Richard Wener

One of the special types of submissions we asked for in the EDRA 50 call for proposals was “EDRA at 50: Looking Forward, Looking Back.” This call took advantage of EDRA50 as an opportunity “to both reflect and project” about the field with regard to the values and needs that led to EDRA’s founding as well as “(n)ew insights, technologies, social media, and approaches (that) contribute to the lasting basic values of environmental design research.”

We were searching for presentations and papers that provided a “retrospective review and/or a prospective view of an important topic in Environmental Design Research.” Rather than identifying topic areas ourselves, and reaching out to scholars to write commissioned pieces in those areas (as has been done in a number excellent edited volumes) we chose to “crowd-source” these reviews and asked experts to self-identify and choose their own topics. As a result, interesting and novel topics are included that otherwise might have been left out.

A number of excellent proposals were received, as well as papers from a plenary symposium developed by Dan Stokols, Sanjoy Mazumdar and Abe Wandersman titled “EDRA @ 50: Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow” in which several senior and respected scholars reflect on progress and problems in the field.The papers from Anthony, Mazumdar, Sanoff, Saegert, Stokols and Wandersman and Wandersmanall emanate from that symposium. All other papers were submitted as abstract proposals which were reviewed by the editors and outside reviewers. Those papers that were accepted were presented at the conference and are, for the most part, included here as full papers. They arebroken into four categories below: papers that address history and trends in EDRA and environmental design research; papers that deal with issues concerning methods of research and design practice; papers that are concerned with sustainability, climate change and sustainable practices; and, finally, papers that address specific setting types and environmental design research issues.

History and Trends in EDRA and EDR

Sanoff(“The Roots of EDRA”) isone of the discipline of environmental design research, was present at the creation of EDRA. He offers an historical and personal overview of the inception. He notes that the founding of EDRA was a product of the 1960s and its “period of new horizons and new visions” and that early meetings were marked by “unbridled optimism.” The early years often focused on special populations and “[p]rogramming and post-occupancy evaluation served as the binding themes that connected people and processes.” While it is not clear where the field is going, EDRA has, he points out, made important contributions to many organizations and environments.

The first-of-its-kind Environmental Psychology Program at City University of New York also came into being 50 years ago. Saegert(“Socializing concepts in Environment and Behavior”) traces the evolution of the 50 year-old (and first of its kind) City University of New York Environmental Psychology program as it overlapped and diverged from EDRA’s own growth. She discusses how the CUNY Environmental Psychology program has grown increasing multidisciplinary (including, in addition to psychologists, sociologists, geographers, architects landscape architects, and planners) as it searches for ways to better study, understand and contextualize the relationship between environment and behavior, particularly in supporting people living difficult and problematic settings.

Stokols(“Directions of Environmental Design Research in the Anthropocene”)looks to the future and addresses dramatic implications of social changes that have affected the context in which EDRA-ites works, from climate change to digital technology, including issues of resilience, the cybersphere, the sharing economy and smart cities.He notes the“great Acceleration of urban development, human productivity and well-being during the last half of the 20^th Century, and the emergence of the Anthropocene Epoch in the early 21^st Century, have brought sweeping changes to the design of buildings, neighborhoods, and cities.”

While the Environmental Psychology program at CUNY claims its place as the first of its kind, other academic settings set the precedent for considering environment-behavior issues. Spreckelmeyer, Cai and Silva (“The Seventy-Year Legacy of Environment Behavior Studies at the University of Kansas: The Importance of Place and Place Making in the Midwest”) review the 70-year history of environment-behavior studies at the University of Kansas – dating back to the founding work of Roger Barker. In this paper they address how people and ideas wove through the development of this fieldthroughout the intervening decades.Barker’s Midwest Field Station, they note, “sacrificed objectivity for an intimate knowledge of and commitment to a specific place and people. The lesson of what has evolved at KU is that the processes of understanding and making places for human habitation can – and perhaps should – be viewed as interdependent and inseparable human activities.”

Anthony (“EDRA as a Springboard for Design Juries on Trial, Designing for Diversity, Defined by Design”) muses on her experiences in EDRA providing a source of community and inspiration for her students. She discusses how she found her own voice and subject matter for research in the difficult experience of academic design juries, and gender discrimination.

Methods in Research and Design Practice

Heft (“What's Wrong with Using Photographs”) addresses amethodological issue that has broad potential implications for environment-behavior research concerning and problems and limitations in the use of photographs as a substitute for real environments in studies of environmental perception. Given the ubiquity of photo simulations this is an important topic for producers and consumers of design research. Heft argues from an ecological perspective that the static nature of still photographs, in particular, make them “too limited in light of more recent scientific advances and in relation to how individuals engage environments directly” and that photographs “necessarily exclude qualities of the environment that are only perceivable from a moving point of observation or when features are in motion.”

Hidalgo (“Environmental Design Research Methods’ Timeline: Where Are We Heading?”) reviews trends in environmental design research methodology, looking at the forms of research that have been adopted by the field, particularly as represented by EDRA presentations. She notes that theory development has extensively borrowed from other disciplines, as well as using grounded theory, essays and professional practice, and suggests that interdisciplinary approaches have increasingly been focusing on qualitative research methods, with fewer quantitative experimental studies.

Wandersman and Wandersman (“What Can We Do to Bridge the Gap Between Environmental Design Research and Practicing Architects: A Critical Friend Perspective”) addresses issues of how to overcome the research-practice gap - long-standing difficulties in translating academic research findings into information that could be practically useful for environmental designers. They describe organizational approaches developed by one of the authors on the implementation of social science information to addresses ways to bridge the gap between EDR & practice, making analogies to other research/practice situations. This includes the need to find and translate an “interactive systems framework” that includes synthesis and translation support systems, and delivery systems.

Marsh andKlein (“Exploring the Past as a Bridge to the Future: AIANY Social Science and Architecture Committee Creates an Open Resource”)also address the research-practice gap, in this case by presenting the Social Science and Architecture Committee of the New York City AIA as a forum for increasing opportunities for communication between research an practice in design, by providing opportunities for these communities to meet and discuss important issues.

While much of the discussion of design methods, such as programming, often use a western perspective, Qu and Zhuang (“Architectural Programming Study at EDRA50/50: History of Architectural Programming and Teaching Experience in China”) provide an alternate perspective on architectural programming as taught and practiced in China. Programming and post occupancy evaluation were introduced into China several decades ago, mostly by EDRA-based practitioners and has taken on special importance there given the rapid urbanization in China. The first Chinese language textbook on architectural programming and post occupancy evaluation was published in 2016 and, they note, “architectural programming is one of the most important theoretical points in today's architecture study.”

Sustainability

Sustainability was one of the central themes for EDRA50. In this paper, Schneekloth(“EDRA: Another 50 years?”) addresses the issue head-on and asks how far into the future EDRA, or any human activity, for that matter, will extend given the global threat of climate change. She discusses ways environmental design researchers can use their unique skills to effect positive change, and notes that “it will not be possible to take effective climate action without also creating a new story about who we are…and transforming not only our economic models but our very relationship with the earth.”EDRA members, she observes, may be well positioned to address this issue because of the history of its members addressing complex “wicked problems” and because “this crisis is rooted in human/environment relationships.”

Edelstein (“Promoting a Sustainable Transformation through Psycho-Social Impact Research”) also focuses on broader sustainability issues. He addresses the use of psycho-social research to affect sustainable transformation.This paper discusses the impact of significant environmental change through his Theory of Environmental Turbulence. “Environmental Turbulence shatters normalcy, forcing those affected from their predictable lives into a situation of profound reactivity to forces beyond their understanding and control.”He also addresses questions of whether actions “move the community toward or away from sustainability” and how to promote the broader health of the ecosystem.He adds that one should look beyond the built environment to promote ecosystem health through broader systems change. He, like Schneekloth, suggests that ecological well-being should be the basis of a new agenda for EDRA, in this case, to conduct studies to monitor environments and study adaptation to coming ecological change.

Khorshidifard (“EcoFoodWay Architectures: Wisdom from the Past; Knowledge for the Future”) discusses environmental design, sustainable practices and food insecurity. She suggests that “ecological design mergers with effective foodways can help mitigate some of the insecurities and enhance fairness in current food systems.” The paper addresses ways adaptive reuse of building and environmental design can support networks for growing and distributing food.

Booher(“Making Our Future Communities Green”) writes about greening for communities. For the growing population of people over 65 years old, she notes that environments with accessible nature,include accessibility to parks and other green spaces, will be important for health and well-being.

Horrigan (“One World Placemaking: Towards a Socially Inclusive Public Realm in Utica, NY “)considers the role of public space in refugee integration and inclusion with a focus on the experience of Utica, NY, with a rapidly growing refugee population, as a case study. The paper addresses “one-world” initiatives in Utica for refugee inclusion and ways that public space “can support those needs and foster greater health and well-being.”

Environmental Design Research (EDR) Settings and Issues

Mazumdar’s paper (“Culture in Environmental Design Research – A retrospective and prospective view”) focuses on the role of culture in EDR –and the benefits of addressing cultural issues in design – as well as the risks of ignoring culture. Through a review of the literature he addresses questions concerning how culture affects spatial behavior and built form. Culture is important in a variety of spheresincluding health and public health, housing, recreation and more, and there is a need for research “to conduct studies in a variety of cultures and contexts so that these situated cultural wisdoms and ways of solving problems could be recorded, studied, learned from, and built upon.”

Ensafi, Jamshidi, Pati (“Environmental Factors That Influence People’s Wayfinding in Indoor Environments: An Integrative Literature Review”) provide a comprehensive review of environmental factors that affect indoor wayfinding. They note that wayfinding in complex environments can be difficult and stressful, and they identify four main themes from the research: personal characteristics of the user of the space; cognitive processes involved in wayfinding; navigation behavior; and environmental factors that affect successful wayfinding.

Calkins (“Fifty Years of Designs for People living with Dementia “) provide an historical overview of 50 years of designs of specialized shared residential care for people living with dementia. The paper reviews theories and models of people with dementia as well as “key aspects of the design of residential settings, focusing primarily on nursing homes and assisted living communities in the US, will be discussed.” Finally, the paper discusses the need for more research especially on issues of great practical interest to designers.

Nichols (“How the AARP Continues to Enhance Seniors’ Expectations and Opportuni­ties for Housing and Civic Life”) uses a discussion of the history of the AARP to consider the needs in housing and community design for older adults. She follows AARP’s growth over the past 60 years from an organization that was focused on adequately housing retired teachers to an organization that has influenced legislation that affects older persons and, now, one concerned with creating Liveable Communities. The paper focuses on the criteria for the design of Liveable Communities and how those have been expressed in several different regions.

Adler (“Humans, Superhumans & Environmental Press”) applies environmental press, as developed by Lawton to address issues of adaptive design for “diverse individuals with disabilities” beyond accommodation for “dynamically supportive spaces.”

Zimmerman (“Human Behavioral Factors That Shape Urban Physical Infrastructure Services”) discuses perceptual and behavioral issues related to the design of physical infrastructural services, such as power systems, or transportation. “In order to understand what motivates people to use services the way they do, knowledge of the underlying perceptions, attitudes, and beliefs regarding those services is needed and how these factors relate to behavior.” With such understanding, over the long time frame usually involved in developing infrastructure systems, “new design and planning standards can be introduced to accommodate user behavior.”

Wooley (“Playing The Archive: Early Influences On EDRA’s Children’s Outdoor Research”) takes an historical look at research on the design of children’s environments, specifically by reviewing the newly available archives of Peter and Iona Opie’s work in the United Kingdom. The Opies were folklorists who documented children’s play in streets, providing a rare record of play in the mid-20^th century. Further, Wooley reviews these archives and comments on challenges going forward for research on child and youth environments.

Hurson (“Revisiting Harold Proshansky's Urban University: Enduring Concepts and New Additions “) discusses issues that make for a successful urban university setting, as originally laid out in 1977 by HaroldProshansky. In it she compares the environmental issues Proshansky described with the experiences of current City University of New York students. From interviews with student she considers how student adapt to their setting and the affordance that support student life. “This paper traces connections between Proshansky’s “environmental considerations” for the urban university and the educational experiences of current CUNY undergraduates…demonstrates how his original observations continue to provide a strong foundation for designing urban campus spaces.”