People and Buildings

Résumé du livre

There is at the present time a continuing interest in relatingthe behavioral sciences to design disciplines. Sociologistsand social psychologists have been added to facultiesof architecture schools, where they off er seminars andparticipate as programming specialists and design criticsin studio courses. Behavioral scientists in many Europeancountries have collaborated with architects and plannersin design work undertaken by governmental ministries,and more recently have been participating in the workof private design fi rms. Similar developments are nowcommon in the United States.

In this fascinating study of the "ecology of buildings,"biologists, anthropologists, sociologists, psychologists,and architects analyze the effect of working and livingspaces on human behavior. Focusing on such contemporarysocial problems as the influence of the physicalenvironment on psychological stress, mental illness, familydisorganization, urban violence, and delinquency, thecontributors show that we must respect the constraintsthat the environment and the nature of man impose onhuman adaptability.

The selections in People and Buildings have beenwritten primarily by scientists and designers workingin the behavioral mode. The selections within each parthave been arranged to provide an ordered argument orexploration of the general topic with which the part as awhole deals. To facilitate the reader's appreciation of theargument, each selection is preceded by a short prefatorystatement. In view of the fact that a single article orpreface can hardly be representative of the depth of theliterature that has developed around an argument, Gutmanhas included an annotated bibliography, which iskeyed to the selections through the use of subheadings.A new introduction by Nathan Glazer has been preparedfor this edition.

Robert Gutman, until his death in 2007, was a lecturer in socialand environmental studies at Princeton University's School ofArchitecture. He is the author of Architectural Practice: A CriticalView, and The Design of American Housing: A Reappraisal ofthe Architect's Role among numerous scholarly articles.

Nathan Glazer is professor of education, emeritus, at HarvardUniversity. He is known for his writings on ethnicity and race,immigration, urban development, and social policy in the UnitedStates. His books include We Are All Multiculturalists Now,Beyond the Melting Pot and The Lonely Crowd.