Human Studies In Architecture

Ass.prof.
Rania Badawy
 The urban Spaces

and its ability to adapt to

the user needs

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The importance of urban space is represented in the following:
1. Developing and organizing people's relationship with space and the environment so that each
affects the other
2. Providing comfort to people and space users, meeting their needs and linking them to their
communities through design.
3. The physical environment that is available in the same space affects the behavior and
behavior of people because human behaviors are concurrent and an integral part of the
social, cultural and sensory content.
4. Linking the void to society, as it is difficult to have a void without social content and vice
versa, and the society also develops and forms voids by various means and methods.

Conditions for the success of the space:

Kevin Lynch has set five conditions that must be met in the urban environment to ensure its
success:
1. Vitality: compatibility between the nature of the place with the needs and functions of the
members of society.
2. Sensation: the feeling of emptiness and places and linking them with time in a way that
ensures its organization.
3. Suitability: The suitability of the place, its shape and capacity with the behavior of the users.
4. Access: The ability to access everything that a person needs and is available in a vacuum,
such as services, information, and others.
5. Control: The ability to access a place and its activities by controlling the movement of people
within the space.

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 The visual and aesthetic characteristics of the spaces
The visual and aesthetic characteristics of the urban space include the following:
1-Design unit:
The design unit is one of the most important elements of the design itself, because it reflects the relationship
of the blocks with each other and with the surrounding spaces, and also shows the compatibility between the
exploited spaces and spaces. Because this leads to showing an aesthetic and visual aspect of the city.
2- Ratios and Measurements:
Human proportions and standards are the determinants or basic matters on which the design process is
based, because the goal of design is to meet all that a person needs, and therefore human measurements are
the source of measurements and proportions in relation to space, and taking into account these proportions
helps to Achieving a visual link between the elements and parts of the city.
3- Blocks and surfaces:
The different types and shapes of buildings through the architectural component raw materials lead to the
formation of a visual image in the mind of the wandering person in the city, it may leave a positive or negative
impact, which is different according to human taste, and the existing spaces reflect the image of the city in
general. and their relationship and compatibility with each other.
4- Texture:
The multiplicity of types, shapes and sizes of raw materials used in the city’s buildings shapes the visual
appearance of people when they move and roam in them, and it gives a different impression according to the
different raw materials and according to the person’s taste. It may give a negative or positive impression.
5- Building materials:
Building materials are considered one of the most important things necessary for the formation of elements,
as they reflect the nature and characteristics of this element and show how different it is from other elements
in terms of texture and color.
6-Visual perception:
moving and moving between parts of the city helps to contemplate and perceive the parts and components,
and thus a person can draw a picture in his mind of this city, and he can link relations with each other.
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The use of the behavioral

unit in the design of urban

spaces

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Definition of the behavioral unit:
The behavioral unit is a behavioral pattern of a group of individuals that affects a
small part of the built environment.
1. The behavioral unit describes human behavior in an activity in a : (specific place -
specific time) and its contributes to explaining and understanding how the spaces
of groups and individuals work.
2. The design of the spaces depends on the behavioral unit, and its success
depends on its compatibility with the local culture of the users.
3. The behavioral unit is a basis for urban analysis and design processes for those
interested in human and social behavior.

Conditions for using the behavioral unit as a unit for analysis or design:
1- Not dependent on specific people:
it does not depend on any particular person or the existence of a specific material thing for its
occurrence, but accepts the replacement of participation as long as the same behavioral roles
for individuals are maintained and in the same form.
2- Separate from the surrounding conditions:
that is, separate from the other surrounding behavioral units in terms of time and the space it
occupies despite the possibility of containing partial units within their (specific time and place).
3- It has a clear, non-random formation:
the behavioral unit has a specific structure of the relationships between its parts and the
individuals participating in it, and it can be repeated with the same formation every time.
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 Why use the

behavioral unit in

urban design?

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 The use of the behavioral unit in the design of the urban space can change the
goal of the design as it contributes to the designer’s definition of the behavior of the
users of the space and their real desires, as the design is for groups of individuals
explaining their interactions and fulfilling their expected spatial needs in the space
and thus designing the space accordingly and thus participation in the design
Through active observation and discussion.

The basic information of the design process using the behavioral unit:
In order to design using the behavioral unit, users' behaviors, types, numbers, and
age groups must be known, and the required information is as follows:

1- The number of behavioral units classified by activity.

2- The number of behavioral units classified according to the number of individuals
participating.
3 - The duration of each behavioral unit and the time expected to occur during the different
hours of the day.
4 - The activities practiced by individuals within each behavioral unit and their needs for the
place, as well as the vacuum mattresses.
5 - The spatial and temporal relationships between the different behavioral units while they
are in the vacuum
6- Special conditions that govern the vacuum such as climatic conditions or a specific time
during the day or the presence of other activity in the same space.
7- Work time for each behavioral unit and the cumulative total of time spent in all behavioral
units within the space, which is equal to the working time of all users.
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The data collected by the designer about the behavioral units is the cornerstone of
the design process, as it gives the designer a complete idea of the activities that
users want to do within the urban space, and then begins his role in making
decisions regarding the proposed design. One of the design decisions that the
designer must take is to determine the activities and the category of users to be
designed by answering two questions:
1- Should the designer allow the continuation of all the activities that have been
studied in the space that is the subject of the design.
2- Is the same formation allowed for the behavioral units that were studied with
the same number of individuals and for the same time period for each of them?
Some activities may appear in the behavioral unit as a result of the presence of
furniture in the space that encourages the activity - identifying the required activities
and the appropriate furniture for that. Desirable and therefore the goal must be
clear.
Stages of design using the behavioral unit:
1- Recognizing the users’ needs and achieving them, such as confirming the
desired behaviors and preventing unwanted behaviors.
2- Design objective: The design is compatible with the behaviors of the users of the
design, not just to find a functional design.
3- Design limits: identifying the limits of the designer’s intervention in the users’
behavior of the design, such as interfering to develop solutions such as encouraging
certain behaviors or activities, or reducing the place’s ability to receive certain
activities. 10