Course Description
An investigation of relationships between the physical environment, social structures, and the design, planning, and management of places. Topics include the influence of physical environment on human behavior and well-being, cultural meanings and place attachment, and how social forces (including design and planning) shape places.
Athena Title
Place Society and Design
Semester Course Offered
Offered fall and spring
Grading System
A - F (Traditional)
Course Objectives
By the end of the course, students will be able to: • Describe how specific qualities of the physical environment can influence human behavior, experience, and well-being; and explain how these environmental influences differ between groups and individuals. • Interpret personal, symbolic, and cultural meanings expressed in a place; and identify at least one case where conflicting meanings exist in one place. • List at least five social forces (global, national, local, group, or individual) that shape how a specific place is built and maintained. Suggest at least three methods for shifting these power structures through the planning, design, or management of the place. • Analyze and critique a place in terms of how its physical form relates to its use, meaning, and mechanisms of control. Based on this analysis and critique, make recommendations for change in both the social structure and physical structure of the place.
Topical Outline
I. Introduction: The introduction provides an overview of key concepts (space, place, society, planning, and design) and their interrelationships. For example, the influence the physical environment can have on individuals and groups and, consequently, on society, as well as how social institutions and shared cultural meanings can structure our interactions with places and, therefore, their physical material and form. II. Place and Behavior This section explores how specific qualities in the physical environment influence human behavior, health, and well-being, as well as how environmental experiences differ based on individual and group differences, such as age, ability, gender, race, and culture. Drawing primarily from environmental psychology/environment-behavior studies, topics may include: • Environmental perception and cognition (including cognitive maps and wayfinding) • Embodied experience, accessibility, and universal design • Human-nature relationships (including nature and health) • Visual preferences • Personal space, territory, and density • The use of public space • Fear, risk, and comfort in places (including crime prevention through environmental design) Students will be introduced to methods used to analyze existing conditions and to guide future design decisions based on environment-behavior knowledge. These methods may include: • Behavior observation and diagramming • Post-occupancy evaluation • Design guidelines • Evidence-based and performance-based design • Health impact assessments • Human-centered design III. Place and Meaning This section covers the meanings and emotional attachments that humans, as individuals and groups, experience in and through place. The relationships between place identity, group and individual identity, and place attachment are explored. In particular, places where multiple interpretations intersect and conflict are used to add complexity to the topic. Drawing primarily from anthropology, cultural geography, and art, topics may include: • Place attachment, topophilia, and sense of place • Affect theory • Cultural meanings and symbolism; place as a language or text • History, collective memory, and attachment • Multiple and contested meanings in place • Vernacular and everyday places • Placemaking and art Students will be introduced to methods used to analyze existing conditions and to guide future design decisions based on place meaning and attachment. These methods may include: • Ethnographic methods • Participant observation • Oral history/photovoice/interviews • “Reading” a landscape (textual interpretation) • Phenomenological approaches (experiencing a landscape) • Autobiography • Art and storytelling IV. Place and Power This section reflects on how places themselves are shaped and formed through social and cultural practices. It investigates the various forces at play in making a place: from global, national, and local governing structures to individual, daily practices. How economic and political forces form places is more closely examined, along with explanations of how planning, land use policy, and design fit into the process. Individual and group tactics of resistance are also highlighted. Drawing primarily from social theory, topics may include: • The control and production of place; the culture of building • Land use policy and planning • The public sphere, public space, and democracy • Social and environmental justice • Participatory planning and design • Tactical, informal, and insurgent urbanism • Special topics: gentrification, privatization of public spaces, informal settlements, migration, homelessness Methods for individuals and groups to change, challenge, resist, or re-focus these forces are also shared. These may include: • Demographic analysis, equity analysis, power analysis • Traces: symbols of control • Participatory planning methods • Participatory rapid appraisals and design as democracy V. Conclusion: Planning, Designing, and Managing Places The conclusion summarizes how planning, design, and management can respond to the behaviors, meanings, and forces of power that are intertwined with the human experience of place. Topics may include: design thinking and collective creativity, artful and thoughtful design, adaptive design, co-design, and collective making.
General Education Core
CORE V: Social SciencesSyllabus