Design Implications of Spatial Cognition Research
A full day intensive organized by EDRAMOVE
ENVIRONMENTAL DESIGN RESEARCH ASSOCIATION (EDRA)
Saif Haq and Sue Torgrude, Co-Chairs
Location: EDRA Annual Conference, Palmer House Hotel, Chicago, IL
Time: Wednesday, May 25th 2011
Translating research into ‘specific applications’ or even professional ‘best practices’ is a difficult task. This becomes much more complicated when multiple disciplines are involved. Spatial cognition research is done in many disciplines with sophisticated methods, yet its application is arguably highly relevant for the professional aspect of architects, landscape architects, interior designers, urban designers and planners. In this regard, perhaps the most useful piece of information for the designer will be those aspects of the physical world that afford greater cognitive presence, and the activities that they are related to. Ironically, despite many and varied researches on spatial cognition, few authors have critically studied its applicability to architectural design. On the design side, professionals can benefit from both field research and published literature to guide solutions that support good person-environment fit. If designers are to accomplish this, access to research and understanding its implications are important to success. This intensive focuses on Spatial Cognition research, and translating that knowledge into architectural applications. The topics to be addressed are: How can the field of spatial cognition help us make (no little) plans? What aspects of practice can be influenced by this field of research, and in what stage of design? The intensive brings together an energetic group of people who will explore the intersection of spatial cognition research and its design applications. It will have a series of presentations followed by focused discussion.
Papers
1. Implications of Spatial Cognition Research for the Architectural Design Disciplines,
Deborah Zervas, WxYX Design, USA, dzervas.wxyz@sbcglobal.net
Anirban Adhya, Lawrence Technological University, USA,
3.
A spatial cognition framework for
understanding wayfinding in buildings
Laura Carlson, Notre Dame University, USA,
Christoph Hölscher, University of Freiburg, Germany,
Thomas Shipley, Temple University, Philadelphia, and
Ruth Conroy Dalton, Northumbria
University, United Kingdom, 4.
Not all users are the same: The role of
spatial skills in navigation in and memory for buildings
Thomas Shipley, Temple University, Philadelphia, tshipley@astro.temple.edu
Laura Carlson, Notre Dame University, USA, lcarlson@nd.edu
Christoph Hölscher, University of Freiburg, Germany, 5.
Where do people walk in hospitals and why
should architects care
Saif Haq, Texas Tech University, USA, saif.haq@ttu.edu
6.
Kindergarten
kids in motion: Rethinking inclusive classrooms for optimal learning
Coralee McLaren, University of Toronto, cora.mclaren@utoronto.ca
7.
Integrating
Cognitive, Artificial Intelligence, and Architectural Approaches to Spatial
Mapping
Jonathan Ericson, Brown University, USA,
8.
Improving airport signage: Eye-tracking for
an evidence-based design approach.
Simon Büchner - University of Freiburg, Germany, Christoph Hölscher, University of Freiburg, Germany, Gregor Kallert- Fraport AG, Frankfurt, Germany, Volker Döring, Frankfurt International Airport, Germany, V.Doering@Fraport.de
Jan Wiener - University of Bournemouth, United Kingdom, 1.
Implications of Spatial
Cognition Research for the Architectural Design Disciplines.
While environmental psychology studies that explain how
people experience and know spatial environments are familiar to designers,
recent findings of cognitive science have yet to inform three-dimensional
design practice. Results from spatial
cognition research offer many insights that can be used to develop design
rationales for the architectural disciplines. A review of research in
navigation, visual intelligence, and spatial knowledge acquisition and storage
yields mechanisms and processes that can be co-opted and facilitated by
designers to accommodate how people learn, remember and use space. Built examples are found in architectural and
landscape design. Spatial cognition research also has implications for the
representation of architectural designs. Spatial cognition findings suggest that classical design
elements and ordering principles such as axis, facade, focal point, and
hierarchy assist users in spatial knowledge acquisition, by mapping onto mental
architecture. These strategies resonate with spatial knowledge types (landmark,
route, configurational), mental representational
structure (hierarchical), and navigational processes (momentary, egocentric),
thereby affording legibility and coherence. Classical and Lynch-ian rubrics therefore have continuing utility in
contemporary landscape and building design.
Cognitive science research also clarifies environmental
psychology findings that people are motivated by mystery and complexity in
landscape experience. Examining these
preferences with reference to spatial knowledge and its representation reveals
resonances that present additional design opportunities. Cognitive map attributes (distorted,
schematic, net-worked, multi-media, hierarchical) and
navigation processes (constructive, momentary) suggest design approaches that
feature patterned, multivalent, layered and/or collaged spaces. Such complex spaces are also supported by
visual intelligence research, which argues for improved visual processing
ability of the general public based on the sophisticated techniques of
contemporary media. Spatial cognition research can also inform design
representation. Collage is one tested
medium that maps onto cognitive structures and processes. Pilot experiments
demonstrate heightened non-expert comprehension of select aspects of landscape
design when represented by collage compared to architectural drawing. A case study of four college towns in small metropolitan
regions in the United States is discussed. Specifically, organization of the
campus and the downtown is examined in each city. The urban spatial analysis
highlights a dynamic but distinct campus-downtown relationship pattern across
the four urban systems. The physical relationship varies from being overlapping
(in Ann Arbor, MI), close (in Athens, GA), separate (in Tallahassee, FL), to
distant (in Lansing, MI), with varying boundary condition between them. Nature
of this boundary between the campus and the downtown is investigated as a
critical factor in perception of publicness and in
design of public places. Relationship between the physical environment and its
perception is examined through a comparative analysis of 25 settings in each
city through (1) multiple sorting task interview outcomes (meanings of publicness) for the places and (2) syntactic properties of
the settings (spatial configuration). The comparative analysis reveals that the spatial
configuration of the public realm is highly formative
of the perceived qualities of publicness. When
considering profiles of publicness in places (highly
public to highly private); spatial properties and design may play a stronger
role. For example, integrated nature of the campus-downtown configuration (high
connectivity, high accessibility, high
intelligibility) is identified with interspersed use of university and city
spaces, leading to perception of higher degree of publicness
in different urban settings. Thus for design purposes, overlap of use (or mixed
use) becomes a key factor in enhanced perception of publicness
and greater extent of public activities in the urban environment. A close
campus-downtown interaction creates places where multiple features of interest
converge. This premise can be applied in designing these settings as important
destinations for different groups of people, emphasizing overlapping use
pattern, a functional approach to publicness, and the
“role of destination” in popularity and use of places. The study can also be used to develop a design framework
through evaluation of spatial organization and design of the campus-downtown
relationship. The evaluative model suggests the following factors critical to
urban design of college towns or similar small town: A strong integration
between the downtown and campuses (college campus, government enclave, office
park, and other niche market facilities) is paramount. This can be achieved
through presence of the campus and overlapping functions (mixed use) in the
central core. An integrated spatial configuration also reinforces the notion of
mixed-use development propagated by many traditional and neo-traditional
developments such as that of the New Urbanism. Emphasis on people and their functional needs is critical.
The study reveals that people and their activities are the two most important
aspects of design. Therefore, to ensure successful public places, the design
should be relevant to everyday experience and user activities. People often get lost in buildings, including but not
limited to libraries, hospitals, conference centers, and shopping malls. In
this talk we present an integrative framework derived from established research
in spatial cognition that encompasses and inter-relates three factors that
contribute to wayfinding difficulties.
First, previous research using space syntax analysis has shown that the
spatial structure of the building significantly impacts wayfinding, with
correlations between intelligibility scores and ease of wayfinding. Second, there are systematic distortions in
the cognitive maps that users construct for explored environments, with some
elements preferentially encoded (such as objects at decision points) and some
locations regularized (such as representing a hallway with two segments that
involve a small change in direction as being straight). Third, there are distinct strategies that
users adopt when navigating in a building, such as learning the route from an
egocentric or allocentric perspective. These
strategies are also likely impacted by individual characteristics of the users,
such as their spatial ability and working memory capacity. A key feature of our integrative framework is
to focus on the intersections of these factors. These include the correspondence between the
building and the cognitive map, the completeness
of the cognitive map as a function of the strategies and individual abilities
of the users, and the compatibility between the building and the strategies and
individual abilities of the users. In
turn these all combine to predict an index of complexity that predicts
wayfinding performance in a given building. Imagine arriving at a medical building for an appointment
with a new doctor. You have never been in this building before, and when you
arrive at the front door, you consult the directory to determine the office
number. With this in hand, you now need
to find your way to the office, making numerous decisions such as when to turn
and when to continue down a given corridor. At some point, you arrive at the
doctor’s office for your appointment.
Our interest in the current study is how you find your way back to your
car when your appointment is over. You
likely encoded some information into the cognitive map that you constructed
during your initial path. We are interested
in the nature of this information, focusing on the encoding of objects and
their locations. Most past research has
considered the objects and their locations as single units. In the current study, we question the idea
that objects and locations are indeed represented as single units, using tasks
that differentially assess these components, and assess the degree of
consistency, both within and across participants. An important aspect of this work is our
examination of how the representation of object and location
information are influenced by individual characteristics of the users,
including spatial ability, working memory, gender, and experience. Distribution of walking visitors inside complex buildings is
an issue that is infrequently considered important during architectural
schematic or design phases. When it is, the discussion usually focuses on
wayfinding, and dominant topics become signage, interior surface design/architectural
differentiation, or visual access. We now know that the ‘layout’ of facilities,
something that is designed very early in the design process, is a very
important aspect, and configuration, the structural hierarchy of individual
spaces in a layout that arises due to the topological relationship of each
space to all others, affords varying opportunities of visitor explorations and
search patterns. Since the topological aspects of configuration can be modeled
from plan drawings with Space Syntax, perhaps as early as in the schematic
design phase, it can become a powerful tool for designing ‘wayfinding-friendly’
buildings. This presentation includes a brief literature review and
demonstrates a hypothetical design exercise for a hospital extension project
using Space Syntax technology. Moving about and playing freely in indoor and outdoor
environments is important for children’s physical, psychological, and social
well being. Research from the field of cognitive neuroscience indicates that
movement also enhances children's ability to learn and communicate. Very little
is known about how children use their bodies’ capacities for movement and how
they interact with physical features of their everyday environments. This
knowledge gap is particularly problematic for children with physical
disabilities because gross and fine motor impairments restrict their ability to
move. Exclusionary attitudes, safety concerns and environmental barriers also
curtail their ability to explore their surroundings. In this paper, I will
present an exploratory study that describes how disabled and non-disabled
children move, gesture and interact naturally in an integrated kindergarten
classroom. Children’s bodies are conceptualized according to Gilles Deleuze’s philosophical premise that any body’s potential
is unknown until it is allowed to demonstrate ‘what it can do’, and the
integrated classroom is conceptualized according to James Gibson’s theory of
affordances, which posits that environments are inherently discoverable and
that people and their environments are inextricably interrelated. Child-and
disability-friendly ethnographic methods used to study a class of 8 disabled
and 12 non-disabled children will also be presented. Data gathered through
these innovative methods will be used to i)
describe classroom objects, features and pathways according to the functions
they afford children, and ii) analyze
children’s movement using Laban’s Movement Analysis techniques. To conclude, I
will draw on preliminary findings from this study to increase understandings
about environmental features that enhance or inhibit children’s movement
capacities. This knowledge could also be used to optimize environments that
support children’s right to move freely within them, interventions to develop
their social, cognitive and physical capacities, and educational and
rehabilitation strategies that encourage children to explore, navigate and
shape their everyday environments. Cognitive scientists and roboticists
have proposed and in some cases experimentally tested Euclidean and topological
representations of space as models of human spatial knowledge. Independent of these efforts, architectural
theorists have derived formal, quantitative descriptions of built
environments. While some researchers have
correlated these spatial representations and environmental descriptors with
measures of human spatial knowledge and path selection behavior (see Franz, Mallot, & Wiener, 2005, for a review), systematic
experimental investigation has been hindered by a lack of communication among
these fields. In addition, many of the
cognitively-inspired models of human spatial knowledge and navigation make
problematic assumptions. In general,
these assumptions reveal a need for experiments aimed at elucidating the role
of environmental geometry in constraining human exploration behavior, route planning,
and spatial knowledge. This paper weighs
the relative merits of various spatial representations that have been proposed
in the theoretical and experimental literature currently available in the
fields of cognitive science, artificial intelligence (robotics), and
architecture. A critical and
interdisciplinary evaluation of these literatures suggests an experimental
paradigm for investigating the relationship between environmental geometry and
the geometry of human spatial knowledge. When creating signage for wayfinding a high number of
constraints have to be taken into account in order to come up with a viable
solution. It requires, for example, decisions about the sign’s content, its
arrangement and the placement of the signs. The current project was carried out
by a team of visual designers and spatial cognition researchers at Frankfurt
International Airport in cooperation with Fraport AG. At the location being investigated a large amount of people
had to be directed from multiple inbound corridors to different destinations
(gates, passport control, security checks, exit etc.). Depending on the local
structure a good solution was sometimes straightforward; sometimes it was
difficult to come up with. At locations with a more complex structure different design
solutions seemed to be reasonable. For these situations different solutions,
which were created by the designers, were evaluated in an eye-tracking study.
Participants were seated in front of a computer and presented with photographs
of a situation and were then asked to make a navigation decision through the
keyboard. The photographs either showed the status quo or different design
alternatives of signage which were photo-shopped into the scenes. While
participants were looking at the scenes their eye-movements were recorded.
After participants had selected a path they were asked to indicate how confident
they were about their decision. Eye-movements, indicating the allocation of attention,
decision errors, response times, and confidence ratings were analyzed in order
to decide which design solution suited best. The eye-tracking data showed how quick
and how long the relevant information on the sign was looked at. Error rates
and response times showed how good and how fast
participants made their decision while the confidence ratings showed how
confident people felt after having made the decision. The results allowed us to make an educated decision for a
particular design which then was installed.Deborah Zervas
2.
Evaluating the campus-downtown relationship:
spatial configuration of four college towns in small U.S. metropolitan regions
and implications on design of public places
Anirban Adhya
3.
A spatial cognition framework for understanding
wayfinding in buildings
Laura Carlson, Christoph Hölscher, Thomas Shipley, and Ruth Conroy Dalton
4.
Not all users are the same: The role of spatial
skills in navigation in and memory for buildings
Thomas Shipley, Laura Carlson and Christoph Hölscher
5.
Where do people walk in hospitals and why should
architects care?
Saif Haq
6.
Kindergarten kids in motion: Rethinking
inclusive classrooms for optimal learning
Coralee McLaren
7.
Integrating Cognitive, Artificial Intelligence,
and Architectural Approaches to Spatial Mapping
Jonathan Ericson
8.
Improving airport signage:
Eye-tracking for an evidence-based design approach.
Büchner, S.J., Hölscher, C., Kallert,
G., Döring, V., & Wiener, J.