Personal Glossary

I am sure you are not at all interested in my Personal Glossary, as you all have your own, but I have posted a whole mess of terms under that tab, tho it is surely still a work in progress!


Check it out if you dare...
Shannon

Module 3 Abs-Part III

Gertner, Jon.  "Why Isn't the Brain Green."  The New York Times, November 11, 2001.

In this article by Mr. Jon Gertner, we begin to see how something that seems such an obvious concern, like the current state of our global environment, specifically climate change, can get pushed somewhat to the "back burner" amongst the many worries and many issues facing us today.  The "decisions" we make, both as groups and as individuals, have a profound effect on what kind of "support" we lend to a cause.  The heart of this piece lies in what Columbia University chair Elke Weber states which is that "climate change is anthropogenic....caused by human behavior."  Weber deduces that if it is "caused by human behavior, then the solution probably lies in changing human behavior," and this may start in how we process this problem.  

•  Risk processing is looked at:  Analytic system involves careful consideration of cost and benefits; often undervaluing future outcomes; less likely to change our lifestyle.  "Risk as a feeling" system urgent reaction to danger; usually based on personal experience therefore underestimating things by which we have no experience in.
• Weber surmises that we may have a "finite pool of worry," meaning we can only worry about too many problems at one time, or we react with "single action bias," meaning we stop at doing one thing to make us feel as if we have moved to solve the problem in some way.
• CRED (Center for Research on the Epidemiology of Disasters) studies presented in this article, state that our reaction to such problems vary based on whether or not we make our decisions as individuals or in a group, if we do both, and in what order we do this (e.g..do we prepare individually prior to group work?) 
• Collaborating more helps us to make decisions, but it is also shown that we tend to lose sight of the subject we are considering and the group effort becomes more about the method we are using to assess the problem.
• Frames are defined as a more "sophisticated nudge" whereby research takes advantage of our own cognitive biases in hopes it will resonate, whereas nudges are more gentle and more broad, moving us in a way so that we do not make mistakes but still arrive at the desired response.

The closed group studies done in Columbia University labs remind me of the Kwok and Rajkovich piece where they talk about static systems not being the most reliable model.  I was happy to see Gertner challenge that the studies at Columbia should be questioned based not just on the fact that they were "closed" but based on who did them, how they were financed, and who participated.

Framing and nudging are interesting tactics, as we need to recognize that we cannot talk to every person the same way.  We all come to the table with our own biases, our own upbringing and background, our own experiences, therefore, we do not hear things the same way or process them with the same mechanisms. 

On the other hand, by framing these problems and real life atrocities against our environment, are we somehow watering it down and in effect accepting that people only really care about what affects them directly the most?  Shouldn't the negative effect we are having on the environment speak volumes for itself?  In America, we tend to think about climate change as a distant problem and wait until we "feel" threatened to react.  It is only when it is in our own backyard that we are forced to face it, so why bother changing until that happens.  But if framing, or the alternative, achieve the same goal of awareness, responsibility, and motivation for change, does it really matter so long as the result is positive.

Heshong, Lisa.  "Delight" and "Affection" in Thermal Delight in Architecture, 18-49.  Cambridge:  MIT Press, 1979.

In these two chapters by Heshong, the author visits the idea of our thermal sense and the fact that thermal information "always reflects what is directly happening to the body," and our system is more apt to noticing change than it is aware of a steady state, yet these steady states are the norm in the built environment.

 The thermal sense has a profound effect on us physically, emotionally, and psychologically, and is the sense that we cannot escape the experience of, unlike other senses and forms the background for everything we experience.  It makes a place more or less desirable, and creates the opportunity for us to gather and share with each other.

Even with the evidence that people take delight in extremes, the opposite extreme is often closely available, therefore creating balance and a sort of steady state.  Co-existence of such extremes, Heshong suggests, also helps us to appreciate each more and satisfy our need for contrast in our environments.

The other senses are important to our experience of space and place as well (as evidenced by the pieces by Owen and Bull and Back) and are also pre-cursors to our thermal experience, often indicating what is to come and can make us more aware of thermal processes.  Other senses also can evoke a feeling of thermal change; for instance, the taste of mint cooling us.

Thermal sensory experiences, since always with us, create strong memory connections and symbolism (e.g..the hearth is the center of the home, or the Japanese bath as a gathering space) particularly with space and the built environment.

• Heshong states "each sense contributes to the fuller comprehension of other sensory information," but if this is true, what if we are without use of a particular sense?  Will the others compensate so we can still have the full experience?
• Heshong also presents that we are our own source of heat.  This was also brought up in the Kwok and Rajkovich piece.  In terms of sustainability, maybe it is possible to harness such thermal energy as a means to reduce our impact on the environment.
•  As designers and decorators, this is where we may be able to have our greatest impact as we look to create more sustainable spaces.  By understanding the sensory connections people have with their space and the ritualism they foster, particularly with the thermal sense, and people's need to have more control over their environment (as we have seen in the pieces by Chabon and Monaghan) we can look at patterns of activity, time of day, and the like, and create systems that are more efficient but still provide the desired feeling of space.

I really enjoyed this piece and am excited to further explore the thermal sense as more of a jumping off point for me to explore design approaches to sustainability. 

Alison G. Kwok and Nicholas B. Rajkovich.  "Addressing Climate Change in Comfort Standards." Building and Environment 45 (2010): 18-22.

In this article, the authors offer an alternative approach to the response to climate change that uses both mitigative (regarding efforts toward reducing the accumulation of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere) and adaptive (our adjusting to the impacts of a warming world through enhancing our ecosystem's resilience) measures which focus on our HVAC (Heating, Ventilation, and Air Conditioning) systems and our own human physiology, specifically, our human comfort.

• Kwok and Rajkovich define the two differing philosophies of thermal comfort as:  static model:  uses data from climate chamber studies to support its theory (says Fanger) and adaptive model:  uses data from the field studies of people in buildings (derived from work of Humphries and Nicol, Dear and Brager)

and surmise that people are indeed more tolerant of thermal changes than the static model suggests.  They, therefore, feel that we, as designers, need to look at the active capacity, which is our ability to adjust and cope with the system, and possibly have more control over it.  This ability to make adjustments is called adaptive opportunity.  This, in turn, could help us to help us to conserve energy and help buildings to adapt to climate change.

• The mesocomfort zone is a term coined by the authors to represent the area between  we are currently with the "optimum" conditions of the static zone and a place where adaptive measures are taken on the boundary where our bodies begin to respond involuntarily and physiologically to the thermal conditions.

Further research on this mesocomfort zone through study of people's expectations of their environment (and how much discomfort we are willing to accept), their memories of past experience in the space, and how much thermal control they are afforded, the authors feel, could change our energy usage in the long run.

The authors speak rather broadly of these interior environments and our opportunity for so-called control over them.  While it is public space, particularly work environments, that they seem to be focused on, variables, such as layouts of space (large open office pools made up of cubicles vs. individual enclosed office patterns) and demographic of employees (age, race, culture) are not mentioned.  These can have a major impact on the "control" over the thermal quality of the environment.  Is it really feasible to expect you will accommodate most, or all when it comes to human comfort.  What about new construction vs. existing building reuse and the limitations that this may pose? 

Even when one looks at anthropometrical data, as we have seen in Panero and Zelnik previously, there are ranges in what we design to be ergonomically effective.  You cannot make everyone happy, though flexibility is key.  Kwok and Rajkovich may indeed be onto something, but as they said, these conditions are not yet researched fully.

With this also needs to come a certain knowledge for the users who should be informed of the choice they are being granted, and better yet a range of adjustability, not the power to adjust the system to its extreme heat, extreme cold variables.  When is it better just to put on a sweater?

It would have been interesting, also, for the authors to raise the correlation between productivity in the workplace as both a social and economic by- product of this move to reduce our energy consumption.  There are studies that show that people who are physiologically comfortable will produce more, a benefit to the employee him/herself and to the company bottom line.

Finally, the transient spaces that were mentioned in the article made me think about extremes.  Often on a hot day, it is a huge "relief" to enter a fantastically cold lobby of a building, but can this really be healthy. to experience such a shift?  Might the authors be onto something when they bring up these spaces, and the possibility that we use them as more of a transition space so that we can ease into the thermal environment instead of being hit in the face with the severe change.

Another Cool Perception Thing....

Perception

Saw this on a friend's FB page and thought it was cool...

Disney Imagineering and the 5 Senses...

I do not know if anyone has been to Disney, but here are a few interesting websites regarding how they design for the senses...
I was glad when Jessica brought this up in class last week, as it was one of the things that I kept thinking of when I was reading these articles...
5 Senses at Disney
http://www.wdwinfo.com/columns/using-5-senses-at-walt-disney-world.cfm
PHILHARMAGIC Attraction at The Magic Kingdom
http://www.dadsguidetowdw.com/mickeys-philharmagic.html
Imagineering
http://www.oitc.com/Disney//Secrets/Imagineering.html

FIT Maps

Map #1 is my first and pretty well indicates where I spend most of my time in a given day at the old cinder block we know and love called FIT!

Map #2 is my second map, and reflects how I think of FIT as not just one block!  My campus includes the bodegas and shops across 7th Avenue, my Parking Garage on 28th, and the like...

Map #3 is my "Olde FIT," or my "First FIT."  It is how I best remember FIT as a student.  Man...if these walls could talk!  I still round corners expecting to see my old friends.  I still wish I was a resident at 23o West 27th Street, Coed Dorm!  A few things have changed, but so much looks the same.  That, in a way, makes me happy.

Map #4 is my attempt at thinking of FIT "thermally."  I often joke that the D-Building and Bridge are like San Francisco in that they have 7 micro-climates!

CHECK IT OUT!!!

Hi all...Please take a moment to check out my photos from OHNY 2011 under the "Photo Research Tab" here on the blog.  It was a lovely, eventful and very windy day in NYC!

Sorry about the small and ill-placed pics...I only had my cell phone camera (real one is broken and getting repaired) and the blog was giving me a headache when I was trying  to organize stuff!!

Thanks...Shannon :)

7 down...

We are just about halfway through...

Photos GCT Waiting Areas-Then & Now

They currently use Vanderbilt Hall,
GCT's old waiting area, for Exhibitions and Fairs.

Grand Central Terminal...  These are photos of the Old waiting area in the Station (called Vanderbilt Hall) and the Current waiting area inside of the Master's office.

Entrance to Station Master's Office

Current Waiting Area in Station Master's Office

This is the approach to Vanderbilt Hall
from the Grand Concourse

Module 3 ABs-Part II

Owen, David.  "The Dime Store Floor." New Yorker, January 25, 2010.

 There is a certain nostalgia that this article by Owen expresses when he tells the story of some childhood landmarks through smell memories.

Some memories come about when one smells the smell that reminds he/she of a place from memory and then proceeds to take you back to that place.  Others are found in that place still itself.  It is not just memory that it triggers, but emotions and anecdotes.  One smell can set off a series of emotions, thoughts and memories and can be quite transportive.

• In his reference to the Dime store of childhood, in addition to the smells associated with it, the author recalls the fact that this Store also represented the "first distance destination" he was allowed to venture upon via bike, and his past troubles with a bully enroute.
• The smell of paint in a museum reminded him of the overalls he wore and the embarrassing hole his mother fashioned for ease of bathroom use.
• Some smells fade, but are replaced by new.
• Some smells, though possibly unpleasant, can remind us of something good and happy.
• Owen discusses the passage of time when he remarks on the clean smell of present day runners versus how when he was young, the smell of hair products reminded him of sex, so where we are in our lives, and experience shapes our smell memories.

I am struck by how many unpleasant smells can still make me feel happy and fill me with wonderful memories, particularly those of cigar smoke and too much men's cologne.  Smell is such a string smell that it can make a not-so-good type of smell a happy memory.

I am left to wonder, is it the memory that is stronger, or is it the smell.  Can a smell be physically trapped within a space, and for how long?  Is it really there, or are we imagining it?  Is this type of memory through smell contingent on the other senses to exist?

Tonkiss, Fran.  "Aural Postcards:  Sound, Memory and the City," in The Auditory Culture Reader. Edited by Michael Bull and Les Back.  London:  Berg, 2003.

 Tonkiss looks at sound with the modern city as its backdrop and surmised that aural memories can be one of  the strongest amongst the senses.  Sound is what makes a city a city.

• It is interesting when Tonkiss says that we more or less have control over the "size" of our city space when we choose not to listen.  The space becomes "smaller, tamer, more predictable."  It almost becomes something other than a city.
• Tonkiss says we "speak" our city merely by how we are, live, and travel through it.  It is like another page of the cognitive map, as explained in the Lang piece on Cognitive Mapping, we are creating beyond the visuals.
• Aural Postcards is a term for what Walter Benjamin created for us in his writings where he referenced the sounds of his travels in his storytelling creating landmarks and memories of where he had been or what may no longer be there.  Benjamin believes that hearing may "be the sense of memory." 
• Metonym:  defined as aural fragments that speak of something larger.
• The SILENCE of a city is explored and explained as means of keeping time still or like uncovering a secret.  That moment of silence in a city is so rare that it becomes unsettling.

As a child who grew up in the suburbs, but who has spent much of her adult life in the city, the idea of sound as such a strong component of memory and sense of place is very clear.  But in my rural home, it is not quiet.  There is much chatter about, but it is different and not as loud as the city, but it is very constant.   The sound is birds, crickets, owls and people and cars are the backdrop of my day.  The deepest silence I have ever heard was in an ice storm where the quiet is equally eerie to what is described here when Tonkiss discusses a quiet city.  And the memories become just as distinct.

Module 3 ABs-Part I

Michael Bull and Les Back.  "Introduction:  Into Sound" to The Auditory Culture Reader. Edited by Michael Bull and Les Back.  London:  Berg, 2003.

In their introduction, Bull and Back point out that our experience of space and environment aurally has been affected, or overrun, by the visual.  Sight is thought to be the strongest and most dominant of the senses, so can we somehow democratize the senses so that each have equal power?  They are clear that they do not want to replace one dominant sense with another, but instead show what can happen when we "think with our ears."

• Bull and Black claim that "a visually based epistemology is both insufficient and often erroneous in its description, analysis and thus understanding of the social world."
• Deep Listening involves practices of dialogue and procedures for investigation, transposition, and interpretation.  We are made to re-think social experience, our relationship to community, our relationship to our power, and how we relate to others and our inhabitable spaces.
• Surveillance is not just visual, but aural as well.
• Our experience with noise is rooted in our culture and socioeconomic standing. For example, the more private space you have, or are used to, the more you complain about noise.
• Technology has granted us the means to create quiet and isolation from noise.  
• Sonic Bridge:  the way in which music links he insides and outsides of social experience into a seamless web.
• Sounds are what we want them to be based on our mood or place, or on who we are.

Can one really control the sounds around them?  Certainly they have deep meaning and memory as is expressed here, but what is one to do when sound is not available, such as with the hearing impaired?

Janet R. Carpman and Myron A. Grant.  "Wayfinding:  A Broad View,"  in Handbook of Environmental Psychology, edited by Robert B. Bechtel and Arzah Ts'erts'man, 427-440.  New York:  John Wiley and Sons, 2002.

Carpman and Grant begin this chapter by making a strong statement that wayfinding is an "issue in which environment and behavior are indisputably intertwined."  Wayfinding is defined as "how living organisms make their way from an origin to a destination and back."  Successful wayfinding systems look at behavior, operations and design in order to reduce or eliminate the disorientation one may suffer the consequences of if indeed this system is faulty.

• Disorientation is the opposite, so to speak, of wayfinding and the result of inefficient, insufficient, or non-existent wayfinding systems.  Poor wayfinding, or disorientation, results in stress, frustration, physical ailments (such as high blood pressure and exhaustion) and can potentially be dangerous and deadly in some instances.  It can also affect ones confidence in themselves as well as the confidence others feel in them (as being late because of poor signage can convey a poor impression of a person.)
• Wayfinding is important to all clientele in a public space including Users, Staff, and Administration, affecting efficiency and time management, morale, confidence, and even the bottom line.
• Differing evidence of and approaches to wayfinding in literature by Popular Press (articles, news commentary, cartoons), Design Professionals (architects, designers) and Environmental Psychologists are presented.  What we learn through specific focus on Behavior, Design and Operation is that study of human behavior in conjunction with responsive design can begin to create more efficient systems of wayfinding.

It is interesting that the main focus of the examples in this article are on Healthcare Environments.  This is probably because they have posed the greatest examples of inefficiency of wayfinding in the built environment and provide a good example of the hierarchy of user groups.  I would love to see us focus on more "everyday" spaces, such as transportation hubs, parks, and shopping markets, as these are much more frequented by larger cuts of the population.  Should wayfinding be considered in more residential environments, or is this necessary?  Does a system exist already? 

Places like New York City, for example, pose the most difficult circumstances, or opportunities, for more cohesive and inclusive systems given the diversity of its population alone.

As I designer, the opportunity to have a hand in a holistic approach to the total design of a space, including the wayfinding portion, is key, as the designer understands the project and the client on a much more specific and total level, therefore, they may be most attune to the needs of the population involved.  The suggestions made by the authors to vary and focus on more real life studies by environmental psychologists is welcome and important, and the collaboration of designers with these professionals is an invaluable relationship.  The case studies provided prove this to be true.

I would also suggest that more work is done with evaluation post-occupancy, and this applies to the designers as well.  What is working?  What is not?  These are questions we should be asking so that we can improve upon the existing and make greater strides in the future.

Lang, Jon.  "Cognitive Maps and Spatial Behavior" In Creating Architectural Theory:  The Role of Behavioral Sciences in Architectural Design, 135-144.  New York:  Van Nostrand Reinhold Company, 1987.

In this chapter, Lang presents the term Cognitive Mapping and defines it as the process whereby people acquire, code, store, recall and decode information about the relative location and attributes of the physical environment through direct experience, what he/she has heard of a place, and by imagined information.  Essentially, we are creating images which we use to navigate, remember, and denote spaces that we are experiencing or have experienced previously.  The quality of this mapping and its opportunities can directly affect our behavior in the given space and can contribute to our sense of control, comfort, and ease.

• Though citing the work of many, Lang comes around to declare that the Gestalt Laws of visual organization hold true in most instances as excellent predictors of parts of an environment that are important to people.
• Kaplan's (4) types of knowledge are provided by Cognitive Mapping:  recognition, prediction, evaluation, and action.  These help us to choose the appropriate behavior in the environment.
• Lynch, in his study of cities, sees images conjured of cities as being either about identity, structure, or meaning.  Highly "imageable cities" are seen as well structured, so he looks at what elements make a city imagable.  The main categories of these elements include paths, edges, districts, nodes and landmarks.  These have been thought to be key to the images people have of place and how we characterize our journey through space.
• Lang presents that buildings are made memorable through their form, visibility and significant attributes, and further explains the components that support these characteristics.
• People's different approaches to mapping are explored and it is thought that "cognitive maps are a function of an individual's experience," and such experience is affected by such things as gender, physical/mental capacity, socioeconomic status, age and culture, though not all of this evidence is fully studied

This text is written in the late 1980's, prior to the information revolution brought about by the internet and technology.  We are now faced with a glut of information 24/7 and are hooked up and plugged into any means possible to distract us (or one could say save us) from really experiencing the world around us and by extension, distracted from creation of maps.  Technology also, in many ways, relieves us from the necessity of knowing where we are or where we are going or who we can navigate through space.  Smart phones, GPS, Google map, do it for us.  Is this acceptable, or is it supposed to be hard, like it is in a labyrinth?  I wonder how such things would affect the studies of Lynch today.  We have become so dependent on technology that in a way, we have lost track of the landmarks so key to the journey.

Also, I cannot help but think about the call for proper signage, and how this is mentioned in the chapter as a key component to mapping, and results in more comfort, less frustration, and yet, I still find proper signage to be at a premium.