Design in Familiar Places: What Makes Home Environments Look Good
Editorial Reviews
Review
“The insights gained by a practicing designer researching and learning from both the academic world and from practice are rare and valuable.”–
“Writing in the vein of Kevin Lynch and Donald Appleyard, with special interest in the differing perceptions of the urban environment, Brower illustrates his theories with plenty of personal and on-the-job vignettes.”–
“This is a book that should be welcomed by many. The potential audience for this book must include architects, landscape architects, and city planners, but also park and recreation professionals, housing developers, and environmental psychologists....This is a book that deserves to be read and remembered by anyone seeking to improve the quality of life in residential environments.”–
“Practitioners and policy-makers will find Brower's 13 design guidelines easily accessible and to the point....”–
“`Looking at the environment from a resident's point of view,' which is Brower's deceptively simple prescription for more responsive design, has broad implications for the designer of any building--office, museum, or hotel--not only social architecture.”–
“Design in Familiar Places is a refreshing departure from the current trend of books in architecture, which rely on a kind of 'proof by assertion'....A very important aspect of this text is the way it celebrates perception as a creative act. The idea that perception is a personal and social construction suggests that the residents are not the passive consumers that design professionals sometimes assume....Brower's analysis helps the reader further identify the nature of the dialogue among a variety of perceptions that is needed to make and sustain a good home.”–
“. . . Brower's book raises many significant issues about territorial behavior, spatial appropriation, personalization, and caring for the environment. In particular, his work on why so many of the inner-block parks in Harlem Park were not used or cared for as expected is a model of honest evaluation of his own work which we would all do well to emulate. In fact, any planner or designer working in an urban neighborhood would do well to heed the approaches and recommendations encompassed in this book.”–
Book Description
Residents look at their neighborhood differently than visitors and designers do. The features that they see as most important can differ significantly, so that spaces that are viewed as successful by designers may be disliked by residents. Designers who hope to create successful residential environments can benefit from a more complete understanding of the residents' perspective and their priorities. This residents-eye-view is especially critical in troubled neighborhoods.
Design in Familiar Places: What Makes Home Environments Look Good
Design in Familiar Places: What Makes Home Environments Look Good,Sidney Brower,Praeger Publishers,0275926869,Architecture,Architecture, Domestic,Baltimore,Domestic,Environmental aspects,Human factors,Maryland,Residential Buildings Architecture,Architectural structure & design,Building construction & materials
Book Contents:
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