The "Space in Context" Group
Radoslaw Martin Cichy
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Emily S. Cross
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Marcin Leszczynski
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Gesine Marquardt
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Susanne Quadflieg
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Alexandra de Sousa
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Applied Interdisciplinarity
As a collaborative endeavour between an anthropologist, an architect, a neuroscientist, a social psychologist, and two vision scientists, the current project falls within the framework of environmental psychology. This field has recently been described as a “the only part of [psychology] that seriously engages research, theory, and practice concerned with the built and natural environment” (Gifford, 2009, p. 389). Rather than being a mere subfield of psychology, however, it combines “a disparate set of research areas and perspectives, spanning multiple disciplines, that are linked by a common focus on people’s relationships with their sociophysical surroundings (Stokols, 1995, p. 822).
Interestingly, pioneers of the discipline initially labelled the field “architectural psychology”, aiming to specifically target issues of human-environment relations derived from architectural design and urban planning (Canter, 1970). Even though the discipline’s original name was replaced to include any type of relations arising from man-made as well as natural environments (Canter & Craik, 1981; see also Gifford, 2009), the research questions endorsed in the current research proposal are closely related to the main question characterizing architectural psychology: How do humans experience built form? Translated in terms of the current inquiry the question reads: How do humans experience built glass?
As is obvious from our CVs, only one of us have previously engaged in research targeting questions of architectural psychology, and none of us has studied aspects of glass perception and interaction. In this respect, the proposed project is naturally different from our everyday research routines and invites each of us to stretch our ‘scientific comfort zones’. At the same time, however, it allows us to remain firmly grounded in our respective home disciplines. Inherent to our topic of research is the need for a multilevel perspective: The human experience of glass in contemporary architecture is likely to be multifaceted, comprising perceptual, motoric, emotional, cognitive, social-cognitive, as well as cultural aspects (see Preliminary Research Questions). Given our person-specific fields of expertise, the collaboration allows us to access a thorough knowledge base on various methods that can be used to study such diverse layers of the human condition. In consequence, by merging our highly diverse backgrounds the fascinating phenomenon of human-glass relations can be elucidated in its entire depth.
In addition, the project enables us to discover how basic research can be applied to answer questions of everyday relevance that go beyond a highly limited field of scientific inquiry. Also, working in a highly interdisciplinary and non-hierarchical way requires a completely innovative approach towards designing and implementing research. In particular, the exchange of discipline-specific jargons as well as procedures will challenge us to simultaneously learn about and question such discipline-specific wisdom. Finally, the current project caters towards a field that has only recently begun to emerge: trying to answer the same questions as architectural psychology, the field of architectural neuroscience intends to add neuroscientific methods to the repertoire of approaches used to study human experiences in man-made environments (Eberhard, 2009). As such, the proposed research project goes not only beyond what we usually do but also beyond what is usually done by others.
Interestingly, pioneers of the discipline initially labelled the field “architectural psychology”, aiming to specifically target issues of human-environment relations derived from architectural design and urban planning (Canter, 1970). Even though the discipline’s original name was replaced to include any type of relations arising from man-made as well as natural environments (Canter & Craik, 1981; see also Gifford, 2009), the research questions endorsed in the current research proposal are closely related to the main question characterizing architectural psychology: How do humans experience built form? Translated in terms of the current inquiry the question reads: How do humans experience built glass?
As is obvious from our CVs, only one of us have previously engaged in research targeting questions of architectural psychology, and none of us has studied aspects of glass perception and interaction. In this respect, the proposed project is naturally different from our everyday research routines and invites each of us to stretch our ‘scientific comfort zones’. At the same time, however, it allows us to remain firmly grounded in our respective home disciplines. Inherent to our topic of research is the need for a multilevel perspective: The human experience of glass in contemporary architecture is likely to be multifaceted, comprising perceptual, motoric, emotional, cognitive, social-cognitive, as well as cultural aspects (see Preliminary Research Questions). Given our person-specific fields of expertise, the collaboration allows us to access a thorough knowledge base on various methods that can be used to study such diverse layers of the human condition. In consequence, by merging our highly diverse backgrounds the fascinating phenomenon of human-glass relations can be elucidated in its entire depth.
In addition, the project enables us to discover how basic research can be applied to answer questions of everyday relevance that go beyond a highly limited field of scientific inquiry. Also, working in a highly interdisciplinary and non-hierarchical way requires a completely innovative approach towards designing and implementing research. In particular, the exchange of discipline-specific jargons as well as procedures will challenge us to simultaneously learn about and question such discipline-specific wisdom. Finally, the current project caters towards a field that has only recently begun to emerge: trying to answer the same questions as architectural psychology, the field of architectural neuroscience intends to add neuroscientific methods to the repertoire of approaches used to study human experiences in man-made environments (Eberhard, 2009). As such, the proposed research project goes not only beyond what we usually do but also beyond what is usually done by others.