Psychology and the Aesthetics of the Built Environment

336 Pages·2000·12.62 MB·English

by  Arthur E. Stamps III (auth.)

PSYCHOLOGY AND THE
AESTHETICS OF THE
BUILT ENVIRONMENT
PSYCHOLOGY AND THE
AESTHETICS OF THE
BUlLT ENVIRONMENT
by
Arthur E. Stamps III
Institute of Environmental Quality
San Francisco
SPRINGER SCIENCE+BUSINESS MEDIA, LLC
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Stamps, Arthur BarI.
Psychology and the aesthetics of the built environment / by Arthur E. Stamps, III.
p.cm.
Inc1udes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-1-4419-5001-7 ISBN 978-1-4757-6326-3 (eBook)
DOI 10.1007/978-1-4757-6326-3
1. Architectural design-Psychological aspects. 2. Architectural design-Methodology.
3. Architectural design-Human factors. I. Title.
NA2750 . S675 2000
720'.1 '9-dc21 00-059273
Copyright 02000 by Springer Science+Business Media New York
Originally published by Kluwer Academic Publishers in 2000
AU rights reserved. N O part of this publication may be reproduced, stared in a
retrieval system or transmitted in any fomi or by any means, mechanical, photo
copying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the publisher,
Springer Science+Business Media, LLC.
Printed on acid-free paper.
The Publisher offers discounls on this book for course use and bulk purchases.
For further information, send email to<[email protected]> .
CONTENTS
PREFACE ...................................................................................................... xi
1. EXISTING CONDITIONS AND ISSUES ................................................... 1
1.1 WHAT ARE THE AESTHETICS OF
THE BUILT ENVIRONMENT? .................................................................. 3
1.1.1 Current Practice ................................................................................ 4
1.1.2 Summary of current practice ............................................................ 9
1.2 SOCIETAL TRENDS ........................................................................... 10
1.2.1 Quality control ................................................................................ 11
1.2.2 Accountability in governmental control of land use. ...................... 14
1.3 IMPLICATIONS ................................................................................... 18
1.4 RIPE ISSUES IN DESIGN REVIEW ................................................... 26
2. THEORY .................................................................................................... 29
2.1 LOGIC ................................................................................................... 29
2.1.1 Vagueness ....................................................................................... 29
2.1.2 Tautologies ..................................................................................... 32
2.1.3 Mixing purposes ............................................................................. 32
2.1.4 Eliminating confusing ideas ........................................................... 33
2.2 VAGUE NOTIONS TO PHYSICAL CONCEPTS .............................. 38
2.2.1 Physical Object ............................................................................... 38
VI
2.2.2 Architectural facade ........................................................................ 39
2.2.3 Shape complexity. ........................................................................... 39
2.2.4 Wholes, parts, details ...................................................................... 43
2.2.5 Subjective measure of visual detail.. ............................................. .49
2.2.6 Bulk, massing, facade articulation .................................................. 53
2.2.7 Character ......................................................................................... 58
2.2.8 The visual commons ....................................................................... 64
2.3 DESCRIBING FEELINGS ................................................................... 71
2.3.1 Philosophical derivations ................................................................ 72
2.3.2 Empirical evidence for three components of feelings .................... 80
2.3.3 Feelings and Features of Physical Environments ........................... 85
2.4 APPLYING THEORY TO DESIGN REVIEW .................................... 89
2.5 TIIE NEXT STEP ................................................................................. 94
2.6 POSTSCRIPT: OTIIER THEORIES OF ENVIRONMENTAL
AFFECT ...................................................................................................... 95
3. RELIABILITY OF SCIENTIFIC METHODS ........................................... 97
3.1 SCALING .............................................................................................. 98
3.1.1 Literature Review ......................................................................... 100
3.2 SIMULATIONS .................................................................................. 101
3.2.1 Literature Review .......................................................................... 101
Vll
3.2.2 Examples of simulation studies .................................................... 10 4
3.3 DEMOGRAPHIC EFFECTS .............................................................. 114
3.3.1 Literature Review ......................................................................... 114
3.3.2 Examples of demographic studies ................................................ 121
3.3.3 Sensus communis and factor analysis .......................................... 130
3.3.4 Summary of demographic effects ................................................. 134
3.4 TEMPORAL EFFECTS ...................................................................... 135
3.5 SUMMARY OF CHAPTER 3 ............................................................ 136
3.6 POSTSCRIPT: META-ANALYSIS ................................................... 139
3.6.1 Example of a meta-analysis .......................................................... 139
3.6.2 Arbitration of scientific disputes .................................................. 142
3.6.3 Example of scientific dispute arbitration ...................................... 143
4. A PSYCHOLOGICAL PROTOCOL FOR DESIGN REVIEW ............... 145
4.1 EQUATION 1: THE GOLD STANDARD ......................................... 145
4.2 RANDOMIZATION ........................................................................... 148
4.3 INTERPRETING D ............................................................................ 159
4.3.1 Big and Little Effects .................................................................... 160
4.3.2 More than a mountain ................................................................... 163
4.3.3 Grossly perceptible ....................................................................... 164
4.3.4 Large enough to be visible to the naked eye ................................ .l65
viii
4.3.5 Small ............................................................................................. 166
4.3.6 Realm of the molehills .................................................................. 167
4.4 SUMMARY OF PROTOCOL ............................................................ 168
4.5 APPLYING PROTOCOL TO DESIGN REVIEW NEEDS ............... 168
4.6 SETTING THRESHOLDS ................................................................. 172
4.6.1 General applications ..................................................................... 174
4.7 SUMMARY OF CHAPTER ............................................................... 183
5. CASE HISTORIES ................................................................................... 185
5.1 THE SETTING .................................................................................... 186
5.2 THE TRANS AMERICA BUILDING ................................................ 189
5.2.1 The story ....................................................................................... 189
5.2.2 The evidence ................................................................................. 192
5.2.3 Points of theoretical interest ......................................................... 194
5.3 THE RICHMOND SPECIALS ........................................................... 194
5.3.1 The story ................. , ..................................................................... 194
5.3.2 The evidence ................................................................................. 197
5.3.3 Points of theoretical interest ......................................................... 202
5.4 THE BEAUTY CONTEST ................................................................. 203
5.4.1 The story ....................................................................................... 203
5.4.2 The evidence ................................................................................. 211
IX
5.4.3 Points of theoretical interest ......................................................... 216
·5.5 TO CONSERVE AND PROTECT .................................................... 216
5.5.1 The story ....................................................................................... 216
5.5.2 A case of discretionary review ..................................................... 219
5.5.3 The evidence ................................................................................. 222
5.5.4 Points of theoretical interest ......................................................... 23 8
5.6 POWER TO THE PEOPLE ................................................................ 239
5.6.1 The story ....................................................................................... 239
5.6.2 The evidence ............... ;. ................................................................ 243
5.6.3 Points of theoretical interest ......................................................... 249
5.7 THE PHOENIX RISES AGAIN ......................................................... 253
5.7.1 The story ....................................................................................... 253
5.7.2 The evidence ................................................................................. 255
5.7.3 Points of theoretical interest ......................................................... 258
5.8 THE CASE OF ONE ........................................................................... 262
5.8.1 The story ....................................................................................... 262
5.8.2 The evidence ............................................................................ ;. ... 264
5.8.3 Points of theoretical interest ......................................................... 268
6. NEW CONCEPTS, FINDINGS & OPPORTUNITIES ............................ 271
6.1 CONCEPTS ......................................................................................... 271
x
6.1.1 A Metaphysic for environmental aesthetics ................................. 273
6.2 FINDINGS .......................................................................................... 280
6.2.1 Epistemology ................................................................................ 280
6.2.2 Interventions ................................................................................. 284
6.3 OPPORTUNITIES .............................................................................. 291
6.3.1 Geometric jurisdiction .................................................................. 292
6.3.2 Community and individual.. ......................................................... 292
6.3.3 Governmental Functions ............................................................... 295
6.3.4 Quality control .............................................................................. 299
7. EPILOG .................................................................................................... 303
8. REFERENCES ......................................................................................... 307
9. INDEX ...................................................................................................... 321
PREFACE
Nunquam ponenda est pluralitas sine necesitate.
(Explanations should not be multiplied beyond necessity)
- William of Ockham
Simplicity is bliss.
- traditional Shaker tenant
I believe in redundancy and in saying everything thrice.
-Me
There is no lack of conventional wisdom on the aesthetics of the built
environment, which is to say, on design review. What is lacking is a way to
distinguish the wheat from the chaff, the mountains from the molehills, the
true from the beautiful and the good. This book attempts to fill that lack.
This is not a coffee table book, although there are pictures and stories,
nor is it a treatise on probability theory and experimental design, although
there are statistics. It is an attempt to integrate contemporary scientific
protocols and findings into a way to understand and to implement design
review decisions.
The questions considered in this book were generated largely from
three decade's experience as an architect, a client, and as a member of a
regulatory institution. The proposed answers, however, were found in a
parallel career as a scientist. As it turned out, there is a considerable amount
of empirical evidence which is directly relevant to design review. The
literature currently contains over 275 relevant studies, covering over 12,000
stimuli and more than 41,000 respondents, on topics ranging from how
strongly preference was influenced by articulating the facade of a single
house to how much consensus there was over demographic groups with
19,000 people in 21 different countries. Also, as it turned out, there was a
substantial disconnect between the scientific findings and the actual practice
of design review. This book proposes to establish that connection.