Culture, Architecture, and Design [Paperback]

Amos Rapoport (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 1, 2005

The three basic questions of EBS are (1) What bio-social, psychological, and cultural characteristics of human beings influence which characteristics of the built environment?; (2) What effects do which aspects of which environments have on which groups of people, under what circumstances, and when, why, and how?; and (3) Given this two-way interaction between people and environments, there must be mechanisms that link them. What are these mechanisms? Focusing on answers to these and other questions, "Culture, Architecture, and Design" discusses the relationship between culture, the built environment, and design by showing that the purpose of design is to create environments that suit users and is, therefore, user-oriented. Design must also be based on knowledge of how people and environments interact. Thus, design needs to respond to culture. In discussing (1) the nature and role of Environment-Behavior Studies (EBS); (2) the types of environments; (3) the importance of culture; (4) preference, choice, and design; (5) the nature of culture; (6) the scale of culture; and (7) how to make culture usable, Amos Rapoport states that there needs to be a “change from designing for one’s own culture to understanding and designing for users’ cultures and basing design on research in EBS, anthropology, and other relevant fields. Such changes should transform architecture and design so that it, in fact, does what it claims to do and! is supposed to do — create better (i.e., more supportive) environments.”

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Amos Rapoport is Distinguished Professor Emeritus in the School of Architecture and Urban Planning at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, where he was previously Professor of Architecture and Anthropology. He received his BachelorÂ’s degree in Architecture from Melbourne University (Australia), his MasterÂ’s in Architecture from Rice University as a Fulbright student, and his Postgraduate Diploma of Town and Regional Planning from the University of Melbourne. He has taught at the Universities of Melbourne and Sydney (Australia), the University of California at Berkeley, and University College London. He has held visiting appointments in Israel, Turkey, Britain, Argentina, Brazil, Canada, Puerto Rico, India, and Switzerland, among others, and has lectured by invitation all over the world. He is a registered Architect in two states in Australia, a Fellow of the Royal Australian Institute of Architects, and an Associate of the Royal Institute of British Architects. As one of the founders of the new field of Environment-Behavior Studies, RapoportÂ’s work has mainly focused on the role of cultural variables, cross-cultural studies, and theory development and synthesis. He is the editor or co-editor of four books and several monographs and the author of approximately 200 papers, chapters, and the like, as well as six books (including this one) and several monographs. His work has been translated into a number of languages, including French, Spanish, German, Greek, Japanese, Chinese, and Korean.

Product Details

• Paperback: 138 pages
• Publisher: Locke Science Publishing Co., Inc. (March 1, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0974673609
• ISBN-13: 978-0974673608
• Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 5.4 x 0.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 9.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #714,308 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars An important read, even necessary, but lacks something..., August 16, 2006

By 

James Preston "Jim Preston" (Santa Clara, CA United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Culture, Architecture, and Design (Paperback)

I'm just beginning my self-study of Environmental Behavior Research as it relates primarily to residential interior and product design. However, I have completed extensive study of architecture, interior design, product design, and working my way through rather academic books on various human centric sciences such as cultural anthropology, evolutionary psychology and neurology, etc. So much for my current study background.

This is a thin book and a rather easy read. Rapoport seems to really know his topic and he moves right along. He likes to explain his hypothesis with diagrams that have small hand printed words that are a bit awkward to read. He does support his conclusion that designing for meaning and components of culture is more important than function and form, a conclusion I reached about a year ago from other means. He proposes not designing for culture, which is unrealistic, but by breaking culture down into components and working from there. I agree with this approach after several years of working on culture and design.

He proposes a conceptual framework which I'm unsure of at this time. I'm working on my own framework with a pile of books and this book is just one of them.

I have never thought much of the architecture and interior design profession's output and after reading Rapoport it is more clear to me what they lack. Aesthetic design lacks meaning, and meaning, along with other cultural issues such as privacy, matters most.

What I miss with this book are complete end notes with a full reference section. He mostly quotes his own studies but he refers constantly to sciences outside his field but with no references to sources. Due to obvious editing problems the fault may be more with the publisher than the author. This can be a bit frustrating if you are looking for serious depth but not a big deal if you want to get a quick grasp of his concept. You could figure out the concept diagram on the cover and pretty much have the whole story, but best of luck with that approach :-)

Is this content covered by other authors such as John Zeisel in "Inquiry by Design"? I'm still studying that one and others so I don't know for sure but I don't think so. Rapoport really focuses on developing one important concept and not on all the issues of EBR.

- jim