Abstract
In the context of the immeasurable challenges associated with sustainability in its social, environmental and economic dimensions announced by the twenty-first century, this chapter advocates the need to renew and enrich collaborations between researchers in People-Environment (P-E) relations and designers. The argument developed is based on the authors’ combined 40 years of teaching and research in a school of architecture. The first section traces back the contribution of P-E knowledge in terms of the concepts and methods most commonly taught to designers during their academic training. The next section discusses the design process itself to show how and where P-E researchers can best make a contribution to the future of the built environment. The last section attempts to interpret why environmental psychologists and designers have moved away from each other, and to identify avenues by which it is possible to strengthen the links between design and research. Although this chapter considers the field of P-E research as a whole, where possible it highlights the particular contribution of environmental psychology.
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Notes
- 1.
- 2.
- 3.
The PhD in EBS at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee in the US is a good example of a program located in a Faculty of Architecture and Planning that was successful in attracting students trained in environmental psychology as well as in design (see Ahrentzen et al. 2012). For a relevant discussion in the context of the UK, see also Mikellides (2007).
- 4.
The short biographies of 35 alumni from the doctorate program in Environment-Behavior Studies at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, more specifically their teaching responsibilities, illustrate our point (Ahrentzen et al. 2012: 284–354).
- 5.
- 6.
Our listing of these concepts and their authorship is inevitably biased by our North American context of research and teaching. We wish to apologize to subsequent generations of researchers who have developed variations of these concepts and whose names are not listed. Finally, several P-E concepts originating from environmental anthropology, sociology, geography, and urban history, also very useful in teaching design, have been left aside to focus on the contribution of environmental psychology.
- 7.
Pol (2007) did a great service to our memory, by situating the origins of environmental psychology in the first decades of the twentieth century.
- 8.
Hesselgren developed his approach in a PhD thesis much earlier, but it was only made available in English in 1969, and in a shorter version in 1977.
- 9.
As a testimony to the interest in the concept, it is worth mentioning the new interdisciplinary journal, Home Cultures: The Journal of Architecture, Design and Domestic Space, created in 2003.
- 10.
Knowledge about the morphological properties of built environments became part of an advanced seminar on Morphology and Syntax of the Built Environments, and about design methods, part of another seminar on Urban Design: Concepts and Methods.
- 11.
For discussions on the nature of design, see The Reflective Practitioner by Schön (1982).
- 12.
Closer to P-E studies, see the discussion of this mode of reasoning by the Swedish architect Johansson (2010).
- 13.
- 14.
This expression is borrowed from Cross (2006).
- 15.
We believe his book would make a fine contribution to the training of environmental psychologists.
- 16.
The contribution of local stakeholders to collaborative research has been prompted by pressure from user groups, research on urban and environmental activism, peace and conflict research, international cooperation, and women’s studies (see Elzinga 2008).
- 17.
See also Innes and Booher (2010).
- 18.
The Center for Health Design focuses on EBD practices, their uses and application to each step of the healthcare design process. More than 600 studies with environmental-design relevance have been identified. See also Verderber (2005).
- 19.
For an alternative critical position on the definition of environment in environmental psychology, see Depeau and Ramadier (2014).
- 20.
In France, schools of architecture are not necessarily part of universities but attached to the Ministry of Culture. This disciplinary orientation makes it difficult for these professors to build bridges between design and other disciplines.
- 21.
It is especially challenging in North American schools of architecture where professors are almost systematically trained in design. This is the result of professional associations or accreditation boards that dictate the content of architecture education being centered on studios.
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Després, C., Piché, D. (2017). Linking People-Environment Research and Design. What Is Missing?. In: Fleury-Bahi, G., Pol, E., Navarro, O. (eds) Handbook of Environmental Psychology and Quality of Life Research. International Handbooks of Quality-of-Life. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-31416-7_4
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