Personal Space

So I've been doing my first round of analysis and some codes/themes have been emerging. One of these was personal space, and particularly how the environment and the individual's actions affects this.

Coincidentally I came across this post by Alan Rapp on the Design Observer blog. It mentions Robert Sommer so I think I will take a look into his book Personal Space: The behavioral basis of design. I've also started finding a few articles on how things such as listening to music can alter people's perception and awareness of the space around them.

Primary Observation

Last week I was down in London beginning my observational fieldwork at St Pancras Station. I was able to spend a couple of days in the space, and get a feeling of how people were acting in the environment. I was most aware of the amount of people still working/communicating whilst on the move. These "mobile workers" came in various forms, from the businessman/woman working on a laptop at any opportunity to someone simply on talking/texting on their mobile phone whilst on the move. It was just something that stood out to me, and something to consider during my analysis. It was also intriguing to see how people adapted the space and objects within the space to suit their needs.

My next step will be to do an initial round of analysis/synthesis to see what stands out.

Ethnography and Architectural Design

While browsing the Anthrodesign group for examples of ethnographic fieldwork used in an urban/public space environment I came across a few interesting questions which led to suggested reading and links. I found a link to this Space and Place listserv as well, and I've tried signing up to it although it seems a bit complicated.

At Peter Merholz's blog peterme.com I found an old post, which talks about the value that anthropological thought can bring to the design world. In the post he mentioned an architectural firm MKThink, who had used an anthropologist to help them "move beyond standard architectural practice and consider ethnography as a method toward constructing better built environments". I think they might be worth contacting in relation to my project, possibly just to gain a better sense of the role that ethnography could play in urban design.

MKThink designed the new AT&T Park concourse

I think I'd like to explore this idea in the Summer. I'm keen to see how ethnography can be used to help design the environments we live in - from public parks to city centres.

I (heart) public space

After a discussion with Catriona today I feel a bit happier about the direction for my 3rd semester project. For a while it seemed to be moving towards an exploratory kind of research project, where I would open up a range of questions or issues. As we agreed I am a more problem solving oriented person, and so need a project which relates to this. We discussed the possibility of observing how crowds of people behave in somewhere like a train station and so the project summary would be something like:

"Provide train station designers with insights into how to design a station concourse" and these insights would be formed from the observations etc. from my research.

I had a little browse for ideas this evening and came across The Design Trust for Public Space, who are trying to improve the design of New York's public spaces i.e. streets, plazas, parks and buildings by working with a variety of people. Some of their stuff is really cool and they seem to appreciate the likes of sustainability, innovation and generally making the world a better place.

The project that resonated with me the most was Problems and Possibilities: Re-imagining the Pedestrian Environment in Times Square. The report illustrates the problems, some insights and ideas, and some solutions. It's the sort of project I could see myself working on, where I would be working with a variety of people from different communities and looking to solve problems and issues through design thinking.

Their blog, I (heart) Public Space, has even more information and other ideas around the theme of public space. And what's more they love a bit of ping pong!