Workshop # 1 in EDRA 31: San Francisco, California

May 10-14, 2000

MOVEMENT IN MEDIUM SIZED DESIGNED ENVIRONMENTS

The first workshop of EDRAMOVE aimed to make connections between theory and design on the issue of movement through medium-sized, designed environments. The term ‘movement’ refers to those of human walkers as they navigate, distribute, wayfind or browse.

The workshop had two major activities: presentation of current work and discussion. The first covered recent attempts to apply theories of movement to medium-sized environments such as hospitals, museums, parks, campus pathways etc. These included studies using space syntax theory, environmental preference theory, theories of arousal and cognition etc. The presentations provided common examples for a discussion between participants and attendees of diverse backgrounds. The discussion focused on how effectively design and theories related to movement merged.

Given this framework, participants and attendees left the workshop with new ideas on theories that are applicable to particular problems of human movement.

SESSION # 1

Presentations (in no particular order):

Joseph Reser and Joan Bentrupperba mer (Moving through, making sense, and encountering the Wet Tropics World Heritage Area)

Stephen Boelter and Susan Torgrude (Integrating Key Variables to Enhance Wayfinding in a Children’s Hospital: Perspectives from Research and Experience in Professional Practice)

Kunio Funahashi (Pedestran path choice in familiar environment)

Saif-ul Haq (The applicability of Space Syntax as a methodology in research on wayfinding)

Marcie Benne (Museums and the visual-spatial environment)

David Stea

SESSION # 2

(in no particular order):

Ann Devlin (Neuroscience, gender differences and navigational cues)

Molly McCormick (Methodology)

Craig Zimring (Schema and Schemata)

Charles Gordon (Pedestrian Practices: Built form and the non-human teacher))

Jan Teklenberg

MOVING THROUGH, MAKING SENSE, AND ENCOUNTERING THE WET TROPICS WORLD HERITAGE AREA

Joseph P. Reser

The University of Durham

Joan M. Bentrupperbaumer

James Cook University

The research described relates to visitation and use in Wet Tropics World Heritage Area visitation sites in Far North Queensland, Australia. The study examined the nature and quality of visitor transactions and encounters in these natural but designed and altered settings, and the immediate and longer term consequences of such visitation and use, both for visitors and settings. The research was informed and guided by environmental psychology and cross-cultural and cross-disciplinary perspectives, as well as a natural resource management and leisure studies orientation and agenda. The design of such ‘natural’ settings and the effective design of the experiences of visitors to these sites draws upon an eclectic conventional wisdom and disparate research findings, with roots in leisure studies, tourism research, recreational forestry, protected area management, and natural and cultural heritage interpretation and management, and, to a lesser extent, with psychological literatures relating to environmental perception, preference, cognition and motivation. The methodological and theoretical underpinnings of the current research were essentially a transactional, multi-method, evaluation research approach, situated in environmental psychology, informed by an individual level, information-processing and feedback model of environmental transactions and encounters. Additional and important theoretical models included those of perceived and experienced control, environmental perception, cognition and aesthetic response, and models relating to environmental awareness, education, interpretation, involvement, motivation, and enjoyment, as well as place meaning, legibility, and communication. Central to this research has been a transactional and reciprocal understanding of ‘environmental impact’, with equal weight and importance given to psychological impact and experience (psychosocial impact) as distinct from but interdependent with conventional constructs of ‘social impacts’ and ‘biophysical’ impacts. As well the research has been informed by the very different way in which indigenous Australians have framed and discussed the nature and consequences of moving through and transacting with the landscape and significant places. Outcomes relate to more informed and effective people management and ‘presentation’ and ‘protection’ strategies in national parks and World Heritage Areas, and more adequate methodological, conceptual and theoretical frameworks for understanding, exploring, measuring and monitoring the nature and quality of human transactions in natural settings and associated ‘environmental impacts’. From a design perspective, the research has underscored the importance of thinking through and addressing the design of experiences and transactions in natural settings.

INTEGRATING KEY VARIABLES TO ENHANCE WAYFINDING IN A CHILDREN’S HOSPITAL: PERSPECTIVES FROM RESEARCH AND EXPERIENCE IN PROFESSIONAL PRACTICE

Stephen Boelter, M.S. and Susan Torgrude, M.S.

BOELTER DESIGN GROUP, Inc.

Madison, WI

This presentation uses a design project to illustrate how three key variables were identified and addressed in design solutions during development of a comprehensive wayfinding system for a children’s hospital. Part of a large health-care center, the facility consists of two high-rise buildings and a multi-level parking structure. Multiple research methods were used to investigate wayfinding issues defined by staff, patients, and researchers. Findings revealed wayfinding difficulties with locating the appropriate building, inconsistent terminology, and disagreement about which was the most-used entrance. In addition, findings identified policies and procedures which added confusion to the wayfinding process. The relationship between multiple theories, project research, and design interventions offer implications for future research.

PEDESTRIAN PATH CHOICE IN FAMILIAR ENVIRONMENT

Kunio Funahashi,

Osaka University

Pedestrians who are totally familiar with the physical environment exhibit the following tendencies:

a. They select the shortest way and use any shortcuts available, consistent with the basic nature of walking as rational behavior.

b. In the case of multiple equidistance paths, or, in other words, when there is no perceived difference in distance between the alternatives, pedestrians tend to make the following decisions:

1. choice guided by macroscopic view

2. choice guided by dominant spatial axis, main streets or other spaces with symbolic significance

3. choice guided by stairwells or other objects performing a signing function

4. in a grid pattern street network, pedestrians choose either a zigzag or boundary route, depending on the circumstances.

c. Notwithstanding the tendency mentioned in (a) above, when available paths are not precisely identical but close in length (within 10% to 20%), pedestrians sometimes choose the longer of the two paths (an indirect route). Various surveys have reported the incidence of indirect route selection out of all walking trips to be 66%, 40% - 75%, and more than 50%. The factors most likely to impel a pedestrian to choose a less direct route are availability of a broad shopping street with good sidewalks and the presence of something enticing along the way.

d. A tentative model of pedestrian path choice will be shown as figure 4

e. These path selection behavior tendencies can be used to forecast pedestrian movement within a given traffic environment, or, starting the matter differently, to study the traffic movement in relation to the traffic flow. Thus, these tendencies can be used to design walking spaces that will guide and control pedestrian traffic.

THE APPLICABILITY OF SPACE SYNTAX AS A METHODOLOGY IN RESEARCH ON WAYFINDING

Saif Haq

Georgia Institute of Technology

Whereas research in architecture has traditionally dealt with discrete properties of the environment, there is now a growing awareness about relational properties, i.e. those that are derived from studying the relationships between spaces. This becomes important when we realize that humans are mobile organisms and spatial understanding is a function of movement. Many researchers have commented on the dearth of appropriate techniques that deal with relational properties and some have tried to identify them. In this regard, Space Syntax seems to be an applicable tool.

This paper suggests some relational properties and methods of quantification. It builds on Space Syntax units and ends by presenting the results of an ongoing experiment in three large urban hospitals that uses non-discrete relational variables as predictors of wayfinding behavior.

MUSEUMS AND THE VISUAL-SPATIAL ENVIRONMENT

Marcie Benne

Georgia Institute of Technology

Predicting visitor distribution is an on-going interest of museum. The visual-spatial design of the environment is one of the factors assumed to influence visitor distribution. For example, many investigators predict that “complexity” will influence visitor distribution (“mystery” or “visual command” are other examples). This presentation will review several attempts to measure complexity and relate it to visitor distribution, including data collected by the presenter.

The review of these studies reveals that the application of visual-spatial concepts in the museum environment has been attempted through many different methods. As a result, the evidence for the predictive power of concepts such as complexity is mixed. How should this be interpreted? Is it a problem of how these independent variables are measured? Is it a problem of the dependent variables used? Or is it because these concepts are not theoretically meaningful in this environment? Admittedly, most of these visitor studies do not couch their use of complexity in a theory, although several theories from different approaches could have been referenced. For example, the ecological approach has included complexity (Mark, 1998), the mediational approach has included complexity (Berlyne, 1960) and a “hybrid” approach has included complexity (Kaplan and Kaplan, 1982). One conclusion drawn by this presenter is that visual-spatial concepts such as complexity do influence distribution, but it is necessary to combine theoretical and methodological approaches in order to study visual-spatial concepts in the museum environment. This conclusion is in opposition to some investigators who have explicitly said it is counter-productive to combine theoretical approaches (Heft, 1997).