Incorporating Environment-Behavior Knowledge into the Design Process: An Elusive Challenge for Architects in the 21st Century

This keynote speech is an attempt to point out the development of environment-behavior knowledge as potentially valuable information in the two major phases of the design cycle – namely programming and post-occupancy evaluation. The underlying constraints and enhancements are discussed in connection with various players involved in the process, as well as the emerging social concerns of designers. The concluding remarks introduce two more factors related to the intrinsic nature of human behavior – adaptation and culture – as topics for further and more intensive investigation. By gaining better understandings of the environment-behavior transactions, such formative inputs incorporated into the design process would lead to the formulation of more people-centric design guidelines.