Spatial Cognition in Architectural Design Anticipating User Behavior, Layout Legibility, and Route Instructions in the Planning Process

Spatial cognition and wayfinding research as well as design cognition are well established as fields of research. It is nevertheless largely unknown how architects reason when they try to integrate wayfinding-friendly factors into their designs. In two semi-structured interviews we asked architects to give critique on real-world example cases as well as to solve predefined design tasks. The qualitative analysis focuses on perspective taking and other skills related to the anticipation of users in the building. The main finding is that the anticipation of visual access for single locations is done well but that multiple locations are seldom considered. A consequence would be that anticipation of users’ perspective is restricted to episode-like cognitive walk-throughs.

[1]  Russell A. Kirsch,et al.  Using Computers to Describe Style , 1998 .

[2]  Ghang Lee,et al.  Avoiding design errors: a case study of redesigning an architectural studio , 2003 .

[3]  Karen M. Bursic,et al.  Verbal Protocol Analysis as a Method to Document Engineering Student Design Processes , 1998 .

[4]  Kathy Pezdek,et al.  Cognitive Maps and Urban Form , 1982 .

[5]  Julienne Hanson,et al.  Decoding homes and houses , 1998 .

[6]  John S. Gero,et al.  Understanding conceptual electronic design using protocol analysis , 1998 .

[7]  Ömer Akin,et al.  Design protocol data and novel design decisions , 1995 .

[8]  Mary Lou Maher,et al.  IMPACT OF COLLABORATIVE VIRTUAL ENVIRONMENTS ON DESIGN BEHAVIOUR , 2006 .

[9]  John S. Gero,et al.  An approach to the analysis of design protocols , 1998 .

[10]  Romedi Passini,et al.  Wayfinding: People, Signs, and Architecture , 1992 .

[11]  V. Goel.  Sketches of thought , 1995 .

[12]  K. Lynch,et al.  The City as Environment , 1965 .

[13]  Ellen Yi-Luen Do,et al.  Intentions in and relations among design drawings , 2000 .

[14]  M. L. Maher,et al.  Studying design behaviour in collaborative virtual environments , 2006 .

[15]  Alan Penn,et al.  Natural Movement: Or, Configuration and Attraction in Urban Pedestrian Movement , 1993 .

[16]  R. Millward,et al.  The Experience of Landscape , 1988 .

[17]  Rudy Darken,et al.  Wayfinding strategies and behaviors in large virtual worlds , 1996, CHI.

[18]  William J. Cook,et al.  Human Orientation in Transportation Terminals , 1980 .

[19]  Alasdair Turner,et al.  Analysing the Visual Dynamics of Spatial Morphology , 2003 .

[20]  Ruth Alison Conroy-Dalton,et al.  Spatial navigation in immersive virtual environments , 2001 .

[21]  Michael Batty,et al.  Exploring Isovist Fields: Space and Shape in Architectural and Urban Morphology , 2001 .

[22]  Thomas Kvan,et al.  Tools and Channels of Communication: Dealing with the Effects of Computer Mediation on Design Communication , 1998, Int. J. Virtual Real..

[23]  Thomas A. Furness,et al.  Spatial perception in virtual environments: Evaluating an architectural application , 1993, Proceedings of IEEE Virtual Reality Annual International Symposium.

[24]  R. Hetherington.  The Perception of the Visual World , 1952 .

[25]  Ruth Dalton,et al.  OmniVista:an application for isovist field and path analysis , 2001 .

[26]  Jan Malte Wiener,et al.  Isovists as a Means to Predict Spatial Experience and Behavior , 2004, Spatial Cognition.

[27]  M. Benedikt,et al.  To Take Hold of Space: Isovists and Isovist Fields , 1979 .

[28]  G. Allen,et al.  The role of perceptual context in structuring spatial knowledge. , 1978 .

[29]  L. F. Gül,et al.  The Impact of Virtual Environments on Design Collaboration , 2006 .

[30]  Mary Lou Maher,et al.  A Grammar for the Dynamic Design of Virtual Architecture Using Rational Agents , 2003, CAADRIA proceedings.

[31]  R Conroy-Dalton.  The secret is to follow your nose: route path selection and angularity , 2001 .

[32]  C. Zimring,et al.  Just Down The Road A Piece , 2003 .

[33]  R Conroy-Dalton,et al.  The syntactical image of the city:a reciprocal definition of spatial elements and spatial syntaxes , 2003 .

[34]  George Stiny,et al.  Shape Grammars and the Generative Specification of Painting and Sculpture , 1971, IFIP Congress.

[35]  Vinod Goel,et al.  The Structure of Design Problem Spaces , 1992, Cogn. Sci..

[36]  Alasdair Turner,et al.  Making isovists syntactic: isovist integration analysis , 1999 .

[37]  William J. Mitchell,et al.  The Palladian Grammar , 1978 .

[38]  D. Appleyard.  Styles and Methods of Structuring a City , 1970 .

[39]  J. Gibson.  The Ecological Approach to Visual Perception , 1979 .

[40]  Christoph Hölscher,et al.  MULTI-LEVEL COMPLEXITY IN TERMS OF SPACE SYNTAX: a case study , 2007 .

[41]  J. Peponis,et al.  Finding the Building in Wayfinding , 1990 .

[42]  Norman G. Vinson,et al.  Design guidelines for landmarks to support navigation in virtual environments , 1999, CHI '99.

[43]  Sara Hennessy,et al.  The Potential for Collaborative Problem Solving in Design and Technology , 1999 .

[44]  Mary Lou Maher,et al.  Dynamic Designs of 3D Virtual Worlds Using Generative Design Agents , 2005 .

[45]  Kai Hakkarainen,et al.  Collaborative Designing in a Networked Learning Environment , 2000 .

[46]  Ö. Akin.  Psychology of architectural design , 1986 .

[47]  A. Turner,et al.  From Isovists to Visibility Graphs: A Methodology for the Analysis of Architectural Space , 2001 .