The Impact of Environmental Design on Culture, Communication, and Community Dynamics

1. Environmental &Physical Surroundings

2. Buildings and other structures makes symbolic statements about a culture’s status, power, values. • Great Wall of China • Dubai Tower (BurjKhalifa) • Cathedrals in the Middle Ages Architecture as a form of nonverbal influence

3. The Chinese concept of fengshuiinvolves creating a harmonious balance of energy or chi. • Arrangement of graves, buildings, furnishings based on yinand yang • Addresses or house numbers • Avoid 4 • Prefer 8 • Direction of house • Avoid facing south • Arrangement of furniture • Colors in the house Fengshui

4. Fengshui

5. Las Vegas Casinos • No clocks • Loud • Bright, garish décor • Gated communities • Automated gates • walls and fences • exclusive or exclusionary? Fixed features

6. Presidential debates involve lengthy agreements that specify: • The number of debates • Locations • Staging • Question/answer format • Audience members Semi-fixed features

7. 1973 Paris Peace Accords • North Vietnam insisted on a round table • South Viet Nam insisted on a rectangular table • A compromise was reached Semi-fixed features

8. The design of a space can facilitate or inhibit communication, or facilitate some types of communication while inhibiting others • Disneyland • Shopping malls • Supermarkets • Planned communities • Sustainable living Designed environments

9. The city of Fullerton and CSUF are partnering to develop “College Town.” • The vision is described as merging college life with city life. “College Town”

10. Our surroundings affect our mood, emotions, perceptions • Maslow & Mintz (1956) compared three types of rooms: • “ugly” • “beautiful” • “average” • Participants rated photos of people more favorably when in the “beautiful” room. Everyday surroundings

11. Traditional classroom • Desks in rows • Lectern in front • Drab colors • Encourages one-to-many communication • Large lecture halls • Fixed seating • Less immediacy • Discourages participation College classrooms

12. the physical environment of a workplace greatly affects how its members interact, perform tasks, and socialize. The workplace

13. millions of Americans work in cubicles • Lack of privacy • Drab, gray fabric walls • Walls discourage conversation • Phenomenon of “prairie dogging” Cubicles or “cube farms”

14. Vinsel et al. (1980). College students’ dorm room decorations predicted the likelihood of dropping out. • Dropouts had more decorations from high school and home, fewer from the college or university. College dorm rooms

15. Arousal • How stimulated or alert we are • Pleasure • Feelings of happiness, contentment, satisfaction • Dominance • Perceptions of power, control, status Environmental variables

16. Sheriff Joe Arpaio, in Arizona, is known as America’s toughest sheriff. • He requires inmates to wear pink underwear. • Minor offenders live in tents. Dominance: Power and Control

17. Formality • Warmth • Privacy • Familiarity • Distance • (Safety) Perceptual characteristics

18. Official looking, proper, respectable • Court • Corporate boardroom • Doctors’ or dentists’soffices Formality

19. Relaxing, comfortable, friendly • Starbucks as “home office” • McCafe • Olive Garden: “When you’re here, you’re family” Warmth

20. Visibility to others • likelihood of being overheard • Enclosed environments suggest greater privacy • Partitions, booths, curtains, • First class cabin on airlines • Voting booths • Public restrooms • Tinted windows in cars Privacy

21. Known, predictable • Target, Wal-Mart have consistent floor plans • Restaurant chains Familiarity

22. Physical distance • proximity • Psychological or social distance • aloof, cold, clinical • siblings • Own room or shared? • beachgoers and spacing Distance