Perception Aspects in Underground Spaces using ... - TOI - TU Delft

develop a generic method to model the interrelationships. In that respect, it is of interest to findrelationships between main spatial characteristics of a built environment and the end user of thatenvironment. In that process, overlap between categories is inevitable, since no sharp boundariesexist between categories.Architects and end users eventually communicate through space, since one designs it, and theother experiences it. End users react differently to different spaces and may prefer one space tothe other within the same social context. The intention with this work is to try to capture thatcommunication. It is important to understand the position of both actors in that communicationprocess. The end user, according to certain stimuli, acts and reacts on the environment in respectto a specific time and social context. The architect tries to integrate in the design all requirementsand 'targets' the design for end users. That is the most desirable situation but as explained earlier,there is a knowledge gap regarding users perception of spaces. Therefore, it becomes a difficulttask for architects to include that in their design. In addition, constant changes within societybring changes of requirements over time. In order to model the relationships between a builtenvironment and human beings, the knowledge from other disciplines should be considered, suchas that from environmental psychology and sociology.2.7. A human being, built environment and social contextIn order to avoid ad-hoc design solutions there is a need for a systematic approach to design ofunderground spaces. In such a way an “intuitive” approach to problem solving can be avoided(Bennett, 1977). It is important to note here that the study could be done from various viewpoints. One direction may come with more focus on social or economic issues and its reflectionon a built environment. Other points of view could be to consider how various groups, forexample how different cultures or different societies perceive the built environment, as well ashow they influence changes in an environment. It is possible to imagine various viewpoints. Forthis research, it was important to model the perception of people, living in South Holland,regarding underground spaces. In that respect, all users were considered as equal contributors tothe knowledge model since they are a part of the same social context.The underground stations are relatively young structures. As a result, the information andknowledge relevant to underground spaces is rather few and scattered. Several authors stressedthe wide spread of information in environmental psychology that can be found in various journals(Mehrabian, 1976) yet state that such information is often fragmented, enclosed in statistics orexpressed in a type of language that is difficult to understand. It is also a fact that many findingsare not published at all or are provided in a form of internal reports that are not accessible to thepublic (Cherulnik, 1993). Therefore, this private information is also not available for architectsand designers. An explanation could be simply due to requirements from a client to protect theinformation related to the project. Such discretion and confidentiality inevitably leads to thestagnation or slow progress in deepening knowledge.As for underground spaces, some psychological aspects deserved more attention than others, forexample orientation (Passini, 1984, 1992; Arthur, 1992; Galen, 1999), safety aspects (Korz,1998; Boer 1997; Galen, 1999) etc. Such research does provide valuable knowledge. They missthe relationship to other aspects, due to the limited information regarding cause and effect. Thesewere examined as isolated experiences, while experience of underground space depends on the- 19 -