Chapter 5

This is important because it

strongly affects the
interpretations people put
on the place: whether
designers want them to or
not, people will interpret
places as having meanings.
When these meanings
support responsiveness, the
place has a quality we call
visual appropriateness.
 by supporting its legibility, in terms of form

by supporting its variety.

by supporting its robustness, at both large and
use small scales.
 One group may pay a great deal of
attention to proportions, and to overall visual
structure;
whilst another may depend on more detailed
cues: similarity in window and door design.

The detailed appearance of the place must

help people read the pattern of uses it contains.
 The detailed appearance of the buildings must
help variety to happen, by making the image of
the area seem appropriate as a setting for
each of the uses concerned.
 A Buildings detailed appearance must
reinforce this potential, by looking appropriate
for all these uses.

It considered ways of designing particular

spaces within a building, or out of doors, so
they could be used in a range of different
ways.
 We must understand how people interpret
places.
 People interpret visual cues as having
particular meanings because they have learned
to do so. But people do not learn in a social
vacuum. A great deal of learning, both formal
and informal, is shared. by groups of people;
whose members will therefore tend to make
similar interpretations of a given place.
 But members of different social groups may
well make different interpretations of the same
place. This happens for two main reasons:

their environmental experience differs from that

of other groups.

their objectives differ from those of other

groups
Chapter 6
 The remaining decisions in ways which increase
the variety of sense-experiences which users can
enjoy. We call this quality richness.
For richness, we must design these to offer
sensory choice. This implies designing so that
people can choose different sense-experiences
on different occasions.
Other senses also have design implications:
- Sense of motion
- Sense of smell
- Sense of hearing
- Sense of touch
 The visual monotony of many recent
environments is now widely recognized, so
designers' and patrons' attitudes are changing.
But after fifty years of neglect, the principles of
designing for visual richness have been
forgotten. With no principles to go on,
designers can only base their work on examples
of richness from the past.
Plaza Moraga,
Binondo Manila
 the range of distances from which the various
parts of the scheme can be seen.

the relative numbers of people likely to see the

building from each different viewing position.

the length of time during which each view will

be experienced.
Distance

Numbers
Chapter 7
 to improve practical facilities.

to change the image of a place.

 as an affirmation of their own tastes and
values: affirmative personalization

because they perceive its existing image as

inappropriate: remedial personalization
 Tenure

Building type

Technology
 The way this claim is
controlled particularly by
the building's owner , has
radical effects on whether
and how personalization
takes place. The balance
of power between user
and owner is set by the
tenure system:
 People mainly personalize places they regularly
use for long periods: in practice, homes and
workplaces. Nearly all buildings, at least in part,
contain either homes or workplaces, or may do so
in the future.

This means that the technology of the design

should be well-matched to the expertise of the
likely users. Since expertise is hard to predict, it is
best to use materials and techniques which
unskilled people can easily master, at least where
personalization is most likely.
Private personalization
The physical elements supporting
personalization within a space consist of
internal surfaces and focal elements.

Public personalization
Some personalization communicates across the
private/public boundary, affecting the public
realm.