13

Circulation:

So far, this blog has concerned itself primarily with human circulation through spaces. It is typical to plan a building by first determining its spatial requirements through the needed static uses (eg. classroom, office, so on). Although this is critical in determining client goals, for spatial planning purposes, it is important to note that most of the space in a building is used for moving through and between the spaces, and not for it's static uses. Additionally, it is the static use that is typically subordinate to the circulation, if the building is to be designed to take advantage of our natural movement tendencies, as discussed in post 12.

Take the image to the right as an example. There are major circulation paths through the space from entrances and exits. This space is assumed to be part of a large public building, say a mall, and the upper left corner of this particular area is planned as a seating area.

First, the seating area was placed in the upper left corner because, after looking at the circulation patterns from the entrances and exits of the space, the upper left corner was the largest remaining contiguous area outside of the circulation paths. The image shows easy circulation from each of the entrances into the waiting area. The couches in the seating are are situated only where the circulation does not exist. I also placed a sign guide, and an electronic screen, in the voids between circulation paths.

Therefore, the seating area location was determined after the main area circulation was analyzed, and the furniture locations were determined after the circulation from the entrances to the seating area was determined.

This approach may appear reactive; that is, the spaces are resulting only from the circulation. However, the circulation will be designed as well as the static uses between.

12

Sight:

Sight is an integral factor in an individual's determination of how they move through space. Without sight, of course, the sensory input required for moving through space is radically different. There are some observable changes in our society to account for the blind, such as sound ques at crosswalks and surface texture changes intended as warnings or guides, as is the case near the edge of the station platforms in the New York City subway system. If most of us were without sight, I do not doubt that our built physical environment would be radically different, and would probably have a focus on sounds, odors, and texture.

Being that the vast majority do have sight, visual information is our primary guide, with the other senses taking on a fraction of the importance. And, as I have maintained throughout this blog, it is the form of the space itself that can guide individuals by virtue of how it is perceived by those passing though the space, through their vision. Alasdair Turner and Alan Penn explore this notion in their paper Encoding natural movement as an agent-based system: an investigation into human pedestrian behaviour in the built environment. They state:

People might, for example, follow a map, or signage, take into account the direction other people are taking, a glimpse of a familiar painting, reject a route on the grounds of personal prejudice against a style, and so on. On the other hand, the possibility of exploring the walkable surface of the layout ahead (the rooms of the gallery) may simply be enough for a human to do exactly that. If this is the case, we should be able to reproduce movement levels within [a] gallery by using an agent-based model, with movement rules based solely on building configuration, without recourse to models involving learned paths, goals, or destinations, or any more detailed social theory framework.

In their paper Mr. Turner and Penn go on to explore this notion through computer modelling, and illustrate the high similarities between their model and actual movements. Although, there are many possible methods that may be employed for guiding individuals through a series of spaces, including those mentioned by Mr. Turner and Penn; however, assuming it is practical to design a building so that the physical form itself is a guide, through the perspective of an individual's vision, then I am suggesting that this is a primary design principle in determining how spaces transition into one another, when practical.