Lecture 12 - Applying Environmental Psychology Principles to Urban Design
Listen now
Description
This lecture recaps several environmental psychology concepts and empirical research findings covered in prior lectures, and illustrates their usefulness as a basis for developing evidence-based guidelines for urban design. Several diverse and sometimes contrasting philosophical perspectives on urban design are discussed, including the perspectives of both anti-density (decentrist) designers (such as Frank Lloyd Wright and Ebenezer Howard) and pro-density (centrist) designers (such as Le Corbusier, Soleri, and Kenzo Tange). Jane Jacobs’ analysis of factors that contribute to highly vibrant, interesting, and safe urban neighborhoods is considered, along with studies of design features that enhance or diminish the human scale of buildings, neighborhoods, cities and towns. Closely related to these perspectives are Oldenburg’s typology of first, second, and third places and William Whyte’s research on design factors that contribute to the effectiveness and attractiveness of urban public spaces, also summarized in this lecture.
More Episodes
Viewing human environments as sociophysical systems means that the qualities of our environments and their impacts on behavior and health can be changed by altering their physical or social structures. Illustrative cases in which specific architectural or social features of behavior settings...
Published 06/07/12
Throughout this course, we have emphasized the importance of systematically evaluating the effects of sociophysical environments on people’s behavior and health; and the efficacy of social and environmental policies and programs in fostering higher levels of mental and physical well-being in a...
Published 06/07/12
People’s reliance on mobile communications and Internet technologies has increased dramatically since the 1990s. Today, there are nearly 5.5 billion cell phone users and two billion Internet users in the world. The explosive growth of digital information and communications have altered the...
Published 05/31/12