which is where your consciousness and awareness is “altere”. Over you at this point is (4) transept, where there are traditionally ‘choirs” to the left and right perpendicularly off the “nave” axis, and then culminating in (5) “apse”, and (6)“Chevet”. For this research, Outside Cathedral, Inside Cathedral, and Inside at Altar and Transept were used to designate three primary points of restorative measurement. Questionnaire: (survey) Question 1 will ensure no health issues exist before the meditation prayer/EEG experiments begin. Question 2 asks for the individual’s mood for the experiment using a one to five gradient. Question 3 asks for permission and affirmation of the experimenter’s bias towards the experiment. Male and female gender is addressed. Question 4. Each experimenter will meditate/pray at Compline (evening prayer at 9 pm) at the Roman Catholic Cathedral in Peoria, where the 12-question survey will be given. Immediately following this, the individual will proceed to the outside entrance to the Cathedral, and sit quietly in meditation or prayer for 20 minutes, and his EEG will be taken. Next the individual will find a pew inside, and meditate/pray for another 20 minutes, and be recorded by the EEG process. When this is finished, the student will move and sit next to the altar for a third repeat of what has been done before. During all three of these sits, eyes will be closed. I will monitor and record the volunteer’s brainwaves with Bluetooth provision through all three sittings. Question 5 will ask the individual’s mental state following finishing the three tasks. Question 6 will ask demographics. Question 7 will ask the participant’s faith. May 2015 – brainSTORM

Question 8 asks the participant’s comfort level. Question 9 queries if the individual would like to participate in another research session. Question 10 asks if the individual has experienced similar prayer sits before in this or another chapel setting. To evaluate a possible bias while participating in this research’s evaluation of the Peoria, Illinois, Roman Catholic cathedral sacred restoration capacity, individuals were asked survey questions 11 and 12. Question 11: spiritual/secular preferences inquiry. Question 12: spiritual/preferential bias inquiry. Identifying pilot study and tactics: Digital data obtained from an electroencephalograph is currently industry standard, proven in many experimental settings (Evans, 1999). Using quantitative and qualitative data also follows appropriate and strong scholarly research in its methodology and procedure. IRB certificates enforce ethics, which will be secured before Tactic 2 testing is begun during spring semester 2015. Siedman (2013) states: “Be respectful of boundaries, Explore, Don’t Probe” (Groat & Wang, 2013). This research work procedure was politely mimicked from the research done by Mario Beauregard and Vincent Paquette, “EEG Activity in Carmelite nuns during a mystical experience” (2008). Neuroscience Letters, journal homepage: www. Elsevier.com/locate/neulet Research timeline: Pilot study 1 completed. Higher amplitude on Alpha, Beta, Theta brainwaves shown (see Chart one, page 7). Pilot study 2 begins January 30th, 2015, and will be completed and presented at EDRA64, summer 2015 in Los Angeles, California. Responsible Project Investigator, and researcher info: Professor William Sullivan, LA, U. of Illinois, Champaign Urbana, RPI Researcher: Peter F Smith is actively enrolled as a graduate architecture student at the University of Illinois, Champaign-Urbana. He has completed research methods and passed the IRB exam. The eight graduate and undergraduate University of Illinois ChampaignUrbana architecture students (including myself) that will participate in research tactic 2 are uniquely qualified for the research. They will become aware, and use the research tactics comprising the combination of Kaplan’s ART, mediation and centered prayer, survey, and EEG study. This will evidence improved concentration and categorization of three restorative environments on the University of Illinois campus (including Peoria), in a sacred restoration environment within the Roman Catholic Cathedral in Peoria, Illinois.

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References

Beauregard, M. & Paquette (2008). EEG activity in Carmelite nuns during a mystical experience. Elsevier Science Direct Journal, volume number (issue number), 1-20. Neuroscience Letters, journal homepage: www.Elsevier.com/locate/neulet Emoto, M. (2007). The miracle of water. New York, NY: Atria Books. Evans, Jr. (1999) Introduction to Quantitative EEG and Neuro-Feedback, Amazon Books, New York, New York. Groat, L. & Wang, D. (2013) Architectural Research Methods, 2nd Edition, Wiley & Sons Books, Indianapolis, Indiana Hinds, J. and Sparks, P. (2009) Investigating environmental identity, well-being, and meaning. Eco psychology, 1 (4), 181-186. Kaplan, R. (2001). The Nature of the View from Home, Environment and Behavior, Vol. 33 No.4, July 2001 507-542 Kaplan, S. (2013). Experience of Nature, a Psychological Perspective, Cambridge, United Kingdom, University Press Books. Kaplan, S. (1995). The Restorative Effects of Nature: Towards an Integrative Framework Journal of Environmental Psychology 01/1995 Kaplan, S. (2005). The Monastery as a Restorative Environment. Journal of Environmental Psychology, 25, 175-188 Kaplan, S. (2001) Meditation, Restoration, and the Management of Mental Fatigue, Environment and Behavior, Volume 33, No 4, July 2001, 480-506 Mallgrave, H. (2010). The Architect’s Brain: Neuroscience, Creativity and Architecture, Boston USA, Wiley-Blackwell Books Miller, I (2003) Schumann Resonance, excerpt from Nexus Magazine, Vol. 10. #3, April-May, accessed at: sedonanomalies.weebly.com Neville, F. (2014) Outside of Cathedral of St. Andrew, G.R. Michigan Neville, F. (2014) Inside Chapel of St. Andrew, G.R. Michigan Neville, F. (2014) Inside Altar under Transept of St. Andrew, G.R. Michigan Seidman, I. (2013) Interviewing as Qualitative Research: A Guide for Researchers in Education and the Social Sciences, 4th Edition, Teacher’s College Press, New York, NY Smith, P. (2014) Outside & inside St. John’s Chapel, Champaign, Illinois

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Smith, P. (2014) Chart One, EEG amplitude, spreadsheet Smith, P. (2015) Architectural ‘Characters’, (Outside Cathedral, Inside Cathedral, Inside Altar Under Transept) conceived terms for this research paper, by Peter F Smith, Author. Squire, l. (2013) Fundamental Neuroscience, Boston USA, Academic Press Underwood, G. (1973) Pattern of the Past, Abelard Schuman Press, London, England Williams, R. (2013) Quantum Life Infinity iPad software (EEG)


Walking With Your Head in the Clouds: The Influence of Pathway Design on Mindfulness, Recall, and Affective State William J. Whitfeld (University of Surrey) Introduction

How we experience our environments is under constant manipulation from psychological constructs and environmental inputs. As we occupy an environment, either stationary or moving, the external environment produces a constant flow of information regardless of whether we are able to process it or not. The influence of spatial design on our everyday activities extends beyond the architecture of the buildings we occupy and into our journeys between destinations, through both urban and natural environments. However, research often tends to neglect the fact we experience our environments in both static and dynamic states. Few studies focus on the experiential quality of path or route design, the physical movement through an environment, or how the type of movement through space influences the assessment and appreciation of that environment. This study examines the effect pathway design has on experience, particularly differences in directional changes instigated by pathway route selection, and proposes that increased cognitive engagement whilst walking will positively increase recall of the environment and positively effect mood. Walking and Environmental Perception

The body is constantly adapting to cope with external stimuli and prevent overload from external inputs (Milgram, 1970), such as temperature (Rotton, Shats, & Standers, 1990) and noise (Franěk, 2013), that have been found to subliminally affect our walking pace. Attention, as a state of directed awareness towards accessible sensory information, encompasses both the selection and capacity limitation of ambient information (Pashler, 1998). This forms part of the connection between environmental input and psychological changes. Brown et al. (2007) described awareness as a precursor to attention, providing a fundamental connection with reality allowing an active engagement and recognition of objects through attention. Attention may therefore May 2015 – brainSTORM

be altered to cope when external inputs exceed or fail to fulfil the required level of stimulation by augmenting input mechanisms. Research into the walking experience does not distinguish between pathway route designs. Therefore, this study treats pathway design as key factor, and differentiates between path types of straight and meandering. Unlike the lack of research on pathway design, mindfulness has become the focus recent studies. Mindfulness

Early studies explored the mind’s ability to ebb and flow between conscious states of participatory thought and removed passive states (James, 1892). Mindfulness is the conscious state of awareness with implicit awareness of contextual information, alternatively mindlessness occurs oblivious to novel or alternative features of a situation (Langer, 1992). This study uses the terms mind-wandering and mindlessness interchangeably (Mrazek et al., 2012) describing the opposing end of the mindfulness spectrum (Smallwood, Fishman, & Schooler, 2007). It is necessary here to clarify the conceptual nature of mindfulness. While some research regards mindfulness as a dispositional tendency (Brown et al., 2007), others regard mindfulness as a multifaceted construct characterised by curiosity, openness, and acceptance (Baer, 2006; Bishop et al., 2004). The current study regards mindfulness as a mechanism of cognitive control (Kane & McVay, 2012), specifically as an interaction mechanism between external and internal processes. The fluid construct of mindfulness exists along a spectrum of attentional focus, creating a reciprocal relationship between mindfulness and mindlessness identified not categorically but as a psychological state of cognitive processing (Schad, Nuthmann, & Engbert, 2012). Early research into mindfulness developed an understanding of the constructs’ fluidity, whilst contemporary studies have begun to examine the positive and negative effects of mindfulness (Smallwood, Fishman, et al., 2007). Mindfulness and Recall

Demonstrating the link between information processing and enjoyment, Kang & Gretzel (2012) found participants walking through a national park listening to a narration of their surroundings reported increased mindfulness, increasing learning and the enjoyment experience. The assessment of an environment is linked to an ability to process and recall incoming information. Smallwood, Fishman, et al., (2007) demonstrated the

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frequency and depth of mindlessness to inhibit recall by reducing the ability to encode external information. Encoding is therefore a necessary process that improves the experience of an information rich environment. Mindfulness and Affective State

Philosophical, spiritual, and psychological fields are amongst many which conceptualize mindfulness as a characteristic of consciousness, supporting its ability to promote well-being (Kabat-Zinn, 1996). Clinical studies have shown that the awareness and higher level cognitive processing created by mindfulness improves well-being by reducing stress, mood changes, and anxiety (Brown & Ryan, 2003; Carmody & Baer, 2008). The ability to remain present enables a cognitive engagement with momentary events, offering a receptive appreciation and attention to current emotional states (Mishra, 2004 as cited in Brown et. al., 2007). There is a lack of research into this relationship and environmental experience, despite the widely established positive effects of natural environments on mood. Identifying how physical movement through an environment may alter our mood, Kinnafick & ThøgersenNtoumani (2014) found walking in natural and urban environments increased positive affect, whilst viewing the same environment seated decreased positive affect. An earlier study by Pennebaker and Lightner (1980) with an exercise focus suggested the presentation of environmental information may cause overloading and decrease external attention reducing mindfulness. The findings support clinical studies where variables encouraging attention towards the external surroundings depleted awareness of internal processes (Smallwood et al., 2004). Methodological Issues

While these studies offer insight into the process of mindfulness and its effects on cognitive processing, research is met with the methodological paradox of breaking a cognitive state to assess its presence (Schooler & Schreiber, 2004). Currently, two response measures of mind-wandering are widely used; self-caught—participants report when they notice their mind has wandered; and probe-caught—participants are prompted to report their current state of mind (Smallwood, Fishman, et al., 2007). There is also an inherent difficulty in discerning the level, or depth, of mind-wandering. When not on task – attention devoted to external stimuli – during an episode of attentional decoupling two levels of mindlessness may be experienced: tuned out—mind-wandering with awareness—and, zoned out—mind-wandering without awareness (Smallwood, Beach, Schooler &

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Handy, 2008). Research has supported the use of autonomic arousal measures to increase accuracy. Autonomous Arousal of Mindfulness

There is growing evidence supporting the use of autonomic responses as indices for mindfulness. Laumann, Gärling, & Stormark (2003) found exposure to natural stimuli both reduced autonomic arousal (heart rate) and produced less spatially selective attention than urban stimuli. To increase accuracy, measures of response time (Kane & McVay, 2012), heart rate variance (Smallwood et al., 2004, 2004), and galvanic skin response (GSR) (Smallwood, O’Connor, & Heim, 2005) are used. The Present Study

It is believed this research will provide a platform for the further analysis of mindfulness and its role in experiencing and perceiving environments. As such, environmental factors may be found to exist along a spectrum of influence based upon a certain level of mindfulness or mindlessness. Additionally, by identifying differences between path and route design, the findings may enable designers to create experiential qualities of route journeys and inform how designed spaces may be perceived based on how users move within the space. Hypotheses

The following hypotheses are informed by the existing literature. Respondents who view a walk through an environment along a straight path will report increased mind-wandering, lower heart rate, and lower GSR readings than those who view a walk through the same environment along a meandering path. Pace being an independent variable, it is expected that respondents who view a walk through an environment at slower paces will have an increased frequency of mind-wandering, lower heart rate, and lower GSR than through the same environment at a faster pace. The established contrast between natural and urban environments on psychological and autonomic responses expects respondents will report more events of mind-wandering, lower heart rate, and lower GSR during natural environments than urban. It is expected that respondents who report more events of mind-wandering will recall less than those who report fewer events of mind-wandering. Additionally, participants who report increased mind-wandering are expected to report increased levels of boredom and stress while reporting less relaxation and excitement than those who report fewer events of mind-wandering.


Finally, the type of mind-wandering experienced—on task, tuned out, and zoned out—will influence the respondent’s reaction time to thought probes. Methodology

Design The 2x3 Factorial ANOVA design used path types straight—a linear section of path where the final destination can be seen in a single direction from the point of origin—and meandering—a curvilinear path where the destination cannot be seen from the point of origin and involved multiple changes in absolute direction both left and right—and pace—fast (10min/km pace), medium (12min/km pace), and slow (15min/km pace). Dependent variables—mind-wandering, memory recall, heart rate, and affective appraisal—were recorded for each condition except for affective state, which was recorded pre and post all conditions. A single condition was comprised of two (natural and urban) three-minute videos. To reduce confounding effects such as familiarity and fatigue, an incomplete block design was used where participants were only shown a randomised three of the possible six conditions. The natural environment was located along a well-defined path through woodlands. The same trail provided suitable environments for meandering and straight path types. The urban environment was filmed on two separate residential roads while street typologies were kept as consistent as possible. The definitions of the two levels of mindlessness, tuned out and zoned out, were presented to participants verbally by the researcher prior to beginning, and via text during the experiment. Measures Affective state was measured using the 20-item self-report measure Positive and Negative Affect Scale (PANAS) (Watson, Clark, & Tellegen, 1988). Participants rated each item according to the time frame of how “you feel this way right now, that is, at the present moment” on a five-point scale with 1 (very slightly or not at all) to 5 (extremely). Affective appraisal was recorded after each condition; four items were presented to represent each quadrant of Russell’s Circumplex of Affect (Russell, 1980; Russell & Lanius, 1984)—arousing, not arousing, pleasant, and not pleasant. Participants reported how much they were, relaxed, stressed, bored, and excited on a similar five-point scale to affective state. Mindfulness was measured using thought probes; participants were asked to report their state of mind immediately prior to the prompt. A score for mind-wandering was created by combing both tuned out and zoned out scores producing negative coefficient May 2015 – brainSTORM

with on task (mindfulness). Response times to thought probes were categorised by the subsequent response of on task, tuned out, or zoned out. Recall was measured firstly, by asking respondents one question recalling how many of certain object they had seen (e.g., cars) and secondly, two questions about whether they had seen certain things in the environment (e.g., a dog). The frequency of correct responses was added to create an overall score for recall for each condition. Physiological measures recorded participants’ skin conductivity and heart rate for the duration of the experiment. Post-task qualitative questions asked participants what they were thinking about when their mind was wandering, if they thought any other factors might have affected their experience, and if they adopted any strategies to stay on task or remember information. Procedure A total of 36 university students (16 males and 20 females, 20-34yo (M = 24.16, SD = 3.27)) were recruited via the university online research participation system. Upon arrival to the lab, participants were informed that they would be prompted to report their state of mind and the GSR and pulse plethysmograph (heart rate) transducers were then secured to their non-dominant hand. Participants completed the first PANAS questionnaire followed by an example image and thought probe before beginning the experiment. Participants were then shown one film. After a minute and thirty seconds, the film was stopped and a thought probe was displayed, participants reported their state of mind before the video resumed. After another minute and thirty seconds, the film ended and a second thought probe was displayed. After the second probe, three recall questions were presented and responded to, followed by four mood scale items. This video procedure was repeated a second time, which then completed one type of path type at one pace for both urban and natural settings, which made up one condition. Each participant was shown three conditions. Upon completion of three conditions (six films), participants were then asked to complete a second PANAS scale. The researcher then asked the participant the post-task questions about their experience. Results

Validity Measures To test the reliability of each measure, all dependant variables were correlated to observe expected correlations from previous research and any unexpected correlations. The bivariate correlations, shown in Table 1, largely support previous studies as all significant correlations were as expected, except bored and excited.

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Table 1: Bivariate Correlation Coefficients of Dependant Variables

Hypotheses Testing

Statistical testing and analysis included descriptive statistics. Due to the small sample size and non-normal distributions of data, non-parametric ANOVA equivalent tests were used, where effect size is analysed over significance (Cohen, 1992; Field, 2009). Testing path types’ influence on mindfulness, recall, and mood found small effect sizes between path types and recall and relaxed. Small to medium effect sizes were found with levels of stress, boredom, zoning out, and GSR and a medium effect size verging on significant with excited; see Table 2 for results. Pace’s influence on the dependant variables compared fast and medium, and medium and slow walking paces, finding small effect sizes between pace and reported boredom, and GSR levels. Small to medium effect size were found between pace and recall, tuned out, and mind-wandering. Heart rate, as parametric data, produced no significant results, however the direction of means support the above findings on autonomous response. Environment setting was to have a found small effect size between environment types on tuned out, a significant small effect towards on task and a medium effect size and a significant influence on recall. A Kruskall-Wallis one-way ANOVA on reaction times to respond to the thought probes found the type of mind-wandering experienced had a significant effect upon reaction times (p< .001). A Mann-WhitneyU test revealed results indicating that the median reaction time of on task was significantly higher than tuned out (p = .002) and zoned out (p = .002), but not be-

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tween tuned out and zoned out. A paired samples t-test compared PANAS scales before and after the experiment showing a significant reduction in positive affect between before (M = 27.92, SD = 6.88) and after (M = 22.17, SD = 7.13) the experiment (p < .001). However there was no significant difference between the negative affect before (M = 13.25, SD = 3.14) and after (M = 12.86, SD = 7.13) the experiment. Qualitative Responses Qualitative response noted a strong presence of prospective thought. Respondents also noted straight paths to be more boring and slow, and urban settings being “happier” than “dull” urban settings, while the fast pace was “more interesting”. Discussion To review, this laboratory study was proposed for two reasons: firstly, to explore the effect of directional changes created by pathway design, pace, and environmental settings and their influence on mindfulness and autonomic arousal, and the relationship of mindfulness and experience as measured by recall and affective state. Secondly, the study sought to provide evidence for the concept of mindfulness as a meaningful variable and its measures as a new methodological approach in the research of environmental stimuli in environmental psychology. The expected effects of a straight path were partially supported, as reported zoning out increased on straight


Table 2. Dependant Variable Mean Ranks with Independent Variables

paths while an unexpected higher GSR recording was found on the same path type. As an independent variable, pace produced unexpected findings, with mind-wandering and GSR increasing as pace deviated from normal (medium) in both directions instead of the expected positive linear relationship between pace and mind-wandering. Mind-wandering also produced the expected significant negative relationship with recall. Despite this finding and those of previous studies, the frequency of mind-wandering was not found to associate with any of the four items of affective state. Results of environmental setting were as expected, with mindwandering events reported more during natural than urban environments; however, no difference was found for heart rate or GSR. As expected, results indicated a significant difference between on task, tuned out, and zoned out and reaction times to probes as mindwandering—tuned out and zoned out—produced slower reaction times than on task. Additionally, the depth of mind-wandering experienced shows being zoned out— not being aware of one’s mind-wandering —to further reduce reaction times than being tuned out. As the findings suggest, the directional changes created by meandering paths influence the ability to attend to environmental information. The increased reports of mind-wandering, in particular the deeper level of zoned out on straight paths, suggests that the lower levels of stimuli created by a seemingly unchanging environment induces episodes of mind-wandering. As the findings on pace suggest, there is an optimal level of environmental information intensity.


The role of pace in the presentation of stimuli suggests that a medium walking pace—12min/km—is optimal for experiencing an environment, producing lower frequencies of mind-wandering and increased recall. This optimal pace suggests that faster paces may lead to overload, and slower paces to under-stimulation. Therefore, changes in the presentation of the stimuli, as altered by walking, may influence cognitive mechanisms to enact or prevent episodes of mind-wandering based on said stimuli. Qualitative responses also support the notion that pace and setting influenced the respondents’ experience. Comparing of the direction of results between environmental settings shows respondents were able to better recall natural environments than urban, despite higher reports of off task. This may be explained by Kaplan and Kaplan’s (1989) concept of natural settings and fascination, which may induce mind-wandering events, or that urban environments are more complex with a wider range of objects and events than natural settings which act as confounding factors during dynamic movement. The secondary analysis of data, conducted via correlations between dependent variables, largely supports previous studies (Risko et al., 2012) of recall’s negative relationship with mindfulness, confirming that the cognitive processing of external information is inhibited by episodes of mindlessness. Affective appraisal produced conflicting results, although negatively correlated with relaxed and stressed, the positive relationship with bored and excited conflicted previous studies, poten-

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tially due to the use of only one item for affective appraisal. Additionally, the reported reduction in positive affect may be due to negative thought content during mind wandering (Smallwood, Nind, & O’Connor, 2009) or being seated whilst watching walking film (Kinnafick & Thøgersen-Ntoumani, 2014). The findings support the suggested relationship between autonomous arousal measures of heart rate and GSR and the mind-wandering experience (Smallwood et al., 2004, 2004, 2005). However, they contrast findings that mind-wandering is associated with a higher heart rate than on task thoughts (Smallwood, O’Connor, Sudbery, & Obonsawin, 2007). The current study’s lower rate of inputs from the participant with longer intervals and reduced physical engagement (increasing the reliance on cognitive attention) could explain the comparatively lower autonomic arousal responses. Limitations Results may have been strengthened through the use of both thought probes and self-reported measures, and a larger sample size. Post-task qualitative responses found respondents created strategies which may have weakened the frequency and duration of mind-wandering episodes; the devotion of cognitive resources to be on task in order to reduce recall errors by participants was also noted by Smallwood et al. (2004). Conclusion The results of the present study suggest that path type, pace, and environments do influence how environmental information is received, influencing mindfulness, recall, and mood. As the findings suggest, pace influences the occurrence of mind-wandering and subsequent information encoding. Pace and mindfulness appear to have an important role in altering the cognitive processing of environmental information. Whilst the effect sizes were small, the expected trends in mean directions are encouraging for future studies of a larger sample size to find statistical significance. This study has presented relevant findings and a new methodological approach for future research and practical application for urban designers and landscape architects in route design and spatial experience. Future Research and Implications for Professional Practice The use of mindfulness in design research and spatial experience remains limited. Future studies should aim to strengthen the findings of this study in indoor and outdoor environments, static and dynamic states, and

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examining the role of path types on pace as a dependant variable. The findings of this study have practical application in urban and health-care landscape architecture, enabling designers to improve user well-being and increase positive user experiences. References

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Empowering Young Children: Multi-Method Exploration of Young Children’s Preference for Natural or Manufactured Elements in Outdoor Preschool Settings Zahra Zamani (Ball State University) Introduction

Outdoor environments set the stage for children’s learning, exploration, construction, and problem invention and solving (Fjortoft, 2004). Inadequate attention is given to the learning capacity within childcare centers’ outdoor physical environment and how these environments contribute to children’s education and health (Titman, 1994). Design policies for everyday urban spaces, such as preschools, can enhance the quality of the built environments through concentrating on a ‘biophilia design’ that provides daily contact with natural spaces (Louv, 2005). Natural outdoor environments in preschools enhance children’s educational and cognitive characteristics by offering a variety of learning opportunities (Fjortoft & Sageie 2000; Fjortoft, 2004; Moore & Cosco, 2007; Moore & Wong, 1997; Wechsler, Devereaux, Davis, & Collins, 2003). Children’s cognitive development contributes to their selection of meaningful inputs from their environment and transforms or represents these inputs based on their cognitive structures (Flavell, 1992). Cognition is a complex concept usually referring to knowledge of the physical surrounding or particular skills (Fischer, 1980; Flavell, 1992). It is essential for research on children’s place experience to regard children as individuals within a community with a right to express their opinion (Cele, 2006; Clark, 2005; Wesson & Salmon, 2001). Research is needed to understand the design features young children enjoy for their cognitive play behaviors in their outdoor preschool. However, limited data is available on the views of young children, specifically those younger than school age (Clark, McQuail, & Moss, 2003). Malguzzi’s concept of “the hundred languages of children” proposes a broader concept for listening to young children (Edwards, Gandini, & Forman, 1998). The mosaic approach of listening to young children unmasks their perspectives by bringing together visual and verbal tools, which supports “the hundred languages of children” (Clark, 2005; Clark &

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Moss, 2001). Employing the mosaic approach, this research intends to explore the preferences of young children for their cognitive play behaviors in an outdoor preschool environment. The following paragraphs describe the concepts of cognitive play behaviors and elements that were employed. Cognitive Play Behaviors For the purpose of this study, cognitive play behaviors are classified as: (1) Functional play behavior: incorporates muscles and brain performance that develops fine and motor abilities; (2) Constructive play behavior: the child links previous information from functional play to manipulate or to create objects toward a direct goal; (3) Exploratory play behavior: not specifically related to manipulative objects, the child explores an object or the environment and thinks about what can be achieved; (4) Dramatic play behavior: correlates with detached meaning from immediate representation of objects, people, and circumstances that isolate play from its context; and (5) Games with rules: represent the final stage of development in which specific rules with associated meanings involve play behavior (Rubin, 2001). Elements Based on Cosco’s (2006) classification, this research classifies the elements into natural loose, natural fixed, manufactured loose, and manufactured fixed groups: (1) Natural loose: natural features are flexible, manipulative, and portable, such as flowers, sand, dirt, or leaves; (2) Natural fixed: natural components are permanently located in space, such as shrubs, trees, or large rocks; (3) Manufactured loose: artificial elements are transportable, and sometimes manipulative, such as dolls, balls, tricycle, or shovels; and (4) Manufactured fixed: fabricated physical features are steady, enduring, and rigid, such as benches, play structures, or swings. In the instance of No element, children engaged in play without any particular elements involved. Site Selection

Given the purpose of the study, the researcher sought an outdoor learning environment with a rich natural landscape and various elements. The researcher selected an early learning center that includes three manufactured, mixed, and natural playgrounds incorporating many elements (Figure 1), and that was developed by experts on natural outdoor learning playgrounds. The accessible outdoor learning environment for four- to five-year-old children sits on approximately 0.99 acres.


Figure 1: The aerial view of the FEELC with configured zones.

Data Gathering

The combination of methods in the study relies on qualitative methods to describe and understand the complex interaction between the environment and young children. Before conducting the research, the Institutional Review Board (IRB) reviewed the research methodologies and consent forms. Parental consent and data collection permissions informed the sampling procedure for each child. In addition to the photo preference, drawing, and interviews, the researcher visited the site and observed children during outdoor play. Method 1: Photo Preference This study employed the photo preference method to sharpen children’s memory and communication skills (Einarsdottir, 2005). Photos were captured from settings or elements in the outdoor preschool. The researcher printed 22 pictures of the outdoor learning environment and cut each photo to a 5-inch by 6-inch size. Each child was asked, “These are the pictures of your outdoor play areas. Can you select three of your favorite pictures?” Next, the researcher asked, “Can you explain to me why you have chosen this place as your favorite outdoor play area?” If the child had not mentioned the particular favorite play engaged in that setting, the researcher asked, “What do you usually play in this setting?” To add insight about the elements children interacted with in the particular setting, the researcher asked the child, “What do you usually play with when you are over there?” After the child finished his or her explanation, the researcher expressed gratitude and asked if the May 2015 – brainSTORM

child wanted to draw his or her favorite places within the outdoor preschool environment. Method 2: Drawings from Children This research recognizes the effectiveness of incorporating interviews with drawings in understanding young children’s thoughts (Wesson & Salmon, 2001). Combining drawings with interviews seeks to improve children’s communication about their play memories within outdoor learning environments. While the teachers were present in the class, each child selected his or her favorite photos. The researcher asked, “Can you draw me your favorite places and what you usually play in the preschool’s outdoor environment? You can recall these spaces by looking at the photos on the table.” Children were then asked about their drawing, while the researcher coded for elements based on their response. Method 3: Interviews with Children The researcher conducted the interviews during the preschool’s regular hours in the school building. The interviews followed the photo preference and drawing sessions, using these sessions as starting points. The researcher and child looked at the selected photos or completed drawings and talked about them. Children were asked about the reasons they sketched or selected certain behavior settings or elements with such questions as, “Can you explain to me why you drew this?” To provide deeper insight, the researcher sometimes asked, “Which areas of the outdoors do you mostly like? Which area of the outdoors you dislike? Why?”

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Meanwhile, the researcher recorded each child’s response with a digital audio recorder. Results

Through observation and qualitative data collection methods, rich and descriptive data were gathered. The data contributed to the interpretation of children’s cognitive play behaviors afforded by various elements within outdoor preschool environments. The following describes the results of the photo preference, drawings, and interviews. The Photo Preference and Linked Interviews Children were energetic and engaged when asked to choose the photos of their favorite play spaces. This qualitative method was ideal for children who did not want to draw. Data analysis involved coding their choices based on cognitive play behaviors and elements. The crosstab analysis explored associations between the categories of elements and preferred cognitive play behaviors. Overall, 24 children participated in the photo selection. The findings suggest that children enjoyed the green tube, swings, play structure, and sand elements. Overall, children mostly favored manufactured fixed elements (%50, N=76) and functional and dramatic play behaviors (%41, N=75). The correlational results suggest that children preferred manufactured fixed elements for their functional (% 47.4, N=38) and dramatic play (%42.1, N=38). Manufactured loose elements were also favored for

their functional (% 47.4, N=21) and dramatic play opportunities (%42.9, N=21). Children mainly appreciated natural fixed elements for their exploratory play opportunities (%66.7, N=3). In addition, children preferred natural loose elements for their dramatic play stimulation (%55.6, N=9). All three categories of elements were effective in providing ample game with rules activities. Drawings and Linked Interviews Twenty-two children took part in the drawing portion of the research. Some drawings represented children’s cognitive maps (Figure 2). Children mostly depicted manufactured fixed (%35, N=149) and natural loose (%33, N=149) elements as their favorite play elements. 4.3 Interviews The drawings and photos served as starting points for interviews. After each child had finished his or her drawing, the child was asked about the drawing’s content and the play in which the child usually engaged. Children’s explanations for preferred elements and cognitive plays behaviors were coded. Crosstab analysis further explored the connection between favored categories of elements, behavior settings, and cognitive play behaviors. Children preferred natural loose (%28, N=144) and manufactured loose elements (%20, N=144). They mainly mentioned their preference for dramatic (%34, N=144) and functional play (%33, N=144). The cross-

Figure 2: Examples of children’s drawings.

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tab analysis showed children appreciated manufactured fixed elements (%46.4, N=28) and manufactured loose elements (%41.4, N=29) for their functional play. Natural fixed elements were favored for their games with rules opportunities (%30, N=20) and dramatic play (%30, N=20). Natural loose elements were mainly preferred for their dramatic play chances (%45, N=40). Comparing elements, manufactured fixed elements were mainly favored for functional play (%27.7), manufactured loose elements for constructive play (%35.3), natural loose elements for exploratory play (%55.6) and dramatic play (%36.7), and natural fixed elements for games with rules (%27.3). Discussion

The following paragraphs explain how children perceived what manufactured fixed, manufactured loose, natural fixed, and natural loose elements offer to their cognitive play behaviors. Manufactured Fixed Elements and Cognitive Play Behavior Preferences Previous studies suggest that manufactured fixed elements are one-dimensional and mostly afford functional play behaviors (Moore & Wong, 1997). The following paragraphs evaluate children’s preference for manufactured fixed elements. (1) Play Structure: Sliding is attractive for children as it offers movement, change of speed, and experience of gravity (Moore & Wong, 1997). Children illustrated or mentioned the slide attached to the play structure many times as their favorite element. For instance, one girl explained, “I climb it up sometime, and I slide back down!” Children enjoyed standing on the stairs or the top of structure to watch others; the researcher coded this activity as exploratory play. One child explained, “I like going up the structure and looking around.” This lookout opportunity also allowed dramatic play opportunities for children. Dramatic play links children’s imagination with outside reality, enabling children to learn and manage new experiences (Golinkoff, Hirsh-Pasek, & Singer, 2006). One of the children explained how the play structure provided this opportunity for her: “We play ‘people’ on the top, and princess over.” Another child stated, “I like hiding in the structure and pretend to be fighters.” In addition, the hiding and climbing opportunities of the play structure intrigued children’s sense of imagination. (2) Green Tube: Tai, Haque, McLellan, and Knight (2006) theorize children’s need for private spaces to relax and escape. The green tube in the natural zone supported dramatic play behaviors by offering a sense May 2015 – brainSTORM

of enclosure and privacy, and children desired going inside the tube. “I try to go inside and run away so they wouldn’t get me. I play ‘princess’ and ‘mommy’ there,” one child said of her play preferences. Children mentioned many pretend themes they play in the tube, such “sharks,” “dinosaurs,” “mommy,” or “Star Wars.” Hart (1979) explains that hiding and lookout places are two environmental qualities that children value. The qualitative results confirmed the role the tube’s hiding and climbing affordances played in inspiring children’s games. (3) Swing: The swinging structures granted many challenging experiences that inspired children to recognize it as one of their favorite elements. Children described the stimulating and exciting encounters the swings afforded, such as a sense of “flying.” A child described, “I like swinging because I like swinging back and forth and getting higher.” (4) Climbing structure: The play structure incorporated the hiding and lookout qualities that children sought (Cele, 2006; Kytta, 2002). The void area created by the arched structure of the climbing structure formed a tunnel, inviting children to hide, gather, and fantasize. As one child described her hiding experience, “I hide in the sand structure and we play ‘snowy wolves’ where we hide.” Indeed, children enjoyed the climbing challenge provided by the structure; one child noted, “I climb on the little sculpture thing, and it is so fun getting down.” Consistent with previous research (Cele, 2006; Kytta, 2003; Tai et al., 2006), the climbable structures offered challenging experiences that appealed to children. (5) Rockers: Woolley and Lowe (2012) classify the existence of rocking equipment as a sign of a challenging outdoor environment. Similar to swings, children enjoyed the swinging and rocking movement: “I like playing there because we get to rock.” The observational results suggested about 36 percent of children’s interaction with rockers included dramatic play, such as riding a “horse” or “super heroes.” During interviews, one girl explained, “I like to play ‘sick fairy’ [at the rockers]. Someone has to be the good fairy and the other one gets sick.” Manufactured Loose Elements and Cognitive Play Behavior Preferences Nicholson (1971) developed the theory of loose parts, which asserts that loose parts in the environment offer many play chances and stimulate creativity that is unlikely found in settings with fixed elements. The following paragraphs explain the cognitive play value of manufactured loose elements.

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(1) Tire: Previous studies show the popularity of elements such as tires (Weinstein & Pinciotti, 1988). Children mentioned their preference for tires and their dramatic play affordances. Children imagined playing “ducks,” “Transformers,” “unicorns,” “shooting,” “house,” “pool,” “animals,” “princess,” or “jail” in the tire. One of the respondents explained, “I go inside it, pretend to be the ‘kitties’ in the tire, and the tire is our home, and we move in the playground.” Children also appreciated how they could climb and jump from the tire, pretending to be “sky landers.” They also enjoyed how they could hide in a child-scaled element, collect loose elements, and pretend to have a spatial boundary. Based on the children’s descriptions, the tire provided hiding opportunities that inspired children’s games. One girl described how she enjoyed the hiding affordance provided by the tire: “I love the tire. I get in it and I hide under it.” (2) Rope: Swinging ropes are elements for inciting adventurous play, and when tied to tree branches, they provide swinging behaviors. Based on observations, children sought the challenging experience of climbing and balancing on the buckets or tree logs, holding to the ropes, and swinging. “You stand on the bucket and you swing. I like that because it’s so fun on it and I like to dance on it!” one child stated. The challenging movements provided by the ropes inspired children’s minds. Children imagined themselves as swinging monkeys, jumping off a pretended volcano, or flying through the air as “hungry birds.” Children also employed the nonattached ropes as loose materials in dramatic play. (3) Bikes: Kytta (2003) considers cycling a challenging and motivating activity that excites children. Children explained how they enjoy “driving” the bikes or scooters because “they go super fast!” One child explained how biking associates with her physical skills: “I just play with bikes, because sometimes I get to go fast, even though if someone is on the bike with me. I can go really fast, because I have really strong legs.” (4) Tools or toys: Toys and play props are recognized for their dramatic play value (Moore & Wong, 1997). In addition, children employed toys in their constructive and exploratory play when digging or creating music. The results imply the value of manufactured loose elements such as toys for promoting different cognitive play behavior types. Natural Fixed Elements and Cognitive Play Behavior Preferences Natural fixed elements have a moderately strong positive correlation with children’s play (NLI, 2007). The following paragraphs evaluate the cognitive play of

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natural fixed elements. (1) Trees: Fjortoft and Sageie (2000) indicate that natural features such as trees have a positive correlation with children’s gross motor activities. The trees in the natural zone offered many dramatic play activities, where children imagined being in a forest, chasing animals, or playing “Star Wars.” The trees afforded games with rules activities such as hide-and-seek. The tree bark also stimulated children’s curiosity and sense of wonder, affording exploratory play behaviors. The study showed young children’s interest in climbing low height trees. One child explained, “I like to play ‘climb it,’ and then you have to climb a tree.” Similarly, in Cele’s (2006) study, children also enjoyed climbing shorter trees. Cele further explains climbing’s importance as a both a mentally and physically challenging activity. (2) Rocks and boulders: The rocks, soil, and water supported the existence of many creatures such as worms. Children moved the rocks to “see what is underneath.” One child offered, “I like playing in the rock area when there is water. We find worms.” These worms inspired children’s curiosity, suggesting the high potential of rocks for exploratory play. Children enjoyed dramatic play when exploring under the rocks, such as seeking “dinosaur bones” or “finding the worm’s mommy.” Children enjoyed the climbing, jumping, and balancing challenge of rocks because of their irregular size. One child explained, “I like to walk on the rocks because I can balance on them.” The rocks in the stone-lined swale area, however, inspired many games with rules. One girl explained how she plays hopscotch, while another girl described, “I jump on the rocks. It is called ‘jumping house.’ (3) Tree trunk: Based on the observations, tree trunks inspired children’s curiosity to find bugs or creatures in the trunk. One of the children explained about his sense of curiosity: “I like to feel [touch] the trees. The bugs fell down, and we pretended they spread.” Children combined the tree trunks to build their pretend “houses” in the natural zone. Challenging children to jump, balance, or crawl over them, some tree trunks along the trail offered functional play opportunities. Natural Loose Elements and Cognitive Play Behavior Preferences Natural loose elements encourage children to manipulate their surroundings and develop their creative, dramatic, and constructive abilities (Fjortoft & Sageie, 2000; Moore & Wong, 1997; Tai et al., 2006). The following paragraphs evaluate children’s cognitive play preferences associated with natural loose elements.


(1) Creatures: The combination of water, dirt, rocks, and creatures enticed children’s exploratory play. Consistent with Moore and Wong’s (1997) findings, children expressed a sense of surprise and curiosity toward the natural environment. One boy explained: “I like playing in the rock area when there is water. We find worms and we put them in the water and that means that dig and die or live. If they let them be there for a long time, they would die.” (2) Sand: Because of its manipulative quality, children transferred sand with their hands or containers to create pretend play materials such as a “castle,” “poison,” or “soup.” Children manipulated sand while playing pretend: “We play ‘forts’ or ‘mermaids.’” Children enjoyed the diverse opportunities sand offered for shaping and creating representative objects. Many children indicated how sand promoted their imaginary play. Children noted that they pretend to make “fire,” “poison,” “volcanoes,” “sand castles,” “ships,” or “food” with the sand. These findings indicate the value of manipulative, soft, and accessible elements such as sand for inspiring children’s imagination. (3) Sticks: Cele (2006) explains how children can create special or secret places with manipulative elements such as sticks, promoting a sense of attachment. Children collected sticks to create or spread pretend fire in the camping areas. Children used sticks for dramatic or game play as “guns” or “swords.” As one child explained, “We chase each other with sticks and pretend they are swords.” Children also used sticks to dig holes in the tree trunks or the soil to find ants or bugs. They also expressed pleasure toward collecting sticks to build the stick-pile during their constructive play. (4) Dirt: Natural loose elements such as dirt develop children’s building and dramatic skills (Tai et al., 2006). The softness and manipulative quality of the dirt in this study enabled children to explore it for creatures. The natural ecosystem fascinated children and their sense of curiosity. In fact, about half of children’s interaction with dirt included exploratory play behavior. Another quarter of children’s interaction with dirt involved dramatic play opportunities, as they pretended dirt to be “poison,” “food,” or “powder.” A girl explained, “When we mix the dirt, we pretend to make food.” These results highlight the value of natural loose elements for motivating children’s cognitive play. Conclusion

The drawings, photo selection, and interviews from young children facilitated communication and listening to children with different abilities. Overall, the combined qualitative methods suggest children’s preference May 2015 – brainSTORM

for manufactured fixed and natural loose elements. Children preferred manufactured fixed elements that offer hiding and climbing opportunities. Including natural fixed elements supports the existence of small creatures such as worms or bugs that inspire many exploratory play behaviors. Subsequently, natural loose elements inspire young children’s constructive, exploratory, and game with rules play. Manufactured loose elements appear to be supportive for functional, constructive, and game with rules behavior. In conclusion, the study accentuates how outdoor play environments with diverse elements supports diverse cognitive play behaviors, improving children’s learning and enjoyment of outdoor play. References

Cele, S. (2006). Communicating Place: Methods for Understanding Children’s Experience of Place. Stockholm: Stockholm University. Clark, A. (2005). Listening to and involving young children: A review of research and practice. Early Child Development and Care, 175(6), 489-505. Clark, A., McQuail, S., & Moss, P. (2003). Exploring the Field of Listening to and Consulting Young Children. London: Department for Education and Skills. Cosco, N. G. (2006). Motivation to move: Physical Activity affordances in preschool play areas [dissertation]. Edinburg College of Art (Scotland): School of Landscape Architecture, Heriot Watt University, Edinburg. Edwards, C., Gandini, L., & Forman, G. (1998). The hundred languages of children: The Reggio Emilia approach - advanced reflections (2nd ed.). Greenwich: Albex. Einarsdottir, J. (2005). Playschool in pictures: Children’s photographs as a research method. Early Child Development and Care, 175(6), 523-541. Fischer, K. W. (1980). A theory of cognitive development: The control and construction of hierarchies of skills. Psychological Review, 87(6), 477. Fjortoft, I. (2004). Landscape as playscape: The effects of natural environments on children’s play and motor development. Children, Youth and Environments, 14(2), 21-44. Fjørtoft, I., & Sageie, J. (2000). The natural environment as a playground for children: Landscape description and analyses of a natural playscape. Landscape and Urban Planning, 48(1-2), 83-97.

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Flavell, J. H. (1992). Cognitive development: Past, present, and future. Developmental Psychology, 28(6), 998. Golinkoff, R. M., Hirsh-Pasek, K. A., & Singer, D. G. (2006). Play= learning: A challenge for parents and educators. Play= Learning: How Play Motivates and Enhances Children’s Cognitive and Social-Emotional Growth: How Play Motivates and Enhances Children’s Cognitive and SocialEmotional Growth, 1. Herrington, S., & Studtmann, K. (1998). Landscape interventions: New directions for the design of children’s outdoor play environments. Landscape and Urban Planning, 42(2-4), 191-205. Kyttä, M. (2003). Children in outdoor contexts. Affordances and independent mobility in the assessment of environmental child friendliness. Helsinki: Helsinki University of Technology. Louv, R. (2005). Last child in the woods: Saving our children from Nature- Deficit Disorder. Chapel Hill, NC: Algonquin Books. Moore, R. C., & Wong, H. (1997). Natural learning: the life history of an environmental schoolyard: creating environments for rediscovering nature’s way of teaching. Berkeley, CA: MIG Communications. Moore, R., & Cosco, N. (2007). What makes a park inclusive and universally designed? In C. Ward Thompson & P. Travlou (Eds.), Open Spaces People Space (pp. 85-110). London: Taylor and Francis. Natural, Learning, Initiative. (2007). My place by the bay: Prepared environments for early science learning. Raleigh, NC: North Carolina State University. Nicholson, S. (1971). How not to cheat children: The theory of loose parts. Landscape Architecture, 62, 30-34. Rubin, K. H. (2001). The Play Observation Scale (POS). College Park, MD: Center for Children, Relationships, and Culture, University of Maryland. Titman, W. (1994). Places; special people: The hidden curriculum of school grounds. London: World Wildlife Fund for Nature / Learning Though Landscapes. Wechsler, H., Devereaux, R., Davis, M., & Collins, J. (2003). Using the school environment to promote physical activity and healthy eating. Preventive Medicine, 31(2), 121-137. Weinstein, C. S., & Pinciotti, P. (1988). Changing a schoolyard intentions, design decisions, and behavioral outcomes. Environment and Behavior, 20(3), 345-371.

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Wesson, M., & Salmon, K. (2001). Drawing and showing: Helping children to report emotionally laden events. Applied Cognitive Psychology, 15(3), 301-319. Woolley, H., & Lowe, A. (2012). Exploring the relationship between design approach and play value of outdoor play spaces, Landscape Research, 38(1), 53-74.

Pre-Conference Intensives

Abstracts


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Pre-Conference Intensives

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Action Research – Abstracts

ACTION RESEARCH

Video That Says a Thousand Words: The Capacity of Video in Community-Based Research and Teaching Laura Lawson, [email protected], (Rutgers); Shenglin Chang, shenglinchang@ gmail.com, (National Taiwan Universsity); William Atwater, [email protected] For the engaged scholar/ designer, the experience of getting to know a place deeply—becoming imbedded in a community and appreciating the complex economic, environmental, and social context experienced by local residents—inevitably sheds preconceptions, nuances facts, and leads to richly complex understandings of needs and opportunities. What does this mean in the context of communities facing significant environmental or economic challenges impacting their ability to stay in place yet having limited power to improve conditions? In such contexts, the design process becomes a venue for sharing perspectives and envisioning mutually beneficial outcomes. Video as part of this process allows a larger audience to share in the dialogue and potentially invest in the longer term solutions required. Video captures the stories as they are told and is a record for the future. This presentation focuses on long-term engagement with communities facing difficult challenges yet inspiring new solutions that draw designers into storytelling. Conducted in the context of community-engaged studios and research, the challenge is to evoke an empathetic response from students and others so that they share the deeper meaning of place and broaden their capacity for engagement beyond design. Likewise, community residents see benefit that are not limited to physical space but engage in economic development, education, and cultural heritage preservation. This presentation includes two scholars who have spent over 20 years working with various communities in place-based design and a videographer who brings a documentarian perspective to the process. Case studies from Taiwan and St. Croix provide the context for discussion of community stories. Both scholars have shifted to video as a forum for communication to students and the larger public. The videographer will discuss the opportunities and technical challenges faced in documenting community stories and the design process. May 2015 – brainSTORM

Presentation #1: When an Ugly Story Inspires New Opportunities: The Provision Ground in St. Croix

Although interest in urban and local agriculture is on the rise, some people with personal or family experience in the more negative aspects of agriculture may have ambivalent feelings about becoming involved. While some people see local food production as a form of self-reliance and resilience, others see it as a legacy of poverty, inequality, and enslavement. This ambivalence is often quietly discussed in many community gardens and urban agriculture endeavors in communities of color but tends to be muted in larger policy and planning efforts. This presentation focuses on a story unfolding in St. Croix, as activists and historians seek to re-introduce the provision ground as precursor and potential inspiration for local food production. The island has a long history of enslavement to support sugar plantations. During much of this period, the enslaved were required to not only work in the sugar fields but also grow their own food for consumption on plots of land—provision grounds—that were often located on less fertile lands. Currently, St. Croix, a U.S. territory, is experiencing a significant economic downturn due to the closure of an oil refinery. Around the island, there is a marked increase in gardening, and several prominent cultural heritage centers have explored the idea of promoting gardening through the reinterpretation of provision grounds. This presentation will describe a current research project underway to explore the historical and contemporary meaning of provision grounds, using documentary as the medium for discussion. The presenter, who has studied urban agriculture for over 20 years, will discuss her rationale for video as a scholarly media. She will discuss the participation by experts and residents in the video, the power of landscape imagery, and the challenges faced in working with the new medium. Presentation #2: Blue Magpie Tea Experiment in Taiwan: Video to Convey the Tea Cultural Landscape

This presentation will discuss the importance of storytelling as a foundational step in promoting an economic development and education program working with tea farmers in the Pinglin area of Taiwan. Starting in 2011, students and faculty from the Graduate Institute of Building and Planning at National Taiwan University began working with residents of a poor, rural area. The project started as a planning and design proposal but shifted toward economic development and education as the group became more embedded in the

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community and realized these were greater needs for the residents. The effort has resulted in Blue Magpie TEAgriculture in collaboration between the Chinese Wild Bird Federation and the local farmers. Pinglin satoyama refers to how people manage foothill ecosystems around their home villages. The team has used video to document and share their work with the larger Taipei community. The video explains the ecological approach to tea farming while also conveying a cultural landscape that is part of the heritage of many Taiwanese. The presenter will discuss the overall goals of the project as well as the challenges in broadening the designers’ skills toward economic development, marketing, and education. The role of video to share the story has proven to be an essential step in the process, but one that requires prioritization in the process as well as special technical considerations. Presentation #3: Capturing the Momentum: The Capacity of Video in the Studio and Place-Based Research

This presentation will focus on the perspective of a videographer and documentarian who has experience working with place-based design and communityengaged studios. His career as a documentarian began while working for a non-profit organization to help establish a community garden in a low-income Durham neighborhood. Finding himself pulled toward recording the stories he heard from residents as they weeded and gardened together, he has since forged a career in storytelling through journalism and film. In recent years, he has worked closely with the Department of Landscape Architecture at Rutgers to highlight activities of various community-engaged studios. He is currently documenting work being done in St. Croix to provide design interpretation of archaeology sites related to the slave trade, as well as a research project on the history of provision grounds and its current resurgence as a cultural form of urban agriculture. His talk will focus on aspects of the partnership between film-maker and design faculty as well as technical and procedural considerations in starting such an endeavor.

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Active Neighborhoods – Abstracts

ACTIVE NEIGHBORHOODS

Walking, Obesity, and Urban Design in Chinese Neighborhoods Mariela Alfonzo, [email protected], (New York University); Zhan Guo, zg11@ nyu.edu, (New York University); Kristen Day, [email protected], (New York University) We examined the connections (1) between the design of the built environment and walking, (2) between the design of the built environment and obesity, and (3) between walking and obesity and income in urban settings in China. Six neighborhoods with different built environment characteristics, located in the Chinese cities of Shanghai and Hangzhou, were studied. Data on walking and other physical activity and obesity levels from 1,070 residents were collected through a street intercept survey conducted in 2013. Built environment features of 527 street segments were documented using the Irvine-Minnesota Inventory-China (IMI-C) environmental audit. Data were analyzed using the State of Place™ Index. Walking rates, household income, and Body Mass Index (BMI) were related; neighborhoods with a higher State of Place™ Index were associated with higher rates of walking. This study began to establish an evidence base for the association of built environment features with walking in the context of Chinese urban design. Findings confirmed that the associations between “walkable” built environment features and walking established in existing research in other countries also held true in the case of Chinese neighborhoods.


Children’s Travel Related Physical Activity in Conventional and New Urbanist Neighborhoods Jong Seon Lee, [email protected], (NCSU) Children’s physical activity (PA) has declined substantially during the last decades. Travel could be a major potential source of physical activity, since school children regularly spend their time in school travel with walking and biking. This article investigates the association between neighborhood design and children’s PA. This study targets identifying influences of BE on children’s behaviors as well as tests new measures using accelerometers and GPS (global positioning system) concurrently to look at their behavior more objectively. Two types of data collection methods were used: survey and accelerometers/GPS units. A group-administered survey was conducted with 367 4th and 5th grade children in four neighborhood elementary schools in Chapel Hill, NC. Two schools are located in conventional suburban neighborhoods and the other two are in new urbanist neighborhoods. The questionnaire items, including frequency and types, were developed from the PAQ-C survey. Built environment variables such as distance to school, children’s population density, mixed land use, road density, intersection and sidewalk density, and PA locations around home were measured within a quarter-mile buffer of each participant’s home in ArcGIS. Among 367 children, 60 wore accelerometers and GPS units for seven complete days continuously except when sleeping, bathing, or swimming. Both devices were attached to a belt and worn just above the hip bone. From survey results, participants’ mean PA score ranged from 1 to 5, and participants were divided into two groups, low (1-2) and high (3-5). T-test indicated that neighborhood type, diversity, and connectivity variables such as street length, the number of intersections, and sidewalk density are significantly different between high/ low PA groups. Finally, I used binominal logistic regression, which estimates the odds probability of the DV occurring as the values of the IVs change. The 2.34 odds ratio for neighborhood type indicates that odds of PA in new urbanist neighborhoods are 2.34 times of the odds for conventional neighborhoods. Using data from devices, I mapped participants’ travel-related PA intensity to qualitatively describe where they were active or not. Color-coded dots indicate the intensity of moderate to very vigorous PA. In both neighborhood types, sidewalks and greenway trails support partici-

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pants’ travel-related PA. Especially in new urbanist neighborhoods, children were active in open space near shops, woods, and ponds when they were returning home from school, when they tended to have more time to walk and wander around. In conclusion, there are significant differences in neighborhood form and PA levels between neighborhood types. Neighborhood type was the strongest predictor of PA level compared to BE variables since it may be a composite of sub-factors of distance, density, diversity, and design.

The Power of Perception: The Perceived Quality of the Streets and Reported Walking in Three Different Socioeconomic Status Neighborhoods Zeynep Toker, [email protected], (California State University Northridge) Socio-economic status is one of the main determinants of public health, especially in the case of obesity, as it is connected to physical activity. Research suggests that improving physical environment characteristics, in particular perceived pedestrian environment characteristics, might be the key to increasing walking behavior—one type of physical activity. The purpose of this study is to examine the relationship between perceived pedestrian environment characteristics and reported walking behavior in three different socio-economic status neighborhoods. Ultimately, this line of research aims to inform short-term interventions in the built environment which might increase the amount of walking and help improve public health. A questionnaire for assessing the perceived quality of pedestrian environment and reported walking was developed. The questionnaire was designed to ask open ended questions identifying two best and two worst characteristics of sidewalks and streets in an area. It also included questions about respondents’ frequency of walking in those neighborhoods. A total of 1,490 questionnaires were administered in three sites with different socio-economic status in and around the City of Los Angeles. The first neighborhood, which accommodates the lowest racial and ethnic diversity among these three sites, has the highest percentage (91.2%) of the population with high school education or higher, the lowest percentage (11.4%) be-

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low the poverty level, and the highest median household income ($72,625). The second neighborhood, which accommodates some racial and ethnic diversity, has 84.3 percent of the population with high school education or higher, 15.5 percent below poverty level, and a median household income of $62,958. The third neighborhood, which has the highest racial and ethnic diversity, has the lowest percentage (53.8%) of the population with high school education or higher, highest percentage (18.6%) below poverty level, and the lowest median household income ($53,742). The perception responses were coded after conducting a content analysis and a factor analysis was used to identify the most influential characteristics of the streets on reported walking in different levels of socioeconomic status neighborhoods. The results show that perceived cleanliness and perceived quality of landscaping are the strongest elements. Moreover, lack of perceived cleanliness was identified as the worst characteristic in the first neighborhood by 27 percent, in the second neighborhood by 21 percent, and in the third neighborhood by 20 percent. Similarly, perceived quality of landscaping was identified as the best characteristic in the first neighborhood by 16 percent, in the second neighborhood by 11 percent, and in the third neighborhood by 12 percent. Although different socio-economic status neighborhoods might have different physical environment characteristics, ultimately it is the perception of residents in a neighborhood that establishes how walkable the environment is for them. Therefore, the commonalities across socio-economic status are crucial intervention points for urban planners and policy makers.

Autism and Environment – Abstracts

AUTISM AND ENVIRONMENT

Evidence-Based Design Guidelines and Future Research Considerations for Autism-Friendly Physical Environments Jin Gyu “Phillip” Park, [email protected], (University of North Texas) The purpose of this presentation is to provide evidence-based design guidelines and future research considerations regarding autism-friendly physical environments. People with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) have sensory sensitivity and hardly make sense of the world. It is important to understand the difficulties that they face, how they are affected by their environment, and what kinds of physical environment can help them be less confused or to cope with stress (Whitehurst, 2006). The ASD population is increasing so the investigation of design features that is uniquely beneficial to them is timely, but more research is needed to reach solid conclusions about autism-friendly environments (Brand, 2010). This presentation addresses the above issues by synthesizing existing literature regarding design features and sensory aspects beneficial for people with ASD. In addition, future research suggestions were developed. A critical literature review was conducted by using various combinations of key search terms, including but not limited to “autism spectrum disorder, autism-friendly design, Asperger syndrome, built environment, physical environment”, within several academic databases. Each chosen study was reviewed in terms of its significance, appropriateness of the research methods utilized, strengths and limitations of the study, and suitability of the conclusions. Evidence-based design considerations regarding acoustics, color, lighting, room layout, and wayfinding were developed to facilitate designers better understand autism-friendly environments. Good acoustical and lessreflective surface materials help achieve a calm environment, and natural lighting and glare control on windows can be achieved by applying integral blinds between the double glazing (Irlen, 1991). For children who fear large spaces, smaller social spaces allow them to build up their comfort level (Whitehurst, 2006). One of the most effective ways of helping an individual with ASD to cope with their stress is to create a well-structured and supportive physical environment (Beaver, 2011). In addition, future research considerations were developed. May 2015 – brainSTORM

Designing for Autism: A Case Study Garden Design for a Residential Group Home for Severely Autistic Adults Christine Reed, christine.ellen.reed@gmail. com, (Office of Cheryl Barton) This case study demonstrates that an appropriately designed residential garden will encourage daily, habitual interaction with nature and provide measurable therapeutic benefit for individuals with autism. The study identifies common aspects of autism that influence design; develops design strategies to accommodate special needs, provide sensory integration opportunities, relieve stress and reduce isolation; and assesses the impact of a designed garden on behavior patterns and stress level of the residents. Close partnership with staff and therapists of Pacific Autism Center for Education (PACE) and observation of their elementary school facility provide a rich set of design considerations, physical criteria, goals, and objectives to guide design. The garden incorporates strategic site planning principles, such as spatial organization for intuitive way-finding and physical transitions between spaces and activities with particular design features, such as a lighted ‘Meditation Path’, ‘Cradle Deck’, ‘Calm Room’, ‘Privacy Screens’, and a large shaded dining arbor for group gatherings. The pre-design space included many of the same elements as the post-design, such as swings, trampoline, and basketball hoop, but lacked any spatial organization. Pre-development interviews, questionnaires and use pattern diagrams, and post-occupancy evaluation were used to determine the effectiveness of the design to modify behavior patterns and reduce stress in the residents. Upon completion, caretakers noted more frequency and longer duration of use, and less frenetic movement patterns than with pre-design use. Residents’ engagement with new design features was strong. PACE was impressed with the results, has since installed another garden at one of its other group homes, and intends to build more.

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Healthy Environments For Autism Jaques Black, [email protected], (daSILVA Architects); Catherine Lord, [email protected], (NewYorkPresbyterian Hospital/Weill Cornell Medical College) This presentation will explore the dynamic between the built environment—with its attributes of acoustics, visual character, spatial quality, color, texture, geometry, etc.—and the behavior of individuals with autism spectrum disorders (ASD). Autism is a developmental disorder characterized by delayed communication skills, challenged social interaction, and repetitive behavior. By understanding the mechanisms of this disorder and consequent needs of the autistic user, this environment may be designed favorably to alter the sensory input and create a predictable environment conducive of skill development and learning. A case study of the Center for Autism and the Developing Brain (CADB) at NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital will highlight the specific issues related to the design of environments for persons on the Autism spectrum. CADB provides comprehensive care in a single setting for individuals living with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) and other developmental disorders of the brain. It is a collaborative program between NewYork-Presbyterian, Weill Cornell Medical College, and Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons, in partnership with New York Collaborates for Autism.

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Building Performance – Abstracts

BUILDING PERFORMANCE

Modeling Occupant Behavior in Buildings Clinton Andrews, [email protected], (Rutgers University); Tianzhen Hong, [email protected], (Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory); Bing Dong, [email protected], (University of Texas San Antonio); Khee Lam, kplam@ cmu.edu, (Carnegie Mellon University) Building information modeling (BIM) is becoming a more central tool for designers and operators of buildings, and a key benefit is that it enables simulation of the likely performance of the building under alternative design and operation scenarios. A thorough exploration of the “what-ifs” contributes to the realization of more comfortable, efficient, and robust buildings. Many in the EDRA community conduct research on occupant behavior with the intent to influence design practice. Yet there have been relatively few sessions at our previous conferences that focus on how to translate those insights for use within BIM frameworks. This lack is partly disciplinary, because building performance simulation modeling is largely a practice domain of engineers, and that group has not regularly attended EDRA. The engineers, meanwhile, are hungry for data to feed their models, data that members of the EDRA community regularly collect. This symposium brings a leading group of experts in modeling occupant behavior in buildings to EDRA for the purpose of sparking greater cooperation between the building modeling and behavioral research communities. The premise of this symposium is that technologies alone do not necessarily guarantee high-performing buildings. Occupant behavior plays an essential role in the design and operation of buildings, but it is quite often oversimplified. Occupant behavior refers to an occupant’s movement and responses to discomfort, when his/her comfort needs are not met. Occupant behavior varies with time, space, the individual, and is influenced by social context. It is stochastic, complex, and multidisciplinary. Having a better understanding and modeling of occupant behavior in buildings can improve the accuracy of building simulations and guide the design and operation of buildings. The focus of this symposium is on modeling behavioral factors that influence building energy performance. It also introduces a framework for future cooperation between modelers and behavioral researchers. May 2015 – brainSTORM

Presentation #1: Approaches to Modeling Occupant Behavior

Accepted practice absolves building energy modelers of responsibility for capturing many of the effects of occupant behavior by assuming fixed comfort targets and ignoring “unregulated” loads. Previous research shows that occupants influence building performance by their choice of setpoints, schedules, and adaptive behaviors. Temperature setpoints outweigh internal loads, especially in small buildings, and low-mass high-glazing buildings are dominated by external climate. Schedules drive the need for HVAC, lighting, and plug loads. Adaptive behaviors are heterogeneous, often habitual, and sometimes maladaptive. This presentation asks what we can learn by incorporating more detailed information about occupant behavior into models. It compares results of three approaches: conventional practice, an augmentation incorporating detailed occupancy patterns, and an augmentation incorporating detailed behavioral responses of occupants to evolving comfort conditions. We apply these models to a highly-instrumented commercial building in Philadelphia, PA, using EnergyPlus and extensions based in Markov chain modeling and agent-based modeling. We extend previous work on Markovian and agent-based approaches. Presentation #2: Integrating Behavioral Models With Building Performance Simulation Models

It is clear that energy-related occupant behavior often plays a significant role in buildings, but how should models incorporate behavior? Building energy performance models are sophisticated tools that have undergone continuous refinement in order to represent accurately the physical phenomena that occupants experience as indoor comfort and associated utility bills. Bringing building occupants “inside the loop” so that their adaptive behaviors can be modeled as interacting with the building’s technological systems is an emerging challenge for the modeling community. This presentation reports on recent efforts at LBL and elsewhere to meet this challenge in a way that encourages continued advances in the conceptual frameworks for modeling occupant behavior. The model integration challenge will be illustrated using one technical framework that is being developed to standardize the description and modeling of occupant behavior in buildings. The framework has four components: (1) the Drivers behind occupant behavior; (2) the Needs of occupants; (3) the Actions that occupants perform when their needs are not fulfilled; and (4) the Systems with which an occupant can interact to satisfy their needs. Examples and use cases of the framework will be introduced, including its use

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to improve simulation results and as part of the research under the IEA EBC Annex on occupant behavior. Presentation #3: Modeling Occupant Presence and Movement

An occupant’s presence in the building is a fundamental determinant of their ability to influence the building’s performance. Modeling and predictions of “presence” (anywhere in a building) and “location” (within a specific zone) are amenable to simple, schedule-based approaches, as well as more sophisticated, activity-based modeling approaches. This presentation will review the range of approaches that have been used and then illustrate the associated data collection and modeling challenges in a case study of a university building with occupancy presence and movement. It develops a new spatial-temporal algorithm to estimate occupancy movement patterns, and presents group-level behaviors of various types of occupants such as professors and students. Presentation #4: Standards for Defining and Modeling Occupant Behavior

Energy-conscious human behavior has been demonstrated to be a significant positive factor for improving the indoor environment while reducing the energy use of buildings. The Energy in Buildings and Communities (EBC) group working under the umbrella of the International Energy Agency (IEA) supports international efforts to advance the state of the art in energy-related research and practice. The IEA EBC Annex 66, Definition and Simulation of Occupant Behavior in Buildings, aims to: (1) Identify a uniform way for quantitative description and classification of occupant behavior; (2) Develop effective calculation methodologies of occupant behavior; (3) Implement occupant behavior models with building energy simulation tools; and (4) Demonstrate the occupant behavior models in design, evaluation and operation by case studies. One main outcome will be a guideline to improve building design and operation by taking into account the occupant behavior in the building life cycle. The history and progress of the Annex will be summarized.

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Children’s Environments – Abstracts

CHILDREN’S ENVIRONMENTS

Design and Analysis of a Pathway to Maximize Behavioral Affordances for Children and Families Adina Cox, [email protected], (North Carolina State University) Play is important for a child’s healthy social, emotional, physical, and cognitive development. Play can also help build healthy bonds between parent and child. Outdoor play can lead to increased physical activity and opportunities to build connections between children and nature. The association between humans and nature has implications for improving physical and mental health and increasing longevity. In today’s hectic society, opportunities for outdoor play may be more limited for many children and families. In this project, a pathway set in a regional urban park in Springfield, Missouri was chosen for this study based on location to residential areas, proximity to schools, and opportunities for exposure to nature. This pathway was enhanced with ‘play pockets’ to support play opportunities for children. Parents were surveyed at this site and at three similar sites to better understand their perceptions. Behavior mapping was conducted to learn what play affordances were provided by the pathway and the play pockets. Activities were open coded for later analysis on a tablet using GIS software. Opportunity for ‘family fun’ was the most cited benefit of pathway use. Families believed that the addition of the play pockets increased the amount of time they spent at the park. A wide variety of activities were observed with behavior mapping. Play pocket activities tended to be physical with a high rate of social interaction between child-adult as well as child-child. Children also were attracted to areas that had been designed as resting and viewing areas for adults. These areas, which included benches, plantings, and bridges enticed children to linger and play. Wildlife interactions were popular and engaged children across the pathway use. Including play pockets, resting areas, and plantings for wildlife along pathways may lead to a wider variety of affordances for children and families and may encourage more frequent use and increased duration of visits.


Housing and Neighborhood Physical Quality: Children’s Mental Health and Chronic Physiological Stress Gary Evans, [email protected], (Cornell University); Nancy Wells, nmw2@cornell. edu, (Cornell University); Kimberly Rollings, [email protected], (Notre Dame University); Yizhao Yang, [email protected], (University of Oregon); Amanda Bednarz, [email protected], (University of Oregon) The purpose of this project is to examine the relations between the physical quality of housing, neighborhood, and their interactive effect on rural children’s development from elementary school through young adulthood. Standardized instruments are used to assess housing quality (walk through by trained observers) and neighborhood quality. The housing scale consists of subscales for structural quality, clutter and cleanliness, indoor climate, hazards, and privacy. Neighborhood physical quality assessment is based primarily on observer ratings and other indicators available from archival sources (e.g., census) plus minimal self-reported data. Dimensions of neighborhood quality defined by a two mile buffer zone (distance along streets) include proximity to nature; street connectivity; density (housing units and distance to closest neighbor); proximate building conditions; sidewalk conditions; neighborhood stability (housing tenure); proximity to elementary schools, playgrounds, open space, community services, recreation, entertainment, and agriculture; and land use mix. Traffic volume, air pollution, and noise levels did not load as contributing factors due to insufficient variance within the rural settings used and thus were not included. We focus on two critical components of child development, psychological health and chronic stress. Growth curve modeling reveals lower quality housing leads to greater psychological distress (internalizing and externalizing symptoms), as well as more helplessness on a behavioral task over a period of 15 years, from 9 to 24 years of age. Housing quality is unrelated to chronic physiological stress measured by allostatic load, a multivariate composite of blood pressure, epinephrine, norepinephrine, cortisol, and body mass index. All analyses

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statistically control for income levels. Neither physical neighborhood quality nor its interaction with physical housing quality affect psychological distress, helplessness, or chronic physiological stress. Possible reasons for the null neighborhood quality effects are discussed.

Classroom Environment and Students’ Emotional States— Bringing in Mobile EEG in Environmental Psychology Study Dongying Li, [email protected], (University of Illinois); Rose Schmillen, rose.schmillen@ gmail.com, (University of Illinois); William Sullivan, [email protected], (University of Illinois) Exposure to green space is associated with reduced symptoms of stress and mental fatigue. Strong evidence (Matsuoka, 2010) shows that high schools with natural window views exhibit better academic performance than schools without natural views. However, limited evidence has been presented regarding the relationship between views to green spaces and students’ emotions. Are students with greener views in a better emotional state for learning? Without this knowledge, we are not able to provide educators and designers another opportunity to create better learning environments for children. This study examines students’ emotional states as they engage in class activities in three types of environments: a classroom with a green view, a classroom with a barren view, and a classroom with no view at all. Students were randomly assigned to these conditions, and we used the Emotiv EPOC neuroheadset to obtain continuous recordings of 14 EEG channels during the experiment. The device also recorded five channels of emotional states from the raw data, including excitement, arousal, engagement, frustration, and meditation. The emotional states were analyzed using principal component analysis and repeated measures of ANOVA. Results suggest that students may experience higher levels of meditation when they have green views from the classroom. The effect of green views on meditation was marginally significant. During classroom academic activities and immediately after the activities, students in each of the conditions experience slightly higher lev-

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els of excitement and arousal. The findings suggest that views to green space may have mood-enhancing effects for students in educational settings. This pilot study also suggests considerable potential for using EEG recording to understand children’s emotional states in a variety of environmental contexts.

Cross-Cultural Issues – Abstracts

CROSS-CULTURAL ISSUES

Cultural Practices, Events, and Transformation of Culture Space Sanjoy Mazumdar, [email protected], (University of California); Nisha A. Fernando, [email protected], (University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point); Maria Montero, [email protected], (National University of Mexico-UNAM); Hirofumi Minami, [email protected], (Kyushu University); Tasoulla Hadjiyanni, thadjiya@ umn.edu, (University of Minnesota); Karen Franck, [email protected], (New Jersey Institute of Technology); Shampa Mazumdar, [email protected], (University of California); Vibhavari Jani, vibhavarijani@ yahoo.com, (Kansas State University); Shunsuke Itoh, [email protected], (Tokyo Denki University)

times in grand ways, albeit briefly. Therefore, this topic seems important for EDRA, and this workshop hopes to provide an initial foray. International participants will provide ideas from their research experiences. This will be supplemented with research and practitioner offerings and stories by attendees. These will be recorded through notes. Analysis of these will provide ideas, new directions, foci, conclusions, and motivation for further discussions at future EDRAs and for writings.

How do periodic and unusual cultural events and practices transform existing spaces in cities, neighborhoods, and homes? How should environment-behavior researchers study such matters? How do design and planning practitioners accommodate such considerations? These questions are of interest. Many studies have described the relationships between culture and the designs of built spaces—homes especially (e.g., Rapoport, 1969), but also neighborhoods (Fernando, 2007) and streets (Edensor, 1998), among others. These provide understandings of culture-environment relationships, cultural views of space, cultural rules, preferences, etc. However, few environment-behavior studies have researched the more unusual, but perhaps periodic, cultural events and practices surrounding them and how these transform usual settings, mostly overlooked by social scientists, planners, and designers in programming and in their designs. Examples are Rath Yatra and Diwali, India; Hakata Gion Yamakasa, Japan (Minami, 2008); Esala Perahera, Sri Lanka; Vietnamese Tet celebrations, Little Saigon, CA; Chinese New Year; and Mexican Dia de Muertos and death rituals. These events transform conceptions of space, some-


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Abstracts – Cross-Cultural Issues

Share/Collaborate/Learn/ Advance: Democratic Design Without Borders Jeffrey Hou, [email protected], (University of Washington); Randy Hester, rthester@frontier. com, (University of California, Berkeley); Henry Sanoff, [email protected], (North Carolina State University); Evrim Demir Mishchenko, [email protected], (Mersin University); Rachel Berney, berney@ usc.edu, (University of Southern California); Kathleen Dorgan, [email protected], (Dorgan Architecture & Planning); Masato Dohi, [email protected], (Tokyo Institute of Technology); Keiro Hattori, [email protected], (Meijigakuin University); Yun-Geum Kim, geumii@ empas.com, (Wul Landscape Architecture Office); Patsy Owens, peowens@ucdavis. edu, (University of California, Davis); David de la Pena, [email protected], (University of California, Davis); Sheryl-Ann Simpson, [email protected], (University of California, Davis); Todd Simmons, [email protected], (University of California, Davis); Deni Ruggeri, deni. [email protected], (Norwegian University of Life Sciences); Ching-Fen Yang, ychingfen@ ntu.edu.tw, (Institute for Physical Planning and Information); Mingjie Zhu, penny_ [email protected], (Hong Kong Polytechnic University); Kin Wai Siu, [email protected]. hk, (Hong Kong Polytechnic University); Yongqi Lou, [email protected], (Tongji University); Tianxin Zhang, [email protected], (Peking University); Kofi Boone, kmboone@ ncsu.edu, (North Carolina State University); Tasoulla Hadjiyanni, [email protected], (University of Minnesota); Kumi Tashiro, 138

[email protected], (University of Hong Kong); Paula Horrigan, phh3@cornell. edu, (Cornell University); Celen Pasalar, [email protected], (North Carolina State University); Nadezda Snigireva, [email protected], (Project Group 8) Democratic design in forms of citizen participation and community engagement has risen in prominence in areas around the world. From North America to East Asia, community design practitioners and advocates have made significant progress in democratizing environmental design and planning practice in one project after another. Founded in Berkeley in 1998, the Pacific Rim Community Design Network has been a forum that facilitates continued exchange and learning between community designers in East Asia and North America. The network has further led to active collaboration between individuals across the Pacific. The purpose of this Intensive is to bring the ongoing exchange to EDRA to engage a broader audience beyond the Pacific Rim. More specifically, the program is intended to foreground democratic design as continuously evolving practice that can be enriched through critical sharing and exchange of experiences, success stories, and pitfalls. This daylong Intensive will include presentations by practitioners and scholars, roundtable discussion, and a field trip to a local site in Los Angeles. Topics will include broad reflections on democratic design practices in diverse settings as well as case studies of projects that address issues ranging from the use of social media to the participation of elderly and young people. The daylong session will focus simultaneously on how democratic design can transcend borders and how such practices operate in particular cultural, geographical, and institutional contexts. Presenters will come from Hong Kong, Japan, Russia, South Korea, Taiwan, and throughout the United States. Participants are invited to join actively in the discussion. Presentation #1: Multiple Languages of Community Involvement

The past several decades has witnessed a variety of descriptors of community involvement, from the social activism of the 1970s to service learning and public interest today. The implication of each is significant for all forms of design education. Activists are interveners who ameliorate problems, while civic engagement or service learning sustains ongoing community activities. Although these ideas may be referred to interchange-


ably, the educational implications, teaching methods, and participation strategies will vary. Today, community involvement activities are widely implemented in planning and design studios. Different names are being used for these studios such as service learning, civic engagement, or public interest, among others, however, there is considerable variety in their focus. The goal of this study is to understand the abovementioned variety and portray the current state of engagement activities in planning and design education in the United States, with a special focus on studio courses. To this end, a survey research study was conducted with educators from planning and design fields who teach such studios to respond to their studio experiences. The aim was to identify the keywords used to define their studio, their objectives, methods, participants, project location, benefits, and challenges. Presentation #2: Learning from the Community God

At the second conference of the democratic designers in the Pacific Rim, John Liu brought the hosts a wooden statue of a community god, representative of his culture, our kinship, and what we were learning from each other. This gesture remains an iconic expression of this group: an open collective critique among colleagues all committed to fully participatory, justice-seeking design of everyday places through processes that engage not just the powerful but also the marginal voices. This paper describes the central lessons learned, the creative insights, and the deeply troubling questions that have been raised from a quarter-century of work with colleagues in Berkeley, Taiwan, Japan, China, and Korea. The main lessons include: (1) working in a distinctly different culture provides unique insights about design in one’s own culture; (2) community design follows money and resources; (3) each culture offers extraordinary exceptions to this design-follows-money rule; (4) democratic designers who engage in a foreign culture change the dynamic; (5) participatory techniques are shaped by culture, be they tradition grounded or science based, brain or senses oriented, orderly or rambunctious; (6) these techniques have been traded and recycled through the Democratic Design Conferences; (7) the capacity to work successfully across cultures requires openness but not exotic worship, sensitivity but not inauthenticity, a genuine interest in everyday life patterns but not blinding awe, and respect for the other but not diminishment of self; and (8) the vitality of new democracies raises questions about the Life-cycle Stages of participation, the rights and responsibilities of designers, the roles of the grassroots and states, the May 2015 – brainSTORM

effective scale of participatory design, and the conflict between local knowledge and science. Presentation #3: Minding the Gap: Lessons in Public Process from the Los Angeles 30-Year Transportation Plan

Beginning in 2008, Los Angeles embarked on a 30year plan to reinvent public transportation within the region by doubling the number of stations and miles of track in the public transit rail system. This nascent system, with light and heavy-rail lines radiating from a downtown node, is planned to serve the entire region by the end of those three decades. The Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority (LA Metro) takes responsibility for planning and construction, but design suffers from a GAP—a lack of design oversight by Metro at the crucial middle section of the project, where design and participation fall to many different entities at the municipal level. This presentation problematizes the different participation requirements and strategies layered into this process to answer the following: What are the participatory requirements in this vast undertaking? Are there major differences in strategies and tactics between cities, and/or between different local interest groups? How is the presence/absence of requirements catalyzing design advocacy and citizen groups? What does a comparison of county and/ or municipal strategies versus grassroots participatory efforts teach us? Through this presentation, designers, activists, and planners will gain a crucial understanding of current participation strategies and successes and failures in a contemporary metropolis. The GAP creates a unique window for exploring and evaluating a range of responses across a shared landscape of investment. Presentation #4: Building Community in Woonsocket, RI

Woonsocket is a weak market industrial community in Rhode Island. Poverty, underperforming schools, and unemployment challenge the city and its neighborhoods. A variety of participatory methods were utilized to build active resident engagement in the Our Neighborhoods in Woonsocket, RI, resulting in a Choice Neighborhoods Transformation Plan that includes developing housing and facilities in the neighborhood, the Veterans Memorial Public Housing Development, and in surrounding high performing school districts. The voice of individual households was identified through extensive surveys of preferences and community assets. Open houses, community events, visual preference surveys, and real scale modeling assisted in identifying community priorities. All engagement

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included opportunities for multilingual participation. Activities included games, mapping, and conversations. Tours of regional developments and meetings with resident associations were particularly important in setting goals and building working relationships. The plan has already resulted in new transportation routes, increased program participation, way finding, and redevelopment strategies. All activities were reported out to constituents. Residents were active participants in selecting a development partner and structuring the development proposal, graphs, maps, and photographs describe the community, process, and plan. Presentation #5: Four Days of Community Design and Ecological Democracy in Oasa, Hokkaido, Japan

A large number of old suburban housing estates in Japan are suffering from aging populations and building deterioration. Meanwhile, most of the resident associations and other organizations for community developments are rigid and inactive. The main site of the workshop, the Oasa housing estate developed in the 1960s, is no exception. To overcome the situation, a project was carried out to explore the integration of community design and the principles of Ecological Democracy as proposed by Randy Hester. The workshop is composed of these steps: (1) advanced preparation: collection of 70 ideas from case studies, survey of the circulatory system of water and energy, and research on history and natural environment, (2) walking with the people in the neighborhood in Oasa to find out the treasures, resources, and issues; (3) strolling by oneself to feel the sense of place; (4) exploring at a regional scale from a reservoir, a water filtration plant, and the Ishikari River to a garbage disposal site; and (5) presentation and discussion on findings and interventions combining the 70 ideas and the fieldwork. At the end of the workshop, two key things were revealed: first, the limitation of short and intensive intervention of community design at the neighborhood scale; secondly, the new methodology of community design as reflected in the principles of Ecological Democracy might introduce a new approach that compensate for the lack of deliberation of the development plan in the 1960s. Presentation #6: Making Community Icons to Enhance Commercial Community Solidarity and Marketing Capability: Case Studies of Local Idol, Yurudoru, and Local Character, Gyoranyan

In Japan, community has been fragmented for several decades. Rural depopulation mainly due to out-migration results in the loss of social stability. Urban com-

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munities lack social solidarity since they are relatively new and people living in these communities do not associate themselves like in rural areas. Communities in both rural areas and city areas need to enhance their identity in order to strengthen their social stability and solidarity. However, it is not so easy to enhance community identity, especially when there is not a strong identity to begin with, especially in urban areas. One recent attempt to enhance identity is through making local characters, often called Yuru-Character. The author, with help from his students, has created a local character for the Gyoran Commercial District. This local character was created through a neighborhood competition, and several related goods like stationaries and stickers have been created. The commercial district also sponsored making of flags and fans (uchiwa). Local papers that include cartoons of this character have been distributed to local schools, and the character is gradually becoming popular among students. The author has also organized a local idol group in order to support local communities. The author would like to discuss the quantitative effects as well as qualitative effects of these social experiments. Presentation #7: Looking Back on the Development of Community Participation Design in Korea

Community participation design in Korea has its origin from the community building movement that emerged in the mid-1990s. The civic movement in Korea, which was mainly focused on democratization and workers’ rights, began to make a great transformation in 1987, the watershed year for the democratization of Korean society. It evolved to embrace diverse needs of Korean citizens, namely consumer rights, community, and environmental protection movements. The community building movement was one of such movements, which began as a grassroots effort aimed at taking back ‘small rights’ and restoring a sense of community, such as pedestrian rights, community building at apartment complexes, and car-free streets. As such, community design in Korea was also led by civil society, i.e., the Break Down the Walls Project and the Hanpyeong Park Project, although the administrative organizations have noticed its potentiality and in recent years are making great efforts towards incorporating the concept in their operations. This study takes a closer look at the development of community participation design in Korea, as well as the political and social factors that influenced its development, to highlight the features of community participation design in Korea and forecast its future in the country.


Presentation #8: Engaged and Committed: Strategies for Meaningful Participatory Design

Faculty members in design programs have offered real-world scenarios for learning to their students for many years. These lessons range from short-term once and done projects to projects managed through university-based and professionally run design centers. My personal experience, both as student and instructor, has run the gamut of these experiences. While each type of community-based engagement might hold both learning success for the students and improved physical environments for the communities, this case study provides evidence that a long-term commitment and relationshipbuilding strategy leads to a rich and responsive, or more meaningful, participatory design practice for those in academic settings. The presentation focuses on the Grant High School collaboration, a partnership with the Grant High Environmental Academy that began in 2008. The original objectives were straightforward, to engage high school and university students in co-creating a high school campus master plan, but the results have been a longer-term and constantly evolving engagement and implementation alliance. Four outcomes of the Grant High School case study—participant empowerment, dynamic and responsive design, sustainable co-creator network, and implementation champions—are indictors of a meaningful design approach and results. These lessons suggest the positive implications and importance of entering into longer-term commitments with community partners in comparison to frequent, independent, and short-term design activities. Presentation #9: Participation and Academia: Comparing Models of Engaged Scholarship

How do we train students to use participatory methods? Over the past 50 years, scholars in the design and planning disciplines have experimented with approaches for engaged scholarship. These have had various motivations and aims—pedagogical, scholarly, opportunistic, charitable—and have been supported to various extents by faculty, students, administrators, and clients. Current discourses regarding “engaged scholarship” are circulating at all levels of academia. Students take initiative to organize their own service groups, while university leaders propose integrated approaches with demonstrable outcomes. This presentation surveys past and present models of engaged scholarship. It categorizes approaches both by their organizational logics (student/faculty-driven, department based, center based, or comprehensive) and their classroom structures (studio based, design-build, seminar-based, sequential). Within each of these organizational structures, different May 2015 – brainSTORM

skill sets are imparted to students and different relationships between students, faculty, administrations, and the community are created. For what roles are students being prepared? What techniques are being taught? And what attitudes are being instilled by each of these models? This presentation aims to identify the potentials and limitations of each with an aim to match the best approaches, structures, and techniques with the desired learning, scholarly, and community outcomes. Presentation #10: Community Design and the New Facebook Age: A View from the Computer Screen

This presentation will discuss the potential of using digital technology and social media in community participation. Despite the drastic changes brought about by the information age, community design has yet to make full use of technologies in its processes. Literature does exist on the use of digital modeling and web-based GIS as aids in environmental design research, but it tends to be celebratory of the opportunities, rather than critical of the drawbacks. Within the projects described in the literature, the focus also tends to be on achieving consensus on design solutions, rather than on community-building and social capital construction. The purpose of this presentation is to illustrate through case studies creative ways in which information technologies have been used in the context of a PAR project in Zingonia, Italy and community design efforts in Medford, Oregon and to compare and contrast the goals, outcomes, and learning that resulted from both efforts. The purpose is to establish a list of guiding principles for those community designers seeking to critically and ethically engage communities in planning and design toward the ultimate goal of achieving full/true participation. Presentation #11: Community Participation in Policy Making: An Example from Minnesota

Demographic projections show that by 2040, 40 percent of Minnesota’s population will be people of color, many of them international immigrants. These upcoming changes pose challenges to designers, planners, policy makers, housing developers, and others working to position the state for a successful and vibrant future. Part of the puzzle revolves around community engagement. Questions abound: how can planning decisions for 2040 be grounded in diverse perspectives? What kind of structures must be put in place to nurture the next generation of planning leaders? And in what ways can community participation be leveraged to break down stereotypes and barriers for healthy and thriving communities? This paper shares lessons learned from

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the process of crafting the Metropolitan Council’s 2040 Housing Policy Plan. Concerns ranged from who were involved in the decision-making process to the vocabulary used to describe the overall policy position and neighborhoods. In a region that includes long-standing minorities such as Native Americans and African Americans as well as new Americans, such as Hmong, Somalis, and Latinos, collaboration attains further complexity. Opportunities to unravel how community engagement is defined in a cross-cultural setting, ways to sustain partnerships across the metro area and all stakeholders, as well as types of information and data needed for constructive and meaningful collaborations were identified. Presentation #12: The Elderly’s Participation in the Design of Community Environment in Shanghai and Hong Kong

Both Shanghai and Hong Kong have stepped into the stage of aging populations that bring challenges but also opportunities to the public design field. One concern is how community environment can enhance the quality of older persons’ daily life and boost their mental well being. The project Sweet House: Small Changes, Big Impact is a collaborative design process between designers and older persons in the communities of Shanghai and Hong Kong. The aim of the project is to explore how older persons use color and textiles in their daily lives, and how color and textiles act as an intervening tool to build up community identity. In addition, the project aims to compare how participatory methods are implemented in the communities with different cultural backgrounds. The methods discussed in this paper include observation, interview, photovoice, and participatory workshop. Through observations and interviews, we discover older persons’ attitudes of community life and community participation. Photovoice as a participatory research method shows different living conditions and habits of older persons in the two communities. During the participatory workshops, older persons had more roles to play than just research objectives. They were active participants who contributed to better living environments. Through the experience of the project, this paper argues that community design plays an important role in building community identification and sense of belonging by making people share their skills and life experiences.

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Food Connections as TransCultural Landscape Dialogues: Community Networking From Burma to Taiwan’s Golden Triangle Longgang, Taoyuan Shenglin Chang, [email protected], (National Taiwan University) The project investigates how exotic cuisines became the mechanism that glues different ethnic groups together and enhanced the quality of community life in the so-called Golden Triangle in the Longgang area of Taoyuan, Taiwan. The Golden Triangle Longgang has been famous for its cultural diversities, especially the numbers of exotic restaurants, including Burma cuisines, Hakka cuisines, Taiwanese cuisines, Chinese Mainlanders’ cuisines, Islamic cuisines, and so on. In this paper, the research particularly investigates the relationships between the Burma cuisines and the quality of community life within the Burma-Chinese ethnic groups. For research methods, my team applies historical document analysis, in-depth interviews, and community-based participatory observations. The paper consists of three sections. First, the paper introduces how the last group of Chinese soldiers migrated from the old Golden Triangle in Burma and the Yunnan region of China to the new Golden Triangle area in Longgang, Taiwan in the mid-1950s. How has this group of veterans settled down by operating small food stands, restaurants, and shops? Secondly, the paper addresses the history of how the urban redevelopment projects that took place in the mid-1980s had demolished most old communities and neighborhoods in the Longgang Golden Triangle area. All Burma-Chinese residents had been relocated in different cities and towns in Taiwan. Some of them even moved to the south of Taiwan. At meantime, due to the foreign labor policy, many Islamic newcomers moved to the area and brought their food culture here. Finally, the paper analyzes how the diverse ethnic groups sustain their inner and external community relationships via cuisines, weekly activities, and food festivals, and how the Burma-Chinese veterans, the Islamic newcomers, the Mainlanders, and residents (Hakka and Taiwanese) have blended via food connections in the Longgang.


Nacirema Revisited: Expanding the Cultural Terrain of Interior Environments Marsha Cuddeback, [email protected], (Louisiana State University); T.L. Ritchie, tlr@ lsu.edu, (Louisiana State University) This paper explores a process for learning that employs a qualitative approach to research, grounded in social constructionism, to help prepare interior design students for successful practice in a culturally diverse and evolving global environment through taking “a critical stance toward our taken-for-granted ways of understanding the world” (Burr, 2003 p. 2). Expanding awareness of the production of culture encourages students to reflect on their personal beliefs, develop a regard for diversity, understand the limitations of ethnocentrism, and develop strategies for creating design solutions that are culturally responsive. This process choreographs three sequential activities where learning is active and contextualized: an off-campus archaeological field study, an investigation of human rituals in the interior environment, and a comparative analysis of traditional building types in multi-cultural settings. Each activity strengthens reflective, observational, descriptive, and analytical skills development, and provides opportunities to examine assumptions about culture and design. The activities were prefaced with reading Horace Minor’s satirical essay, Body Ritual among the Nacirema to engage students in a thought experiment, encourage critical thinking about American culture from the point of view of distant observer, and begin to reflect on the condition of ethnocentrism. This preface formed an atypical segue to encourage students to question how and why culture is manifest in interior environments. Utilizing systematic observation, shared experiences, and data collection, the students worked collaboratively to conduct research, document, and analyze the behavioral manifestations (human, social, and cultural influences) and the physical characteristics of the interior environment as cultural artifact. Through examining how culture evolves and is manifest in the design and adaptation of interior environments, the students developed an appreciation of the interior environment as a mode of cultural production, began to “navigate an interconnected global reality” (Hadjiyanni, 2013 p. vii) and developed a personal design methodology responsive to diversity.


The Amis Urban Tribal Landscape as the Cultural Design: The Danshui River Ecosystem in Metropolitan Taipei Jin-Yung Wu, [email protected], (National Taiwan University); Shenglin Chang, [email protected], (National Taiwan University) The first learning objective in this essay is to clarify the mechanism of formation about the Amis cultural landscape. The second objective is to evaluate the dual-cultural ecosystem service within an urban context. The third objective is to create sustainable urban waterfront recreational facilities. The fourth objective is to conduct a waterfront cultural design. Based on Dr. Constazan’s research in 1997 and the United Nations’ definition of cultural ecosystem services in 2004, this essay investigated how the mechanisms of the cultural landscape service within the Danshui River ecosystem have been supporting riverfront communities along the Danshui River watershed. The research area was the Xizhou Amis community located by the riverbank of the Xindian River. The Amis people were one of the sixteen indigenous people in Taiwan. Located at the Xindian District, New Taipei City, the Xizhou tribe was built by Amis people who migrated to Taipei County area 35 years ago. According to Amis cultural traditions, they believed that the water came along with the spirits of ancestors. Therefore, they always consciously chose the tribe site and living environments near the waterfront area. All the living activities, rituals, and ceremonies were also deeply related to the water body, river, or ocean. This essay consists of four parts. Firstly, it introduces the background of metropolitan Taipei and the Danshui River. Secondly, it analyzes the cross-cultural waterfront migrations and community. It compares the Taiwanese Han culture waterfront habitat patterns with the Amis tribal aqua-cultural landscape patterns. Thirdly, it addresses the mainstream waterfront design fashions in Taiwan. Finally, it suggests the community participatory mechanisms for revision of the Danshui River ecosystems. The river ecosystem could support a cross-cultural lifestyle for the Amis tribe if government officials and design and planning professions could change their approach of waterfront planning, design, and governance.

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Bridging the Gap: The Role of Community Engaged Design Advocacy in the High Himalaya Carey Clouse, [email protected], (UMass Amherst) During the course of the past decade, villages across the Ladakh and Zanskar region of the Indian Himalaya have begun to experience increased water scarcity from diminishing snow pack. In this arid, mountainous region, subsistence farmers are almost wholly dependent on spring and summer meltwater to irrigate crops of barley, wheat, and vegetables. As climate change erodes the glaciers in this part of the world, once self-sufficient villages are suddenly finding themselves forced to re-examine centuries-old patterns of living. The tiny village of Kumik provides a striking story of resilience and adaptation from an outpost on the front lines of climate change. After suffering from a pervasive and inescapable drought, Kumik’s 250 residents have formally decided to abandon their ancient mountain location. In an extraordinarily visionary and collaborative effort, this entire community is moving to a new site, where they are building new canals, fields for farming, and homes on what is now dry, open land. During a series of design charettes last summer, the Kumipas participated in the wholesale rethinking of their village layout, envisioning life in a new sustainable location that would also preserve the strong communal relationships and cultural identity from their shared past. The prospect of moving an entire community from one mountainside location to the completely new landscape of a river delta threatens to erode the traditions, daily lifestyle, and sophisticated social fabric that these villagers have cultivated over centuries. At risk is the loss of the deep-rooted cultural identity of these residents, which is inextricably linked to the physical buildings and spaces of Old Kumik. As this community begins to consider the physical change ahead, new construction also presents exciting opportunities for improving health, energy-efficiency, and economic opportunities for Kumipas. From an architecture, planning, and community design perspective, this transition could capitalize on

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new technologies, ideas, and resources that would boost long-term resilience and sustainability indicators. For instance, this region has abundant solar energy and a strong owner-builder construction tradition, and many homeowners and local NGOs have successfully experimented with passive solar designs that perform well in the cold, harsh conditions of Zanskar’s winter. As Kumipas prepare to make this move, the design of new public spaces and the development of a masterplan that the entire community supports could help to ease this transition. These planning and design solutions must conserve scarce water, harness the region’s abundant solar energy, incorporate local materials and building wisdom, and generate much-needed income in this rural community. Moreover, the solutions developed for this village must integrate local wisdom with outside expertise. This paper addresses the inherent challenges of design advocacy in a foreign location, and considers appropriate methods for useful, intentional, and evenhanded community-engaged design assistance.

Design Education– Abstracts

DESIGN EDUCATION

Pedagogical Approaches to Teaching Students How to do Environmental Design Research: Part One (morning) Karen Keddy, [email protected], (Ball State University); Nisha A. Fernando, [email protected], (University of Wisconsin - Stevens Point); Caitlin DeClercq, [email protected], (University of California - Berkeley); Galen Cranz, galen@ berkeley.edu, (University of California Berkeley); Jesse Voss, jesse.l.voss@gmail. com, (Consultant); Azizi Arrington-Bey, Azizi. [email protected], (Indiana State University); Daisy-O’lice Williams, daisyoli@ uoregon.edu, (University of Oregon); Sanjoy Mazumdar, [email protected], (University of California - Berkeley); Eleftherios Pavlides, [email protected], (Roger Williams University); Kimberly Rollings, krolling@ nd.edu, (University of Notre Dame); Giyoung Park, [email protected], (Cornell University) Pedagogical Approaches to Teaching Students How to do Environmental Design Research: Part One (morning) In this intensive, our mission is to build upon the discussions we had during our Environmental Design Research Education knowledge network meeting at EDRA45, and showcase the assignments that we have designed to teach students how to conduct environmental design research. These assignments come from both undergraduate and graduate courses in multiple disciplines, and include all scales of assignments, from in-class exercises to semester-long assignments as well as partnerships with the community and practitioners. We will start the session with a brief introduction to the full-day intensive. Presentations are grouped into five clusters and each cluster will be followed by discussion. Each cluster has three presentations except for Cluster 4, which has two presentations. Each presenter May 2015 – brainSTORM

will share his or her pedagogical approaches in the context of traditional architecture school pedagogy and will address all or some of the following topics: learning objectives, teaching strategies, delivery methods, learning outcomes, methods of assessment, and limitations. The second part of the intensive will be a working session that explores the possibility of forming a consortium of universities to apply for funding to develop courses that engage architects in environmental design research assignments. As architects are helping educate students, they are also receiving continuing education in utilizing the social sciences for architectural design. Clusters 1, 2, and 3 will be in the morning and in the afternoon we will have Cluster 4 and 5 as well as the working session. Cluster #1: Building Blocks: Introducing students to environment-behavior research methods Cluster #2: Familiar/Unfamiliar: Ways of prioritizing cultural contexts and user experiences Cluster #3: Establishing Partnerships: Bridging the gap between research and practice through teaching Cluster #4: Preserving Place: Finding meaning in place and special places of value Cluster #5: Living Laboratories: Evaluating buildings and behavior with multiple methods Working Session: Seeking funding for developing courses that engage architects in environmental design research Presentation #1: Cluster 1: Building a Foundation: Introducing Basic Research Tools for Socio-Spatial Analysis

The focus of this presentation is to discuss several assignments that I have designed as building blocks for understanding the usefulness of some very basic research tools in a cultural and social issues course for students in their first year of the architecture program. Students work in teams of four and are assigned a building on our campus to use for each assignment. The first assignment is a set of trace measures photo panels: accretion, erosion, leftovers, and missing traces. I encourage the students to make assumptions about the way people use a space based on what they see. The second assignment is hypothesis testing and behavioral mapping of human behavior in their building, and the students seek to confirm or deny their hypothesis by doing time samples and analysis of their findings. For the next assignment, the students go beyond making assumptions and relying on observations alone and now learn how to conduct interviews with people who use the space. Additionally, they conduct a comprehensive safety and security audit of the same building site, produce a set of environmental factors photo panels and recommendations, and write individual reflection papers which include an analysis of several readings,

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Abstracts – Design Education

the lectures and discussions, the audit findings, and the interview responses related to issues such as gender differences and perception of fear from a social justice perspective and design. I consider the sequence of methods to provide students with tools to do a socio-spatial analysis having learned the importance of qualitative research for understanding how people use space and what people prefer so that informed design decisions can be made. Not only do these assignments increase students’ visual literacy in regards to human behavior in physical settings, but they also reinforce the importance of visually communicating one’s research and final results. Presentation #2: Cluster 1: Developing an Environment-Behavior Mindset in Students: EyeOpening or Confusing?

This presentation focuses on designing course activities based on learning outcomes heavily steeped in environment-behavior research in an interior architecture undergraduate program. It will include examples of course assignments and projects in both lecture-format courses and studio-based courses. Introducing environmental design research at the first year level itself has proven to be challenging, but the challenges point to a positive direction. When an EB foundation is laid out, students are potentially able to apply that knowledge and enduring understanding of the significance of EBbased research in the other course sequences. Based on this conviction, specific assignments in a lectureformat first year course were designed. Additionally, EB research takes a center stage in a senior-level capstone studio where students conduct field research and apply the findings in design solutions. The specific assignments and project formats will be discussed in this presentation. EB research and utilization approaches, however, have other dimensions of concerns. EB research cannot be taught in a ‘bubble’ without the presence of a support structure in an undergraduate curriculum. The presentation will address these outer dimensions of the pedagogical approaches and bring examples of such ‘road blocks’ that may occur in any design program. Specific EB-based course work may not succeed on its own, especially in the absence of a holistic approach to curricular design in a program. Possibilities to alleviate these confusions among students will be discussed. Presentation #3: Cluster 1: Engaging Students in Environment-Behavior Research and Education: Course Pedagogy and Student Outcomes

Social and Cultural Processes in Architecture and Urban Design is an undergraduate survey course that

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employs a learning-centered pedagogy to engage 125150 undergraduate students in conducting their own environment-behavior research. Research shows that learning improves when students construct knowledge and actively engage with course content (Bransford et al., 2000). Consequently, we first introduce major concepts in small, 25-person sections and then discuss them in forum (the traditional ‘lecture’ time). Discussion sections are also home to group-based participatory design activities, such as redesigning People’s Park or a local high school based on stakeholder perspectives. “Lectures” in this course are forums for students to discuss ideas and share their work with the entire class, while the professor is a resource who gives some traditional but interactive lectures. Students conduct two original research projects. In an ethnographic research project, students develop a culturally sensitive program for design. Each part of the assignment showcases a different research technique: observation, semantic ethnographic interviewing, literature review. Ultimately, students redesign a site that supports and celebrates the microculture they have studied. (Cranz et al., 2014). Second, the class works in teams to conduct a Post-Occupancy Evaluation (POE) of a local building. The teaching team meets with building managers in order to identify 5-6 important research questions; each discussion section is assigned one of these questions. Students form groups of 4-5 to pursue one data collection technique: observation, interview, questionnaire, archival/precedent research, or photo elicitation. These teams analyze the data and present findings in writing. The result is a robust POE with each research question addressed through five different techniques. (DeClercq & Cranz, 2014). Presentation #4: Cluster 2: Merging Theory, Phenomenology, and Empirical Research in a Design Theory Course

In this presentation, I will explain how I designed an interdisciplinary graduate design theory course in the faculty of architecture, arts, and design program at the Notre Dame University in Lebanon. I connected complex systems theory with normative design theory in order to allow culture neutral implementation of initial design theory instruction. The pedagogical goal was to provide graduate design students with critical thinking skills and core competencies in design theory throughout their careers that were both specific to their discipline and in a more general sense. A “grounded theory” phenomenological research approach was merged with empirical research approaches so that students would gain sufficient understanding of how to make design

Design Education – Abstracts

choices when confronted with culturally specific normative design theory works. I began with the utilization of grounded theory research protocols and through the semester moved towards an even greater reliance on empirical inquiry to guide the refinement of openended research questions that were focused on issues of deep sustainability from the artist’s, architect’s, graphic designer’s, fashion designer’s, or urban designer’s perspective, or in general—from the perspective of graduate students of design in all disciplines. The unit of analysis for design theory was focused upon material culture in a general sense, but enabling cross/interdisciplinary action/thought on an unprecedented scale for the students. Students would initially primarily work in the mediums and knowledge base of their design specialization when investigating their research questions. Then the students would code and embed their work with meanings and research reference annotations. The final research works that were produced in the class were reflective of the life world of designers in their various disciplines. Presentation #5: Cluster 2: Written and Visual Narrative as Design Tools

There has been much discussion about the need for more empathetic approaches to design. This can prove challenging in studio teaching, where actual clients and users may be inaccessible. Engaging students in narrative methods presents itself as a useful vehicle for prioritizing user-experience throughout the design process. This presentation focuses and explores the use of written and visual narrative as a tool through programming, ideation, and implementation phases of a project. Narrative exercises allow student to design through the familiar tool of storytelling. Narrative emphasizes the importance and acknowledgment that as designers they are creating important elements of individual’s script. Several simple studio exercises and their techniques are introduced. The goal of these assignments are to help students develop a nuanced understanding of user-experience and how it can be shaped in closer accordance to their own design intentions. Some of the techniques discussed include: short writing exercises, diagramming, role-playing, storyboarding, and mapping. Presentation #6: Cluster 2: Learning About Cultural Ecology Through a Family Study Using Naturalist Field Research

Designing in culturally cognizant and appropriate ways requires students to know about the culture of the persons the design is for. Among the myriad of relationships between cultures and their physical settings—their May 2015 – brainSTORM

cultural ecology—are conceptions of space and buildings, relationships among occupants, and social aspects such as religion that provide guidance about lifestyle and about choice of space and its geometry, their view of functional relations among spaces, symbolic aspects of spaces, directions, and things that affect design, meanings of space and of artifacts, among others. These and other topics are covered through lectures and in assigned readings. Students are also taught about the method and its focus and given tips about observing and interviewing. Assignments require the students to select a family of an unfamiliar culture and do Naturalistic Field Research of the family. This requires them to observe and learn about the current house and through observations and interviews to learn about the occupants’ culture, its ideals, and the relationships noted above. They are required to analyze this data and write a paper describing the current house and the culture. A second part of the assignment requires them to design a house for that family, providing annotations of what cultural ideas guided their design. Students are encouraged to make a model of the house, or part of it, or a board depicting their ideas. The advantages and disadvantages of such an approach, of the method, and of the learnings thus obtained are discussed. Presentation #7: Cluster 3: Environmental Design Research Semester Assignment Engaging Architects

Environmental Design Research (EDR) is a required graduate architecture course that engages practicing architects in a semester-long research project from inhabitants’ point of view of buildings designed by them. The research combines photo-elicitation interviews inviting inhabitants to use their own criteria in evaluating what works well and what can be improved in spaces shown in photographs, with reviews of the relevant environment behavior and architectural literatures. The course is organized with four-member teams, with each teammate leading in one area: - Architectural documentation and evaluation using architectural criteria; - Social science informal and structured field research of users and usage; - Environment behavior literature review related to the building type; - Architectural precedent analysis. Architects walk through their buildings explaining design intentions and meet with students in their offices and on campus reviewing the development of the research instrument. Architects provide context in interpreting interview comments by explaining the constellation of design parameters such as client objectives, code constraints, budget limitations, conflicting user needs, structural and mechanical requirements, and

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other factors influencing design. Architects help separate actionable information for improving design from irrelevant complaints. For example, comments about difficult way-finding in a NICU facility designed to prevent unauthorized access demonstrated design success in preventing entrance bypassing security rather than a design flaw. Field findings are supported with references from the environment behavior literature and with precedents addressing identified issues where possible. Architects and administrators responsible for the building benefit from the information assembled by students and evaluate its usefulness for possible interventions in existing buildings or for improving future designs. Architecture students emerge with appreciation for the interaction of complex constraints during the design process, gain enhanced insight into the architects’ societal responsibilities, and learn to access the environment behavior literature that in general remains underutilized in architectural practice. Presentation #8: Cluster 3: Teaching MultiDisciplinary Classes How to Conduct Environmental Design Research

We discuss two approaches to teaching students from multiple fields (e.g., design, architecture, social and environmental sciences, economics) how to conduct environmental design research: (1) using a series of mini-assignments, and (2) using a semester-long project. Mini-assignments assess and document environment-behavior relations and include field observations, environmental analysis reports, and final poster/ oral report presentations. The semester-long project includes field observations/interviews, application of theory, literature review, and completion and presentation of an evidence-based final product (e.g., design guidelines, poster) in partnership with a community organization aiming to bridge gaps between research and practice. The two approaches engage students with the community and real- world contexts, satisfy elective or accreditation requirements (e.g., NAAB), offer instructors and students flexibility with content, and provide opportunities for students to work individually or in groups. Limitations for instructors include grading time and the need for teaching assistants with larger class sizes. Assignment learning objectives/outcomes: Verbal and written communication; demonstrate understanding and documentation of human-environment interactions; assess quality of environments from multiple perspectives; critical thinking and application of research results to real-world contexts (e.g., design guidelines). Methods: Lecture, discussion, and mini- or semester-long assignments (systematic observation,

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data collection, literature review, evidence-based design guidelines, application to real-world settings via community organization partnership). Teaching strategies: Team-based learning, discussion (in class and online), lecture, field trips/site visits; community organization partnerships. Delivery methods: Application of theory, field observation notes, literature review, bridging gaps between research and practice through community organization partnership; environmental analysis reports, presentations, and, discussion. Methods of assessment: Peer feedback, community/professional feedback via class presentations, instructor grading.

Pedagogical Approaches to Teaching Students How to do Environmental Design Research: Part Two (afternoon) Georgia Lindsay, georgia.lindsay@gmail. com, (University of Colorado Boulder); Jeremy Wells, [email protected], (Roger Williams); Arezou Sadoughi, asadoughi@ ufl.edu, (University of Florida); Julia Robinson, [email protected], (University of Minnesota); James Wheeler, whee0113@ umn.edu, (University of Minnesota); Kapila Silva, [email protected], (University of Kansas); Gowri Gulwadi, betrabetgulwadi@ gmail.com, (University of Northern Iowa); LaDan Omidvar, ladan10@gmail. com, (consultant); Eleftherios Pavlides, [email protected], (Roger Williams); Bradley Nobbe, [email protected], (Roger Williams); Karen Keddy, drkeddy@ gmail.com, (Ball State University); Andrew Mirabito, [email protected], (Roger Williams) This is Part Two (afternoon). Please see Part One (morning) for the abstract that summaries the entire day’s activities and lists all of the Cluster titles (themes) and the working session title.


Presentation #1: Cluster 3: Teaching Using the Real World: Gathering Social Data to Inform Housing Policies

Students enrolled in the Environmental Design planning track are required to take a Housing Policies seminar in their senior year. In this class, students learn about how policy in the United States shapes housing, from settlement patterns to individual houses. In addition to learning about the effects of U.S. housing policies, students are also supposed to learn about how to research housing policy. The best way to learn about how to conduct research is to actually conduct research, so students work in groups towards answering a real-world research question. The project was conceived as a post-occupancy evaluation, but in the spring of 2014, students gathered use data from existing graduate student housing to help inform the imminent redevelopment of the housing. The university plans to increase density by 200 percent and wanted our help creating policy and plans to mitigate the potential negative impacts to residents of its neighbors. An overview of the site is presented on the first day of class, and students work in groups all semester to answer the client’s research questions. At the end of the semester, students present their findings to the community partner and then turn in a final report, written in standard journal format, instead of having a final exam. Throughout the semester, though, the research project is broken into smaller, manageable projects, a technique that I learned from a professor when I was a graduate student instructor, such that a piece of the project is due every week. Grading is split between those weekly assignments, the presentation and paper, and a peer grade. In this presentation, I will address the process, learning objectives, and outcomes of the project. Some of the student work is nearly professional quality, and the community partner found the insights helpful. Presentation #2: Cluster 4: Developing an EDBR Proposal for Historic Environment Research

Environmental design and behavior research (EDBR) is most often associated with new or recent construction, but its principles are equally as applicable to the management of the older, existing built environment. Historic preservation, in particular, is concerned with the identification of special places of value (i.e., “historic” places) and the appropriate ways that these places should be treated to conserve their historical authenticity. These activities are increasingly guided by a planning process that emphasizes social, cultural, and experiential values over traditional art/historical values. In the graduate course I teach on historic May 2015 – brainSTORM

environment research methods, I expose my students to EDBR principles and require them to prepare a research proposal as a capstone assignment for the course; about half of the students use this research proposal to guide their subsequent thesis work the following semester. The primary learning objectives for this assignment are to address the nature of empirical research and describe qualitative and quantitative paradigms and how research proposals are created. Specific learning outcomes for this assignment are to identify a research topic and a research question based on a comprehensive literature review; select and defend a research methodology and method based on the research question; demonstrate how data is collected and analyzed; and create and defend a research proposal. During the semester, I use in-class exercises to give students an opportunity to understand various research methods (e.g., interviews, photo elicitation, surveys). I also use a group assignment in which students have to develop research questions that could produce empirical evidence to substantiate or refute anecdotal claims made in news articles. These assignments help students explore the nature of research and how it can provide useful data to help address real-world problems. Presentation #3: Cluster 4: An Example of an Action Sense of Pedagogy in Environmental Behavior Teaching: How Students’ Lived Experiences Can Influence Their Understanding of Place Meaning

This paper addresses a method to teach graduate students how to understand the meaning of a place and the importance of lived-experience in environmental behavior research. This method originated in a qualitative paradigm of research and is derived from the study of live-experience of Van-Manen, “an Action Sense of Pedagogy”. We used this method to explore a qualitative perspective of theoretical training. We applied the method in a class entitled “review of reflections on architecture”. We aimed to involve students with understanding of some non-physical aspects of architecture: emotional experience and how that shapes the meaning of place. A semester-long assignment was designed including a field-study, writing assignment, and individual class presentations. First, groups of students were assigned a place to experience. Second, the class traveled to the City of Dezful and stayed there for three days to experience an underground space called Shavadan within the courtyard houses. Third, students were interviewed about how and what they experienced in the place. Students in the field played a role of users rather than visitors or architects. Back in the class, they

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reported their own experiences coupled with spatial characteristics of Shavadan. We chose this particular space because (1) the course was part of the residential design graduate program in which the students studied the houses of Dezful, (2) the importance of this space in the tradition of underground life in Iran, (3) the values of the passive design of this particular underground space, and (4) the high pace of destructions of Shavadan and the diminishing opportunities of being able to experience such spaces in the future. After experiencing the Shavadan, students demonstrated an understanding of how human lived-experience could convey the meaning to place. They also displayed increased skills for questioning users’ environmental interaction and knowledge of existing theories of environmental behavior design. Presentation #4: Cluster 5: Studying Public Places: Research in an Environment-Behavior Class

For years, students in the E-B course, Arch 3711: Environmental Design and the Sociocultural Context have done a comparative analytical project. Previously, the project involved studying places described in journals and books. Recently, students have studied local, interior, public places. The purpose of the project is to discover the relation of E-B research to design. While previous projects provided insights into potentials and limitations of examining published work, the current method has the advantage of exposing students to the challenges of research in a living setting. This team-based project is presented as exploratory research in the sense that students are asked to find similarities and differences between the settings. Each year we identify sites and pairings with the idea of having two environments similar enough to be comparable, but different enough to raise provoking questions. Data is analyzed visually, and a variety of diagramming techniques are taught, including space syntax gamma and beta analysis. Students are asked to observe and map behavior in the two settings, and to analyze the physical environment and its context so they may interpret why the behavior they are observing may be taking place. Studying two different settings reveals their findings to be relative to a particular place. They learn that the design of the environment affects what takes place there, but also that other non-design forces also have effects. This allows them to identify important considerations in design. This presentation will assess the pedagogical approach taken in this student project. What are the advantages and disadvantages of having students observe in public places? What do they learn about design and how does this project engage in this knowledge and un-

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derstanding? What difficulties are inherent in teaching this project? What do students find engaging or difficult? How has the project changed over time and why? Presentation #5: Cluster 5: Linking Research With Design: Revising a Research Methods Course for Effective Student Learning

This presentation describes the revision of a research methods course over several semesters to help students understand the use of research in architectural design. Using problem-based learning as an educational strategy and adopting the design studio as a pedagogical model, students were asked to solve a series of design problems, employing specific research methods for each task. The tasks were directly related to their design studios and were devised with their studio instructors’ help. Students selected a research topic—building envelope (skin) or public space—and an existing building from the Kansas City metro area to investigate the topic. The project was divided into several assignments: initial observation, in which students outlined their observations of the design effectiveness of the building studied, with their own hypotheses on the design intentions of the building envelope or public space; interviews with the building users to find out their evaluation of that design aspect (skin or public space), and to test some of the students’ assumptions of it; deriving design principles for the design of a skin or public space, based on the interviews, observations, and published literature on such design; stating design hypotheses behind the design aspect in their own design project, using the design principles derived; evaluation of the design aspect, in which students performed computer-based simulation research (for skin design) or surveys (for public space design) to assess its performance. Based on the findings, students suggested what changes they would make to their designs. Students conducted the first three steps in teams of three and the last two steps individually. At each step, they received guidance on the research methods applicable to the task. Student performance surpassed the initial expectations, and their work indicated that they have become more reflective on the ways research could be applicable in design. Presentation #6: Cluster 5: A Green Campus Building as a Living Laboratory for Teaching LEED

A green building on a university campus can serve as a living laboratory to promote a culture shift in environmental leadership and offers design students with authentic first-hand experiences of sustainable features and their impacts. While learning about Leadership in Energy and Environmental Education (LEED)—a


green building rating system—students need a holistic understanding of how LEED credits manifest as daily experiences in a sustainable building. LEED deals with “education and training” and provides a “roadmap” for engaging all stakeholders early (building occupants, students, administrators, and facilities staff including operations and maintenance personnel) so that the building reflects the realities and needs of the entire community while furthering the institutional mission. We will present the design process and evaluation of a recently renovated LEED-Gold campus building in the Midwestern United States. The architect on the building design team introduces the Integrated Project Delivery (IPD) process that engaged the campus community with charettes at the project’s onset, developed creative design solutions, and led to the final stages of implementation and post occupancy evaluation (POE). Students were an integral part of the charrettes and contributed their understanding of LEED principles in the discussion. The interior design studio instructor discusses the student-led POE in which undergraduate design students learned about research ethics and designed, tested, and conducted data gathering techniques such as survey questionnaires, behavioral maps, and photo-interviews to evaluate three functional criteria in the building. After collecting data from faculty and students, the student investigators prepared their analysis summaries and findings for a presentation to university personnel. By reflecting on their observations, they were better able to identify gaps and correlations between design intent and building experience. Student involvement in the IPD Process and the POE proved to be a useful and multifaceted pedagogical tool for understanding LEED. Presentation #7: Working Session: Seeking Funding for Developing Courses That Engage Architects in Environmental Design Research

The second part of the intensive will be a workshop to explore the possibility of forming a consortium of several universities to apply for funding to develop courses that engage architects in environmental design research assignments. We will examine how architects, as they are helping educate students, are also receiving continuing education in utilizing the social sciences for architectural design. We will review examples of how teaching environmental design research with the help of architects produced material useful for architectural practice. Such research includes fieldwork of buildings designed by the architects as well as review of social science literature related to these buildings. Based on these experiences, we will propose criteria that appear to be essential for making collaborations between the May 2015 – brainSTORM

architectural profession and universities productive and invite audience participation. We will also review various funding agencies such as NACRB that support collaborations with architects and universities, as well as the National Foundation program that supports Advancing Informal STEM Learning (AISL). “The AISL program seeks to advance new approaches to and evidence-based understanding of the design and development of STEM learning in informal environments; provide multiple pathways for broadening access to and engagement in STEM learning experiences; advance innovative research on and assessment of STEM learning in informal environments; and develop understandings of deeper learning by participants.” We will review the various projects that AISL funds, how participants may apply to this initiative, and criteria for developing budgets for each type of AISL project that includes: (1) Pathways, (2) Research in Service to Practice, (3) Innovations in Development, (4) Broad Implementation, and (5) Conferences and Symposia.

Developing Neuroscientific and Psychological Approaches to Teaching Drawing and Design Fernando Magallanes, f_magallanes@ncsu. edu, (NC State University) New discoveries in brain function and development are taking place, bringing a depth of understanding to professors and students of drawing and design. Reconsidering drawing and design education as an interactive activity of brain and hand aids in restructuring how students develop their drawing and design skills during their education and beyond the studio. This paper summarizes the new areas of research literature in neuroscience and psychology. It offers the author’s reflection and insight on its relevance to drawing, design, and applicable practice in studios. The last two decades have seen much research being done on the brain and advancements in dismissing previous myths and misconceptions of how it functions. The fields of neuroscience and psychology are advancing their research through the help of fMRI technology and current brain scanning studies capturing the brain in action. The captured images belonging to the brains of conflicted individuals ranging from Alzheimer’s to anxiety display charged neurons and patterns that are informing scientists about

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the relationship between body, brain, and learning. In 1971, the psychologist Betty Edwards wrote Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain. It became a best-selling book, selling more than 2.5 million books, and introduced students to draw using a brain-based method for acquiring drawing skills. Edwards’ success teaching a fine art skill the brain and psychology left us wondering if there is new information that might lead us to once again advance the teaching of drawing and design. Can new strategies be developed and explored to modify existing paradigms for teaching representation and design? Recent research by scientists like Maryanne Wolf, Ph.D., Dr. Daniel G. Amen, and investigative journalists are publishing information about discoveries offering evidence and speculation about the management of the brain’s inner functions to get certain results. This literature is invaluable in acknowledging how the brain functions in learning and offering vital knowledge and options for the education of designers.

Designing With the Metaphor of Brain in Mind Brian Schermer, [email protected], (University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee); Amin Mojtahedi, [email protected], (University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee) Neuroscience affords us the opportunity to learn a great deal about how the brain operates in response to stimuli in the physical environment. While the advances in this area of research are promising, there should be at least some concern about the way that a strict focus on the brain as the object of study might overshadow how we might use the brain as a metaphor to stimulate design thinking and create innovative settings. This presentation reviews literature about the ways in which the brain metaphor has been used to conceptualize and design social organizations. It then discusses the implications for these ideas to inform the design of physical settings. Designed settings, like brains, should facilitate information processing and decision making. They should enable designed settings to learn. And they should enable designed settings to self-organize. These implications are illustrated and analyzed through the example of an architecture studio classroom that was designed with the metaphor of brain in mind.

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Learning Regions as Visionary and Strategic Tools for the Planning Course “Possible Cities” Helena Teräväinen, helena.teravainen@aalto. fi, (Aalto University) This is a study about how Masters students in a planning course named Possible Cities were using vision thinking and brainstorming to develop a new kind of strategic plan for two city-regions suffering the loss of jobs and economic depression. There were 25 students from different cultures and backgrounds working in groups of five to seven. Some were Finnish, but most were foreign students without any background in Finland. The goal of the course was to understand the complexity of strategic planning and particularly the meaning of Learning Region. The course takes two periods in Autumn and is for 10 credits. Globalization presents a number of changes in cities and city-regions of Europe during the last decades. The growth of knowledge-intensive industries and the resulting economic modalities shape the trend of strategic planning, which is to define the potentials, to recover the weaknesses, and avoid the threats in a region. We have now an economy powered by human creativity. The future competiveness between service providers and entrepreneurs won’t be individual, but will be oriented to compare between the networks to which they belong and interact with. Networking and clustering formation will be reflected by the healthy growth of the city-region and its ability to face the regional competitiveness. The innovative capacity and the regional ‘learning’ ability associated with it is directly related to the density and quality of networking within the regional productive environment. Inter-firm and public-private co-operation and the institutional framework within which these relationships take place are the key sources of regional innovation. The aim of this study is to compare the learning outcomes of the students from different cultures by using the visions and strategic plans they make for these regions—the Oulu Region in Northern Finland and the Salo-Turku Region in Southern Finland.


Students’ Use of EnvironmentBehavior Research Findings in Their Design Process and Their Attitudes Towards Evidence-Based Design Sibel Dazkir, [email protected], (Georgia Southern University) Integrating research into interior design education allows students to implement evidence-based design solutions (Guerin & Thompson, 2004), improving students’ critical thinking skills (Gibson, 1994). Accordingly, it is important for the students to learn the value of research and base their design decisions on research findings. Dazkir et al. (2013) found that most beginning-level interior design students have poor literary research skills and do not appreciate research in their design process. The purpose of this study was to explore the interior design students’ attitudes towards research and their use of knowledge gained from environment-behavior literature in their design process. The data were collected from 19 students in a senior level interior design studio via questionnaires and observations of student presentations and design projects. The students worked in groups on a large-scale commercial office project throughout the semester. They were required to write a paper synthesizing findings from peer-reviewed journal articles and other credible sources. After they turned in their papers in mid-semester, the students were asked to complete a questionnaire with Likert-scale and open-ended questions. The students answered questions about their experience with and attitude towards literary search in the design process, and how they would apply the knowledge they gained from their literature search on their projects. Another questionnaire was administered after the students submitted their design projects at the end of the semester. The participants were asked whether or not and how they specifically applied what they learned from previous studies onto their design projects. The responses collected from the students were coded, and descriptive statistics were used to examine the sample and the responses from the Likert scales. The findings indicate that the students appreciate the value of research in their design process. It was reported that research allows them to understand the project and client needs better, guide their design process, and provide design solutions. One student explained, “Without


research, we are merely selecting pretty options.” The students applied the knowledge they gained from their literature search of topics such as well-being, sustainability, lighting, color, space planning, etc. on their design projects. For example, students learned from the previous studies that contact with plants and access to window views may influence inhabitants’ well-being and attention restoration. One student explained that she arranged the workstations towards the windows, and another one reported using glass curtain walls throughout the space to allow access to more daylighting and outdoor views. The student projects and their design decisions were discussed to illustrate the benefits of evidence-based design.

How Do We Revitalize the Hyphen in “Environment-Behavior Research”? David Seamon, [email protected], (Kansas State University); Karen Franck, kafranck@ earthlink.net, (New Jersey Institute of Technology); Galen Cranz, galen@ berkeley.edu, (University of California); Hirofumi Minami, [email protected]. ac.jp, (Kyushu University); Julio Bermudez, [email protected], (Catholic University of America) This symposium reconsiders the hyphen in “environment-behavior research.” Discussants highlight conceptual and practical possibilities whereby the complex, intermeshed relationship between people and environment might be understood and designed for in a more comprehensive, engaged way. The first discussant examines place types as a means to hold people and environment together. She argues that a typological approach allows researchers to unpack not only relationships between environment and behavior but also interconnections and mutual interdependencies among a wide range of phenomena, including formal, spatial, and behavioral dimensions of design. The second discussant asks how pedagogically students might be made more aware of the lived connectedness between people and environments. She presents an exercise that uses images of stick figures removed from their surroundings as a heuristic means to get students to

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realize how human actions and situations are almost always environmentally contextual. The third discussant overviews a “psychoanalysis of cities,” a perspective using psychoanalytic psychology to understand environmental experiences and events. He argues that the psychoanalytic concept of the “analytic third” (an ongoing intersubjective relationship between analyst and analysand) offers one model for understanding psycho-dynamic transactions between people and their environments. The fourth discussant brings attention to the “in-between” as it represents human-experience-inworld. He considers philosopher Ken Wilber’s integral theory as a means to think about the hyphen in new ways that illuminate its taken-for-granted opacity and permit new theoretical and practical understandings. The last discussant highlights the phenomenological concept of lived emplacement—the existential fact that place is not a material or geographical environment separate from people associated with it but, rather, the indivisible, normally unnoticed phenomenon of personor-people-experiencing-place. He examines the potential conceptual and practical implications of environmental emplacement for environmental-design research. To provide ample time for discussion, participants’ comments will be limited to seven minutes each. Presentation #1: Beyond Hyphens: A Typological Approach to Environmental-Design Research

The hyphen in “environment-behavior” joins two items. The hyphen represents a relationship, ostensibly a close one, between two kinds of phenomena, but the now connected entities remain intact, distinct, and separate. “Environment” and “behavior” continue be independent: each can exist without the other. Over the years, theorists have developed concepts that achieve more of an integration—for example, Roger Barker’s “behavior settings” and Christopher Alexander’s “pattern languages.” More recently, environment-behavior thinking has turned to theories from other fields. One example is Kim Dovey’s use of Deleuze and Guattari’s idea of assemblage to capture the interconnectivity and the dynamism between parts that are not separate but overlapping and changing. Starting with my research on alternative housing and becoming more focused though projects involving professional collaboration, the approach I have adopted is typological: to view and study environment-behavior phenomena through the lens of place types. The approach derives from two key premises: first, that the environment is composed of distinct but overlapping kinds of places that are material, conceptual, and imaginal; and, second, that the creation, regulation, and perception of place types shape

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people’s activities in the environment and that activities also make types. In using place type as a lens, we can unpack not only relationships between environment and behavior but also interconnections and mutual interdependencies among a wide range of phenomena that the concept of type captures: formal, spatial, linguistic, linguistic, ideological, behavioral, and operational. This presentation discusses the advantages of a typological approach as well as its drawbacks. Presentation #2: Wrestling With the Hyphen in Person-Environment Studies

In the field of person-environment research, the relevant unit of analysis should be “person-environment” rather than “person” or “environment” separately. Much of environmental-design research, however, emphasizes one component or the other, focusing on either environmental qualities or human characteristics. For environmental designers, the important question is how, in an integrated way, we operationalize and measure the person-environment relationship, which is synergistic, and continually shifting. In the first part of this presentation, the author briefly highlights some conceptual perspectives for understanding the person-environment relationship in a holistic, comprehensive way. The second part of the presentation considers implications for research, pedagogy, and design. The author presents a teaching exercise that progressively reveals how the person-environment relationship is a necessary focus of study for environmental designers. The author begins this exercise with slides of human stick figures and asks students to identify the particular activities and situations in which the stick figures are involved. Most students can’t. In a second set of slides, the author presents the stick figures in fuller outline form. In this mode of presentation, students infer some information on the activity or situation but still typically aren’t certain what it is. The author then presents a third set of slides in which the environmental context is included. Immediately and easily, students recognize the situation—for example, a couple walking down a city street; a woman sitting on a lawn; a man leaning on a street lamp. At the same time, the students realize that, without human encounter, the street, lawn, and street lamp have only potential value. Both environments without people and people without environments make no sense behaviorally and experientially. It is only the lived togetherness of the two as one lived structure that allows us to understand environmental experiences, actions, and events.


Presentation #3: The Depth Dimension in PersonEnvironment Relations and Transactions

In this presentation, I examine ways in which the relationship between person and environment can be understood as mutual. A related concern is whether the intersubjective encountering between persons has a counterpart in person-environment relations. An interest in the person-environment relationship arises from my research on the “psychoanalysis of cities,” which draws on psychoanalytic and depth psychology to understand urban experiences, especially traumatic events such as the destruction of Hiroshima and the World Trade Center—two “ground zeros.” In conducting this research, I draw on philosopher and social critic Walter Benjamin’s flaneur, a concept that refers to free, associative strolling in city streets and serendipitously encountering things, scenes, events, and other transitory situations in the urban environment. In clarifying this mode of urban transactions, I draw on psychoanalytic concepts such as transference, resistance, and the unconscious. I argue that the flaneur mode of urban experience expands the depth of environmental experiences as exemplified in the physiognomic, expressive, and mythical-poetic dimensions of the sensory field. I draw on the psychoanalytic perspective to interpret these experiences as primary-process-oriented. I argue that the psychoanalytic concept of the “analytic third” (an ongoing intersubjective relationship between analyst and analysand) is a powerful candidate for understanding psychodynamic transactions between city strollers and their urban encounters. Presentation #4: Making Interactions and Contexts Visible: The View of Philosopher Ken Wilber’s Integral Theory

The objectivist view of architecture as an external construct separate from human users greatly limits our understanding because it denies the fundamental nature of how humans encounter the world and their lives. The opposite view—that the built environment exists only if there is an ‘I’ experiencing it—is also problematic. A better alternative is to consider human reality as unfolding neither via the subject nor the object but via the usually unnoticed “in-between” relationship of subject and object—what is usually identified as experiences, phenomena, situations, or “human-beingin-the-world.” In short, we lose sight of the hyphen in the environment-behavior equation when we consider environmental-design problems from an objectivist or subjectivist perspective. This presentation attempts to renew an emphasis on the “in-between” as it represents human-experience-in-world. Drawing on the integral May 2015 – brainSTORM

theory of philosopher Ken Wilber, this presentation lays out possibilities for thinking about the hyphen in new ways that illuminate its taken-for-granted opacity and permit new theoretical and practical operations. Presentation #5: Circumventing the Hyphen via a Phenomenological Perspective: The PersonEnvironment Relationship as Environmental Emplacement

A phenomenological perspective on the peopleenvironment relationship recognizes that people and their worlds are not separate and two but indivisible and one. Human beings are always already enmeshed in and intertwined with their world. This human-immersion-inenvironment means that conventional conceptual binaries—for example, people-environment, subject-object, body-mind, individual-society, nature-culture—must be called into question and understood in new ways. To illustrate one conceptual means for refocusing attention on the hyphen in environment-behavior research, this presentation draws on recent phenomenological developments in what has come to be called “environmental emplacement.” This perspective argues that place is not a material or geographical environment separate from the people associated with it but, rather, the indivisible, normally unnoticed phenomenon of person-orpeople-experiencing-place. This presentation examines the potential conceptual and practical implications of environmental emplacement for environmental-design research.

Neuroscience and Environmental Design: Implications for Education Meredith Banasiak, banasiak@colorado. edu, (University of Colorado); Margaret Tarampi, [email protected], (University of California Santa Barbara); Eve Edelstein, [email protected], (NewSchool of Architecture & Design); Claire Gallagher, [email protected], (Georgian Court University) Architecture is a human-centered enterprise—an idea captured by Vitruvius’ three tenets of good design: firmness, commodity, and delight, and in the broadest sense by its modern day counterpart: health, safety, and

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welfare. As researchers and clients acknowledge and prioritize the environment as a major variable affecting health and welfare, the design profession’s response is to support a new culture of participation in the formation of knowledge. To enable large scale institutional transformation, we seek to enhance, not replace, our work force by preparing future designers to utilize emerging knowledge, to engage in cross-disciplinary research which elevates health and well-being through design, and to synthesize theory, research and practice. An integrated top-down/bottom-up approach is proposed by educating faculty, administrators and students in neuro-architecture and the scientific method, changing attitudes about the value of codified knowledge sought by informed clients and communities, and describing a model for how and where it might be implemented in courses. Edwards will demonstrate the necessity for human centered design criteria in design education being issued as a call for action from clients and practice. Tarampi will describe a theoretical framework to situate scientific evidence in the practice of architecture. Banasiak will propose pedagogical strategies, which align with the call from practice and the standards of rigor coming from the neuroscience fields. Synthesis and discussion will address: What steps can be taken to advance human-centered design in education? What possibilities are there for locating these programs within a university context: can they make the most impact within the existing curricula, or are stand-alone programs a more optimal approach? How can the end-users of the products of such programs become part of the advocacy for the inclusion of human-centered design in the planning and design of their buildings? What systemic change indicators might be useful in tracking the success of integration of neuro-architecture in design education? A call will be issued for continued participation in fostering a critical dialogue to further the initiative for integrating neuroscience in design education. Presentation #1: Trans-Disciplinary Transformations: Crossing Boundaries and Merging Disciplines to Add Value to Student Experiences and Professional Practice

The need for human-centered research and socially responsible design has long been recognized by EDRA, ANFA, and others. Now, international institutions including the World Health Organization, the Urban Land Institute, and the AIA/ACSA Design + Health Research Consortium call for policy changes that will drive changes in practice. Similarly, clients and communities now call for the design of built environments that better serve human outcomes at all scales. The interpretation

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and translation of clinical research offers the means to incorporate rigorous human-based evidence in pedagogy and practice. A decade of curriculum development linking neuroscience and architecture will be described linking clinical, medical, and scientific literature that increasingly reveals the impact of design on measurable human outcomes. The incorporation of scientific methods and innovative technologies enable neuroscience and architecture to take on topics of direct relevance to accredited architectural and design programs. Further, a neuro-architectural practice-based model that includes universal design outcomes and a translational design approach demonstrates how such information has be applied in built examples from schools, campuses and hospitals in China, Canada, and the United States. Presentation #2: Explorations Through Neuroscience and Architecture: Scientific Literacy for Design Students

There are three main variables that are the focus of significant research in architecture—the architect, the user, and the building, as well as the resulting interactions between the variables. While there is a widely regarded body of research on building characteristics such as building technology, materials, and acoustics, research focused on the architect and the user has been largely overlooked. Over the past decade, a new body of research has been growing regarding the user experience in the built environment, readjusting our attention back on relevant human-centered research. Design students should minimally be scientific literate in order to take advantage of this new knowledge. However, examining neuroscience from the perspective of architecture (or architecture from the perspective of neuroscience) risks being too reductionist, simplified, fragmented, finite, and/or abstract, because either perspective does not encourage a thoughtful dialogue where both disciplines can mutually inform and challenge one another. A well-grounded interdisciplinary approach should value contributions and criticisms from both disciplines. Presentation #3: Strategic Curriculum Development: Mapping Neuroscience Informed Learning Outcomes to Existing and Emergent Models of Design Education

With the launch of large scale federally funded research initiatives to boost our understanding of the human mind, the sheer amount of information available to designers and researchers surrounding the complexities of the body, brain, and environment relationship will soon escalate exponentially. Rather than eliminating opportunities for human behavior learning in response


to revised accreditation standards, visionary design programs can proactively facilitate a new culture of participation in the formation of neuro-architecture knowledge so that design professions will enhance, not replace, their work force, and moreover will ethically embrace design standards which promote human health and welfare by making use of emerging neuroscience evidence. Strategies for integrating neuroscience learning into undergraduate and graduate curricula will be discussed in terms of both core and elective opportunities, horizontal pairings through studio and seminars, and vertical scaffolding for skill and knowledge development.

Emerging Directions of Environmental Design Research Daniel Stokols, [email protected], (University of California, Irvine); Shalini Misra, shalini@ vt.edu, (Virginia Tech); Richard Wener, [email protected], (New York University); Susan Saegert, [email protected], (Graduate Center, City University of New York); Allan Wicker, allan.wicker@verizon. net, (Claremont Graduate University) This symposium examines emerging directions for environmental design research and practice. Fundamentally new topics of EDR scholarship and practice have emerged from the confluence of societal and global trends currently refashioning people’s transactions with their everyday environments. Examples of these macrolevel trends include: (1) the infusion of technology into people’s everyday lives and the design of so-called “smart” cities; (2) decrements in population health linked to sedentary lifestyles, non-walkable neighborhoods, urban sprawl, pollution, and poorly regulated macrobiomes within indoor environments; (3) demographic and sociopolitical trends such as population aging, globalization, poverty, and economic inequality that pose challenges for neighborhood planning and urban design; (4) rapid rates of geophysical change driven by planetary warming, sea rise, extreme weather patterns, and the impacts of these events on psychological wellbeing, environmental design, and societal resilience; (5) the increasing urbanization of the planet and the challenges of effectively integrating built and natural environments into the design of contemporary cities (e.g., increasing interest in vertical farming and cultivaMay 2015 – brainSTORM

tion of urban nature); and (6) growing tensions between expert-driven, top-down planning and design processes, on the one hand, and grassroots, indigenous, and “insurgent” place-making movements, on the other. Each of these trends has prompted new questions and directions for environment-behavior research and design practice during the early 21st Century. For instance, the growing reliance on digital and mobile communication technologies among individuals and throughout society as a whole raises questions about humans’ capacity to process increasing volumes of information, their susceptibility to chronic distraction and stress, and the impact of smart-city technologies (e.g., social media, digital navigation devices) on neurophysiological well-being, spatial cognition, social integration, and collaboration. Similarly, the geophysical and adaptive constraints imposed by rapid climate change have yielded novel challenges for the design of buildings and communities resistant to sea rise and flooding; and the development of communication strategies and design technologies to enhance people’s capacity to cope effectively with imminent environmental hazards. Symposium participants include leading environment-behavior scholars who have contributed to the EDR field as transdisciplinary action researchers over the past three to four decades. Each participant will identify new research questions and priorities for design research and practice related to one or more of the societal and global trends mentioned above. Specifically, Shalini Misra will discuss the impacts of the Internet and mobile communication technologies on behavior, health, and environmental design. Richard Wener will focus on new research at the interface of environmental design, personal and public health, highlighting the important interrelations between individuals’ personal microbiomes and the macrobiomes of their day-to-day environments. Susan Saegert will discuss the value of Philosophical Pragmatism as an action-research orientation for dealing with complex societal crises including income inequaltiy, environmental degradation, and the lack of affordable housing among impoverished populations. Allan Wicker will offer commentary on the preceding papers from the perspective of Barkerian ecological psychology and from a wider humanitarian perspective. During the concluding portion of the symposium, audience members will be invited to comment on the points covered by each presenter and to identify additional directions of EDR research beyond those addressed by our speakers and discussant.

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Presentation #1: Introduction to the Symposium: A Social Ecological Perspective on Environmental Design Research in the 21st Century

Dan Stokols, chair and moderator, will introduce the themes and objectives of the symposium and outline an ecological perspective on environment, behavior, and design. Social ecology offers a broad conceptual framework for understanding the challenges and directions of environmental design research addressed by our speakers and discussant. A core tenet of social ecology is that the multiple facets of human environments and the interrelations among them (e.g., their built and natural features; spatial and sociocultural attributes; material and symbolic qualities; and placebased and virtual dimensions) must be explicitly considered when attempting to understand the complexity of people’s transactions with their surroundings. The multidimensionality of environments and the dynamic interdependencies among their diverse components are emphasized in Shalini Misra’s presentation concerning the impacts of technological change on people-environment relations. She introduces a global, cross-cultural perspective on the paradoxical tensions that arise (e.g., between empowerment and disempowerment) as people navigate and strive to reconcile their virtual and place-based worlds. As a case in point, she contrasts the techno-optimism surrounding “smart cities”, big data, and the social media revolution with the distractions and superficialities often encountered in our Internetinfused lives. Another core principle of social ecology is the importance of analyzing people-environment transactions from a multi-level systems perspective— especially as a basis for understanding how nested layers of environmental influence jointly affect our behavior and well-being in a rapidly changing world. Richard Wener’s presentation exemplifies this multilevel systems perspective as he examines the complex iinterplay between individuals’ personal microbiomes, on the one hand, and the bacterial communities (or macrobiomes) within their proximal environments and broader exposome (i.e., the cumulative environmental exposures that impinge on individuals throughout their different life stages, from conception onward), on the other hand. Wener discusses the implications for environmental design research of using very large data sets to map the relationships between individuals’ genome, microbiome, proximate macrobiomes, and more encompassing exposomes. He also highights cross-cultural variations in the diversity of microbiota observed in Western and non-Western cultures. A third principle of social ecology (also shared by EDR, environment-behavior studies, many other domains of

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contemporary iinquiry) is that scientific theories and findings should be translated to the extent possible into improved design strategies and public policies aimed at resolving (or at least ameliorating) the major environmental and social challenges of our Antrhopocene Era—especially global climate change, environmental pollution, poverty, violence, and health disparities. Susan Saegert’s discussion of Philosophical Pragmatism as an action-oriented approach to resolving societal crises integrates the aforementioned ecological principles of environmental multidimensionality, cross-level systems analysis, and community-based research aimed at reducing contemporary crises (e.g., global financial turbulence, economic inequality, and inadequate access to decent affordable housing among the more than one billion people in the world living in abject poverty). Saegert outlines a Pragmatist approach for confronting the affordable housing crisis, widespread inequality, and environmental degradation, and for creating the kinds of design and policy initiatives that are needed to counter these threats to societal sustainability. The symposium concludes with discussant Allan Wicker’s comments on each of the preceding presentations and his own assessment of critical directions for environmental design research and practice in the coming decades. Following his presentation, audience members are invited to comment on the symposium presentations and to identify other high-priority directions for research and practice beyond those discussed by Stokols, Misra, Wener, Saegert, and Wicker. Presentation #2: Impacts of Technological Change on People-Environment Relations: A Global Perspective

The World Wide Web is now a global phenomenon. Today, the large majority of Internet users are from the developing world; there are nearly 6.8 billion mobile subscriptions, and 74 percent of the global online population accesses the Internet from a mobile device. Yet beyond questions concerning the “digital divide”, much of the discourse on the implications of networked technologies on socio-spatial, cultural, and psychological life has focused on the experiences of the Western world. Further, most accounts of technological change swing between utopian possibilities and dystopian consequences—from the techno-optimism surrounding smart cities, big data, social media revolutions, and individual empowerment to the hopelessness of a transhuman world with a society bereft of purpose in an infantile quest for pleasure and distraction. This paper conceptualizes the relationship between technological change and the human mind through a dialectical ap-


proach that sees this question as complex, dynamic, and contradictory. Specifically, it explores the psychological dimensions of everyday life in a digitally embedded society replete with paradoxes. What does it mean for the human psyche to be suspended between possibilities of empowerment and disempowerment in the Digital Age? For example, Google anticipates a crowd-sourced, commons-based public Internet which will purportedly create new potentials for human cooperation. However, the services it provides are enabled by online surveillance and user commodification that threatens privacy and results in the economic exploitation of users. We explore empowerment and disempowerment by examining the asymmetrical power relations embedded in technological developments such as smart cities, social media, and crowd sourced apps and the social psychological consequences of networked individualism. Presentation #3: Environment and Behavior at the (Really) Micro Level

Research on the nature of the human microbiome has made it clear that microbes are not simply the enemy of human health, as had been previously represented for many years. Rather, a developing field of microbiology has demonstrated that, after eons of co-evolution, bacteria (as well as funghi and viruses, most likely) are a significant part of who we are. The microbiome—the human complement of trillions of microbes—serves critical functions in keeping us alive, functioning, and well. Our microbiomes are not static. While we are born with a one, compliments of our birth mother, it can change quickly and significantly in response to, among other things, our diet, medical care (particularly use of antibiotics), our social contacts, and contact with our surroundings. It is clear that there are implications here for Environment-Behavior Research, even though the precise direction these new findings may take EBR is not at all certain. The microbiome is affected by the design of our living and working spaces, including materials and surfaces, windows and ventilation, and spatial organization. It is also affected by the way we interact with each other, these spaces, and the living, natural environment around us. Among the impacts that have been documented, those of us who live in westernized, technologically sophisticated urban settings appear to be losing microbiome diversity, possibly at the risk of our long term health. This presentation will describe these issues and some current findings comparing microbiomes in western and non-western cultures, and discuss implications for E&B approaches, practice, and research methods.


Presentation #4: What is the Situation: Social Inquiry in Uncertain Times

Susan Saegert’s presentation addresses theoretical challenges and directions for environmental psychology as we face multiple sources of instability in the relationships of people with the environment. She will present an argument for the continuing importance of Philosophical Pragmatism as a way to begin to confront the multiple scales and inherent uncertainty facing human habitats. Pragmatism understands knowing as a set of relationships that changes as we investigate and act upon unclear or problematic situations. William James (1907) asserted “Truth happens to an idea. It becomes true, is made true by events.” Applying this idea to person-environment relationships has many consequences for research and theory. Saegert will use as examples two different problematic situations in person-environment relations: environmental degradation and ongoing affordable housing and economic problems. First, she will review recent scholarship in which geographers draw on Philosophical Pragmatism in an effort to understand and respond to climate change and environmental degradation. Lessons from their work will be extended to the development of a Pragmatist approach to the housing affordability crisis and economic inequality. Recent research on the foreclosure/financial crises of 2008-2009 offers a particularly apt starting point. It reveals the multiple actors, locations, institutions, knowledge claims, etc. that contributed to instability and eventually crisis. Yet explanations and remedies most often focus on one specific arena of risk ignoring its embeddedness and contingencies in other sites of financial and housing provision and use. The understanding of the multiple geographic scales and actors that resulted from this research has prompted inquiries into alternative housing finance and property ownership models. This research aims to discover better management of short- and long-term risk for households and communities within the context of the global housing finance sector and particular political economies. Following Dewey’s work on social inquiry, methods for confronting uncertainty and building functional and democratic ways of living under conditions of inherent uncertainty at many scales will be explored. Presentation #5: Reflections on Symposium Presentations

Allan Wicker, discussant, will offer dual perspectives on the emerging directions of environmental design research addressed by the presenters: from the view of Barkerian ecological psychology and from a broader humanistic perspective.

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Abstracts – Environmental Perception

ENVIRONMENTAL PERCEPTION

Design to Enhance Cognition: A Neuro Considerate Approach Angela Bourne, [email protected], (Fanshawe College) For people with Neuro Diversities (ND), such as those with Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD), the environments they encounter frequently cause them distress. Most of the challenges they face are because they are much more sensory sensitive to their physical surroundings than Neuro Typical (NT) people. Environmental psychologists and neuroscientists recognize that the built environment has an effect on how well a person relates to their environment (Gaines, 2008; Shabha, 2006; Lackney, 2003) and have made design recommendations, but there are still limited resources available to designers to help them create appropriate design spaces for this fast growing population. This research provides insights into the differentiated person /environment interactions people with ASD experience and makes recommendations for the design of physical spaces to help them understand, cope, and be the best they can be given their limitations. This qualitative investigation used a grounded theory approach based on ethical pracitices. The research method included a literature review and several research tools including an environmental assessment of five group living/work settings, competency and sensory/cognitive processing behavior mapping with 58 people, and interviews with support workers. The study was constructed within a socially sustainable perspective and acknowledged the psychological, physiological, and cultural diversities of the population. The results of the research tools used were synthesized and analyzed into a best design practices design model: Neuro Considerate Design (NCD), Bourne 2013. The model suggests design interventions to enhance the cognitive development and ameliorate the sensory sensitivities people with ASD experience. Based on research documenting the growing need for accommodating this group’s needs and this study, three significant findings emerged. They included evidence of the differentiated perceptions people with ASD experience and the need for spaces to be considerate of their differentiated spatial orientation (proxemics) and sight (lighting) and hearing levels (acoustic) needs to enhance their ability to learn.

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Dynamic Experience of the Built Environment: Path Selection as a Measure of Preference Vedran Dzebic, vdzebic@uwaterloo. ca, (University of Waterloo); Colin Ellard, [email protected], (University of Waterloo) As moving observers, we experience the built environment dynamically. Our environmental preferences may manifest themselves as patterns of movements, route choices, and the locations where we choose to pause and dwell as we traverse the urban fabric. Much of the research on environmental preference is conducted using methods based on the evaluation of pictures, where participants are required to take an evaluative stance, expressing preferences from a standpoint considerably removed from the dynamic and immersive situation in which we normally inhabit environments. Findings from such picture-based approaches may not always mirror the manner in which we experience real environments. We report a series of experiments in which we examined the relationship between visual complexity and environmental preference, using an ecologically valid experimental design. In accordance with Berlyne’s arousal theory, we predicted that such complexity would influence a range of navigation variables related to interest, attention, and preference. Participants were immersed in virtual reality environments containing a series of corridors that varied in visual complexity, as quantified with an entropy measure based on information theoretic approaches. Their route, pattern of gaze, movement speed, and pauses were quantified using an optical tracking network. We also monitored a series of physiological variables including heart rate variability and electrodermal responses in order to obtain an indirect measure of sympathetic nervous system activity. In our presentation, we will describe the fit between Berlyne’s optimal arousal theory and findings using both traditional picture-based methods and our own methods based on immersive simulations and psychophysiological recording. The scope and limits of experimental approaches based on experimental virtual reality to assess environmental preference will be discussed.

Environmental Perception – Abstracts

Cross-Cultural Environmental Aesthetics Using Neuroimaging and Psychophysiology Measures: Eastern and Western Women’s Appraisal of Hotel Guest Room Interiors So-Yeon Yoon, [email protected], (Cornell University); R. Nathan Spreng, rns74@ cornell.edu, (Cornell University); Sun Woo Kim, [email protected], (Seoul National University) This study proposes to investigate cultural differences between Eastern and Western women in their aesthetic appraisal of the interior environments of hotel guestrooms. An interdisciplinary research team will use complementary data collection and analysis methodologies: strategic self-report, and neuroimaging measures. According to previous studies in psychology and product design, familiar and novel characteristics of the product are known to influence aesthetic preference (Blijlevens et al., 2012; Blijlevens et al., 2013; Hekkert et al., 2003; Reber et al., 2004). Familiar design characteristics could facilitate immediate cognitive process and cause fluent aesthetic experience and mild aesthetic pleasure, whereas novel design characteristics could induce powerful aesthetic experience and exhilarating aesthetic pleasure through complex cognitive systems (Armstring & Detweiler-Bedell, 2008). Other studies (e.g., Masuda et al., 2008) claim that degrees of preference activated by each design attribute vary according to cultural contexts. As an exploratory study, we examined the effects of two design factors, novelty and familiarity, in the aesthetic appraisal of a designed environment. Our participants were 24 female graduate students, 12 American and 12 Chinese. Using a 2X2X2 (novel vs. familiar, Western vs. Eastern, attractive vs. unattractive) between-subjects design, hypotheses were formulated that this causality would be affected by cultural dimensions such as individualism/collectivism, promotion/prevention focus of the self-regulatory system, and introjection/projection of social comparison methods. Participants’ subjective responses were recorded immediately after viewing the stimuli, which included interior photos representing novel and familiar


design conditions. Twenty-four stimulus photos of hotel guestrooms representing four categories (novel/attractive, novel/unattractive, familiar/attractive, and familiar/ unattractive) were carefully selected by a focus group consisting of four professional designers. The experiments were performed in two laboratory locations at Cornell University (Lab of Brain and Cognition). Data was collected using a Tesla GE750 MRI scanner. Photos were displayed on 24” LED monitors and self-report data was collected using a questionnaire. ANOVA and regressions were used to test the hypotheses. Findings of the study will be able to offer evidence-based information for design researchers and decision makers in the increasingly globalized and competitive service and hospitality industries.

The Value of Park Facilities: From the Visitors’ Perspective Hungju Chien, [email protected], (National Chiayi University); Grace Chang, kaowen@ mail.ncyu.edu.tw, (National Chiayi University) State park systems in the United States carry multiple missions such as conservation, education, recreation, and economic benefit. Knowing visitors’ preferences towards the facilities in the state parks can help policy makers to properly allocate the limited resources and set management plans. This study utilized Discrete Choice Analysis (DCA) to analyze park visitors’ preferences and willingness-to-pay (WTP) based on the decisions they made among different hypothetical scenarios. DCA provides a systematic way of understanding individuals’ preferences for decision alternatives through identifying the implicit relative weights among the attributes through the revealed choice information. The results from this study allow the realization and prediction of product positioning, pricing strategies, and market performance of a new or an existing park service with precision. This study received 103 completed surveys from respondents in 35 state parks. We found that nature centers and beaches are significant factors of increasing visitors’ willingness to visit state parks. However, boat ramps are not the significant factor to attract the general public to visit a state park. Besides, visitors are willing to pay a maximum of $9.26 to go to a nature center and a maximum of $9.33 to enjoy a

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beach. In addition, together, visitors are willing to pay a maximum of $20.62 to go to a state park with “Boat Ramp”, “Nature Center”, and “Beach”. The results from this study indicated that setting up a “Nature Center” and keeping a good and clean “Beach” deserved more resources than building a “Boat Ramp” in a state park from the value perspective based on the willingness to pay of the visitors.

(CSR), kernel estimation, and K-function tests will be employed to examine the impact of clustered values and to gain a better representation of the entire point source dataset (Fotheringham, Brundson, & Charlton, 2000). While this study serves as an exploratory validation method to address the methodological shortcomings of visual preference surveys, it ultimately aims to serve as a tool that can better understand users’ perceptions of complex environments present within the built and natural environment.

Visual Preference Surveys: A Methodological Recommendation Applying Point Pattern Analysis

Smartphones, Urban Youth, and the Spaces of Everyday Life

Melanie Duffey, [email protected], (Auburn University); Mickey Lauria, mlauria@ clemson.edu, (Clemson University)

Shalini Misra, [email protected], (Virginia Tech); Chitvan Trivedi, [email protected], (Gettysburg College)

The purpose of a visual preference survey is to identify commonalities of users’ preferences based on users’ responses to images. By understanding users’ preferences, Kaplan and Kaplan (1989) found that common preferences could be identified and categorized into groups from two-dimensional photographs that simulate similar responses to the physical environment. Additionally, by using a visual preference survey, the researcher can maintain some control of what the respondent views and eliminate some of the outside “noise” or distractions occurring in a physical space (Kaplan & Kaplan, 1989). However, one common criticism of visual preference surveys is the issue of misinterpretation of the reason behind a respondent’s rating. In the past, scholars have relied on their own interpretation of ranking scores in order to suggest variables that may have led to that particular score. In order to partly address this issue, the use of a follow-up question that utilizes Qualtrics’ heat map feature will be introduced. The follow-up question asks respondents to click on an area of the photo that most influenced their rating (Likert scale); the click generates a heat map based on respondents’ individual clicks. During the pretest of the heat map (N=71), a total of six out of 24 images were found to have a high level of consensus in influencing the preference mean score. However, this consensus should be tested for statistical significance through spatial statistics. For the purpose of experimental validation, these six images will be tested with a sample of (N=999) in order to identify common patterns of responses through point pattern analysis. Complete spatial randomness

Youth in rapidly globalizing and urbanizing nations like India have increasingly become critical consumers and creative contributors of digital content. As the smartphone penetrates Indian society, so do questions concerning its psychological, social, and cultural impacts. This research seeks to understand how urban Indian “digital youth” embed smartphones into their everyday lives and discern the interpersonal, social, and cultural implications of different patterns and forms of mobile communication technology use. This study focuses specifically on Internet-enabled mobile communication technologies (such as smartphones and tablets) in the urban Indian context. In this research, we draw on news articles, advertisements, TV commercials, and online videos from 2009 onward (3G enabled mobile and data services first became available in major cities in early 2009) to analyze cultural discourse surrounding networked mobile technologies in Indian society. We supplement this data with field interviews of urban Indian youth and other demographic groups concerning their experiences of networked technologies. Our discourse analysis and field work highlights: (1) the transformation of the meanings and uses of the spaces of everyday life owing to the proliferation of smart technologies; (2) the multiple and oftentimes contradictory narratives relating to the integration of smartphones into the landscapes of everyday life; (3) the values surrounding these conflicting narratives and their relationship to “Indian-ness” and “Indian identity”, specifically the values of family, community, and ideas of the other; and finally (4) the way in which these cultural

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Environmental Perception – Abstracts

narratives align or conflict with self-understandings or individual cognitive frames of these technologies and how and why certain understandings emerge and evolve over time. By understanding the cultural narratives surrounding smartphones and their relationship cultural values, and to the lived experience of these technologies, we scrutinize the relatively neglected linkage between the individual, spatial, and socio-cultural contexts of digital technologies among urban Indian youth.


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Abstracts – Everyday Environments

EVERYDAY ENVIRONMENTS

Human Activity in Everyday Built Environments Molly Cannon, [email protected], (Utah State University); Douglas Amedeo, [email protected], (University of Nebraska) Built environments are designed to facilitate engaging in human activity. How well their design enables just that is often the criterion employed to evaluate their ultimate effectiveness. But adequacy to facilitate may also be judged by how their structural-conceptual conditions conform to what users, themselves, might expect is needed for engaging in the respective activities. Since built environments are, in effect, never more than designer coded forms of real circumstances, our curiosity in this symposium is with how users of everyday built environments actually manage to comprehend the logic of such renditions in order to engage in the activity-behavior they are meant to facilitate. We deliberately ask about everyday settings because their prominence as a built environment in a social system is quite high; they usually constitute a major part of most users’ activityregimen, and users’ purpose for engaging in them are likely to be noticeably distinctive. We will contemplate whether characteristics like these justify describing the core reasoning or essence of this everyday type of environment as commonsensical. In this 90-minute session, there will be approximately 60 minutes of presentation by Doug Amedeo and Molly Boeka Cannon. The remaining time will be spent engaging the audience in a discussion over the topics raised in the presentations. We will provide a list of questions at the beginning of our presentation that will guide participant discussions following our lecture. Online access to the written materials will be available at http://works.bepress.com/ molly_cannon/ and printed copies at the meeting in order to generate a more meaningful discussion. Presentation #1: Human Activity in Everyday Built Environments

We will argue that the fundamental role of spatial conditions in the process of designing an everyday built environment is to function as if they were a metric system for converting basic levels of social content (e.g., as reflected in norms, traditions, expectations,

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values, relations, interactions, and the like) to reflect the essence or core logic of everyday built settings. Our claim is that the integration of spatial conditions with social content is, in fact, an encoding itself that reflects the built environment’s type and that, given how such environments are actually used, it is likely to be interpreted by users as the commonsense logic of the respective environment. From a user’s perspective, the prospect of engaging in a particular kind of activity in a built setting is likely to involve contending with many information forms and inferences about the consequences they may have on any decisions that might be made about activity. Information, for example, may result from physically transacting with the built setting itself; from cognitive processing involved when integrating and illuminating the actual content of an environment in question; and from additional reasoning employed in an attempt to rationalize the immediate built environment’s overall organization. We view an everyday built environment as a mapping resulting from an adaptive conversion of some base-society’s social-definitional information where all necessary social artifacts, processes, settings, or institutions would get defined. It is that level of information that, in effect, is used in a guided design form to generate built environments appropriate to that given social system. Hence, in all societies, social-cultural information and its implications, then, is typically mapped (i.e., encoded) into forms or configurations through the use of spatial conditions to manifest the everyday surroundings in a society.

Gerontology – Abstracts

GERONTOLOGY

Sustainable Connections-Aging in Community in Los Angeles Emily Roberts, [email protected], (University of North Carolina-Charlotte) The impending age wave can be a creative motivator and Los Angeles has both a creative and aging population who wish to remain in community. While policy in urban communities like Los Angeles should be accessible, adaptable and healthful for older residents, it also needs to be sustainable for healthy environments in terms of energy, water use, and waste. Crafting communities that address all of these issues concurrently is a special challenge for planners, and designers, creating national and international opportunities for change. This tour of two Los Angeles landmarks will include one creatively renovated historic hotel as well as new construction housing in a vibrant arts community. The first stop will be the Dunbar Hotel, an adaptive reuse project which is now senior and family apartments in Watts. The Dunbar, which opened in 1928, was designated as a city Historic-Cultural Landmark in 1974 and placed on the National Register of Historic Places two years later. The original Art Deco motif has been preserved through a collaboration between Thomas Safran & Associates, the nonprofit Coalition for Responsible Community Development and the city’s Housing Authority and Community Redevelopment Agency. Once home to the LA African- American music scene, the hotel welcomed guests like Cab Calloway, Billie Holiday and Louis Armstrong. There are 115 units and the $30-million renovation includes another 42 apartments in two neighboring buildings that have also been refurbished for low-income family housing. The second stop will be the North Hollywood (NoHo) Senior Arts Colony, a new construction senior residence apartment community for active senior artists. Residents are given the opportunity to live in housing within an artistic community with courses and tools to engage in theater, art, exploration and education. This is a $42 million community with 126 one and two bedroom units for renters 62 and older.


“Homelike” as a Physical Setting: Creating a Therapeutic Environment for the Elderly With Dementia Tetsuya Akagi, [email protected], (Kogakuin University); Kei Adachi, kei@sys. wakayama-u.ac.jp, (Wakayama University) The purpose of the study is to research the relationship between psychological and physical factors in the perception of the quality “homelike”, and to establish specific guidelines on how to create homelike environments in the activity spaces of nursing homes for the elderly with dementia. Three main surveys, psychological, physical, and observational, were conducted. The nature and degree of “homelike” in the activity spaces were analyzed by the semantic differential method. The number, kind, and locations of the physical elements were recorded, and the person-environment transaction in the spaces was analyzed by measuring the verbal behaviors of all residents and staff. We present the three psychological factors, “Familiar feeling, Personal life feeling, and Human scale feeling”, which this research demonstrated as creating the feeling of homelike. The structure of the psychological factors contributing to the creation of homelike is clarified by showing the degree of influence of “Human scale feeling < Personal life feeling < Familiar feeling” among them. While showing the physical factors by which the psychological factors are recalled as an important cue of concrete environmental design, the importance of the following objects, Single furniture < Working kitchen < Set of furniture < Increase of daily necessaries < Increase of decorative objects < Decrease of unbecoming objects < Human scale area, was established. The seven factors were thus shown to be the fundamental ones which uniformly exist in activity spaces. The environmental design procedure was developed as a tool so that it can be fully utilized in a wide range of care environments not only by specialists in planning and design, but also by onsite care staff. The findings are limited as a case study of one nursing home in Japan. However, the findings may have the possibility of being useful in different countries and in different socio-cultural backgrounds.

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An Exploratory Study of Long Term Care Concerns in the LGBT Community in Western New York Molly Ranahan, [email protected], (University at Buffalo) Lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) older adults face unique challenges in later life. LGBT older adults fear moving into a senior housing facility, and put off seeking or do not utilize residential care due to past experiences of social stigma and/or current anticipation of discrimination despite their need for care. Despite these fears, many LGBT older adults ultimately must depend upon nursing homes or other institutions to obtain long term care due to an absence of the typical traditional support structures (e.g., spouses, children, or biological family members). A recent wave of research on aging issues in the LGBT community has confirmed that housing and long term care are two critical areas of concern to address when meeting the needs of this population. However, there have been a limited number of studies exploring the experiences of LGBT older adults in long term care settings, leaving health care and service professions largely underprepared to respond to their needs. The primary purpose of the current study was to explore substantive issues and methodology to use for future research about the long term care experiences of LGBT older adults. The study engaged adults in the LGBT community ages 50 to 64 in semi-structured, individual interviews to learn about their specific concerns about long term care and residential environments. This presentation will detail methodological strategies chosen and preliminary conceptual issues that will be further explored in future phases of the research.

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Health and Active Living – Abstracts

HEALTH AND ACTIVE LIVING

The Impact of Walkable Environment on Improved Health Outcomes Among Saudi Adults: A Conjoint Research Study of Physicians and Architects in Alfaisal University, Saudi Arabia Aliaa Elabd, [email protected], (Alfaisal University); Baraa Alghalyini, balghalyini@ alfaisal.edu, (Alfaisal University) A sedentary lifestyle might increase the risk of chronic diseases such as obesity, diabetes, cardiovascular disease, and osteoporosis. It is believed that obesityrelated diseases might be linked to lack of access to healthy and walkable environments. Many research studies have addressed how the design of the built environment, especially the adequacy and existence of sidewalks, in addition to the variety and proximity of land uses, may facilitate casual physical activity. Such research was primarily addressed in the Western world, but has not yet been conducted in a Saudi context. This research study is investigating the relationship between the design characteristics of the built environment in the city of Riyadh—in terms of street design, adjacent land uses, and walkability—and the vulnerability to developing obesity among Saudi adults. The study was done in two phases. The first was concerned with investigating the perception of the residents of four different neighborhoods in Riyadh, regarding their neighborhood design and walkability level using a survey questionnaire. In addition, certain demographic and medical information including weight status and BMI were collected. The second phase was more focused on examining the perception of the physical and design quality of a designated walkable area, which is ‘Al-mamsha’ or ‘the walkway’, in Riyadh. Participants were asked through a survey questionnaire about the obstacles that hinder them from walking in their neighborhoods, and the potentials they see in ‘Al-mamsha’ that promote walkability. The results of such study is expected to have valuable policy implications for the creation of healthy built environments in the city of Riyadh.


Connecting Research and Design: The Development of an EvidenceBased Tool for Designing and Evaluating Hospital Inpatient Rooms Xiaobo Quan, [email protected], (Center for Heatlh Design); Anjali Joseph, [email protected], (Clemson University) Hospital inpatient rooms are a unique type of healthcare environment that greatly impacts patient outcomes and healthcare efficiency and therefore attract much attention from designers and researchers. A growing body of research evidence is available to support design decision-making and design evaluation. However, research is often difficult to access and too technical for design practitioners to understand, interpret, and apply in their projects. To effectively address this gap between research and practice, a three-year research project was conducted to create an evidence-based tool for three types of inpatient rooms (medical-surgical, intensive care, and maternity care) by collating existing design research and translating it into an actionable format to facilitate pre-construction design decision-making and post-occupancy evaluation. Based on extensive literature reviews and valuable inputs from a multi-disciplinary expert panel, the design checklist and evaluation tool include design considerations and features organized around 23 design goals in four key topic areas. The validity and reliability of the tool were tested at multiple design firms and hospitals using both qualitative and quantitative methods, including questionnaire survey, focus group discussion, and statistical tests. The lessons learned from pilot testing were incorporated into the subsequent rounds of tool development. The pilot testing results confirmed the validity and reliability of the tool but also provided valuable lessons for further improvement. The final product is an evidence-based tool with a series of features to increase usability (e.g., interactive Excel format with built-in hyperlinks addressing trade-offs and potential conflicts between design elements, customization to make the tool more pertinent and reduce the overall length, provision of research references related to design elements linked to online research databases). By facilitating the use of research evidence, the tools may contribute to a better process of designing and evaluating healthcare facilities.

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Addressing the Needs of Older Adults in Public Rightsof-Way: An Opportunity to Promote Independence, Social Participation, and Active Living Molly Ranahan, [email protected], (University at Buffalo) Older adults, and particularly those with disabilities, are vulnerable to poorly designed environments. The built environment can potentially support or discourage this growing cohort to engage in outdoor activities. Municipalities can uniquely promote physical activity for this targeted population through their planning and design processes. For older adults with disabilities, thoughtfully designed and maintained community environments can promote regular walking, preserve functional independence, and enhance community participation. The Complete Streets (CS) movement affords a logical opportunity for communities to achieve societal inclusion goals for aging populations that also promote improved health due to increases in walking and bicycling, and improved access to daily services, especially important to those with disabilities. The number of municipalities with CS policies has rapidly increased over the past several years due to growing public interest and municipal goals related to active living and walkability. The Center for Inclusive Design and Environmental Access (IDeA) recently completed research on Complete Streets initiatives in the United States. One goal of this research was to explore the extent to which CS projects addressed the needs of older adults and people with disabilities. Semi-structured phone interviews were conducted with officials from 13 municipalities to discuss their experiences implementing Complete Streets projects, and a web-based national survey was then launched to interface with staff in geographically dispersed municipalities that were implementing Complete Streets. Data analysis from interviews and surveys indicated that municipalities gave cursory consideration of older adults and people with disabilities during CS implementation. As municipalities continue to invest limited funds on CS, and the population continues to age with disabilities, these findings suggest the need for increased focus on aging and disability issues related to Complete Streets in policy, design and health education, professional practice, and future research.

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The Built Environment’s Role in Aging Actively at Home: A Systematic Review of the Research Literature Sherry Ahrentzen, [email protected], (University of Florida); Elif Tural, elif.tural@ oregonstate.edu, (Oregon State University) Older adults are the most sedentary of any adult age group. Health problems associated with sedentary behavior are not offset by dedicated exercise. One approach to reducing sedentary behavior is fostering “active living” (AL), whereby movement and activity are integrated into daily routines and supportive physical environments. To date, most research on AL of older adults focuses on community-scale factors. Yet because older adults spend 80 to 90 percent of their time at home, the residential setting is key in advancing AL opportunities. The existing research on building- and interior-scale environmental factors that foster or deter AL among older adults is scattered among different journals and disciplines. This presentation describes the protocol and findings of a comprehensive, systematic review of the research literature that examines the role of building- and interior-scale factors of homes and residential developments (e.g., retirement communities) in promoting or inhibiting sedentary behavior, activities of daily living, and other forms of AL (e.g., gardening, walking pets) in the home environment. The protocol included a search through six electronic databases and of grey literature for relevant peer-reviewed journal articles published since 1994. Of the 156 that were identified, a two-step inclusion process further verified which articles empirically examined AL of older adults in relation to some type of residential environment measure. Quality assessment of quantitative and qualitative articles followed a procedure conducted by Annear et al. (2014). As a result of this protocol, 37 articles were used as the basis for the synthesized findings. Findings are presented that (1) summarize general methodological characteristics of the studies as a whole (e.g., sample characteristics, activity measurements); and (2) profile five key building-related factors that play a role in AL: barriers; hazards and features that “fit”; spatial organization and layout; clarity and familiarity; ambient qualities; and gardens and outdoor space. In addition to identifying additional building factors of relevance to AL (particularly, aspects of spatial organization and

Health and Active Living – Abstracts

layout, environmental cues, and to some extent, lighting and garden), the review also highlights the missed opportunities in the current body of literature to clearly operationalize and measure built environmental factors, including pathways and destinations, setting characteristics, size and interior configurations of homes, ambient qualities, and assistive technologies. The presentation concludes with suggestions for multidisciplinary research directions to include the currently absent or underutilized residential factors in AL research.

‘Seniors Walkability Audit in Neighbourhoods’(SWAN): Development of a User-Led Observation Tool to Evaluate Urban Design Features That Foster Mobility and Age-Friendly Design in Urban Neighbourhoods Atiya Mahmood, [email protected], (Simon Fraser University); Habib Chaudhury, [email protected], (Simon Fraser University); Frank Oswald, [email protected]. de, (Goethe University); Nadine Konopik, [email protected], (Goethe University) The environment of urban neighbourhoods has a crucial role in fostering, supporting, and maintaining mobility and well-being in older adults to age-in-place. Research indicates that engaging in regular physical activity such as walking has a positive impact on cardiovascular health, well-being, and other health variables for older adults. Older adults tend to walk mostly in and around their neighbourhoods for both recreational and utilitarian purposes. Documentation of barriers and facilitators in their neighbourhood built environment by older adults themselves can enable them to vocalize and advocate their needs for appropriate neighbourhood design to support mobility. In this study, we developed an easy-to-use user-led neighbourhood environmental audit tool, “Seniors Walkability Audit in Neighbourhoods” (SWAN), to collect built environmental data in five domains: functionality, safety, destinations, aesthetics, and social aspects. This is a micro-level neighbourhood built environment audit May 2015 – brainSTORM

tool appropriate for use by non-academic end-users or knowledge users (e.g., older adults, seniors’ service providers, stakeholders in communities) as a method to systematically evaluate the walkability of neighbourhoods to become informed partners in neighbourhood physical planning and decision-making processes. Germany has one of the most rapidly growing older adult population [27% (2011)] in the European Union. Lessons learnt about neighbourhood design and aging in place in Germany has relevance for use of this tool in the North American context. The SWAN tool was pilot tested with 24 older adults in three neighbourhoods in Frankfurt, Germany. Inter-rater reliability among the paired participants showed good agreement across 90 percent of the items on the tool. Data from the pilot project on micro-environmental features (e.g., sidewalk quality, street lighting) demonstrated that each neighbourhood had a combination of supportive or deterrent environmental features for physical activity in older adults. This participatory process engages older adults to improve their communities to support aging in place and improve health outcomes. Relevance of the findings of this pilot study for the North American context is highlighted through linkage to literature, comparison to existing audit tools, and discussion of the tool development process.

Factors Influencing Walking Behavior in Older Adults: The Impact of Environmental Perceptions, Personal Characteristics, and Neighborhood Type Jordana Maisel, [email protected], (IDeA Center/University at Buffalo); Molly Ranahan, [email protected], (IDeA Center/University at Buffalo) Designing to promote physical activity among older adults is limited by the lack of information currently available to designers and policy makers. The knowledge gap exists on three levels. First, there is a lack of knowledge about how older adults perceive their neighborhood environment. Second, there is a lack of understanding about how other moderating factors, such

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as age and income, influence these varying perceptions. Third, scant research explores how varying environmental perceptions ultimately impact older adults’ participation in physical activity. This research explored these topics using data from 121 older adults. First, an evaluation of environmental perceptions took place with older adults from different neighborhood types (i.e., rural, suburban, and urban) using the previously validated Neighborhood Environment Walkability Scale (NEWS). The mediating effects of intrapersonal characteristics were also explored. This was followed by an evaluation of the relationship between perceptions and self-reported walking behavior using questions from the International Physical Activity Questionnaire (IPAQ). Dependent measures included variables associated with job, transportation, and recreation walking activity. The analyses included descriptive statistics of all potential dependent variables and Spearman rank correlation analyses. Due to a non-normal distribution of the response variables, differences among groups were then evaluated using the Kruskal-Wallis one-way analysis of variance test. Follow-up tests were conducted to evaluate pairwise differences among the groups. Logistic regression analysis was used to evaluate the effects of combinations of variables on the likelihood of walking vs. non-walking behavior. The results confirmed that perceptions vary across participants. Older adults from rural, suburban, and urban communities reported significantly different perceptions, with participants from urban and suburban neighborhoods often perceiving more favorable walking environments. Perceptions also vary by socio-demographic characteristics, with length of residency mediating perceptions across neighborhoods and gender and household income mediating perceptions within specific neighborhood types. While walking activity did not significantly differ across neighborhood types, specific environmental perceptions (e.g., street connectivity, crime safety) were associated with some walking behaviors. These relationships also varied by neighborhood type and were mediated by gender, age, and household income. The logistic regression results confirm the presence of some environmental predictors of walking behavior in older adults such as perceived street connectivity across neighborhoods, as well as perceived crime safety in rural neighborhoods. Qualitative data analysis of semi-structured interviews with ten older women revealed four types of barriers and motivators associated with their walking behavior decision-making: (1) the presence or absence of physical features; (2) personal preferences and constraints; (3) social relationships; and (4) temporal factors. This research provides a better understanding

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of the interaction between personal factors and environmental perceptions on walking behavior among older adults in order to support improved policies, design interventions, and more efficient spending on programs that encourage physical activity in this growing cohort.

Healthcare Environments – Abstracts

HEALTHCARE ENVIRONMENTS

The Impact of Nursing Unit Typologies on Nurses’ Distribution and Communication: An Explorative Case Study on Two Old and Two New Chinese Nursing Units Hui Cai, [email protected], (The University of Kansas) Growing evidence has demonstrated the link between physical environment and human movement and communication in healthcare settings. However, few studies have been conducted in Chinese hospitals. This study aims to investigate the impacts of nursing unit typologies on caregivers’ distribution and communication. Moreover, it attempts to examine how the sociocultural preferences of organizational communication may influence the preferred spatial characteristics. To explore how different nursing unit configurations influence caregivers’ social behavior, two large urban general hospitals in Shanghai were selected as subjects, with each containing one old and one newly constructed nursing unit. Both old units were single-corridor layout, and both new units were mutated double-corridor layout with a clearly defined staff backstage. The data was obtained using both qualitative and quantitative methods. The data collection started with a deep-dive field observation and semi-structured interviews with the unit head nurse and one nurse representative from each unit. The quantitative methods include behavior mapping and tracking. A total of 108 sets of behavior mappings were collected, using pre-defined codes to document identity (doctor, nurse, technician, social worker, or patient), activities (sitting, standing, walking, talking, using screen, or using surface) and map the corresponding locations on the floor plans. The data was input into ArcView GIS for further analysis. In addition, a total of 24 sets of nurse behavior trackings were conducted on each unit, which gave a detailed description of 480 mins’ nurses’ behavior in these inpatient units, including their routes and types and duration of communication. The results demonstrated that the mutated double-corridor nursing unit was a more culturally adapted layout that supported more frequent nurse-nurse communication. It indicated


that future Chinese nursing unit design should take into consideration such Chinese national schema as collectism and high power distance (Hofstede & Peterson, 2000) and follow Confucian principles of hierarchy, social networking, and face. Both the results and the theoretical framework of this study can contribute to a more culturally conscious evidence-based design in the future.

Measuring the Impacts of Hospital Nursing Floor and Patient Room Layouts on Patients’ Experience With Care in a Major Teaching Hospital Lorissa MacAllister, information@enviah. com, (Georgia Institute of Technology); Craig Zimring, [email protected] , (Georgia Institute of Technology) While a growing body of literature suggests that the layout of inpatient hospitals impacts a range of outcomes such as noise, falls, and mortality, the research has not yet addressed how layout impacts patient experience of care. Experience of care is of growing importance to hospitals because of their commitment to patients and because it is increasingly linked to payment and is reported publicly. This study bridges this gap by exploring the relationship between layout of the inpatient room and patient satisfaction scores. The study examines 21 units over 2 to 5 years at a large teaching hospital. This study uses space syntax and other spatial measures to analyze layouts and explores the association with standard patient satisfaction measures, including both HCAHPS and Press-Ganey surveys. The study investigates how layout can be measured and especially how layout might impact the engagements of caregivers as they enter the patient room. Preliminary results show that room layouts which allow care givers to maintain eye contact substantially improve the patient perception of care with their care from the caregiver.

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Abstracts – Healthcare Environments

Analytical and Empirical Methods For People-Centered Healthcare Facility Design: A Case Study on Spatial Cognition-Driven Design at the New Parkland Hospital Mehul Bhatt, [email protected]. de, (Spatial Cognition Center, University of Bremen); Gena English, gena.english@ phhs.org, (Parkland Hospital Replacement Program); Lori McGilberry, lori.mcgilberry@ corgan.com, (Corgan Associates); Robert Agosta, [email protected], (Mitchell Associates); Carl Schultz, cschultz@ informatik.uni-bremen.de, (Spatial Cognition Center, University of Bremen) This group presentation will demonstrate the impact of analytical and evidence-based empirical design methods pertaining to human visual perception and spatial cognition on the planning of the internal navigation and signage system at the New Parkland Hospital. In the backdrop of an ongoing “Design by Research” collaborative project amongst presenting members, namely from the DesignSpace Group (Germany) and the New Parkland Hospital project (United States), we will specifically showcase most recent results pertaining to: - Cognitive technologies for people-centered design analysis - Next generation methods for evidencebased wayfinding analysis - Integration of analytical and empirical methods for visuo-locomotive study of people behavior in the built environment We especially focus on the manner in which analytical knowledge and evidence from “the field” may be translated to formal specifications that can be applied for a wide range of design situations beyond the domain of healthcare design (e.g., in areas such as airport and museum design). We will report on the manner in which our “Design by Research” initiative and ensuing collaborations between design academics and architectural practitioners has spurred the development of assistive technology specifically customized for people-centered design analysis, and also conducting large-scale people experiments for understanding user behavior (e.g., from the viewpoint of wayfinding) in the built environment. More broadly, we will also present an overarching view

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of recent community initiatives (e.g., also at edra44 and edra45), and other scientific deliverables (e.g., systems, case-studies, experiments) focusing on aspects of architectural cognition, cognitive design computing, and evidence-based analyses with respect to processes of assistive design tools and frameworks, and their impact on real-world Professional Design Practice, and Design Learning and Education. The underlying theme is that of universal access and usability, individual well-being, and “structure, function & behaviour” for the peoplecentered design of the built environment. Presentation #1: Spatial Cognition and the Built Environment

Contemporary architecture design tools regard eventual design products as isolated “frozen moments of perfection”. Even within state-of-the-art design tools, aspects such as common sense, semantics, structure, function, behavior, and people-centered design concepts that are implicitly known to designers are yet to come to the fore. In our ongoing research activities in the field of spatial cognition for architecture design, we are developing the cognitively driven foundational spatial informatics for user-centered architecture design systems. The talk will demonstrate a human-centered model of abstraction, modeling, and computing for function-driven architecture design (assistance) systems. The aim is to identify how interdisciplinary application of knowledge may provide real benefit for the theory and professional practice of architecture design, and eventually, tangible benefit for the quality of everyday personal life and work. Presentation #2: Patient-Centered Design for the Largest Public Hospital Construction Project in the United States

The Parkland Hospital Replacement Project is located on 64 acres in Dallas, Texas. It is currently the largest healthcare construction project in the United States. The nearly 2 million-square-foot Parkland hospital will replace the existing 55-year-old facility, and, when complete, will be the largest public hospital building in the nation built in one phase. The entire hospital is conceived with the patient in mind; the patient-centered approach creates a robust healing environment with the use of single patient rooms, natural light, and windows as well as more space for family and visitors. This talk will present the Parkland Hospital Replacement Project to the audience, its fundamental design premises and objectives, the design process, and the impact that it is expected to have on the lives of the citizens of Dallas County.


Presentation #3: Informed Decision Making For The Parkland Hospital Replacement Project

In early 2009, Parkland Health & Hospital System selected HDR+Corgan for the design and master plan of the new 862-bed Parkland Hospital, and design work began in the second quarter of 2009. The project broke ground in late 2010 and is estimated for completion in 2014. The design of the 2.1 million-square-foot hospital showcases many of the best practices supported by evidence-based design. Interventions including single patient rooms, access to nature, and zoned circulation have been implemented in the new hospital. The presenter has been part of the project since 2009 and continues to participate in EBD research associated with the project. Her presentation will include discussion of the evidence-based design elements of the New Parkland Hospital, anticipated outcomes, and the inside story behind incorporating these features into the hospital. Presentation #4: Development of Visual Wayfinding Solutions for Complex Environments

Design and implementation of graphic wayfinding systems in large complex environments are often developed through observational surveys, anecdotal evidence from user groups, best practices for design, and past experiences from similar project types. Current models for improved patient-centered healing environments in healthcare design demand more empirical evidencebased knowledge of successful design solutions through the use of new tools and processes for data collection and qualitative analysis. The discussion will touch on practical adoption of these new technologies for professional practice. Presentation #5: Deriving Formal Knowledge from Evidence-Based User Behavior Data

People-centered, evidence-based analysis of the interaction between people and the built environment has been a crucial concern for many focus groups and endeavors within the scope of the research areas covered by EDRA. Cross-domain studies led by environmental psychologists on user experience and behavior abound. However, general-purpose tools for user behavior and experience data collection, sharing, qualitative analysis, and communication of analytical results are missing in the community. We report on the ongoing development of prototypical systems specifically for conducting large-scale people experiments for understanding user wayfinding behavior in the built environment. We will especially focus on demonstrating the utility of such


tools for making people-centered design decisions in the planning of internal navigation and signage placement in the context of hospital design (in particular, the New Parkland Hospital).

Promoting Activity Among Patients With Dementia in Acute Care Hospital Environments Kathrin Büter, kathrin.bueter@tu-dresden. de, (Technische Universität Dresden); Gesine Marquardt, gesine.marquardt@tu-dresden. de, (Technische Universität Dresden) For people with dementia, a hospital stay can turn into a dramatic experience affecting their future lives tremendously. Staying active during a hospital stay is crucial for them to preserve their functionality and maintain independence. However, highly standardized care processes in hospitals offer little room for the individual needs of these patients. Hospital staff states that their options to mobilize patients and engage them in meaningful activities are limited. The enforced passivity can lead to a deterioration of their functional performance and cognitive status. Consequently, many patients with dementia cannot be discharged back home, but need to move to a nursing home instead. The aim of this study is to identify physical features in the hospital environment which promote or hinder activity in patients with dementia. A pre-post evaluation will be conducted in a unit for internal medicine exhibiting a high prevalence of dementia patients in a German general acute care hospital. Baseline data was recently collected through a total of 100 hours of patient observations in the common areas of the unit over a period of five weeks. Behavioral Mapping was the method used because it allows researchers to systematically observe and record people`s behavior in relation to their physical environment. Outcomes were frequency and duration of space usage, and type of activity occurring in a certain space. Changes in the built environment will be made, such as creating an activity zone in the hallway close to the nursing station and providing environmental cues. After remodeling the built environment, follow-up data will be collected and compared to baseline data. Interviews with hospital staff will enrich observational data and enhance analysis. Expected findings will show whether the location of a common room or the visual

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and spatial connectivity to the nursing station will result in more active behavior and interaction among patients with dementia in acute care hospitals. Photographs of the remodeling will be used to illustrate the findings.

Environmental Needs of Adolescent Surgical Patients in Hospital Settings: Promoting Psychological Well-Being Eun-Young Kim, [email protected], (University of Kentucky); Hyunsoo Lee, [email protected], (Yonsei University) Health status can affect an individual’s quality of life significantly due to the impacts of medical conditions on physical functionality, emotional states, value systems, social activities, and decision-making abilities. Physical environments in healthcare can contribute to positive patient satisfaction and healthcare outcomes. Hospital environments compatible with patients’ distinctive physical and psychological needs promote patients’ healing processes and psychological well-being, especially where patients may be under stress due to hospitalization. In order to provide optimal healing environments, designers must understand how patients might react to environmental stimuli in hospital settings depending on health conditions, previous hospital experiences, and demographic characteristics such as gender, age, and nationality. Although the effect of environmental stimuli in hospitals on adolescent patients may differ from those of young children, adults, and the elderly, little empirical research on the effects of physical environmental interventions on adolescent patients’ healing processes has been conducted. The purpose of the study was to investigate age-appropriate healing design attributes and understand the significance of comprehensive assessment of environmental needs for American adolescent patients. By adopting the concept of health-related quality of life, adolescents’ environmental needs in hospital settings were assessed in four domains, which were self-reported emotional states survey, environmental preference value survey, environmental preference examiniation of patient room, and environmental choices. Forty-seven adolescent surgical patients, aged 14 to 18, participated in the study. The findings suggested that the participants’ emotional appraisals are significantly related with environmental

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value, preference, and environmental choices. “Comfort” and “stress” were the most influential emotional appraisals that were associated with adolescents’ environmental values and preferences on patient room design. “Privacy control” and “outside view” were highly desired environmental values in hospital rooms. The correlations analysis demonstrated significant associations among environmental preferences and design components in hospital rooms. The result of factor analysis indicated “restorative”, “energetic’, and “linked” as the main design attributes for adolescent patient rooms for psychological well-being. In conclusion, the study characterized some aspects of adolescents’ preferences of window view types and significant needs of social supports in hospital design.

The Importance of Creating Sustainable Places of Respite in Saudi Arabia Hospitals Fatma Jobran, [email protected], (Texas Tech University); Kristi Gaines, kristi.gaines@ ttu.edu, (Texas Tech University); Cherif Amor, [email protected], (Virginia Commonwealth University) Research has shown that the design and structure of the built and natural environment influences the psychological, emotional, and social well-being of the people within it. In the healthcare setting, places of respite offer patients, visitors, and healthcare providers an area to disengage from the confines of the hospital and connect with the natural environment for the purposes of releasing stress and promoting healing. However, preferences with regards to the design of places of respite often differ among different groups of people; thus, the effectiveness of such places in promoting healing and stress relief would depend on the compatibility of the design and the environmental preferences of its intended audience. In Saudi Arabia, the design and architecture of most structures, homes, and buildings are characteristic of the region’s climate, environment, and the people’s culture and religion. This is most evident in the use of symbolic elements closely linked to Islamic teaching, such as the courtyard, dome, arch, and other symbolic artifacts. Following this custom, it is posited that the use of symbols and elements characteristic of Saudi Arabian culture and religion would be expected in


the design of places of respite in Saudi Arabian hospitals; that without such elements, places of respite would not be as effective in promoting healing and reducing stress. The purpose of this study is to collect the perceptions of Saudi Arabian doctors and nurses on places of respite using focus group discussions and a survey. Specifically, data will be gathered on the participants’ perceptions on the effectiveness of places of respite in promoting healing and reducing work-related stress. Additionally, the respondents’ design preferences will also be determined, including perceptions on the influence of factors such as culture, religion, social values, and sustainability. Finally, differences in perceptions between nurses and doctors, and between Muslims and non-Muslims, will be identified. Data will be analyzed using thematic analysis for the focus groups and using t-tests and MANOVA for the quantitative data.

Family-Centered Care (FCC) is considered essential to child care. As a result, the paper’s conclusions are that (1) in a number of PICUs, the medical staff is forced to work in a very small area; it is recommended that sufficient floor area should be provided as in the advanced cases; and (2) that a more comfortable environment for patients and visitors is created.

Emerging Trends in the Planning and Design of PICUs (Pediatric Intensive Care Units) in Japanese Children’s Hospitals Akikazu Kato, [email protected], (Mie University); Shiho Mori, [email protected]. ac.jp, (Mie University); Masayuki Kato, [email protected], (Naito Architects) Japan enjoys the longest life expectancy in the world. However, if we focus on the ages 1 to 4 group, the situation is not so good. A number of experts believe the lack of pediatric intensive care units (PICUs) is the major cause. The purpose of this study is to clarify the essential issues in the architectural planning and design of the PICU, which is a relatively new concept in Japan. There is no suitable development model for PICUs in the Japanese context. Thus, the paper shows the survey results and important recommendations on the issue. A survey was carried out by posting questionnaire survey sheets to 27 children’s hospitals. Twenty institutes replied, among which 13 reported having independent PICUs. Behavioural mapping was also carried out in four PICUs to gather information regarding the space usage in terms of activities of staff and tools used. In the approach, Evidence Based Design (EBD) is the leading concept. When compared to adult care, May 2015 – brainSTORM

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Abstracts – Healthy Environments

HEALTHY ENVIRONMENTS

Microbial Environment-Design Research: How Home and Community Design Affect the Human Microbiome and Health Richard Wener, [email protected], (Polytechnic School of Engineering of NYU) This symposium seeks to present work in progress that addresses an important area that is new to environment-behavior research, with the goal of initiating a discussion of how interior, building, and urban design, at large and small scales, influence the composition and function of the bacteria, fungi, and viruses that form the human microbiome. The microbiome is important in organ functions, from immunity to angiogenesis, endocrine physiology, food digestion, vitamin production, and colonization resistance to pathogens. Over the last 100 years, humans have moved indoors to become a species that lives predominantly indoors in the built environment, increasingly separated from natural settings. These environments, for good reason, have been made as hostile to microbial life as possible, while also cutting us off from diverse sources of microbes through mechanical air filtration. However, recent evidence suggests that this significant reduction in microbial exposure may actually be harmful, leading to a myriad of diseases, including allergies and asthma, among others. Changes in building design as a result of urbanization result in greater separation between indoor and outdoor environments, and the way occupants use and interact with their settings. Among the many changes are tighter buildings with HVAC systems and less external ventilation, increased household densities, and changes in personal and home cleaning habits, all of which affects the amount and kind of bacteria encountered and lead to urban household environments that are isolated from outdoor environments and in which human microorganisms may dominate. We don’t fully understand how the environment shapes the respective biomes of the building and the occupants, and the occupants’ behaviors affect microbial transmission between humans and indoor surfaces. The research reported here has studied associations between modernization in households and the impact it has on the microbial communities of houses and their occupants. Microbial samples and related

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environmental data on buildings and their occupants have been collected for several levels of urbanization, ranging from dwellings in an extremely isolated village in the Amazon rain forest to a major metropolitan area along the same latitude. Preliminary results show that changes in the use of home space and architecture lead to altered environmental parameters, ventilation rates, and building materials. Initial analyses of the human microbiome show differences across the gradient of transculturation. Presentation #1: The Human Microbiome: Its History, Co-Evolution, and Changes Across Cultures

Professor Dominguez-Bello’s presentation will outline the history and nature of the symbiotic relationship between humans and bacteria since the earliest points of human evolution. She will describe ways in which bacteria in and on the human body—the human microbiome, which is far more complex than the human genome—are necessary for health and, indeed, for life itself. Changes in the human microbiome, in the number and diversity of species of microbes, has accompanied urbanization, westernization, and the technologies used to control indoor environments. These changes may be associated with increases in diseases including obesity, asthma, and diabetes, among others. With these issues in mind, Professor Dominguez-Bello led a team collecting human and environmental microbe samples in settlements ranging from ones that small rural villages with little western contact and without the technologies that change indoor environments, through modern western cities—all, though occupying the same latitude in Ecuador, Peru, and Brazil. Her presentation will focus on the purpose, methods, and goals of this study. Presentation #2: Architectural Features in Homes Across Cultures That Affect the Microbiome

Humberto Cavallin will present his analysis of the design of settlements and individual habitats within the settings that were studied, describing the reasoning and the methods for the microbial data collection. Architectural design, density, design features that provide for privacy and segmentation within houses, materials, air flow, humidity, and occupant behavior within the setting all affect the microbial presence. The findings, including the ways in which various bacteria were distributed within the settings, have important implications for human health and environmental design.

Healthy Environments – Abstracts

Presentation #3: Microbial Communities at the Confluence of Indoor and Outdoor Environments

Professor Jack Gilbert will present a series of studies that have uncovered novel microbial interactions between humans and the built environment. Programs of research, including the Home Microbiome, Restroom Microbiome, and Hospital Microbiome projects, have started to map the complex co-associations between the building microbiome and the human microbiome. These studies are helping to lay the foundation for research on how indoor systems can be redesigned to promote a microbiome that may improve human health and wellbeing. Through extensive collaborations with Skidmore Owings and Merrill, we have started to redefine the tool kit of data that architects and urban planners have at their disposal to create built spaces. The microbiome provides a dynamic metric for redefining environmental quality. Presentation #4: The Human Microbiome as an Environment-Behavior Phenomenon

Richard Wener will provide a conceptual framework for this work with environment-behavior studies. What are the implications from this early research for understanding how human behavior within the home affects the ecology of the microbes themselves, and the way in which we come into contact with them? What kinds of E&B research methods can be applied (or developed) to further study these issues? How do these findings fit into broader concerns about the nature of the physical environment and human health?


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Abstracts – Lighting in Environments

LIGHTING IN ENVIRONMENTS

Objective and Subjective Evaluation of Acoustics and Lighting in Canadian Green Buildings Craig Brown, craig.brown@ryerson. ca, (Ryerson University); Leila Scannell, [email protected], (The University of British Columbia); Shauna Mallory-Hill, [email protected], (University of Manitoba); Karen Bartlett, karen.bartlett@ ubc.ca, (The University of British Columbia); Murray Hodgson, [email protected], (The University of British Columbia); AnneMareike Chu, [email protected], (The University of British Columbia); Mark Gorgolewski, [email protected], (Ryerson University) Green buildings should aim to provide habitable environments for the occupants who use them, but face different challenges than conventional buildings. Previous literature has identified lighting and acoustics as two features central to occupants’ satisfaction in such buildings, but few studies have examined which components of these features most strongly relate to occupant satisfaction. Data were collected as part of a larger performance evaluation of nine green buildings across Canada. A survey captured occupants’ (N = 243) satisfaction with lighting and acoustics. Physical measures of acoustics (NC(B) at different frequencies) and lighting (lux levels at various positions) were assessed in predetermined zones, allowing subjective data to be linked to objective data by location. Compared to reference standards, lighting levels were frequently above and below the recommended range of 300 to 750 lux. Despite this, preliminary results revealed that occupants were satisfied with lighting levels; average ratings were 4.90 (SD = 1.37) on a 1-7 scale. Satisfaction with lighting was significantly correlated with lux levels on desks and the percentage of windows in the workspace (r = .26 and .22, respectively). These results demonstrate the importance of natural lighting in occupant satisfaction, but question the appropriateness of existing reference

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standards to green buildings. A consistent trend across all of the studied buildings was that occupants were more dissatisfied with speech noise than any other aspect of the indoor environment. NC(B) values generally did not comply with standard recommendations. An exploratory regression analysis will determine which frequencies best predict satisfaction with acoustics. Those frequencies most relevant to the human speech range are expected to be most predictive of subjective ratings. Results will inform the development of strategies for improving existing green buildings as well as rating systems and future design.

The Role of Daylighting in Skilled Nursing Short-Term Rehabilitation Facilities Arsalan Gharaveis, [email protected], (Texas A&M University); Mardelle Shepley, [email protected] , (Texas A&M University); Kristi Gaines, kristi.gaines@ ttu.edu, (Texas Tech University); Gilbert Carrasco, [email protected], (Texas Tech University) The aim of this study is to investigate the best placement of windows in terms of daylighting and views to the outside in short-term rehabilitation facilities by exploring the impact of windows on resident perception of mood, stress, and satisfaction. The physiological and psychological benefits of daylighting have made it an increasingly important topic in multi-disciplinary research. Although large numbers of studies have been written about the visual aspects of lighting, few investigations have been made into the non-visual effects related to resident mood, satisfaction, and well-being. A combination of qualitative and quantitative methodologies were used to address the research questions. Thirty-four participants who were living temporarily in inpatient rehabilitation units of two skilled nursing facilities were subjects in a semi-structured interview and some 5-scale survey questions. The importance of daylighting and views outside a resident’s room are emphasized by the findings of this study. While residents expressed the need to have direct visual access to the outside, they indicated that daylight was of even higher benefit. Additionally, they noted that size and location

Lighting In Environments – Abstracts

of windows impacted their activities, stress levels, and moods. More than half of facility residents changed their postures either for better outdoor views or less light disturbance while sleeping (54/2%). Approximately half of the subjects preferred additional sources of lighting in their rooms (55/2%). Lastly, most residents prefer to keep direct sunlight off their beds rather than on their beds (85%).


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Abstracts – Natural Settings

NATURAL SETTINGS

Landscapes and Human Health Chun-Yen Chang, [email protected], (National Taiwan University); William Sullivan, [email protected], (University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign) Although we know that people prefer and benefit from greener landscapes, we understand little about the impact of ecologically healthy landscapes on human health and well-being. Biologically diverse, native landscapes contribute a great deal to the overall ecological integrity and resilience of a setting, but to what extent do these aspects of healthy landscapes also promote human health and wellbeing? What are the human health implications of being exposed to landscapes that support ecological health? This pre-conference intensive examines the extent to which landscapes that vary in ecological health impact human health and wellbeing. The landscapes in question range from intensely urban settings to rural farms and forests and encompass a range of ecologically healthy places. We explore these issues via two pathways through which landscapes impact human functioning—by restoring attentional capacity and by reducing stress. The health outcomes we address are measured using a range of traditional and emerging tools in environment-behavior research: participant observation, questionnaires, functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI), and electroencephalogram (EEG). Two of the studies we present allow us to compare results across cultures. In addition to reporting on this recent work, our discussion will identify a number of opportunities for future research. The session will end with an open discussion. The discussion will invite considerable audience participation and will explore the direction and impact of research designed to investigate links between healthy landscapes and healthy people. The first paper describes fascinating new research involving the use of an fMRI and demonstrating that different areas of the human brain are activated when people view urban landscapes as compared to nature dominated landscapes such as forests, mountains, or water bodies. This work has implications for Attention Restoration Theory and raises a number of new research possibilities. The second paper reports on an experiment involving 94 high school students. It examines the relationship between views from classroom windows (no windows, views to a built space, views to a green space) and student’s

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emotional states as measured by a mobile EEG. The third paper reports on a field experiment examining the Western concept of Flow and the Eastern concept of Qi and involves practitioners of Qigong—the practice of aligning breath, movement and awareness—in various urban landscapes. Results show that the presence of water, feelings of restoration, and landscape preference predict the experience of both Flow and Qi. The fourth paper examines the extent to which expectations for how much a landscape might help a person feel restored varies among Eastern and Western individuals and results in suggested changes for the Perceived Restorativeness Scale for use in Eastern settings. The next paper reports on exciting new findings from a field experiment examining high school students’ everyday exposure to green spaces and their stress levels and attentional functioning. This study involved attaching GPS devices to students for 13 hours per day over four days in order to measure their exposure to varying densities of tree cover, and varying frequencies and durations of exposure to green spaces. The final paper describes the results of a field experiment in which individuals were randomly assigned to natural and urban landscapes and then asked to complete tasks that demanded creativity and imagination. During the experiment, participant’s physiological responses were continuously measured. Presentation #1: Using fMRI to Measure Reactions to Landscapes that Differ in Ecological Health

Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) detects brain oxygen concentrations and can generate images showing regions of the brain that are activated by particular stimuli. fMRI provides a way to examine how people respond to landscapes that vary in terms of ecological health. We conducted an experiment in which 31 individuals saw a subset of images that vary in terms of their ecological heath and in their capacity to support attention restoration. Findings reveal significant differences in the location of brain activity and the intensity of brain activity as individuals are exposed to different landscapes. The impact of aquatic settings was particularly interesting, with results suggesting that the restorative effects of such settings vary considerably. We discuss implications of this work for environmentbehavior research and for Attention Restoration Theory. Presentation #2: Classroom Views and Students’ Emotional States: Using a Mobile EEG in Environmental-Behavior Research

Exposure to green space is associated with reduced symptoms of stress and mental fatigue. Strong evidence

Natural Settings – Abstracts

(Matsuoka, 2010) shows that high schools with natural window views exhibit better academic performance than schools without natural views. However, limited evidence has been presented regarding the relationship between views to green spaces and students’ emotions. Are students with greener views in a better emotional state for learning? Without this knowledge, we are not able to provide educators and designers another opportunity to create better learning environments for children. This study examines students’ emotional states as they engage in class activities in three types of environments: classroom with a green view, classroom with a barren view, and classroom with no view at all. Students were randomly assigned to these conditions and we used an electroencephalogram (EEG) to record 14 EEG channels of brain electrical activity during the experiment. The EEG also recorded five channels of emotional states from the raw data, including excitement, arousal, engagement, frustration and meditation. The emotional states were analyzed using principal component analysis and repeated measures of ANOVA. Results suggest that students may experience higher levels of meditation when they have green views from the classroom. The effect of green views on meditation was marginally significant. During classroom academic activities and immediately after the activities, students in each of the conditions experience slightly higher levels of excitement and arousal. The findings suggest that views to green space may have mood-enhancing effects for students in educational settings. This pilot study also suggests considerable potential for using EEG recording to understand children’s emotional states in a variety of environmental contexts. Presentation #3: The Effect of Landscape Types on the Experience of Flow and Qi

In Western psychology, Flow is the psychological state in which a person is fully immersed and focused on an activity or task with which they have a good deal of facility. In Chinese culture, Qi refers to the natural energy or the “life force” that transcends an activity. Qigong is the practice of promoting Qi through movement, awareness, or meditation. When a person practices Qigong and thus calms down, relaxes, and moves their body in particular ways, they may feel Qi flowing through their body and have an enjoyable experience knows as the “Qi experience.” To what extent are the experiences of Flow and Qi similar? To what extent can various landscape settings induce Flow or Qi? What is the relationship between landscape preference and these experiences? To address these and other questions, we conducted a within-subjects field experiment May 2015 – brainSTORM

with 58 adults and a small group of Qigong masters from National Taiwan University (NTU). The Qigong masters rated a variety of places on the NTU campus for the amount of Environmental Qi they experienced in the various places. Then, study participants practiced Qigong in these areas and filled out questionnaires that asked about their experience while practicing. Results indicate a high correlation between Flow experience and Qi experience. We also found that the intensity of feelings of Flow and Qi were stronger in grassy landscapes than on a paved square and that landscapes with water predicted levels of environmental Qi, feelings of restoration, and landscape preference. In regression analyses, we found that our measures of environmental Qi, the presence of water, feelings of restoration, and landscape preference predict the experience of both Flow and Qi. These findings have implications for the design of urban landscapes that might support healthy practices such as Qigong. Presentation #4: The Restorative Components of the Agro-Tourism Experience in Taiwan

Attention Restoration Theory, which was developed from a Western perspective, has been widely applied and practiced in Asian countries. Some scholars, however, suggest there might differences between Western and Eastern experiences in restorative experiences associated with landscapes that vary in their ecological health. One special concern relates to the use of the Perceived Restorativeness Scale or Restorativeness Component Scale in eastern societies. To address this concern, we interviewed 16 individuals at one of Taiwan’s many Leisure Farms. Participants—including visitors and stakeholders—described their understanding of, and experiences in, various agro-tourism locations in Taiwan. These descriptions were then qualitatively analyzed with grounded theory and were coded into 15 different categories. We examine these categories in light of the Western work on the Perceived Restorativeness Scale and make comparisons between Eastern experiences and Attention Restoration Theory. Presentation #5: How Much Green? Measuring Exposure to Green Spaces and Students’ Psychological Wellbeing

More than a quarter of high school students report they experience considerable stress in their daily lives (Kaiser Family Foundation, 2005). In teenagers, chronic stress often leads to emotional distress, declines in physical health, behavioral problems, and poor academic achievement. Fortunately, there is evidence that direct or indirect exposure to trees and other forms of vegeta-

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Abstracts – Natural Settings

tion help reduce stress and mental fatigue. Although it is clear that exposure to nature has calming effects, the shape of the dose-response curve is unclear, especially with respect to teenagers. We do not know, for instance, the impact of varying durations of exposure, or varying frequencies of exposure, or even the impact of varying concentrations of green space. We examined the relationship between high school students’ everyday exposure to greenness and their stress levels and attentional functioning. We explored the extent to which varying densities of tree cover, and varying frequency and duration of visits to green spaces had on student’s daily stress and attentional capacity. One-hundred and twenty high school students from urban areas in central Illinois participated in this study. Participants wore a Garmin Foretrex 301 GPS device for four days and kept an activity diary that recorded their major activities throughout the day. They also took an online version of the Stress Visual Analogue Scale Questionnaire (VAS), the Profile of Mood States 2nd Edition (POMS-S), and the Attentional Functioning Index (AFI) to measure their stress and attention. Each student’s exposure to green space was calculated by taking into account the density of tree canopy cover in each green parcel and the duration and frequency of exposure to green space. We are now calculating the relationship between these measures of exposure to green spaces and levels of stress and attentional functioning using ordinary regression models and hierarchical linear models. The results of this study will reveal the extent to which density of green space and frequency and duration of visit influence students’ psychological well-being and the magnitude of the effect. These findings will have implications for educators and parents, as well as planners and policy makers who work to create healthier environments for young people. Presentation #6: Influences of Natural and Urban Landscapes on Human Imagination and Physiology

Green landscapes can help individuals recover from mental fatigue (Kaplan, 1995), and the mechanism underlying this recovery is likely associated with executive functioning (Kaplan & Berman, 2010). Is it also possible that green settings can help individuals function with more imagination and creativity? This paper employs a field experiment to examine this question. One-hundred and twenty participants were randomly assigned to one of two conditions: a more natural landscape in Taipei and a more urban feeling landscape in Taipei. After spending some time at the site, participants’ imagination and physiological responses

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were tested. We used the Abbreviated Torrance Test for Adults (ATTA) to assess imagination and the ProComp 5 clinical-grade physiological assessment tool to measure skin conductance, skin temperature, heart rate variability, and blood pulse volume. We will present the findings and discuss the implications for efforts to stimulate more creativity and imagination.

Nearby Nature and Mental Wellbeing: The Mediating Role of Neighborhood Satisfaction and Use Pattern Sara Hadavi, [email protected], (University of Michigan) Research in environmental psychology and public health has yielded valuable findings demonstrating that urban nature settings promote mental wellbeing and life satisfaction. However, the mere presence of nature seems to be insufficient. Learning more about people’s perception of the physical aspects of the environment and their possible direct and indirect effects on mental wellbeing will help planning and design professionals to make a difference in this respect. This study focuses on four physical aspects of the environment relevant to planning and design, including perceived proximity of green/social spaces to home, proximity to a specific type of landscape structure defined as open lawn with trees, proximity to building-dominated spaces as opposed to green spaces, and perceived barriers to use of outdoor spaces. Even if green spaces are in close proximity to residents’ homes, they may not have the expected impact on life satisfaction and wellbeing if residents do not use them, or have low satisfaction with their neighborhood. Therefore, the associations between these physical factors and mental wellbeing have been investigated considering the mediating role of neighborhood satisfaction and frequency of use of outdoor spaces. This study was conducted in a residential area in Chicago covering portions of four community areas. A random sample of 434 residents participated in a survey, in which they were asked questions based on a five-point rating scale about perceived proximity, quality of nearby green spaces, general neighborhood satisfaction, frequency of use of outdoor spaces, the type of activities done in such spaces, barriers to use of neighborhood outdoor spaces and sense of mental

Natural Settings – Abstracts

wellbeing. The results of linear regression modeling and mediation analyses support the hypothesis that satisfaction with quality of public space and frequency of use of green/social spaces have significant mediating role in the relationship between the physical aspects of the environment and mental wellbeing. Exploring the effects of perceived proximity of nature to people’s homes, landscape structure, and barriers to use of neighborhood outdoor spaces on both neighborhood satisfaction and neighborhood use patterns and mental wellbeing provided insights into useful place-based planning and design recommendations. This approach can be considered as a step towards translational design of public spaces, which is highly significant in landscape architecture and related fields.

Letting the Landscape Speak: Lessons for Landscape Architecture and Design Joni Palmer, [email protected], (University of Colorado at Boulder) The field of sound studies is in the midst of dramatic changes, and though it has always been interdisciplinary, landscape architects do not seem to be engaged in this conversation. This paper advocates for a critical listening to landscape, and suggests that this work is both an ontological and an epistemological project with the potential to have a significant impact on how we think about, learn from, and design landscapes. In this paper, I will provide a brief overview of the soundscape literature as it relates to landscape architecture. I will then present some initial findings—from interviews with surfers, ecologists, and park rangers—about the sociocultural-sensual insights that can be had by listening to the landscape. This paper’s focus is on the immediate and the imaginary, the functional and symbolic, the psychological and the physiological, and the environment and behavioral aspects of sound and landscape. The larger scope of this research is to develop teaching tools that will help landscape/architecture students better understand the role of sound in the design process; that is, how do the designs we propose change, disrupt, change, improve, etc. soundscapes (both human and non-human) of the spaces in which we are intervening? Also, how do these new soundscapes change behavior (again, human and non-human) in said landscapes?


Recording and Assessing Environmental Quality in Woodlands: An Environmental Audit Tool Eva Silveirinha de Oliveira, [email protected]. uk, (University of Edinburgh); Catharine Ward Thompson, [email protected]. uk, (University of Edinburgh); Simon Bell, [email protected], (University of Edinburgh); Peter Aspinall, [email protected], (Heriot Watt University); Jenny Roe, jenny. [email protected], (Stockholm Environment Institute Search, University of York) Various studies suggest that exposure to green spaces, including woodlands, can be beneficial to people in terms of their mental health as well as promote social contact and physical activity. The use of green spaces is believed to be dependent not only on accessibility to green space but also on its quality. However, few studies have addressed the development of tools to assess the quality of green spaces, especially woodlands. This paper presents the development, implementation, and reliability of testing of an environmental audit tool for woodlands and green space assessment. The first part of the audit tool consists of a rating exercise (on a 5-point scale) of 25 items aggregated into seven domains: neighbourhood characteristics, access/signage, quality, facilities, use, maintenance/management, and security/safety. In addition to this exercise, the tool is complemented by a mapping tool entitled ‘view from the path’, which aims to record the dynamic experience of the landscape. Using a series of mapping symbols, it allows the creation of a sketch/draw of the experience. Eighteen audits were conducted by two trained auditors, across woodlands and green spaces in Scotland. The auditors visited the sites and, independently, completed the rating at the end of each visit. Interrater reliability (IRR) tests using the intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC) were performed to check the tool’s reliability. The results showed good levels of reliability and agreement between the rates for most of the items, and only three items had a low agreement (ICC