Architecture's Behavioral Determinism

A few days ago, Jocelyn Robinson asked "Does Architecture have the power to mold our Behavior?" (http://lnkd.in/bZbsfDb) in response to an article on the blogsite The Conversation by Jan Golembiewski, a researcher in Environmental Determinants of Mental Health at University of Sydney and affiliated by Medical Architecture (http://www.medical-architecture.com/), a firm specialising in architectural psychology. 

 

Below is my response: 

 

To answer the original question, yes, Architecture does have the Power to Mold our Behavior, good or bad, intended or not.  The built environment, within and without buildings, does and can inform our decisions about where we live, work, play, congregate, shop, etc..  Architects utilize form, light, materials, textures, scale, etc. to mold space into places that they hope are conducive to the activities they are intended to embrace or showcase. 

 

In designing the built environment, the general public must remember that not every single individual user can be accounted for in any one design, as we all bring our own perspectives and experiences with us, and our mood on a particular day or in a particular segment of our lives does greatly influence our perception of a place.  The article cited in the link above ("Building a better world: can architecture shape behaviour?" by  Jan Golembiewski) does hint at this overarching factor of influence that is outside the sphere of the architect, the engineer, the planner, the developer or the politician.  The architect is well equipped--through education, training and practice--to better situate a design solution, but he/she should not be held accountable for a  particular behavioral outcome since behavior is the result of many factors beside the physical environment (psychological and physical health, etc.). 

 

One could argue that in order to better position architecture as a beneficial undertaking, architects should do more to quantify the positive affects of their design efforts.  Post occupancy evaluations are an old, but underutilized tool, that should be revisited and redesigned as an integrated philosophy of making.  Architects must also lose the moniker of the lone artist and reach out to other disciplines--anthropology, psychology, etc.--to facilitate new ways of researching and documenting the benefits of an intentionally designed environment.  By intentionally designed environments, I mean those designed by and with architects, landscape architects, planners, engineers, and users; not those that are developer-driven, where ROI is the overarching principle.