Henry Sanoff

EDRA came into being during a period of social awareness and social unrest. Consequently, our agenda, the social aspects of the environment, was clearly a product of the times. The 1960's were a period of new horizons and new visions. EDRA was not only a child of the 1960's, but also a born-again organization, an outgrowth of the Design Methods Group (DMG), which had ceased to exist as a formal organization after its first meeting at MIT in June 1968. A small group of 30 conference attendees agreed to expand the interests of DMG at a meeting to be held the following year. Participants of this original meeting, sometimes referred to as founding members, included John Archea, Dan Carson, Gerald Davis, David Stea, Ray Studer, Gary Winkel, Tom Heath from Australia, and from the UK, Chris Jones, Tom Maver, and Tony Ward. Gary Moore and Henry Sanoff were asked to Co-Chair the Founding Steering Committee. It was agreed to combine the independent efforts of organizations and publications seeking similar goals in order to overcome duplicity and redundancy for both the organization of the groups and the participation of the members. In the interim, and after much deliberation about the appropriate name, Henry Sanoff, who organized the first meeting in 1969, formed the Environmental Design Research Association. He also served as its chair until 1973 and incorporated EDRA as a non-profit organization in 1972.

EDRA was initially conceived as an organization that would not only include the interests of the Design Methods Group (DMG), but the Architectural Psychology Newsletter, the singular effort of John Archea.

EDRA was concerned with expanding the horizon of environmental design to include concerns about people as a vital ingredient of change. As a result, a concerted effort was made to add social and behavioral scientists to the already formed nucleus of designers. Several other related publications of that period included, Hans Esser's, Man and His Environment Newsletter, the Directory of Behavior and Design, compiled by David Stea and Ray Studer; Environment and Behavior, originally edited by Gary Winkel; and the Design Research Society Journal subsequently named Design Studies published in England.

During the past four decades there has been an extensive development of environment and behavior research literature. Beginning with the pioneering effort of Chuck Hutchinson of Dowden, Hutchinson and Ross who re-published several early issues of EDRA conference proceedings, as well as featuring such authors as Bob Bechtel, Frank Becker, Gary Coates, Don Conway, Randy Hester, Basil Honikman, Jon Lang, Powell Lawton, Bill Michelson, Walt Moleski, Gary Moore, Wolf Preiser, Henry Sanoff and Erv Zube. To compliment long standing journals such as Environment & Behavior and the Journal of Architecture and Planning Research revived by Andrew Seidel, new journals have appeared from Japan, Korea, Switzerland, Poland and the United Kingdom.

Previous and Current Topical Issues

The early years of EDRA were marked by an unbridled optimism. There was a belief that a clear and conscious understanding of the design decision process coupled with a similar understanding of the methods and techniques used by the social sciences would provide the foundation necessary for ameliorating problems in the environment.

The original call for papers included issues related to visual perception, operational gaming, advocacy planning, design education, computer augmented design, decision theory, design methods, artificial intelligence, environmental management, information systems, behavioral responses to design, environmental quality, and communication systems. John Archea described this period of EDRA as that of 'inclusive images,' which would encompass behavior and the environment, or a wholistic vision of the environment. This multi-disciplinary attitude grew out of an interest in general systems theory at that time, and was viewed as a way to effect environmental change. This earlier vision of improving the environment for humankind has been more recently replaced by one of organizational efficacy.

The middle period of EDRA, characterized by such proceedings titles as The Cost of Not Knowing, Changing Paradigms, and Public Environments was marked by a focus on special populations such as young children, the elderly, and physically handicapped in various environmental settings. Programming and post-occupancy evaluation served as the binding themes that connected people and processes. Today, these are mainstream activities conducted by many professional designers and consulting firms, though a fine-tuning of instruments continues to be a recurring theme at conferences.

With the reawakening of societies need for a more pluralistic democracy, EDRA discussions have moved towards a sense of community with themes such as sense of place, place making, aging in place, and reminiscence of place. While the conference proceedings surprisingly have been shrinking in the past several years, prevailing discussions at workshops and intensive sessions seem to focus on broader ethical issues. A renewed interest in participatory action research, from the framework established by Kurt Lewin’s concept of “action research,” sees the researcher as a participant and advocate in the process of environmental change. Clearly, the shifting interests expressed at conferences mirrors the social and political climate of the times.

Fragmentation of Interests

Proliferation of journals, conferences, and interest groups that marked the past decade can be conceived as being fragmented or disjointed efforts. Yet, specialization also allows more researchers to find a niche, ultimately increasing opportunities for their involvement. This movement certainly reflects Tom Peters predictions related to the changing nature of organizations and the flexibility required for future professionals to cope with increasingly fluid situations.

Spin-off groups in America since the inception of EDRA include ACADIA, ARCC, Built Form and Culture, Traditional Dwellings and Settlements, and international organizations such as IAPS, PAPER, EBRA and MERA. Several organizations are producing journals; others are generating newsletters all of which seeking niche specialization. In addition to formal organizations, there are frequent conferences and symposia in such areas as educational facilities, work environments, housing, and facilities for health and the aging, all of which have some representation from the EDRA community.

Questions arise about the viability of EDRA in the face of increasingly limited resources for attending conferences and unlimited choices of events competing for these resources. I feel however, that from its inception, EDRA conferences have been more than an exchange of information. Annual EDRA events are a place for people on the fringe of their discipline whether it is architecture, psychology, or somewhere in-between, to find similarly minded people. After all, the issues represented by the membership have been and will continue to be on the fringe, however important we feel they are. Digital technology will not easily replace the interaction and social support provided by annual meetings.

EDRA Contributions

In addition to the individual contributions of EDRA members to public policy and to the advancement of knowledge through an extensive literature, a collective contribution made by the EDRA community was towards reshaping the accreditation criteria for schools of architecture. Performance criteria for the accreditation of schools of architecture consists of 36 criteria that encompass different levels of accomplishment. Of these criteria more than 25%, are directly related to social and behavioral issues such as: Research Skills, Critical Thinking Skills, Collaborative Skills, Human Behavior, Human Diversity, Use of Precedents, Accessibility, Program Preparation, The Context of Architecture.

When discussing major contributions made by EDRA and its memberships, it must be recognized that the work of Irv Altman, Bob Bechtel, Bill Ittelson, Harold Proshansky, David Stea and other prominent EDRAites helped to shape Environmental Psychology, a component of the discipline of psychology that appears in every introductory psychology textbook.

In conclusion, the past four decades of EDRA conferences has witnessed that participants’ change and issues change, yet EDRA’s image as a research group has not changed. Yet, the informality and accessibility of the conference format, which includes intensive sessions, workshops, working groups, posters, and symposia, could engage professionals and researchers alike. The interactive nature of EDRA conferences suggests the need to promote communication between researchers as well as to include those people for whom the research findings are aimed.

Will environment and behavior studies continue as a viable area of inquiry seems to be a continually nagging question? While there may not be a clear vision about its prospects, it is very clear that the issues represented by the past 40 years of conferences have been imbedded into the thinking of many organizations, academies, and governments. Human considerations as they affect and are affected by housing, schools, health facilities as well as neighborhoods and communities are no longer fringe considerations. They are mainstream issues, whose consequences are poorly understood, and often ignored. Never the less, the past 40 years have been remarkable for EDRA in its ability to launch a set of concerns previously unattended, and creating places for researchers and practitioners to advocate for those concerns.