Cultural Approahes to Environmental Design

Haneen and I presented on the Cultural Approaches to Environmental Design. Below is some of the information we presented.

What is Culture?

Culture is a term used by social scientists to describe a people's whole way of life. To social scientists, a people's culture consists of all the ideas, objects, and ways of doing things created by the group.

Culture consists of learned ways of...

• Acting
• Feeling, and
• Thinking, rather than biologically determined ways.

According to British anthropologist Sir Edward Burnett Tylor

There are three important characteristics of culture:

• Culture is acquired by people
• A person acquires culture as a member of society
• Culture is a complex whole

Basic Elements of All Cultures

All cultures have features that result from basic needs shared by all people.

• Every culture has methods of obtaining food and shelter
• Every culture has ways to protect itself against invaders
• Every culture has ways of organizing family relationships, including marriage and systems of kinship
• Every culture has religious beliefs and a set of practices to express them
• Every culture has forms of artistic expression such as carvings, painting and music

In order to consider how much does culture impacts the design of environments we must first look at different types of environments. In residential/housing the role of culture is quite strong. In non-residential/commercial environments culture tends to play less of a role. When talking about cityscapes... they all look the same.

In class we discussed why culture might be disappearing from our cityscape's. First, the modern movement brought buildings and interiors that were simple un-ornamented. Second, as we travel more easily cultures have begun to merge.

When speaking of the similarities among culture in environmental design, Amos suggests that the "idea that culture is not completely variable but has major constancies and moreover, that some apparently variable aspects are expression of underlying contents or universals."

The impact of culture on the environment varies with the...

• Type
• Overtime
• Different Groups
• Different Situations and Contexts
• Interior Design

According to Mustafa Pular in A Structured Approach to Cultural Studies of Architectural Space,

Culture can be broken down into three components:

• Technology

Know-How Knowledge- accumulated body of solutions

Technics- tools, implements, etc.

• Knowledge

Symbols and Cognitive Schemata

Two types: Informational and Theoretical

• Value System- set of value judgements that are central to the solutions of a man's problems

Images:

http://www.photosdirect.com/

Sources:

Rapoprt, Amos Some Further Thoughts on Culture and Environment

Pultar, Mustafa A Structured Approach to Cultural Studies of Architectural Space