Environmental Architecture: The Field Of Environmental Psychology And Architecture

In architecture, spaces are more or less defined by boundaries. A psychological phenomena directed to and brought out by the architectural environment can be described as experiential qualities. These affective qualities have the potential to bring out emotional response to architectural environments, which can be either conscious judgment or a sub-conscious mood changing effect.

Psychology and architecture is a broad and diverse subject of study. On exploring the field of environmental psychology, we understand the physical and behavioural effects between people and their physical environments become quite complex when acoustical characteristics (noise), elements of light and colour (warm or cool, shade or tint), texture (materials and surface) are taken into account. Environmental psychology may be broken into several elements:

1.) Awareness or Understanding how people notice their environment

2.) Perception or how people cognitively map what they experience based on what they know or what they think of the environment.

Perceiving buildings is a complex process since it not only involves sensations such as seeing but also perception. Experience with other past buildings is also important. We store and recall our sensory experiences when it comes to architecture and buildings through evaluation, decision making, emotions and affect, as well as interaction and movement.

In Paimio Sanatorium, designed by Alvar Aalto, he laid out the patient’s wing in such a way that it was maximally exposed to sunlight and good views. Light exposure has been shown to decrease an average stay at a mental asylum from 13 to 4 days compared to patients in a dimly lit room. This shows how important experience of a space is. Given these factors...

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...son experiences the need of socialising and also personal spaces where the person has no disturbance and can concentrate. Our built environment can be structured to encourage or discourage social interactions. For example, Hallways generally tend to discourage social interaction while circular rooms tend to encourage social interaction. Our built environment can also affect social ordering by interacting with our perceptions of personal space an territory.

Architecture a symbolic and intentional endeavour seems to reflect the psychology of its designers regardless of time, culture and perhaps even species. Space, form, and light are elements that are often incorporated either purposefully of unconsciously for aesthetic or practical reasons but more pointedly give creatures meaning, purpose and stability amidst an ever changing physical universe of seeming chaos.