Minutes December 20 2011
Lecture by Professor Mohammed Masoud Al-Abdullah
Professor Masoud from University of Dammam, Saudi-Arabia, gave some theoretical background on documentation and assessment of behaviour patterns. The theory was shown with a case study related to a large beach recreation area that has been designed recently for the city of Dammam. Mr Masoud provided interesting insights into the outdoor behaviour patterns of traditional muslim societies. The discussion highlighted again the importance of analysing behaviour patterns as part of the design process in landscape architecture.
The recording is available here:
Lecture by Damian Perez on Street Traders' Everyday Landscapes
The way we see and value landscapes is in large part a function of what we do in them. (Ittelson 1973)
Damian Perez showed an interesting collection of images illustrating the life of street vendors in Buenos Aires. The street traders are a very characteristic element of the everyday landscape, following a particular pattern of rules and habits. They also create an important communication level in the urban landscape.
The recording is available here:
Damian recommends the following books for further reading:
- Zube, E.H.; R.O.Brush and J.G. Fabos (Eds). (1975). Landscape assessment: values, perception and resources. Dowden, Hutchinson and Ross Publishers, Stroudsburg, Pensylvania.
- Carys Swanwick. (2009) Society’s attitudes to and preferences for land and landscape. Land Use Policy 26S (2009) S62–S75
- Jones P. M., Dix, M. C., Clarke, M. I. and Heggie, I. G. (1991) Understanding Travel Behaviour. Gower, Aldershot.
- Carr, S., (1992). Public space, Cambridge [England] ;New York NY USA: Cambridge University Press.
- Jean-Christophe Foltête, A. Piombini. (2007) Urban layout, landscape features and pedestrian usage. Landscape and Urban Planning, Volume 81, Issue 3, 2007, Pages 225-234
- Goffman, E., (1966). Behavior in public places : notes on the social organization of gatherings, New York: Free Press.
Tasks for the next session
Comments to your Group Members
- Write a comment on your group members' discussion pages until 5th of December. In this comment you may explain what you think is a relevant character feature of this area. This judgement should be based in what you have learned from the wiki page and the discussions so far.
Capturing Behaviour Patterns
The second part of the seminar will be dedicated to observing and reflecting people's behaviour in the everyday landscape you have chosen.
There are different ways of how you can gather this information. This list is not complete, but it should help you to identify approaches that are suitable for your area. You may pick out 2-3 of them and develop your personal approach to this theme:
- observe people and identify repeating aspects, these can be clustered to form patterns
- ask people about what they frequently do in your area. This may give you additional information on summer activities which you may not find at the moment (at least not in Europe). You may also get some valuable information about people's attachment to the place.
- identify the patterns on a map (all this can be hand drawn if you wish)
- identify the most frequent paths/directions/circuits on a map
- sketch/draw/design pictograms of the behaviour patterns
- make a small movie with your mobile or any other device, add it to youtube and add the link to this wiki
- collect photos illustrating behaviour patterns (but be careful with this: you are not allowed to publish images of people who have not explicitly agreed on being published)
Questions for the Group Discussion on 13th of December
- Which behaviour patterns are characteristic?
- Do you find any surprising behaviour patterns?
- Do space and behaviour correspond?
- How does people's behaviour change the place?
Time Frame
- Results need to be uploaded by Monday, 12th of December
- Please add short explanations
- Again, your findings will be discussed in parallel small groups on 13th of December and eventually also on the 20th of December
Resources
A Pattern Language
A valuable resource for this part is Christopher Alexander's book 'A Pattern Language' (it should be available in any library)
Behaviour Mapping
This public chapter from the book 'Innovative Approaches to Researching Landscapes and Health' (Eds: Ward-Thomson,Aspinall and Bell, 2010) illustrates the behaviour mapping method on the example of places used by children and families. The method is of course transferable to other contexts as well.
This is a useful example of a data sheet for site surveys which you may adapt to your needs:
Sociotope Mapping
You may also make yourself familiar with the method of 'sociotope mapping' as practiced recently by some Swedish cities. This method helps mapping how people perceive and value their environment, which is of course closely related to their behaviour: