53 Papers in SOCIAL ARCHITECTURE: 1965-2005

HENRY SANOFF

AARDVARK PUBLISHING COMPANY
ISBN: 1-59971-813-8

This collection of papers spans a period of four decades representing my academic and professional career. In searching for a common theme titles such as design research or environment and behavior were considered, however, social architecture appeared to be a better fit. Although several papers focus on a search for knowledge in an effort to explain people's environmentally related attitudes and behavior, the main thrust of my work is aimed at proposing methods for reshaping the design process in my belief that architects should improve the world-- before somebody fouls it up even further. In a democratic and open society like ours, peoples needs and preferences are ignored only at great peril.

The proliferation of journals, conferences, and interest groups related to environment and behavior issues that marked the past several decades can be conceived as being fragmented or disjointed efforts. Yet, specialization also allowed more researchers to find a niche, ultimately increasing opportunities for their involvement. However, a considerable number of papers that represent this research effort are located in obscure publications, some of which are out-of-print and no longer accessible. Recognizing that my work, too, may be lost in forgotten publications, I assembled this volume to allow others who follow to build upon my efforts.

This anthology addresses a wide variety of topics concerning social architecture. Naming just a few of the papers included in this compilation are such topics as Gaming Methods, Youth's Perception of Residential Cues, User Assessments, Building Evaluation, House Form and Preference, Behavior Settings, and Neighborhood Perception.