K.A.B.
Your question about how people think buildings ought to "look" indicates
to me you are primarily interested in architectural styles or forms as
opposed to the
more functional aspects of buildings. I am not aware of any published
surveys on what styles people prefer. I think it would be a difficult to
assess due to personal tastes that vary with geography and time
periods. Your best best may be to survey current residents in your own
neighborhood if that is your primary goal.
But, if you are also interested in performance issues of buildings
which are often related to form, there is a substantial body of work in
this area and I can suggest a few to get you started.
Post Occupany Evaluations (POEs) were developed in the 1960s to test the
success or failure of a building's performance for its users. Building
performance can include technical, functional, and behavioral
elements (symbolism, social interaction, etc). A useful text would
be Wolfgang Preiser's 1988 book entitled POE. According to Preiser, very
little has been done to systematically explore the performance of a large
sampling of buildings. Therefore, it is neccessary to examine a variety
of studies & sources. Preiser's book documents several case studies
itself.
POE grew out of studies on the relationship of building design & human
behavior which led to the formation of environmental design research.
Architects such as Chris Alexander and Lucien Kroll are representatives of
this approach. A closer look at their work in which the users were
involved in the design process may be useful. C. Thomas Mitchell's 1993
book, Redefining designing : from form to experience discusses some of
these projects.
It is also difficult to find studies on the expectations of a broad user
group such as "the general public". You are more likely to find case
studies of user groups in specific building types such as museums.
Helen Searing's 1982 book entitled New American art museums and
Douglas Davis' 1990 book, The museum transformed : design and
culture in the post-Pompidou age are both good examples.
I hope some of this information has been helpful. I would need to know
more about how you plan to use the information to be able to suggest more
relevant materials.
Feel free to contact me off the list if you have further questions.
Trish Rose
On Mon, 18 Feb 2002, K.A.B. wrote:
> Does anyone know of a published survey or perhaps a thesis on
> the topic of the general public's likes, dislikes and expectations
> about architecture? I'm specifically trying to find an illustrated
> survey about how people think public buildings ought to look.
>
> I am aware of critics and theorists such as Robert Venturi
> (_Learning from Las Vegas_), Christopher Alexander
> (_A Pattern Language_ ; _The Timeless Way of Building_),
> and Henry Hope Reed (_The Golden City_), who have their
> own ideas about what constitutes appropriate architecture,
> but I'd like to know if their theories have ever been
> borne out by science or statistics.
>
> I and other members of my local neighborhood council would
> be grateful for assistance in this quest.
>
> --K.A. Bayruns
> Seattle, WA
>
> __________________________________________________________________
> Mail submissions to [log in to unmask]
> Administrative matters (file requests, subscription requests, etc)
> to [log in to unmask]
> ARLIS-L Archives and subscription maintenance:
> http://lsv.uky.edu/archives/arlis-l.html
> Questions may be addressed to list owner (Kerri Scannell) at: [log in to unmask]
>
>
>
Trish Rose
MA Candidate in Art History
MLS Candidate in Library Science
Indiana University, Bloomington, IN
__________________________________________________________________
Mail submissions to [log in to unmask]
Administrative matters (file requests, subscription requests, etc)
to [log in to unmask]
ARLIS-L Archives and subscription maintenance:
http://lsv.uky.edu/archives/arlis-l.html
Questions may be addressed to list owner (Kerri Scannell) at: [log in to unmask]
|