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School of Architecture

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search.filters.applied.f.advisor: Bafna, Sonit × Start date: 2010 × search.filters.applied.f.resourcesubtype: Thesis ×

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    Curiosity, Memory, and the Place
    (Georgia Institute of Technology, 2023-05-30) Nasiri, Simin
    SUMMARY Abstract The study presented here is an empirical exploration of the effects of building layouts on affect and motivation of their visitors. It does so by investigating the issue in three parts: first, the association between a spatial environment’s organization and curiosity, second the effect of curiosity on spatial memory, and third the effect of spatial layout on memory. The investigation utilizes an experimental method in which participants are placed in immersive virtual environments with head-mounted devices (HMD) and set an exploration task. The virtual environments are designed as homes, similar in area and program, that exhibit three distinct design strategies—a traditional compartmentalized plan, a fully open plan with minimum visual and physical barriers, and a Miesian open-plan with a mixed strategy of open but private space. The general hypothesis is that the open-plan strategy will generate greater curiosity, trigger increased exploration and lead to better cognitive mapping of the environment. An additional hypothesis is that the open plan will be associated with positive affect, in line with what is described in architectural literature as a sense of flow and connection. To test our hypothesis accuracy, participants’ data are collected during their exploration to capture their paths of movement, time taken to explore, and their attentional foci as variables of curiosity and later recalling the environment by programming the Unity environment in C# and the Vive Pro Eye headset’s Tobii eye-tracking feature. Participants’ neural data is also recorded by fNIRS to compare to the behavioral data and find any potential patterns especially in brain’s dopaminergic area and hippocampus which is related to curiosity and memory. Additional data come from post-exploration questionnaire by asking participants to tag environments they have experienced and attribute adjectives to them. The study reported here is a preliminary study using four participants quantitative measures that compare behavioral data and morphological properties of layout like visual information and Isovist, as well as qualitative data from the interviews that is aimed to further sharpen the hypotheses. Results indicate that the Miesian mix strategy open plan, as called semi-open plan in this research, causes more “distributed curiosity”, is more memorable, and as people described more livable. On the other hand, the compartmentalized plan that provides the lowest visual information with the lowest isovist, was the most confusing for participants, least interesting, and least memorable. In general, we can expect that different levels and layers of openness, effects different types of curiosity, which I have called them “compacted” and “distributed” curiosity, as well as different levels of memorability depending on the amount of visual information they have received and been able to map the environment cognitively. This research will contribute to understanding the way humans relate to environment in order to help a healthier, more interesting, and memorable environments design.
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    Rethinking the work space
    (Georgia Institute of Technology, 2015-05-15) Duncan, Rebecca
    The idea of the open plan workspace has been a popular model for office design since the 1960’s. The openness was thought to encourage collaboration and group thinking while also allowing for more supervision and a more flexible space overall. This model, however, is too instrumental. It neglects the fact that the modern workplace is a setting not just for work but where we spend a significant part of our public life. We enact presentations of self in the workplace, enter into planned and unplanned transactions, forge networks, create group identities, and at times withdraw from the public eye for contemplative work and for refuge. In the open-plan model, every activity becomes a ‘front stage’ activity where people always feel as if they are constantly putting on a performance. The model does not adequately address other needs. This holds particularly true in the creative professions where more seclusion is needed in order to produce innovative ideas. This thesis offers a new model to think about the workplace by taking the school of architecture as an example. The work is in two parts. The first, an analytical study of 10 schools, drawn from a larger sample of 26, shows that despite many innovations in form-making, schools of architecture have followed this model of the open plan workspace closely, particularly in the way studio spaces are designed. As a result activities like enactment of self, expression of identities, negotiation and encounters, and withdrawal from social life happen in ad hoc and re-purposed spaces. The second part offers a design response to this condition by proposing an intervention for one of the most well known schools of architecture and one that embodies a logically extreme version of the open plan idea, Crown Hall. This intervention, which proposes radical changes to the interior organization of Crown Hall while respecting its conceptual form and broad design intent, illustrates how a modern workplace can offer a space that allows the full complexity of the drama of daily life to enfold in a workplace setting.