socio-spacial design

My friend Amy is studying Landscape Architecture, and currently working on a map of space in a cultural place (this phrase is not accurate). She went to the library this morning and diagrammed out the lounge area, with sitting tables, couches, coffee tables, etc. I was very interested and overly animated about it, of course, because it made me reflect on a similar project I did for an "image-based research" class a few years ago, where I walked all over campus and Madison taking pictures of "chairs" (loosely defined as places where humans sit). Putting the photographs next to each other, one can see stark differences in culture and "intention" between them. For example, the granite bench with the engraved quote nestled in an old grove of trees has a much different purpose than the chairs in the lecture hall, or the unwieldy stools in the grab-and-eat-and-get-out lunch place, or the pews in the church (actually the bench and the pews are pretty close). And I sit now on a fairly plush leather couch at Ground Zero and contrast that to the stiff, if-you-want-to-stay-get-a-room couches in hotel lobbies. Different chair design offers different levels or aspects of a "sitting" affordance (to use J.J. Gibson's term), some for sitting comfortably, some for meditating, some for conversing, some for waiting, some for eating quickly, some for eating slowly, some for reading, some for listening to a lecturer -- all while "sitting".

And this is just "chairs" -- think of all the other "social" aspects of our physical environment, and their designed effects on us. So, factor in lighting -- for reading, or staying awake, or romance, or security, or way-finding, etc. And do the same with other furniture, wall coverings, wall hangings (paintings, photographs), flooring (carpet vs. bamboo vs. Maple vs Oak vs. Pine vs. concrete vs. tile), pavement, siding, ground cover, trees.

So, I think I'm on to something in looking at Design as one of the threads (along with Discourse, and Experience) in the theoretical braid of my educational research agenda, but as I mentioned during my presentation, I'm not sure how that braid is woven together yet. Alas.