The Concept of Setting

Special Topics in Architecture

Human Dimension of Space

• Spaces are expected to help

people satisfy three needs:
stimulation, security and
identity.
• Our balance of needs at any
time depends on personality,
physical health, age and social
context.

Lawson, B. (2003). The Language of Space

Human Dimension of Space

The stimulation
performance curve
is an inverted U
shape.

Lawson, B. (2003). The Language of Space

Based on the circumplex model by Russell,
Weiss, and Mendelsohn
Human Dimension of Space

• Security is manifested through continuity and predictability. Any

social group has norms to regulate behavior and communications
patterns.
• As for identity, we personalize places to associate ourselves with
them and to identify ourselves with and affirm our belonging to
them. Personalization is not only an expression of territorial
control, it is also an expression of people’s culture, personalities,
priorities and values.
Human Dimension of Space

• Markus (1993) implies that buildings are treated as art, technical

or investment objects, rarely as social objects.
• He suggested that people discover and create meaning in social
relations, and that these form and are formed by their social
practices- the things they do together.
Human Dimension of Space

• Space and society are clearly related.

• It is difficult to conceive of space without social content, or, to conceive
a society without a spatial component.
• We rely on spaces to tell us what they are, and to create places
appropriate to certain kinds of behavior.
• We use spaces and places to perform rituals of life that bring the
security of cultural constancy, which makes the place a cultural icon or
symbol.
• A house must therefore not only provide shelter for people, but it is also
expected that it will look like a house thus telling the visitors how to
behave.
Human Setting

• Spaces form important constituent parts of the ‘settings’ in which

behavior takes place.
• Along with each setting come a series of social norms that are not so
much attached to a particular group of people as to the setting itself.
• Norms can become very elaborate in their details in a way that gives
specific clues of how to behave in spaces, and the language of space is
essentially non-verbal
• Without such properties of space and settings, life would be unbearably
stressful. If every time a person entered a room and simply had no idea
at all what was expected of him, he would have to work very hard to
identify and learn the local rules.
Behavior Setting

• Social scientist Roger Barker first developed a theoretical framework which he

called “behavior setting”.
• The term means: Setting a space for a specific behavior.
• A behavior setting is a self-referenced (internally interdependent and self-
defined) entity that consists of one or more standing patterns of behavior.
• Behavior settings are mediating structures that help explain the relationship
between individuals dynamic behavior and the environment - particularly the
stable social environment.
• The concept of behavior setting has a stable view of the nested
interrelationships that exist within our common experience. The pieces fit, and
in their fitting we see the larger structure-in-a-context that is necessary
for development, causality, or purpose.
Behavior Setting

• The "behavior-milieu interface" is called the synomorph, and the 'milieu'

is said to be 'synomorphic' to the 'behavior'.
• To be considered a 'behavior setting', these 'behavior/milieu parts' or
'synomorphs' must have a specific degree of interdependence that is
greater than their interdependence with other parts of other settings.
• There is an empirical test that can determine the relative robustness of
behavior settings, depending on the index of interdependence between
and among specific standing patterns of behavior.
• Just as the standing pattern is synomorphic with the artifacts in the
milieu, so are standing patterns synomorphic with other standing
patterns in the behavior setting.
Behavior Setting

• A statement on the nature of behavioral setting boundaries has

been presented by Robert Bechtel (1977):
• “A behavior setting boundary is where the behavior stops. An
ideal boundary is a wall which stops behavior from getting in and
out. Such obvious qualities as opacity to sight and sound are
important in setting boundaries. Yet it is when behavior setting
boundaries are not so obvious that the problem of boundary
definition occurs.”
• Boundaries can have multiple layers (e.g. visual. Auditory, et.)
• Boundaries can be symbolic.
Behavior Setting

• Many of the behavior settings are differentiated by their

controlling activity
• The area of the controlling person is called: performance zone.
• However, not all settings have performance zones. And not all
performance zones are architecturally differentiated.
Behavior Setting

• Major components of the behavioral setting are the following:

• 1- Environmental layout (Millieu)
• 2- Standing pattern of behavior
• 3- Congruent relationship between the two (synomorphy)
• 4- A specific time
• 5- Boundary
 Behavioral Dimensions in a Setting

• It is useful to recognize two major

dimensions along which our behavior can
be plotted. One is about consciousness
and the other involves controllability
(Lawson, 2001).
• Across these two dimensions, there are
four possibilities:
• Behavior that is both unconscious and
uncontrollable (instinctive)
• An opposite behavior is both conscious and
controllable (cognitive)
• Conscious but uncontrollable behavior
(conative)
• Unconscious but controllable behavior
(skills)
Behavioral Dimensions in a Setting

• Examples on categories of behavior:

• Cognitive - Intellectual thinking, solving
of problems and interpersonal
interaction
• Instinctive – Motor activity, grapping and
eye blinking
• Conative - Meanings, feelings and
emotions
• Skills – Swimming, driving and playing

Lawson, B. (2003). The Language of Space

Behavioral Patterns in a Setting

• According to Barker, a standing pattern of behavior may include

overt emotional behavior, problem-solving behavior, gross motor
activity, manipulation of objects or interpersonal interaction.
• The choices made in any particular setting depend partly on each
individual's own situation and characteristics ( ego, personality,
goals and values, available recourses, past experience, life stage,
etc.).
Surveying a Behavior Setting

• According to Barker, conducting a • Action Patterns

behavior setting survey consists of the
measurement of eleven key • Behavior Mechanisms
descriptive attributes: • Richness
• Occurrence • Pressure
• Duration • Welfare
• Population
• Local Autonomy
• Occupancy Time
• Penetration
Surveying a Behavior Setting

• There are two temporal attributes: Occurrence (O), the number of

days in a year the behavior setting is capable of occurring, and
Duration (D), the number of hours the behavior setting functions
during a year.
• Population (P) is the number of different persons who inhabit the
behavior setting during the year.
• These three basic attributes allow for a calculation of Occupancy
Time (OT), the number of person-hours spent in the behavior
setting. It is the product of the occurrences (O), the average
number of inhabitants per occurrence (P/O), and the average
duration per occurrence (D/O).
Surveying a Behavior Setting

• Penetration (Pe) is the degree to which an inhabitant is involved in

the setting and consists of six incremental zones, ranging from
onlooker to leader. Using these divisions, the average depth of
penetration can be determined for population subgroups (e.g.,
frequency of minority students being leaders in a club).
• Action Patterns (AP) are the functional attributes of the patterns
of behavior (e.g., religion, education, and recreation).
• Behavior Mechanisms (BM) are the modalities through which
behavior is implemented in the setting, such as gross motor
activity, talking, or thinking.
Surveying a Behavior Setting

• Richness is a composite measure of the variety of behavior within the setting.

• Pressure is the degree to which external forces act upon a person to
approach/enter or avoid/withdraw from the setting. For example, a setting can
be required (a child is for a class at school), invited (a child welcomed to a
Sunday School class), or prohibited (a child is excluded from a bar).
• Welfare is the relevance of the setting to a particular group of inhabitants; that
is, whether the group is served by the setting, whether the group serves others
in the setting, or whether the setting instigates and supports other settings
relevant to the group.
• Local Autonomy of the behavior setting is the geographic level at which the
setting's operations are determined (e.g., town, district, county, state).
Activity Systems

• The environment consists of a hierarchy of behaviors.

• Settings can be Nested, Overlapped or Segregated
• People’s activity system reflect their motivations, attitudes, and
knowledge about (or important images of) the world within the
constraints of their incomes, competencies, and cultural norms
(Porteous, 1977).
• The identification and consideration of existing activity systems
and the design of potentially new ones constitute an essential
basis for urban design, architectural and landscape architectural
thinking (Lang, 1987).
Architectural Settings

• Designing and producing buildings are both psychological and

social and practices.
• Herman Hertzberger is a social architect, whose buildings spaces
encourage our human needs of social activity.
• His designs considers the behavioral patterns, and uses the
concept of affordance in his designs.
• He dramatizes the stairs by manipulating colors, materials, and
size.
Architectural Settings: Herman Hertzberger - Montessori
school in Amsterdam

In the Montessori
school in
Amsterdam,
Hertzberger
enlarged the stair
landing and the void
around it in order
for it to be used as
a gathering area for
students, a vertical
circulation, and as a
classroom
amphitheater.
Architectural Settings: Herman Hertzberger - Montessori
school in Amsterdam
Architectural Settings: Herman Hertzberger - Central
Baheer in Apeldoorn (1968-72)
Architectural Settings: Herman Hertzberger - Central
Baheer in Apeldoorn (1968-72)
Architectural Settings: Herman Hertzberger - Central
Baheer in Apeldoorn (1968-72)
 Architectural Settings: Herman Hertzberger - Central
Baheer in Apeldoorn (1968-72)

His exemplary workplace

Central Baheer in
Apeldoorn (1968-72) was
designed with the needs
of the individual at its
core and the Ministry of
Social Affairs and
Employment in The
Hague (1979-90) was
one of the first buildings
to develop the idea of the
internal street or
elongated atrium to
encourage social
interaction and get light
into all the rooms.
Architectural Settings: Herman Hertzberger - Central
Baheer in Apeldoorn (1968-72)
Architectural Settings: Herman Hertzberger - Faculty of
Science University of Utrecht (2006-11)
Architectural Settings: NHL University Leeuwarden
 Architectural Settings: NHL University Leeuwarden

Hertzberger uses
two principal
strategies,
polyvalence and
incompletion, in
which “The skeleton
is a half-product,
which everyone can
complete according
to his own needs
and desires.”