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WAYFINDING STRATEGIES AND BEHAVIORAL PATTERNS IN BUILT SPACES

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57Christoph HölscherWAYFINDING STRATEGIES AND BEHAVIORAL PATTERNS IN BUILTSPACESWe experience architectural spaces by perceiving them in different ways andby moving through them; our presence brings the space to life. Finding ourway through buildings and urban spaces is an activity that we tend to becomeaware of only when something goes wrong: when we take a wrong turn, forexample, or literally lose our way. For architects who design theses spaces,understanding patterns of human orientation behavior presents a challengefor very pragmatic reasons. If a building or an urban area is difficult to navigate,it will quickly become unpleasant; furthermore the original architecturalconcept and the associated functional requirements may fail to fulfilling theirpurpose.1The concept of usability has been familiar in the context of what is knownas human-machine interaction since the 1990s. Today, few successful digitalproducts are released on the market before they are subjected to user tests andanalyses. Creating a cognitive harmony between the designed product and theconsumer has become a matter of course.However, this is not the case in architecture. There are certainly many rea-sons for this, starting with the aesthetic and creative requirements, but alsoresiding in the fact that buildings must fulfill a multitude of diverse functionsand expectations, whereas the functions of electronic artifacts can usually bedefined much more clearly at the outset. Architects rely largely on intuitionwith regard to enabling, controlling, and promoting human movement and ori-entation processes in buildings; nonetheless, there is a clear parallel betweenhuman-machine interfaces and human-environment interaction. In an era ofevidence-based approaches to architectural design – take hospitals, for exam-ple – incorporating empirical studies, particularly cognitive-psychological re-search, into the design process and basing the concept on scientific findingsseems increasingly warranted, at least with regard to the essential aspect ofhuman orientation.1 Gary W. Evans and Janetta Mitchell McCoy: “When Buildings don’t Work: The Role of Architec-ture in Human Health,” in:Journal of Environmental Psychology,18, 1988, pp. 85–94.

57Christoph HölscherWAYFINDING STRATEGIES AND BEHAVIORAL PATTERNS IN BUILTSPACESWe experience architectural spaces by perceiving them in different ways andby moving through them; our presence brings the space to life. Finding ourway through buildings and urban spaces is an activity that we tend to becomeaware of only when something goes wrong: when we take a wrong turn, forexample, or literally lose our way. For architects who design theses spaces,understanding patterns of human orientation behavior presents a challengefor very pragmatic reasons. If a building or an urban area is difficult to navigate,it will quickly become unpleasant; furthermore the original architecturalconcept and the associated functional requirements may fail to fulfilling theirpurpose.1The concept of usability has been familiar in the context of what is knownas human-machine interaction since the 1990s. Today, few successful digitalproducts are released on the market before they are subjected to user tests andanalyses. Creating a cognitive harmony between the designed product and theconsumer has become a matter of course.However, this is not the case in architecture. There are certainly many rea-sons for this, starting with the aesthetic and creative requirements, but alsoresiding in the fact that buildings must fulfill a multitude of diverse functionsand expectations, whereas the functions of electronic artifacts can usually bedefined much more clearly at the outset. Architects rely largely on intuitionwith regard to enabling, controlling, and promoting human movement and ori-entation processes in buildings; nonetheless, there is a clear parallel betweenhuman-machine interfaces and human-environment interaction. In an era ofevidence-based approaches to architectural design – take hospitals, for exam-ple – incorporating empirical studies, particularly cognitive-psychological re-search, into the design process and basing the concept on scientific findingsseems increasingly warranted, at least with regard to the essential aspect ofhuman orientation.1 Gary W. Evans and Janetta Mitchell McCoy: “When Buildings don’t Work: The Role of Architec-ture in Human Health,” in:Journal of Environmental Psychology,18, 1988, pp. 85–94.

Chapters in this book

  1. Frontmatter i
  2. Inhalt 5
  3. EDITORIAL 7
  4. NEW PATTERNS? OLD PATTERNS? – ON THE EMOTIONAL APPEAL OF ORNAMENT 13
  5. “AND IT WAS OUT OF THAT THAT I BEGAN DREAMING ABOUT PATTERNS...” ON THINKING IN STRUCTURES, DESIGNING WITH PATTERNS, AND THE DESIRE FOR BEAUTY AND MEANING IN ARCHITECTURE 25
  6. ARCHITECTURAL ALGORITHMS AND THE RENAISSANCE OF THE DESIGN PATTERN 41
  7. WAYFINDING STRATEGIES AND BEHAVIORAL PATTERNS IN BUILT SPACES 57
  8. PATTERNS IN THE BRAIN NEUROSCIENTIFIC NOTES ON THE PATTERN CONCEPT 71
  9. REGULAR IRREGULAR – ON THE FLEETING QUALITY OF PATTERN IN CONTEMPORARY MUSIC 85
  10. SELECTED LITERATURE 97
  11. ILLUSTRATION CREDITS 105
  12. BIOGRAPHIES 107
Readers are also interested in:
https://doi.org/10.1515/9783034608879.57

Chapters in this book

  1. Frontmatter i
  2. Inhalt 5
  3. EDITORIAL 7
  4. NEW PATTERNS? OLD PATTERNS? – ON THE EMOTIONAL APPEAL OF ORNAMENT 13
  5. “AND IT WAS OUT OF THAT THAT I BEGAN DREAMING ABOUT PATTERNS...” ON THINKING IN STRUCTURES, DESIGNING WITH PATTERNS, AND THE DESIRE FOR BEAUTY AND MEANING IN ARCHITECTURE 25
  6. ARCHITECTURAL ALGORITHMS AND THE RENAISSANCE OF THE DESIGN PATTERN 41
  7. WAYFINDING STRATEGIES AND BEHAVIORAL PATTERNS IN BUILT SPACES 57
  8. PATTERNS IN THE BRAIN NEUROSCIENTIFIC NOTES ON THE PATTERN CONCEPT 71
  9. REGULAR IRREGULAR – ON THE FLEETING QUALITY OF PATTERN IN CONTEMPORARY MUSIC 85
  10. SELECTED LITERATURE 97
  11. ILLUSTRATION CREDITS 105
  12. BIOGRAPHIES 107
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