From natural elements, colors, climate changes, population levels, urbanism or architecture, to modern technologies, ecological interconnectedness of humans with the world and their social background. At the first sight, all the mentioned terms might seem very heterogenous and random, but truth is, that they are all elegantly connected by the scientific domain of Envirnomental Psychology. This relatively young psychological discipline was established in the 1960s and has been changing its specific focus over time. However, it is built around one particular question, which is How environment impacts our experience, behaviour and well-being, and in the same time, how do we impact the environment by our activity? By its novelty it is reacting to real and actual topics and thus it is helping us to understand human and the surrounding world. Therefore the goal of our conference is to facilitate the participants the insight to the research and erudite perspective of the leading professionals of the field and open the discussion about actual topics to the field of Psychology.

 

Let us introduce our speakers who have already confirmed their participation:

 

 

(Ph.D.) Tony Craig

Tony Craig is a senior researcher at the James Hutton Institute in Aberdeen.  He is an environmental psychologist whose research focusses on everyday pro-environmental behaviour.  He has worked on numerous large-scale research projects focussing on topics including electricity consumption, everyday environmental behaviours in large organisations, community responses to climate change, and the relationship between people and natural environments.  His current portfolio of work includes a large project aimed at understanding how to shift the Scottish population to eat a healthier, more environmentally sustainable diet. He is the president of the International Association for People-Environment Studies.

Making time for environmentally friendly behaviour

As reports like the recent IPCC report make absolutely clear, the global environmental problems we face as a civilization require people to do things differently. Something needs to change.  The status quo (i.e. business as usual thinking) is no longer considered to be a particularly useful way to plan for positive future.  However, saying that is one thing, but changing things is quite another.  Change at the level of policymaking tends to be frustratingly slow, and often involves a large degree of compromise to balance competing interests.  Against this backdrop there is a growing recognition that the everyday life of people – the stuff that we all do as we muddle along living our lives – is an extremely important component of this puzzle that has not been given as much attention as it arguably deserves until relatively recently.   This talk will discuss research focussed on understanding everyday pro-environmental behaviour, with a particular focus on the spatial and temporal contexts in which everyday behaviour occurs.  In this modern world where it can sometimes feel like no-one has any time any more, it is important to stop and ask the question, “where is the time to behave environmentally going to come from”?

 

(Ph.D.) Dak Kopec

Dak Kopec is an Associate Professor in the School of Architecture at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. Dak has authored several books used by interior design educators including three editions of Environmental Psychology for Design. He is a two-time Polsky Prize winner, is credited with researching, developing and administering the first low residency graduate program focused on designs for human health at the Boston Architectural College, and has been awarded honorary Fellowship to ASID (Hon.FASID).  

Dak served as a Visiting Professor at the University of Hawaii with a joint position in the schools of architecture and medicine, was listed as a Fulbright Specialist, and subsequently served two terms as a Fulbright Reviewer, and was appointed by Governor Neil Abercrombie to the health and planning council. He’s been invited to Costa Rica and Qatar twice to discuss different topics related to health and wellbeing, and to Taiwan to discuss trends toward health and wellbeing. In 2017 Dak won IDEC’s Community Service Award for the design of a group home for people with developmental disabilities and early onset Dementia. Today Dak is calling upon his diverse educational background in Health Sciences, Psychology and Architecture to promote interdisciplinary and person-centered design.

Interior Design and Behavioral Outcomes of People with A Developmental Disability

The environment that surrounds us reflects and informs the way we behave and how we see ourselves. For the person who has a developmental disability, the influences of the surrounding environment can be more profound due to compromises in their cognitive filters. The result is that the person with a developmental disability may amplify or diminish essential raw data obtained from their physical and social environments.

Factors when developing environments for individuals who suffer from a developmental disability include provisions for basic biological urges, needs for social inclusion, and self-determination. This presentation will demonstrate methods to hinder socially unacceptable biological urges while concurrently providing designed elements that afford maximum self-determination. As natural as it would seem, the physical environment that surrounds a person has a direct relationship to a person’s level of confidence, which then corresponds to levels of socialization. However, self-determination plays a significant role in the formation of the physical surroundings, and consideration for unintended consequences must be a factor for consideration.

This presentation will demonstrate how biological, social, and environmental factors come together in one environmental design for an organization that provides habilitation day care services to a low-income community of people affected with a developmental disability. This design will demonstrate how the environment can inhibit mal behaviors while complimenting social learning methods for optimal social behaviors.

Presentation Objectives:

By the end of this presentation the participants will be able to:

1. Discuss the social needs of a person with a developmental disability.
2. Identify factors that impede optimal social integration for a person with a developmental disability.
3. Analyze the role of the built environment when providing treatment or services to people affected by a developmental disability.
4. Recall specific design measures that can be adapted to complimentary environments that serve people with developmental disabilities.

Identify three reasons why consideration for design should be as part of the rehabilitation and habilitation process for people who have a developmental disability.

 

(Prof.) Gerhard Reese

Gerhard Reese is Professor of Environmental Psychology at the University of Koblenz-Landau in South-West Germany. He studied at the universities of Erfurt, Jena (Germany) and Canterbury (UK), and completed his PhD in 2010. In his research he investigates psychological predictors and barriers of sustainable action as well as the effect of Globalization on our identities and actions.

Responding to Global Challenges – Identity, Place, and Global Citizenship

It is wide consensus that human activity is one of the main reasons for climate change and environmental degradation. A broad literature on psychological factors determining pro-environmental action and support for corresponding policies depicts the various pathways to understanding individuals’ responses to the challenges of a worsening environment. However, many of these approaches tend to underestimate the importance of individuals’ social embeddedness in human groups and global societies. In this talk, I will thus focus on a helpful feature of the human species – their ability to think, perceive, and act on behalf of groups. Specifically, I will present recent conceptual as well as empirical work on how social identities affect our pro- (and anti-) environmental actions on different levels of identification and culture. Further research provokes the idea of an encapsulating global identity (i.e., global citizenship) as a potential source of sustainable action in a globalized world. Findings will be discussed in the background of their policy implications and their potential role in a systemic analysis of climate change mitigation.

 

(Prof.) Ricardo Antonio García Mira

Ricardo García Mira is a Full Professor of Social Psychology at the University of A Coruna, Spain, where he leads the People-Environment Research Group from 1995. He has conducted applied research in environmental issues during the last 25 years. He is also a Visiting Professor (2016-2020) at the Institute for Policy Research of the University of Bath, UK. He was elected as a Fellow of the International Association of Applied Psychology (IAAP) in 2018, and he was invested Doctor Honoris Causa by the University ‘Alexandru Ioan Cuza’ of Iasi, Romania, in 2018. Recent finished research: Funded by the European Commission FP7 and Horizon-2020 programmes, he has been the Project Coordinator of the GLAMURS project (2014-2016), as well as the LOCAW project (2011-2013), and a partner of the TRANSIT project (2014-2017). Current research: He is a partner in the European research Consortia: CONNECTING on Nature Based Solutions for Cities, and SMARTEES on Energy Efficiency and Social Innovation. He was the President of the International Association for People-Environment Studies (IAPS) (2014-2018) and he is the current President of the Institute for Psychosocial Research and Studies “Xoan Vicente Viqueira”. European Editor of the Journal of Architectural and Planning Research. In the last years he was elected a Member of the Parliament of Spain (2015-2019), where he was the Spokesman in the Commission for the Study of Climate Change.

Applied research for sustainability transitions and its influence in policy: The role of environmental psychology

The role of Psychology in giving responses to key societal challenges is becoming more widely recognized within the broader field of Environmental Sciences and the study of the impact of climate change in urban societies. A number of research areas have provided very useful conceptual frameworks and methodologies both for better understanding some theoretical aspects of global problems, and for exploring the humanenvironment interactions. This presentation will make an overview about the links between research and policy, as well as the constraints existing for carrying out political action in a context of complexity, analyzing the difficulties to achieve a certain degree of social responsibility. I will also analyze how the field of environmental psychology has evolutioned in Europe, including a reference to some research areas on the experience, meaning and management of the urban space, trying to throw some light for better understanding the nature of relation between applied research and political action. The development of public participation models for decision making in the planning and management of sustainability, the discussion of human factors involved in transitions to sustainable societies, the analysis of environmental risk, and the study of psychological processes involved in spatially and temporally situated human behaviour has been an important theme in our environmental psychology research over the last two decades. By analyzing these different trends in research within a European context, this work intends to give an overview of key developments in sustainability research as well as to highlight some of the important contributions environmental psychologists have made in this context within a framework of transdisciplinary collaboration.

 

(Dra.) Zenith Nara Costa Delabrida

My research focuses on the study of the relation between person-environment, especially the influence of collective environments, public environments, promotion of pro-environmental behavior and social skills. My extension activity focus on rural communities for local development and technology for mental health. My classroom teaching is on methods in psychology and on environmental psychology. Under my supervision I have master students developing proposals to make environmental education a global concept and to make the restorative environment studies inclusive for disable individuals. I am the President of Brazilian Association of Environmental Psychology and Person-Environment Relationships (2018-2021) and I am visting fellow in the University of East Anglia, UK (April-July 2019).

Traditionally in science, you considerer that you know something if you are capable to convince another scientist that you have correctly applied the scientific method. However, another way to prove that you know is testing your knowledge in the real world with practical problems. We will attempt to demonstrate the possibility of application to Environmental Psychology the Lewin’s proposal that the practical appliance of the theoretical concepts make the intervention more capable to achieve results likewise the application of the theoretical concepts can lead to a corroboration or disconfirmation of the theory. On the other hand, to make interventions it is important understand the role of the conception of what the environment is. The literature argues that maybe we are going in the direction of understand that we are environmental in the last point because we are made of water and mineral. When we understand it, it will not necessary anymore think about environmental problems as something separately from us. It will be seen as a gestalt. Sartre said that chose yourself is chose the humanity, we propose that chose the environment is chose ourselves.

 

(Prof.) Mirilia Bonnes

Professor of  Social and Environmental Psychology, Founder and first Director of Centre for Inter-university Research on Environmental Psychology (CIRPA ) at Sapienza University of  Rome. Author of many international scientific publications, including volumes, on several topics of environmental psychology, ranging from architectural psychology to conservation psychology focussed on sustainability issues. Long time Collaborator of UNESCO Program of Ecological Sciences, Man and Biosphere(MAB),  also as Chair of the Italian MAB Committee. Board Member of several international scientific associations and periodicals, Organizer of several international scientific Meetings, Symposia and Conferences in the domain.   

Environmental Psychology: past and present developments

The main peculiarities of environmental psychology as a specific research domain of psychology are outlined, by pointing out its historical and geographical roots, its main conceptual frameworks and related research topics, from its early beginning to the present developments. This, by looking at both sides, (i) on one hand, to the psychological tradition - ranging from perception studies to social and ecological psychology - and (ii), on the other hand, to several other environmental sciences and technical fields, outside the psychological domain, ranging from architectural and urban design to bio-ecology and sustainability sciences . The main inputs coming from these various domains, for the developments of the field during these decades, are pointed out; these, ranging from the early and more place-based, architectural psychology to the more recent and ecology-based, psychology for sustainability issues, or conservation psychology. Within these general trends, some peculiarities of the environmental psychology development in Italy, during the last 30 years, are also briefly illustrated and discussed.

 

(Prof.) Marino Bonaiuto

Marino Bonaiuto, Sapienza Università di Roma. Full Professor Social Psychology (Faculty Medicine and Psychology). Director CIRPA – Centre Interuniversity Research in Environmental Psychology – (2011-). President master degree Psychology of communication and marketing (2011-). 

Coordination scientific research units in public national (Ministry of Research) or international (EC 6th and 7th FP, H2020) grants, and research projects funded by private companies. 200+ publications (in international or national journals, book's chapters, edited or authored volumes) and 200+ contributions in congresses.

Consultant in environmental and architectural psychology (residences, healthcare, offices, nature, etc.); and previously in work and organizational psychology (selection, assessment, development, organizational behaviours, communication, etc.). 

Co-organizer 20th international conference of IAPS (Roma, 2008) and STEP3 summer school (Sardinia, 2015). IAAP Fellow award for environmental psychology (2018).

Understanding environment impacts on people via environmental psychology: three basic principles.

Aim and Significance: Increasing evidence describes significant instances of urban environment impact on people. The field of environmental psychology aims to systematically study how the places people study, work, heal, and live in can exert crucial effects, by carefully detailing such consequences: from individual’s cognition to her/his affect and behaviour. By briefly overviewing some of the main projects carried out or still ongoing at CIRPA, as well as examples from broader literature, the aim is to show that when a specific urban place (whether workplace or school, hospital or residential neighbourhood, etc.) improves (vs impoverishes) a urban quality (whether natural, built, functional, social), specific positive

(vs negative) consequences derive at various levels, by considering different target users too.

Method: The main option is survey, by means of questionnaire and multivariate analyses; in some cases, field or laboratory experiments test specific cause-effects relations.

Results: All presented results demonstrate specific effects of urban planning and urbanization features on people well-being: sometimes these effects can be main and direct, some other times they can be mediated and moderated by other variables. A meaningful process and outcome framework for environment’s features and person’s features is proposed on the basis of three main principles characterizing the relevant scientific knowledge. 1) The structure of the environment-person effect: valence, generalizability, set (positive, general, simple vs. negative, relative, cumulative effects). 2) The process of the environment-person effect: direct and indirect (mediated) effects. 3) The timing of the environmentperson effect: short and long-term exposure, with immediate and chronic effects (spill-over and cross-systems). Some examples are offered to illustrate each case, across a range of different methods.

 

Inês Alves

Inês Alves (Portugal, b. 1989) is a London based photographer and has previously completed an MA in Photography at London College of Communication.
Inês’ photographic practice explores the relationship between people and the space we inhabit. Her work examines the way we behave publicly and socially. It challenges the preconceptions usually expected of us as a community. The street is frequently at the centre of her practice, as a theme and as a location — it is where we can study the nature of human beings and test their limits.

 

Aline Barlet

Doctor in Environmental Psychology, Aline BARLET has also a Master Degree of Architectural and Urban Acoustic. She teaches the sustainability issue, comfort and atmospheres from the physical and the psychological points of view, at the Higher national school of architecture and landscape of Bordeaux (Ensap-Bx). She is researcher at the GRECCAU Research Group, which she is in charge since 2017. Supervising PhDs on these subject, she participates in more than twenty national and international research projects in the fields of comfort, territorial consultation, sustainability and design. She also works as a private consultant.

Sustainability as principal link between architecture and psychology

Why choose after a PhD in environmental psychology to teach and to conduct researches in an architecture school? Perhaps to have a direct impact on users' living spaces, a role in the ecological performance of architectural and urban designs, in sum to feel useful.

But, what does environmental psychology bring to future architects and to architecture? It allows, for example, to:

• understand how man interacts with the environment by studying essential notions (perception, representation, evaluation, attitude and behaviour);
• become aware, beyond the physical components, of the subjective aspects of comfort;
• know and master territorial dialogue processes and integrate the points of view of the various actors, in particular by recognizing the user expertise;
• adopt ecological values leading to liveable, viable, reasonable and equitable spaces;
• understand certain ecological projects’ underperformance of and to learn from it.

All these contributions have to be consider in the design process to place man at the heart of architectural and urban projects, still too often seen as artistic and technical expressions.

Teaching and reaserching in an architecture school can be a way to influence production of future generations and to promote a real perceptible ecological transition in practices and projects.

 

Cecilie Breinholm Christensen

Cecilie Breinholm Christensen holds an MA. in architecture, a minor in psychology and is doing her PhD on Mobilities Design, focusing on the Metro of Copenhagen and the interplay between its spatial setting, design and human embodied practices. To study this, she uses traditional ethnographic methods in combination with new tracking technologies such as eye‐tracking glasses. She is affiliated with the Department of Architecture, Design and Media Technology, Aalborg University, and has a general research interest in how humans inhabit and make sense of their material surroundings.

Underground transport is often characterised by a functionalistic design with the intention to provide efficient transportation from point A to point B. However, it is also an urban public space that people inhabit through their movements and dwelling. From such a perspective, this talk will present a PhD study on the Metro of Copenhagen aiming at understanding capacity related issues in the Metro. Specifically, the aim is to understand the role of the spatial setting of the Metro, the agencies and affordances of its architecture and design, in relation to the human embodied practices of the people, who inhabit and use the Metro. In so doing, the study takes point of departure in a pragmatic approach to analyse situations in the Metro and trying to unfold how they come together as an assemblage of their spatial setting, embodied practices and social interactions. The overall aim of the PhD study is to create knowledge that in turn can inform the design of underground transport both as efficient transportation, but also as good urban spaces for the people that use it.

 

Thomas Brudermann

Thomas Brudermann is the programme director of the Joint International Master’s Programme in Sustainable Development at University of Graz.

He has been working as a researcher and lecturer for various national and international research institutions, such as International Institute for Applied System Analysis, Vienna University of Economics and Business, University of Klagenfurt and University of Graz. He also has been a visiting researcher at the National Institute for Environmental Studies (NIES), Japan, visiting faculty at Asian Institute of Technology (AIT), Thailand, and guest lecturer at Vytautas Magnus University, Lithuania.

He has a background in informatics and economic psychology, and his current research focusses on decision making and decision analysis related to sustainability and innovation research.

Decision Making and the Environment (Alternative title: Human Decisions and Climate Change)

Human decisions cause a variety of environmental impacts, including biodiversity loss, radical changes in biochemical flows, or climate change. These impacts pose an unprecedented challenge to society. Adaptation and mitigation strategies addressing these impacts will require public acceptance on national and global scales as well as international cooperation. A transitions towards “sustainable societies” will hardly be a linear and straight-forward process.

Understanding human decision making – including decisions made by citizens, organizations and households – is a key to develop effective and feasible strategies for sustainable development. This lecture will give an overview on how insights from environmental psychology and related fields add to the understanding of human decisions, and how the formulation of sustainability strategies may benefit from these insights

 

Prof. Dr. Ebru CUBUKCU

Prof. Dr. Ebru CUBUKCU is the Professor of City and Regional Planning Department in the Faculty of Architecture, Dokuz Eylul University, Izmir, TURKEY. She received her PhD from The Ohio State University, US, in the year 2003. Amongst the list of selected honors she received includes, PhD Scholarship to Study Abroad, Higher Education Association, Prime Ministry of Turkish Republic, (1998-2002), The Ohio Commendation Medal, Ohio, US., (2004); Award for Excellence in Teaching, The Graduate School of Natural and Applied Sciences, Dokuz Eylul University (2010). Her research interests focus on human behavior and physical environment, perception and cognition in virtual environments, post occupancy evaluation, environmental aesthetics, creativity and walkability. Currently, amongst others, she is conducting a long-term research project on active living and environmental determinants of physical activity supported by The Scientific and Technological Research Council of Turkey (TUBİTAK). Her other research projects are funded by Scientific Research Projects at Dokuz Eylul University and Izmir Development Agency. She has been serving in the editorial board of Archnet – International Journal of Architectural Research since 2010, and Asian Journal of Environment Behavior Studies since 2009, Housing and Built Environment since 2018. She has reviewed papers for various journals and conference proceedings including, The Environmental Design Research Association (EDRA), Color Research and Application, Building and Environment, Environment and Planning B, Gazi University Journal of Science, Journal of Housing and Built Environment.

Short Abstract: In 2007 a private firm in Seattle, Washington began to measure and publish walkability maps of cities, neighborhoods, and streets via “walkscore.com”. Although “walkscore” have been criticized for its parameters, it has been used in urban design to create better environments for all and to design better environments which encourages people to walk more in cities. Besides those maps influence house values in cities and can be used to provide the most pleasurable routes (instead of the shortest  route) in cities when one needs to travel from one destination to another. Such maps have been published for developed countries and they are based on various parameters. However the parameters that influence walkability in cities may change from one culture to another. No such initiative has been undertaken in developing countries. This study aims to introduce and discuss an alternative model to measure walkability on street level via Geographic Information Systems (GIS). About 12000 street segments in Izmır, Turkey (third largest city in Turkey) have been digitized. A walkability score (based on street networks, landuse, environmental aesthetic, traffic safety,  perceived safety in the neighbourhood etc. ) for each street segment was measured via GIS and its extension Spatial Design Network Analysis (SDNA). Walkability maps of the selected case area was produced and whether those maps are parallel to people’s choice of active transportation (behavior) was investigated. Data on 185 participant’s travel behavior was  gathered via travel surveys, GPS and accelerometer devices. Results show that those maps are valid in predicting people’s choice of active travel (walk).

  

Dr. Fiona de Vos

Fiona de Vos is a pioneer on environmental psychology and healing environments in the Netherlands. She is the founder and owner of Studio dVO (1996), a small consulting and research firm specialized in the interaction between the built environment and people. Her mission is to improve the fit between healthcare settings and its users, in order to enhance healing and wellbeing, and to improve a healthcare organization’s clinical outcomes, economic performance, productivity, and customer satisfaction. Studio dVO works closely with (healthcare) organizations, architects, and interior designers to improve environments by incorporating essential psychological considerations. Fiona de Vos is specialized in the programming and evaluation of healthcare settings. In working closely with patients, visitors and staff she helps organizations to create environments that better suit the needs of their users. As an independent researcher she evaluates the strengths and weaknesses of healthcare settings in order to improve the efficiency and satisfaction of staff and wellbeing of patients and visitors. De Vos received her Ph.D. (2006) in Environmental Psychology on Healing Environments at the Graduate Center of the City University of New York. Fiona has published three books, teaches at different Dutch Universities and is a speaker and consultant on healthcare design and healing environments in Europe and the United States.

Beyond cosmetics: Improve well-being and health by adding psychology to design in hospitals.

Preferred contribution is presentation of 45 – 60 min in large lecture room

Creating an environment that enhances wellbeing and independence for patients families and staff in hospitals requires a true understanding of the impact the environment has. The psychological impact of the environment cannot be underestimated. A building can enhance or diminish users’ efficiency, well-being and satisfaction. It pays off to really dig in and add psychological insights to the design process. The attention, time, and devotion spent early in the design process will result in a building that actually ‘fits’; a place where people flourish.

This session will provide two basic principles of environmental psychology that are essential in understanding the interaction between people and the environment. Examples of applying these two principles will be shared. Next a theoretical model on holistic healing environments will be given that can be used as a starting point when defining a vision and strategic objectives for building a hospital. From there, eight dimensions for creating a healing environment will be introduced as a tool to develop a behavioral program of requirements and to evaluate existing hospitals. The session will conclude with sharing the benefits of adding psychology to design such as improving a healthcare organization’s clinical outcomes, economic performance, productivity, and customer satisfaction and a reflection on the design process and ways to engage communities to improve this process and the end product: a building that better fits.

Objectives

• Test your assumptions. Assuming we know how users will respond to design features is no longer enough. Verify and use available knowledge.
• Understand the benefits of knowing the specific design-behavior relationship for patients, families and staff.
• Apply the model and 8 dimensions of healing environment when designing a hospital.
• Learn how to improve the design process in order to create a building that better suits the needs of its users.

 

Marine DEMANGE 

Urbanist, graduated from the Urbanism Institute of Bordeaux (France) and, since 2017, independent interior designer in Barcelona (Spain), I specialised in wellness and ways of enjoying space through a sensitive and sensory approach.

My latest research has focused on considering this approach in adapting public spaces to face the current challenge of an aging population.

The consideration of emotions and perceptions in the design process, through a transdisciplinary methodology, is now a central part of my work.

Psychology applied to architecture and urban planning: Representation of the city by the senses and manufacture of the senses by the city

Well-being, lifestyle quality and sustainability, represent a set of specific preoccupations to this century. In this quest, a radical transformation of our relationship to the environment is needed to end with architectural and urban spaces until now thought under the only influence of a rationalist current, responsible for the functional sterilization of our environment.

However, this same environment is made up of sounds, materials, colours, uses and forms that affect us, acting on our well-being and our behaviour. The relationship between humans and the environment has a very important sensory, affective and emotional dimension.

As you have understood, thinking about quality and sustainable developments implies understanding and apprehending the subjective relationship between users and the environment.

But the question is worth asking: what place does architectural and urban conception give to sensations?

We think in error that we cultivate urban and architectural experiences exclusively visual because it is the dimension that predominates in the representation and memory that we make of these spaces.

Beyond the sight, consider all the sensory perceptions generated by our environment requires a different spatial approach to capture, transcribe, and use these invisible images of the city to design spaces that are responsive to users' needs.

 

Majd Gharib

My name is Majd Gharib. I have a BA in Architecture from Al Ba’ath University, Syria, and I obtained a MSc in Construction from Izhevsk State Technical University, Russia.

In my master studies, I noticed the lack of design considerations based on psychological factors in urban reconstruction which is specifically important in post-war reconstruction. I addressed this gap in my project and proposed guidelines to include psychological factors in the post-war urban planning and design strategies.

Later I met Prof. Jan A. Golembiewski and Prof. Ahmed A. Moustafa, both are well-known in research regarding architecture and neuropsychology, and they were interested in my work, which led to scientific cooperation that resulted in writing the paper that I will be discussing in this conference. It was published in 2017.

He worked as an Architect for three years at Arkhstroyinvest, a leading architectural bureau in Izhevsk, Russia, then he started working remotely about a year ago for the US based company Cognitive Design in Atlanta, GA, and he is still currently working there as Research and Design Consultant. 

I worked as an Architect for three years at Arkhstroyinvest, a leading architectural bureau in Izhevsk, Russia, then I started working remotely about a year ago for the US based company Cognitive Design in Atlanta, GA, and I am still currently working there as Research and Design Consultant.

“Mental health and urban design – zoning in on PTSD”.

The review firstly explores the relationship between mental health and urban design, pursuing the role of urban design in both health promotion and illness prevention against the mental illness epidemics, by conducting a comprehensive literature search; secondly, a systematic literature search is conducted to explore the relationship between urban design and posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) specifically. Apparently, health in general and urban design do share a solid history, however, even though mental health/urban design relationship has been increasing over the past 20, they seem to share a weak historical relationship, and even recent research that tries to define links between the two is still preliminary. On the other hand, a gap in knowledge can be addressed regarding the relationship between PTSD and urban design.

 

Caroline Hägerhäll

Caroline Hägerhäll, has MSc and PhD degrees in Landscape Architecture and is currently professor in environmental psychology at the Dept. of Work Science, Business Economics and Environmental Psychology at the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences in Sweden. 

Her research covers perception and experience of outdoor spaces and natural patterns and the connection to preference and wellbeing. Her work on landscape perception is interdisciplinary/cross-disciplinary and covers both theoretical and practical approaches to human-environment transactions.

Environmental experience beyond the urban – nature dichotomy

There is a convincing body of theory and research showing that experiencing nature have positive effects on human health and well-being. However, most studies apply a broad and relatively vague definition of nature. Furthermore, the qualities of nature is often assessed in the context of comparing them with urban built environments. Although this broad and comparative approach has given insights on a general level, it neglects the fact that people experience a more broad set of environments in their everyday life and the effects of variation and detailed content of environments is understudied. Going beyond a nature vs urban and green vs grey dichotomy in research can promote new theoretical development and understanding as well as increase the relevance and impact of results in planning and design practises. This talk will discuss the effects of nature on people by giving examples of empirical research departing from structural properties of nature or comparisons of content and variation within scene types. The presentation will also look into the future and discuss how the development in sensor technology and experience sampling techniques in real life settings could change the scene.

 

Andreas Homburg

Andreas Homburg is professor and Head of the Psychology School at the Hochschule Fresenius, Wiesbaden, Germany (University of Applied Sciences). His Research interests are: (1) Description, analysis, and promotion of environmentally friendly and sustainable behaviours in various contexts (local authorities, companies, households, universities, schools). (2) Evaluation Research (e.g Evaluation ofinterventions with the objective of encouraging energy-efficient behaviour). He is co-editor of the journal "Umweltpsychologie".

Further information/examples for his work see here.

 

Tomáš Chabada

Tomáš Chabada is a Ph.D. student and researcher at the Department of Environmental Studies at the Faculty of Social Studies at Masaryk University. He has participated on various projects mapping relationships of Czech people towards nature and environment, their environmental attitudes and behaviour. In his dissertation, he analyses attitudes and behaviour of Czech public related to the climate change and their determinants.

Climate attitudes and behaviour of the Czech public 

The lecture will provide an overview of attitudes and behaviour of Czech public related to the climate change. This overview will build upon recent representative surveys focused on the topic of climate change. Czech society will be compared with other European societies based on the internationally organised surveys, such as Eurobarometer and European Social Survey.

Attitudes towards the climate change could be determined by various social factors, such as socio-demographic variables, but also by various cultural factors, such as value orientations, political attitudes, and environmental beliefs. Determinant factors identified within the Czech public will be compared with the results of previous international studies.  Last part of the lecture will introduce how we could segment Czech public according to their climate related behaviour. Cluster analysis of survey “Czech public and climate change 2015” identified five segments of the Czech public that differ in their current climate behaviour and their willingness to implement such behaviour in the future. These are Greens, Promising, Domestic, Passive and Sceptical segments, which also differ in terms of sociodemographic and other socio-cultural variables.

 

Ondřej Kácha

Ondřej Kácha is MPhil student in Social Psychology in the Department of Psychology at the University of Cambridge and a member of the Cambridge Social Decision-Making Lab. His research interests include cooperation in social dilemmas such as climate change and human-environment interactions. Prior to Cambridge, Ondřej worked as a behavioural scientist at IdeaSense and received his MA in Psychology from the Masaryk University in the Czech Republic.

Dismantling the ignorance: four practical insights from psychological science to increase public engagement with climate change

While the great majority of Europeans believe that climate change is happening, most of them are not strongly concerned about the issue. Why do we ignore what might be the most difficult challenge our society has ever faced? Psychologists have long studied how people deal with problems that are abstract and distant in time and space, such as climate change. In short - we do poorly. In my talk I will explore social and cognitive roots of people’s ignorance towards the changing climate. I will then present several insights from psychological science that were successfully applied to improve public engagement in a range of proenvironmental behaviours – including electricity saving, water conservation and reducing production of carbon dioxide. These realworld examples add to the growing body of evidence that applying insights from psychology can help in reducing our destructive ignorance towards the climate change. This offers a tremendous opportunity for psychologists to engage with policy makers and environmental agencies, using their knowledge to spark the much-needed public action.

 

Mgr. et Mgr. Šárka Křepelková

Student and lecturer of Ecopsychology and Experiential Learning.

The aim of my PhD study at Environmental studies at Masaryk University is the field of ecopsychology, specifically a development of the relationship to nature and its influence on child expression and behavior. I combine experience and pedagogy together. I lecture topics related to the creation of the relationship to nature and the application of experiential learning into environmental education. For more than ten years, I have devoted to experiential learning especially at the Vacation School Lipnice. I evaluate environmental education programs.

Children’s contact with nature has recently been a frequent topic of environmental education articles and conferences. The need for relevant information in this area arises in the context of popularizing the topic based on the concern that children spend boldly less time in nature in comparison with the past, and on the contrary, the time that children nowadays spend on screens grows.

The studies show why it is good to spend a time with children in nature, what benefits contact with nature brings and what are the consequences for their future conservation behavior. The theoretical studies assume, and the empirical ones confirm that nature has a positive effect on the human psyche and affects the experience and behavior of the individual. There are many studies that explore the aspects of the impact of contact with nature on a child's experience and they usually differ in their focus. Researches are devoted specifically to the cognitive aspects of personality and the development of the child's emotional sensitivity. Another field is the level of self-competence, competence and self-sufficiency due to acquired skills, degree of discipline and selfcontrol. The aim of this paper is to present the key findings of these studies.

 

Igor Kytka

Igor studies psychology at Charles University in Prague, Czech Republic. He is a researcher at The University Centre for Energy Efficient Buildings of The Czech Technical University in Prague. He is a member of the Participatory Planning and Design team. 

Psychologist among technicians. Cooperation with architects, urbanists or software developers and energy experts that defines his fields of interest. From the psychological perspectives he looks for opportunities of cross-field cooperation. He takes part in two national research projects aimed at user research in energy distribution and e-mobility.

Psychologist in the buildings’ design process

"First life, then spaces, then buildings – the other way around never works." by Jan Gehl

Psychologists with their skills and knowledge in the field of user research can contribute to design better buildings. When communication with technical professionals is also mastered, psychologists can become equal partners to architects and urbanists in design process. Buildings should serve to people thus the understanding of users’ behaviour, needs, motivation, values and other psychological phenomena is fundamental.

During the workshop participants will work on a real-life project – Community Centre – using user research and participatory design methods that are used in the introductory phase of the design process.

 

My Lunsjö

My Lunsjö is a building architect and urban planner working in Copenhagen, Denmark. On top of her masters degree in architecture she has an additional master in environmental psychology, and therefore a cross-disciplinary approach focusing on the application of theoretical knowledge into concrete design projects.

My Lunsjö has five years of work experience from architectural studios, and has recently changed employment to the City of Copenhagen. Here she will integrate knowledge from environmental psychology into real life design processes and challenges within the society. 

Integration of knowledge from the field of environmental psychology into architectural design processes.

Research in the field of environmental psychology contains a great amount of knowledge about the relationship between people and their socio-physical context – from how the context impact their activities, to how it influences their health and well-being. However, most often architects working in practices are unaware about this academic knowledge, and hence base their design decisions on their own understanding, experience and intuitive preferences, rather than an evidence-based knowledge of how their design influence and engage the users.

Many environmental psychology researchers agree that the knowledge from the field is currently not being implemented to a satisfying level in the creation and maintenance of the everyday physical environments in our societies.

What are the main obstacles for incorporation of academic knowledge into architectural design processes? How can we create clear strategies for the integration of environmental psychology research into architectural practice? How could the framework for collaborations between architects/designers and psychologists look?

 

Michal Matloň

Michal studied applied psychology at Comenius University in Bratislava. He explores how architecture and environment affect our thinking, feeling and behavior. He contributes to creation of spaces enabling people to be healthier, feel better, create communities, and fulfill their potential. Michal currently works for a real estate developer HB Reavis, where he advises on human-focused design principles. In the past, he also worked in the fields of technology, photography, journalism and branding, creating a pool of multidisciplinary knowledge he uses today.

How can psychologists make office design better for humans?

In today's office design, there are multiple pressures influencing the decisions about workplace design. There’s a constant cost-saving pressure by operational and finance people, often focused on short-term financials. There are the managers, voicing the needs of their departments, as well as projecting their own ideas about how a workplace should look like. Then there are the architects, bringing their creative and problem-solving input. For a psychologist, coming today into this already lively discussion, there’s a question – how to fit in here? Although we are still creating (or rather re-creating) our role in architecture and design, there’s a lot we can contribute. We can help create spaces where people will feel better, have better mental health and even do a better job at their work. Our knowledge can benefit both the people and companies employing them. I will show you what are the topics and problems you can help solve as a psychologist and inspire you with practical examples of how psychology can be applied in office design and architecture.

 

Mgr. Jana Merhautová

Mgr. Jana Merhautová (born 1964).  A founder and director of the Eco Art Therapy Institute Private practice: Art psychotherapist, supervisor, lecturer of accredited courses and training. The academic education at the Charles University of Prague, at the Faculty of Humanistic  - graduated the Master's degree in Supervision. Psycho-therapeutic education in the field of art therapy: a deep-oriented psychotherapy focused on art therapy.  The Institute of Global Education - Applied Eco-psychology - Project Nature Connect USA -  the Ph.D study programme. Foundation of accredited educational institution with many programs for social services (in 2008) accredited by The Ministry of Labour and Social Work of The Czech Republic and by the Ministry of Education  of the Czech Republic with training programs focused on Eco Art Therapy and Eco Artefiletic (awarded Trademark by Industrial Property Office). Shee works with the ECO ART principle, which is an innovative psycho-therapeutic direction, based on an artistic way of self-expression in nature, strong experiences in it, and imaginative psycho-therapeutic techniques. Member of the Committee of the Czech Art Therapy Association with guaranteed membership, where she is also an accredited supervisor. Member of the EUROTAS European Transpersonal Association, included in the National Register of the Independent Social Services Experts. Externally,  she teaches at the Faculty of Humanistic Studies of the Charles University in Prague "Creative Approaches in Supervision" and at  the Faculty of Arts  " Author´s work  as a Psyche Projection Screen". Currently she is preparing a project  called the "Psyche Wellness" in the National Park Czech Switzerland.

Eco Art Therapy - landscape as a human`s psyche projection screen

The lecture introduces the innovative psychotherapeutic method called the Eco Art Therapy, which connects the art therapy with the ecopsychology and transpersonal psychology. The method has been taken place in the environment of the protected Elbe Sandstone Landscape, the Elbe Canyon, and the Czech Switzerland National Park. We have alienated ourselves from the nature for a long time. Our healthy mechanisms stopped working a long time ago. Statistics of civilization diseases, including psychiatric diseases, are inexorable. Our relationship to the nature is often completely neglected. Many people feel that they are not affected by any environmental threats. Now is very trendy just to have fun, entertainment and amusement.  Yet there is a considerable part of our population that is eager to live in a different way.  They are not indifferent to the fate of the planet or the fate of humanity. After 25 years of my psychotherapeutic practice, I have recorded many positive results on a human psyche using wildlife and spontaneous artistic self-expression as a treatment. This treatment requires stepping out from our comfort zone and conventional ways of self-knowledge.

The Eco Art Therapy method is based on having deep experiences in nature, when we learn to perceive her in details, accept her archaic powers, and establish a personal empathic relationship with the nature. This creates an opportunity to establish an empathic relationship with others too.

The landscape creates a projection screen of our psyche; it can show us how our personality functions, where our strengths or weaknesses are, but also helps us to find a right direction if we do not know where to go. We are working with Dr. Cohen studies about senses, who described 54 human senses. Discovering these senses is the way to come back to a healthier functioning of our body and psyche.

 If we are in a deep harmony with the nature and its inner wisdom, it can helps us to support a deeper meaning of our existence as well. Therapeutic stays in wild have healing potentials and they are strongly transformative. We are touching our inner selves and often discovering our deepest desires during these stays. We encourage very much self-expression in a non-rational way. We also emphasize on personal experience, freeing up accumulated unexpressed emotions and opening our own creativity and spontaneity.

Emotionally strong places in wild nature awaken the wildest forces in us that we normally are not in contact with. They can help us to reconcile with our thoughts, values, and beliefs, and not to search help from the outside world but to rely on our own resources. Nature is our best teacher if we let her to teach us. When we listen to her, we strengthen our immune system, our mental health and the healthiest parts too.

The result of this work is our need to live in harmony with the nature, to protect her, to take real responsibility and to perform our talents. Bringing a spiritual dimension to our life and giving a true meaning to it.

 

Ana Mirea

Ana Mirea, now based in London, graduated from “Ion Mincu” Faculty of Architecture and Urbanism of Bucharest-Faculty of Architecture in March 2016 but also studied for a semester as an Erasmus student at Universita Degli Studi di Palermo, Facolta di Architettura, in 2014. Currently, she is a Ph.D. Student, at the same university where she graduated from, with a thesis entitled The Influence of the Built Environment from Childhood on the Brain, under the supervision of Ph.D. Arch. Dorin Stefan and Ph.D. Andrei Miu.

The Influence of the Environment and the Brain

The aim of the workshop is to find correlations between the environment that one grew up in and the future architectural preferences. Our research will be based on two questionnaires, one related to their childhood environment and the other to their current preferences. The influence of the environment (both built and natural) they grew up in is essential to their future as humans, as it shapes who they are. Major differences are dictated by the culture and traditions of each geographic area. The diversity of human behaviors is fascinating, their metamorphosis from one region to another, determining the variety of habits and behaviours. But what makes people unique is, in fact, their differences, the ones that come from our different backgrounds. We dwell to the extent that we preserve the essence in things, build, as far as we are able to preserve the essence, this means being authentic and striving to preserve our cities and natural habitats. Heidegger states that architecture should be like a bridge, who unites two banks of a river, subtle enough, but meaningful and capable of enhancing the beautiful qualities of the scenery. Are we creating bridges for future generations, to inhabit our Mother Earth?

 

José Manuel Palma-Oliveira

Prof. Palma-Oliveira’s is interested in the interaction between human societies and the environment focused in risk perspectives. Professor of the University of Lisbon is past-president of SRA- Europe; Fellow since 2012, and 2016’s recipient of the Society of Risk Analysis Presidential Merit Award “for his humanitarian and scientific contributions … (and for being) a distinguished educator and mentor to international students and a leading member of Society in thought and action”. Also is a Distinguished Visiting Scholar of University of Virginia, Dept of Systems and Information Engineering. He currently lectures in Europe, North and South America, etc. about environmental solutions and environmental science.

He made significant contributions to environmental and risk policy in Portugal and in the EU. He was the Chairman of Quercus, the most active environmental NGO in Southern Europe, and a member of the Portuguese National Water Council during the 90´s. He was President of the Board of the Foundation for the Protection of the Salinas (wetlands) Samouco between 2001 and 2008, and a Board member of the European Federation of Transport and Environment (Brussels–EU advocacy group) from 1997 to 2010. 

During this time was an invited expert in EU policy working groups (air quality, noise, etc.). In that context he developed a model of modal transport change. CEO of Palma, Lda, is a consultant (former board member and partner) of Ambimed for hazardous hospital waste, a consultant of Secil (cement company) for co-processing of alternative fuels (waste) and coordination of the science policy, namely using Industrial hazardous waste and was the Chairman (mentoring and designing) of Parks of Industrial Ecology, focusing on waste treatment compounds. He works currently as a consultant in Portugal, Tunisia and Brazil. He was involved in the design and implementation of the most advanced solid waste compounds of large areas in Portugal.

He has 100% success rate in dealing with in the so-called “NIMBY” or high-risk perception projects. His unique approach to risk communication and risk environmental analysis is based in an attempt of constructing a shared knowledge base and grounded of this profound knowledge of the logic and the pay-off perceived by the different groups at the different decision levels. In is actively working in communities and companies resilience, and just edited a book (with Igor Linkov) in resilience of critical infrastructures.

Predicting Community and psychological resilience in a changing climate 

The concept of Anthropocene was introduced for describing the onset of a new geological epoch where our species was the main influence. I will present research that shows that particularly since the systematic use of agricultural practices (around 6000BC) not only there is a radical change of the ecosystems throughout the globe, but essentially a change in the human societies and their organization. Until now the consequences of the societal changes (i.e., higher chronic stress, total absence of perceived control in a high percentage of the population, power imbalances between genders, etc.) are underestimated. We will present research that shows the negative consequences those changes for human health and wellbeing, particularly when associated with pollution and urban life.

This combined alteration where of particular –negative- importance in moments where climate change is a major threat. It will be predicted that communities’ resilience depends upon two main factors: a) the degree by witch the ecosystem is dependent of the Human action and b) the degree by witch stress and inequality abound.

Community driven Hypothesis testing in overcoming “Not in My backyard syndrome”

Where governments, project planners, and commercial developers seek to develop new infrastructure, industrial projects, and various other landand resource-intensive tasks, veto power shared by various local stakeholders can complicate or halt progress. Risk perception and communication has been used as an attempt to address stakeholder concerns in these contexts, but has demonstrated shortcomings. These coordination failures between project planners and stakeholders can be described as a specific kind of social dilemma that we describe as the “tragedy of the anticommons.” To overcome such dilemmas, we demonstrate how a two- step process can directly address public mistrust of project planners and public perceptions of limited decision-making authority. This approach is examined via two separate empirical field experiments in Portugal and Tunisia, where public resistance and anticommons problems threatened to derail emerging industrial projects. In both applications, an intervention is undertaken to address initial public resistance to such projects, where specific public stake- holders and project sponsors collectively engaged in a hypothesis-testing process to identify and assess human and environmental health risks associated with proposed industrial facilities. These field experiments indicate that a rigorous attempt to address public mistrust and risk perceptions.

 

Evangelia Pavlaki

My name name is Evangelia Pavlaki and I am a PhD researcher and teaching assistant from the Department of Architecture and Built Environment in the University of Nottingham, UK. I have registered to give a presentation to the upcoming EFSPA 2019 conference taking place in Prague in November.

My main area of interest is Urban Design and Placemaking where I also hold a Master of Architecture. My current PhD research focuses primarily on the relationship between Media Architecture and Placemaking. IThe urban design studios where i teach have as a fundamental background the revitalisation of public space, the enhancement of social interaction and community feeling and the application of creative, innovative and sustainable ideas in the process of making.

 Urban Regeneration Vs Placemaking: Opportunities to improve human experience in public space in the contemporary regenerated City.

Urban regeneration initiatives in UK cities are ultimately necessary due to the rapid growth of urbanization. Over the last 20 years there has been a dramatic increase in projects planned to provide more dense, sustainable and financially and socially viable communities. Although their success can be witnessed in terms of the growing numbers of people now residing in those areas, urban regeneration, as any top-down approach shows also some major challenges. These challenges are mostly based on the fact that urban regeneration strategies are formed in order to deliver a particular set of predetermined design outcomes and requirements without considering human-centered parameters like visual stimulation, social interaction, comfort and enjoyment.

So, how can Placemaking potentially address those issues? Placemaking is a versatile approach to urban design which aims to infuse with quality, activity and character different types of public space so that they will be loved and used properly by residents. Moreover, digital Placemaking is seeking to achieve this vision by implementing innovative digital technologies into traditional Placemaking schemes.

The goal of this study is to explore the diverse opportunities that digital placemaking offers for the transformation of contemporary urban regenerated spaces into vital and charming areas having a “rich” humanenvironment interaction as their main priority.

 

Ivo Ponocny

Ivo Ponocny is Full Professor at MODUL Private University Vienna, Department for Sustainability, Governance, and Methods. He has a background in Psychology and Statistics, including professional experience in the Austrian national statistical institute and psychometrics. Currently, he focuses his research on quality of life and its assessment from a societal perspective, subjective well-being, and social sustainability as well as pro-environmental behavior and the various barriers opposed to it.

Well-being and environmental behavior: the marginal role of sustainability in daily life

The lack of sustainability of our life style is one of the most striking examples for the well-known discrepancies between attitudes and actual behavior of human beings: though society is aware of the need for a more sustainable way-of-life, the necessary steps are way behind what would be desirable. Various theoretical models have been formulated describing the path from attitude to pro-environmental behavior (PEB) and the barriers against. Unfortunately, the problem about pro-environmental behavior is a mix of very fundamental issues which are outlined in the presentation.

The lecture specificly reports about an own study on living conditions (500 qualitative interviews about good and bad circumstances of life) which demonstrates these issues: Although a majority made some remarks about the quality of environment as an important aspect of quality-of-life, only an overall number of 63 people mentioned the performance of some concrete personal PEB. A closer study of the taxonomy of PEB unveiled that, additionally, the performance of proenvironmental behaviors is very selective towards comparably lowengagement actions which are the most popular ones by far.

Psychological barriers against pro-environmental behavior

The workshop will start with a stimulus presentation about psychological aspects of pro-environmental behavior, including some general remarks on altruistic behavior in general, dissonance theory, and approaches stemming from other disciplines (such as the tragedy of the commons or ecological economics). In a couple of classroom exercises, these psychological effects shall be demonstrated and discussed, in particular the lack of emotional links to our daily hassles and responsibilities, combined with a lack of self-efficacy and a couple of general psychological if not logical obstacles. It will be shown why so-called bigger-then-selfissues (such as the striving for sustainable development) may be characterized as “wicked problems”, a class of problems which are extremely hard to tackle.

Students will also have to discuss reasons for their personal ways of behaving, including well-known effects such as green consumerism, consumer scapegoatism and the ubiquitous tokenism.

At the end, communication aspects shall be elaborated, in particular regarding the proper design of persuasive campaigns and how they need to respect the different levels of societal behavior, ranging from the individual to the aggregate level of policy-making.

 

Michael Rada 

Michael Rada is a President and Project Father. 

23+ years of industrial and logistic environment background helps me to develop and introduce tools of systematic Waste prevention in the rigid structure of global business environment ruled by fifth most profitable industry in the World – the Waste Industry. 

With 42 I started a Blue Ocen Project by defining tools, methods, and applying them simultaneously in the business environment of production and logistics companies. Struggling on the psychological weapons used by the Waste industry I have learned to use them against its creators finding a cure for the ill set environment. 

My WAKE-UP CALL presentations sound already over 100 times not only in Czech but France, Latvia, Slovakia preparing for the global INDUSTRY 5.0 Education tour for 2020. 

Starting my business career as a worker, my business card carry at the moment the President title, along with the title of PROJECT FATHER which I am proud of. 

INDUSTRY 5.0 – FROM WASTEFUL TO WASTELESS, FIRST INDUSTRIAL EVOLUTION EVER LEAD BY MAN 

We are living in a rich World. The only suffering we feel is the desire for more. If hungry we go to buy food, if thirsty we go to buy a drink or just let the water flow from a tap. HUMAN SOCIETY changed to CONSIETY in just a few decades of its existence.

Along with society changes the industry. The results are evaluated on quantity, not the quality and the stories mean more than results.  We are ready to pay billions to storytellers which in five years collect just 2000 kg of plastic Waste from the ocean after being funded 35 million USD. On hackathons, stories and ideas are collected for free, just in favor of the possibility to win a fraction of money we invested in our time.

WASTING presents RICHNESS and nobody cares that virtual currencies consist just of ZEROs and ONCEs.

CAN WE CHANGE THAT?

YES, WE DO and today is the time to learn how from a man who was able to stop more than 350.000 metric tons of products and materials become waste without single Penny funded. First the Result then the Story.

 

Gerhard Reese 

Gerhard Reese is Professor of Environmental Psychology at the University of Koblenz-Landau in South-West Germany. He studied at the universities of Erfurt, Jena (Germany) and Canterbury (UK), and completed his PhD in 2010. In his research he investiagtes psychological predictors and barriers of sustainable action as well as the effect of Globalization on our identities and actions.

Responding to Global Challenges – Identity, Place, and Global Citizenship

It is wide consensus that human activity is one of the main reasons for climate change and environmental degradation. A broad literature on psychological factors determining pro-environmental action and support for corresponding policies depicts the various pathways to understanding individuals’ responses to the challenges of a worsening environment. However, many of these approaches tend to underestimate the importance of individuals’ social embeddedness in human groups and global societies. In this talk, I will thus focus on a helpful feature of the human species – their ability to think, perceive, and act on behalf of groups. Specifically, I will present recent conceptual as well as empirical work on how social identities affect our pro- (and anti-) environmental actions on different levels of identification and culture. Further research provokes the idea of an encapsulating global identity (i.e., global citizenship) as a potential source of sustainable action in a globalized world. Findings will be discussed in the background of their policy implications and their potential role in a systemic analysis of climate change mitigation.

 

Esther Roelofs

Managing Partner at WorkWire

As a workplace strategist and psychologist, Esther lives at the intersection of business objectives and workplace design. For 20 years, Esther has helped clients reshape their workplace decision-making process by defining the strategic business objectives that can be enabled through innovative design solutions. She has learned that great places to work are always focused on the people who work there. Esther is co-creator of Workplace Nudging, a change methodology that addresses behavioral challenges and psychological resistance to change in the workplace.

https://www.linkedin.com/in/estherroelofs/

Workshop: Workplace Strategy and Design

The idea of workplace has changed dramatically over time. It’s not just about the physical cost of occupying a building but, critically, the output of the workforce occupying it. We now look at the workplace as a motivator: done right the workplace can provide employees with a positive sense of purpose. It can contribute to enhanced health and wellbeing, create a sense of community and improve pride in a place of work. All of which significantly enhance productivity and contribute to the attraction and retention of talent. At WorkWire, we call this “Empowering Workplaces”.

This workshop starts with a look back in time how different management styles resulted in different office types. Then we get started with some workplace consulting tools that work towards a strategic intent for a workplace transformation project. We look at the strategic goals of an organization and the needs of the employees. Bringing them together in a common denominator (“Value Fit”) is an important starting point for framing goals with regard to the new work environment. The results are then translated into important workplace characteristics that go with this "Value Fit".

 

Craig Stasiuk

My name is Craig Stasiuk and I am an MSc graduate from the University of Surrey, and am currently based in Bangor, North Wales. 

I worked as an Environmental Psychologist in Vancouver at the architect firm HCMA Architecture + Design, where I helped create post occupancy packages which were designed to see how occupants were actually utilising space within buildings. 

I have also worked at Oxfam UK in the Humanitarian department and in Singapore at The Winstedt International School.

 Exploring the intersection of Architecture and Environmental Psychology

Environmental Psychology offers data driven decisions that provide evidence for design and planning decisions and as a result can create richer design processes within architectural planning. It explores the parameters and variables that might alter a person’s behaviour, productivity, mood, and attitude within a particular space. Techniques both quantitative and qualitative can be used to help find out what occupants want from their building and research can help designers create better spaces to increase well-being.

 

Prof. Ing. Arch. Vladimír Šimkovič, PhD.

In his practice, he has dealt with many diverse areas - from theory  of architecture to restoration of historical  objects to digital architecture and its broader context - especially the overlap into virtuality. He is a co-author of the renewal of the University Library in Bratislava and other monuments.

Interest in phenomenology and the psychology of the environment (particularly in terms of analytical psychology) and its possible application as a starting point in architecture is his constant concern.

Psychological characteristics as the main guide in architectural creation  in the European context

Prof. Ing. arch. Vladimír Šimkovič, PhD., Ing. arch. Tatiana Vozárová

The study explores the spatial inclinations in architectural creation based on personality traits. The authors performed a testing with students of architecture at Slovak Technical University in Bratislava, Dresden University of Technology, Centre for Information Technology and

Architecture at KADK Kopenhagen, Politechnika Gdańska, Universidad Politécnica de Madrid and Technical University of Košice. The objective was to confirm the correlation between spatial preferences of personalities and their dominant psychological traits in European context. The test was composed of psychological and spatial parts. The authors have chosen MBTI typology which addresses to diversity in perception. The spatial test consisted of a range of spatial parameters and processes of creative thinking. 386 students of architecture have been collaborating on research. Final statistical analyses have shown the existence of statistically significant correlations between psychological traits and spatial preferences in architectural creation. The results of the study with the evaluation, discussion, possible continuation and limitation are the subject of the contribution.

Unconsciousness and Environment - Sea in Bratislava

Prof. Ing. arch. Vladimír Šimkovič, PhD.

Reflection on the very old problem of the subconscious mirroring of the inner and outer world. Some reflections on the perceived common images  - spatial archetypes of the environment as a basis for creation are efforts to apply phenomenologically oriented approaches in architectural design. As a more specific example, we present here the problem of so called "Sea in Bratislava". It is an attempt to describe a common subconscious feeling of a certain number of inhabitants and visitors about the signs of the presence of the sea or a large lake near the city. In fact, none of them could ever see it because it existed before 9 million years. The contributions of geologists concretise the factual state of art and thus create a prerequisite for demonstrating architectural designs inspired by this approach.

 

Nour Tawil  & Natalia Olszewska

Nour Tawil is a Lebanese, Beirut based architect with extensive experience in project management and delivery of medium to big scale residential, hospitality, and commercial projects. After finishing her Architectural Engineering bachelor in 2003, she immediately began her practice in Beirut, working with a multitude of architectural firms and real estate developers.

Nour’s upbringing in war-ridden Beirut exposed her to the traumatic impact and fueled her passion for psychology and the understanding of brain processes. She pursued her master’s degree in “Neuroscience applied to Architectural Design”, the world’s first program combining two vastly different disciplines within the fields of arts and science, and graduated in 2018 from Universita Iuav di Venezia, Italy, with her work focusing on psychiatric spaces.

Nour’s main subject of interest revolves around the impact of architecture on mental health, cognition and behavior. She’s working towards the identification and development of architectural solutions that promote well-being, help prevent mental disorders (where possible), and support the vulnerable population in building a strong beneficial relationship with their environment.

Natalia Olszewska

Natalia is a practicing medical doctor. She also works as the Lead for Human Metrics Lab at HUME, the science-informed architecture and urban design studio created by the architect and researcher Itai Palti. Being a graduate in medicine (Jagiellonian Univeristy & Tor Vergata), neuroscience (Sorbonne Université & ENS), Brain and Mind studies (UCL) and ‘Neuroscience applied to Architectural Design' (IUAV university) she aims to work between disciplines and create insights which could change our architectural and urban environment and make it more user friendly. At work, she combines her deep care for people and their well-being with her passion for architecture and design. Her specific professional interest is the impact of architecture on different aspects of our lives: social, behavioural, health & well-being and cognition.

Architecture & mental health

Recent research has confirmed the direct relationship between the built environment and our mental health and well-being. The interdisciplinary efforts of neuroscience and architecture are providing a new perspective on how architecture can impact our body/brain system and behavior, proposing to reapply the neglected human centric approach.

In every conscious experience, a human mind processes an emotion, a cognitive response, and a specific perception, all related to the physical milieu the subject is occupying, resulting in variations in the sense of wellbeing, mood and behavior.

In the case of mental disorders, the sensitivity to the architectural environment is higher due to the occupant’s special physical, mental and emotional conditions. Mental disorders are behavioral or mental patterns causing significant distress or impairment of personal functioning.  Understanding the different natures of the pathologies and recognizing the specific spatial needs of the mentally ill can contribute to developing more responsive, restorative and optimized spaces.

In this presentation, we highlight the role of the built environment in improving the lifestyle of the population suffering from mental disorders with an attempt to identify key architectural elements of environmental quality that help with the creation of an enhanced healing environment.

 

Alina Mia Udall

Alina has a passion for teaching and research in environmental psychology. In 2013, she completed a Postgraduate Certificate in (Higher) Education in Psychology from the University of Southampton. Alongside teaching, at Bournemouth University, Alina researched what motivates people to behave moral and pro-environmental. Alina then completed a Ph.D. at the University of Bath, looking at how people’s identities (e.g., environmental self-identity, social identity, and place identity), play an important role for explaining pro-environmental behaviour. Next, Alina went to the Warwick Business School (WBS) and tested how these different identities predict pro-environmental behaviour, alongside the dominant psychological theories used in environmental psychology (i.e., theory of planned behaviour, norm-activation theory, its extension, value-belief norm theory, theory of habit, and social identity model of pro-environmental action). Also, at WBS, Alina worked with Dr Daniel Read and Dr Umar Taj to develop and test a new seven-step process, namely Nudgeathon, which was used to help individual businesses to become environmentally friendly (Udall et al., 2019). Finally, Alina is at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU), where she still researches identity and the dominant psychological theories in environmental psychology. In addition, Alina continues collaborations with Daniel and Umar to test/validate this seven-step process (Nudgeathon) in Norway.

How I See Me: The Power of Identities for Changing Pro-Environmental Behaviour

Research in environmental psychology has shown that people’s identities shape their pro-environmental behaviour (PEB).  However, it is unknown how different identities are related to specific PEBs. I will present work that was in collaboration with the University of Bath, Maastricht University, University of Groningen, and NTNU, where we aimed to study these identity and behaviour relationships.  Specifically, I examine three gaps in the present literature. First, research in identities and PEB has expanded rapidly over the last 20 years, including the variety of identity measures which have been developed, with no systematic review. Therefore, I report on a systematic review showing what identities and measures have been studied.  Second, to further test how the identities related to PEB I report a meta-analysis. Finally, multiple identities are assumed to simultaneously explain PEB, yet no primary empirical study has attempted to assess this claim. Therefore, I report on a survey study among a UK representative sample (n = 578), which measured the identity types found in the systematic review, and meta-analysis and test these in relation to PEB.  For the first time, I reveal that 15 identity factors emerged, whereby nine explained PEB. I conclude by showing how to help further develop and move the research in identities and PEB forward, theoretically, and in practice.  

 

Linda van de Sande MSc

Hi! I am Linda van de Sande MSc.

As a little girl, I wanted to be an architect. In the end, I decided to study social psychology and specialise in attitudes and decision making. After some years in advertising, I discovered environmental psychology and landed a job at an architecture firm. I helped design a hospital, an airport, a university, many offices and even whole neighbourhoods. I work as a freelance researcher and design consultant, and I teach design students at the Amsterdam University of Applied sciences how to apply psychology in a digital world.

So, you are interested in psychology and you want to understand people’s minds and motivations? I have some bad news for you: only 5% of our behaviour is conscious and rational.

We are constantly influenced by what is around us. For example, It affects where we click, what we buy, what we believe, where we go, and how we feel.

Research shows that good design can make us healthier, happier and smarter. Bad design is also bad for business. If people don’t like, don’t understand or can’t use your product or service, they will ignore it. Therefore, we have the responsibility to design well for people.

I believe there is still a big gap between how our brain works and how the world around us is organised. Join me for an interactive presentation and learn six psychological principles to design better for people.

Abstract:

So, you are interested in psychology and you want to understand people’s minds and motivations? I have some bad news for you: only 5% of our behaviour is conscious and rational. 

We are constantly influenced by what is around us. For example, It affects where we click, what we buy, what we believe, where we go, and how we feel.  

Research shows that good design can make us healthier, happier and smarter. Bad design is also bad for business. If people don’t like, don’t understand or can’t use your product or service, they will ignore it. Therefore, we have the responsibility to design well for people. 

I believe there is still a big gap between how our brain works and how the world around us is organised. Join me for an interactive presentation and learn six psychological principles to design better for people.

 

Mgr. Zdenka Vostova

Zdenka Vostova is a Gestalt therapist and mediator. Being passionate about environmental issues her whole life, she has focused on helping clients who suffered from environmental grief or ecological anxiety. She has also published numerous articles on this topic.

In her practice, Zdenka Vostova benefits from her professional experience gained in a day care center at the Psychosomatic Clinic, where she worked with people who have suffered from depression, anxiety and trauma. Today, she offers individual therapy, a variety of group programs and seminars.

In addition to being a therapist, Zdenka Vostova is a mediator listed by the Ministry of Justice, and focuses on alternative dispute resolution.

Environmental grief, anxiety and trauma - impacts of the environmental crisis on mental health

A growing body of scientific evidence demonstrates that the effects of climate change and other environmental problems are linked to gradually increasing rates of depression, anxiety, suicidal intentions, post-traumatic stress, and a host of negative emotions including anger, hopelessness, despair, and a feeling of loss. Among the registered symptoms of ecoanxiety are panic attacks, loss of appetite, irritability, obsessive thinking, and insomnia.

This lecture addresses the problem of environmental grief, anxiety and trauma by integrating results from numerous fields of researches and includes examples from Zdenka Vostova’s own therapy practice, where she focuses on helping clients with these issues.

This lecture further explores the dimensions of environmental grief, the intersections and differences between this kind of grief and our more commonly understood kinds of sorrow. Vostova will explore reasons why grief over losses in the living non-human world often lacks an appropriate avenue for both expression and healing.

She will also share some internal and external therapeutic strategies to cope with this rather new and complicated kind of grief and anxiety.

 

Ondřej Pešout, Ph.D.

My research emphasis falls within self-regulated learning (SRL) and metacognition. I have conducted a number of studies investigating how k12 and college students regulate their behavior on cognitive tasks. I am particularly interested in the extent to which instruction within classroom contexts can facilitate regulation, performance, and strategy use.

Recently, I have been focusing on classroom peer interactions and their effects to facilitate and scaffold students’ SRL skills. We are currently designing instructpions to assist teachers in utilizing students’ social interactions in promoting regulatory behavior, reading comprehension, and problem-solving skills in their classrooms.

Promoting Classroom Discussion of Controversial Environmental Issues in the Current Czech Educational Context

Debate skills over environmental policy can be deemed as a core priority for the current education. Especially, in the society that is swarmed with heated debates over various evidence of negative impacts of human activity on the planet environment. However, the current Czech classroom practice do not typically focus on communication skills in discussing

controversial   issues.   This   presentation   focuses   on   promoting   classroom   discussion   on controversial   environmental   issues   in   K12   classroom   environment.   We   introduce contemporary   frameworks   for   engaging   students   in   discussion   on   controversial   topics.   The   study   proposes   four   directions   in   establishing productive classroom discussion: 1) upholding standards for high quality talk, 2) scaffolding argumentation and conversation skills among students, 3) training preservice teachers in fostering productive discourse, and 4) conducting empirical studies on transition from no-discussion to discussion-centred classroom instructions. Discussing environmental policy in young generations deems a great promise for establishing a culture of wellreasoned and thoughtful evidence-based approach in both governmental and citizens’ day-to-day decisions. Removing   obstacles   that   hinder   development   of   classroom   discussion   as   an efficient instructional tool may greatly enhance children capacity to become active participants in modern society and solve the current pressing environment issues.

 

Mgr. Dominika Drahovzalová 

I am a PhD student of School Psychology at Faculty of Education in Charles University in Prague. The current topic of my dissertation is the field of moral psychology with a focus on development. Last year I went through a research internship in Turkey, whereby I started active cooperation with a Turkish research team working at Bilge University in Istanbul. For a long time, I have been scientifically and humanly concerned with issues of racial and religious tolerance. Apart from my studies, I work as a psychologist at the General Directorate of the Fire Rescue Service of the Czech Republic and as a consultant on the Child Safety Helpline.

Effects of priming different relational models on placement of various targets within “moral circles” in three cultures

The question of what behaviour can be considered as moral has been with humanity for a very long time. And its importance is growing with globalization. This paper intends to present a research project of an intercultural research group from the Czech Republic, Turkey and the USA. The proposed study will investigate the one source of possible influence of the diversity in the concept of morality, the effect of framing the question in such a way as to suggest a particular “relational model” by orienting attention to particular motivational bases, such as authority, equality, loyalty etc. on wide individual differences in “moral expansiveness”, or the tendency to extend moral standing to other individuals, groups, nonhuman creatures, or entities such as nature, the earth, or the universe. Which is concept based on Crimston, Hornsey, Bain & Bastian’s (2018) study of the results of their “Moral Expansiveness Scale” (2016). The paper summarizes a broader understanding of the effects already identified on this attribute of moral reasoning. Above all, it will present a pilot study aimed at creating a research battery for identifying the relationship between the framing of relational model and moral expansiveness in an intercultural environment.

 

Simon Kinneir

Simon Kinneir holds a BA in Graphic Design and an MA in Design Products. He specialises in design research that relates to the development of products that support and facilitate independence and control for people in their everyday lives; and he is particularly skilled at investigating and understanding our sensorial experiences in the built environment. His more well-known clients include Wallpaper*, the Tate and Royal Free Hospital. He has worked at The Helen Hamlyn Centre for Design and Graphic Thought Facility.

 

Dafne Odette

Dafne Odette, received her bachelor’s degree in Interior Architecture and Design from the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. Ms. Odette has an interest in the development of spaces based on person centered approaches and animal facilitated therapies. She is currently pursuing a Master’s of Design degree in Health and Wellbeing from the University of Nevada Las Vegas where she is study the effects of people, their environments, and the incorporation of animals on mood, disposition, and productivity.

Title of Presentation: Mind Mapping Qualitative Methods for The Development of A Dementia Center

Mind Mapping is a qualitative research method that allows for the simultaneous consideration of multiple variables. When developing the design for a memory enhancement center there are multiple variables that compliment and compete with the intended outcome. The more association an experience has, the greater the neural connectivity. Within the past decade, there have been multiple ideas proposed for the stimulation of memory. However, these ideas are based on singular spaces with gross sensory stimuli. This reductionist approach is based on segmentation and isolation of sensation, and neglects the effects of integration from pre and post experiential factors. Most researchers agree that memory formation and retrieval require a multisensory approach integrated into an experience. A literature review in combination with the sociocultural nuances of the region were used to begin the mind mapping process. Through a reduction of person related needs, the pre and post experiences offered by the building, and germane socio-cultural factors related to preference, beliefs, and value systems interacting variables were analyzed. These variables formed the basis of the mind mapping process and the reconstruction into a holistic experience. The built environment is composed of multiple variables that combine to create an experience. When developing memory enhancement centers, the Health Care Designer develops an understanding of the interrelationship between variables in order to enhance multisensory stimulation. This multisensory approach is required for experiential memory formation and retrieval. Due to these factors, mind mapping methods can be of value to the Health Care Designer.

 

Peter Janiga Peter Janiga has been working in the interior design industry since 2009 with 100+ projects in commercial real estate. He founded and managed an architectural studio for almost seven years. In 2016 he joined the project management team in Colliers International and started his journey in the workplace strategy domain. Since then he’s been specializing in how to build the workplace more engaging so you can be more productive and happier. He co-founded a flooring distribution company with the authorized representation Shaw Contract in Slovakia. His object is to increase awareness of all his brands and the importance of design & sustainability in our environments

How to build a healthy workplace (Our journey to long and healthy life)

An enormous amount of money is put in corporate wellness programs every year, yet the desired outcome - employee health and engagement - is unsatisfactory. It is tough to change human behavior through these programs. We know we should change our bad habits, but it seems almost impossible in this stressful and fast lifestyle. Wait! What if there’s hope? What if we’re looking at the problem with wrong tools?

 

Enric Pol

Enric Pol is a Professor of Social Psychology and Environmental Psychology at the University of Barcelona. Since 1987 he directs the Master in Environmental Management and Intervention: Person and Society. Since 2005 he coordinates the Research Group in Social, Environmental and Organizational Psychology (PsicoSAO). Between 2006 and 2016 he coordinates the interdisciplinary Doctorate program in Sciences and Technologies of the Environment, of the Universitat de Barcelona. Among its areas of work and research is the development of Environmental Management instruments with emphasis on aspects related to individual, social behavior and organizational. The concern for the educational, communication and socialization aspects are also expressed in the coordination of the Catalan Research Network in education for sustainability (edusost.cat) between 2006 and 2010.

He is a reviewer of national and international journals and research projects. He has developed numerous research and advisory activities for companies and public administrations on issues of management and citizen behavior in relation to environmental issues. Author of numerous articles and books on the subject highlight the chapter of Environmental Management, published in the Handbook of Environmental Psychology (Bechtel and Churchman, 2002), and with prof. Fleury-Bahi and prof. Navarro, he has been co-editor of the Handbook on Environmental Psychology and Quality of Life Research published by Springer on 2017.

E-mail: epol@ub.edu

Environmental? Ecological? Architectural? Psychology…

Legitimacy of name in the historical origins’ legitimacy for the present and future challenges.

 Why is the term "environmental" used, if we talk about human habitats and cities? Is the "ecological sensitivity”, a late "conversion"?

To face "global warming", has become one of the current challenges for Environmental Psychology (EP). How does it relate with other used names, like Architectural Psychology?

The first mention to the nucleus of the concept of EP, is in 1911 by Willy Hellpach on his book "Geopsyche." Later, he will use the term Umwelt Psychology (1924), also used by Martha Muchow (1935). Kurt Levin emphasise “Environment”, and his disciple Roger Barker, use the term “Ecological Psychology”. During sixties and seventies, it dominated "Architectural Psychology" (Lee and Canter, between others). In 1970 Proshansky, Ittelson and Rivlin published their "Environmental Psychology"...

The epistemological key is in the nuanced meanings that Uexküll gives to the term Umwelt. That helps to understand and justify the “legitimacy” of the different “names” of discipline over time.

At present, the great challenge is how we change -or how we set the conditions to change-, the environmental behavior, and how we deal with structural "facilitators or difficulties" (physical, socio-economic and political) in a globalized world, in which, most of the persons feels helplessness rather than empowered.

 

Cristina García Fontán

Cristina Garcia Fontán is Professor at the Department of Architectural Projects and Urbanism of the Higher Technical School of Architecture of the University of A Coruña where she coordinates the Degree in Landscape . PhD in Architecture and Urbanism and Master in Advanced Architecture by the Berlage Institute. She has been a guest professor at the Architectural Association of London, Graduate programs of the School of Architecture of Costa Rica, National Autonomous University of Mexico, University of Curitiba and the University of Louvain, among others. She has carried out various research projects on landscape, spatial planning, strategic planning and sustainable habitat. Currently developing landscape projects in both urban and natural environments, focusing on the recovery and enhancement of cultural and natural heritage elements.

Abstract:

Landscape and green infrastructure projects are opportunities to test the transformative capacity of space and society. The potential of these as social transformations is described through the process of three landscape projects where the question of participation is crucial. The reinforcement and generation of community ties throughout the project process has been the genesis of those projects. A green corridor project in Santiago de Compostela will be shown, which also contains urban vegetable gardens. On the other hand, the project of regeneration of a fundamental place for the city of Santiago de Compostela and the road to Santiago the Mountain of Joy will be presented. The most relevant aspect of these two interventions is their relationship to the place and social connectivity they generate in addition to the environmental and landscape benefits.

The third project shows the children’s ability to intervene and decide the public space they want, but this whole process must also be accompanied by a formative process for parents and children, which will give them more tools to decide.

 

Lubomír Kostroň

Lubomír Kostroň, associate professor (retired), Phdr., CSc., M.A. (1945 Brno)

Studies: psychology at UJEP Brno (1965-68), University of Colorado at Boulder (1968 - 70), later economics (VŠE Praha, UK Bratislava).

Experiences: psychologist in Business organization, economist in Research institute of medical technology, Brno. During 1990 -  2006 associate professor of psychology at Masaryk University. Psychology department Faculty of Philosophy (general psychology, psychology in organizations and management); Faculty of Social Studies (cognitive psychology, human resources development. Seminars devoted to the complex dynamic system, psychology in architecture.

Since 1994 till 2017 lecturer in human resources development in MBA programs at Brno Business School.

Since 2016 till 2018 lecturer in selected topics in cognitive psychology at  UNYP in Prague, presently again at School of Social Studies MU Brno. www.kostron.cz. 

Psychology in architecture and city planning

1. The contribution of both professions

Architecture, city planning: skills to produce building & construction projects; translating functions, required by investors into a 3 D space & visualizations; combining rational functions, economics and aesthetics into a project; balancing surrounding environment (ecology) features and the projected creation together.

Psychology, sociology: training one´s own sensitivity to “feel” (intuition); understanding the social context requirements; understanding the functions of the space; developing observation, listening and communications skills; negotiations: finding the balance between competition and co-operation of all parties involved (investors, neighborhood e.g. society, authorities & political parties); focusing on emotional impact of the project, clarifying the vision of the future city; city as a ground for training social skills (socialization) – understanding one´s own identity.

      2. Does the co-operation of architect and psychologist result into a higher quality projects?

Yes: it results into a lively and richer human city environment; involves a larger number of societal segments into an active social life and well-being.

Examples: William H. Whyte, “Projects for a Public Spaces” Manhattan, Jan Gehl and his followers.

Methodology of social research (namely action research).

     3. Mutual relations between human mind and the environment compose a feedback cycle of causes and effects with better or worse outcomes.

     4. Overcoming barriers – what should be done.

During studies, getting the information about the content of the other profession is not enough. We need to share and to train practical skills during joint workshops: patient observation of the place, society and processes, taking place there; listening and communication; understanding the explicit as well as the implicit (hidden) interests (“territories”) at play. Finding a common (higher level) interest of all parties in eventual conflict – mediation, conflict resolution. Training a multilevel imagination in creation of the mobilizing urban visions.

 

Nigel Oseland

Dr Nigel Oseland is a workplace strategist, change manager, environmental psychologist, researcher, international speaker and published author with 11 years research and 19 years consulting experience. 

He draws on his psychology background and his own research to advise occupiers on how to redefine their workstyles and rethink their workplace to create working environments that enhance individual and organisational performance and deliver maximum value.

Designing Offices for All Personality Types

Many modern offices are buzzy, colourful, stimulating and noisy, but does this suit all personality types? Dr Oseland shares his views and research on how to embrace and design for personal differences. He highlights the workspace design features required by different personality types (assessed using OCEAN, the big five personality inventory). Nigel focuses on fostering creativity concentration and collaboration in the workplace. He also discusses the pros and cons of open pan and private offices, and how good design enhances performance and wellbeing.

 

Roxana Triboi

Roxana is a Romanian urban planner with more of 15 years experience in urban and landscape planning in Romania and France.

As a PhD RESEARCHER on urban pastoralism at “Ion Mincu” University of Architecture and Urban Planning Bucharest, as a member of research groups (AESOP Sustainable Food Planning , RGS-IBG Food Geographies Working Group and Alternative food supply networks in Central and Eastern Europe group), Roxana Triboi approached the territorial problematic of city-productive nature relationship in various projects.

Roxana Triboi is a Romanian urban planner with more of 15 years experience in urban and landscape planning in Romania and France, with a Ph.D. in Architecture on urban pastoralism as well as a member of research groups such as Le Notre Institute, Aesop Food Planning Group, Food Geographies Working Group and Alternative food supply networks in Central and Eastern Europe group. Her professional experience revolved around the territorial problematic of nature-productive-urban interaction.

URBAN PASTORALISM, the urban-productive-nature synthesis

 Starting with the industrial era, almost three centuries ago, the process of domestication of the nature through technology has been achieved. At the same time, the urbanisation process accelerated, incorporating today more than a half of the global population. The city is considered “edgeless” and had expanded chaotically in density, surface and height becoming an independent mechanism, impossible to manage coherently, with important disfunctions that impact irreversibly the human and environmental health. Other than technical progress, urban utopias of XIX and XX century participated to this situation.

Recent bottom-up initiatives in the Global North, as a reaction to the functionalist approach of urban space, restored the central role of the local community and nature, and most specifically of the productive nature, in creating a healthy living environment.

The role of pastoralism in mediating and mitigating nature and city is currently reconsidered. From experimentation to a recognised urban function, the pastoral activity in the urban space expanded due to the obvious ecosystem services delivered to the city.

Multifunctionality and sustainable management by grazing for green spaces, food production, interconnectivity (ecological corridors) created by the flock mobility and the biodiversity generated by the selective grazing in an extensive system are transforming abandoned urban land in green infrastructure and generating important ecosystem services for the city.

Different approaches (from Eastern and Western Europe) encounter difficulties due to the friction with classical urban functions and therefore an elaborated vision on the coexistence of city and the pastoral practice has to be developed in order to ensure a better integration into the urban metabolism.

Rethinking the complex role (among which productive) of the animal in the urban space could significantly improve the quality of our living environment.

 

Marina RUSSO-SHCTCHERBAKOFF-KODAKOFF 

Architectural Designer, speaker, lecturer, business consultant, running her own architectural practice “Archibald & RSK” in France for 8 years, and PHD Researcher at the University of Derby in England, Marina RUSSO-SCHTCHERBAKOFF-KODAKOFF is passionate about mankind and professionally trained and certified in Neuropsychology. She has worked on housing, urbanism and projects such as stadium (Olympic Games in Rio), schools (Yantalo Foundation in Peru), shops, restaurants, offices where clear improvements were noticed on productivity/efficiency.  Struck by the lack of consideration that is given to human needs in the practice of architecture, Marina has been researching for 10 years the impact of the built environment on humans and public health. What and how urban and architectural features influence their health, behaviours, decision making, cognition and performances.

Recent conferences/publications: “Neuroscience Enlightens Home Illumination”, “Antidepressant house and Healing accelerator hospital; How the built environment influences human’s brain (health, psychology and physiology).”, “Architecture and the brain: bringing human in the heart of urbanism and architecture”, “Architectural Design that will raise the Sales Revenues”, “Measuring the impact of the building and its features on people”, “Utopian and Sacred Architecture”.

Reshaping architecture towards building a better world

In an ideal world, everybody would be happy and satisfied with their life. However, in a world where everything seems to accelerate, where some become wealthier and some poorer, where some finally seem to measure the importance of climate change, while others carry on destroying the planet for money. We live in a society where well-being is being promoted in most fields, whereas extremism, racism, homophobia, religious discriminations, terrorism, and hate are raising. For some countries the main issues are unemployment or obesity, while for some other countries it is starvation.

Politics, organisations, researchers try to find solutions, to the crises we are facing. They are exploring several tracks in different fields such as education, medicine, daily routines, management and more. What about architecture and urbanism?

Architects aim to design spaces to suit people, but does it really work? Could doctors in medicine cure their patients if they knew about the diseases but not about human beings? No, they could not. Could architects make people fit in the built environment and be happier in their homes, workplaces, cities if they don’t know about human beings? Probably not either.

Would it be utopian to believe that architecture and urbanism based on the knowledge of human beings could save humanity, and world issues?

What if people were happier thanks to their houses and cities design? What if we could help resilience and recovery in post-traumatic re-building?  What if we could reduce world pollution only by remodelling our way of making decisions on aesthetics for buildings and cities? We most certainly could improve public health, global issues as well as the sustainability of the economy.

The subjectivity of aesthetical decisions we take in design and planning make our built environment harmful to people and to the world.

People spend an average of 87% of their time in or around buildings[i] and their impact on humans’ health, cognitive functions, behaviour and well-being, is scientifically proven. Therefore, isn’t it about time to research a way to include these criteria in the building design process? And perhaps, even in the building’s regulations and government’s requirements? Most architects and urbanists are still not aware of these impacts; they often give too little attention to how people react psychologically, physiologically and cognitively to their building.

Considering the growing enthusiasm for neuroscience and more generally human-centered new framework of architecture, along with continuous scientific findings on the topic, it seems crucial to provide professionals in the fields of architecture and urbanism with relevant data and new insights on the "building’s human quality". It is time to evaluate the human’s architectural experience, the quality, benefits, deficiency and harmfulness that the built environment has on its users, embodied humans.

It is time for professionals and governments to concentrate on a more objective translation between human’s factors and architectural aesthetics.

Finally, it is crucial to empower people with the opportunity to ask for a change. Their needs for better living (conscious and non-conscious; cognitive and physiological) are entitled to be heard in order to be provided with a healthier and more human - sustainable built environment.

I am deeply convinced that architecture has a real potential to help improve the human condition around the world.

 

Mgr. Alena Bendová

Alena had studied on Faculty of Humanities (Charles University). During the Bachelors studies she was focused on Health Psychology, Masters studies moved her closer to environmental sphere by Social and Cultural Ecology studies. Since then she became interested in a social change on behalf of nature protection. In years 2014-2018 she was the representative of The Green Party in Prague 13 City Council. Meantime she worked in many jobs more or less connected with the "green field", in services, lower management or sales and marketing jobs. Now she works for NGO Forest for Children as the lecturer of environmental education, PR and fundraising person. She considers herself as an activist, "a save the world specialist" and nature lover. 

Direct wild nature experience as a life-changing moment

Talk about how one trip as a volunteer can change your point of view on life and society we live in. Direct experience of living in a wild rainforest can give you more than you can expect. You cannot find the cure for environmental crisis or an environmental grief in books but in yourself and close community of open minded people. This talk will show how it works with people from the Czech NGO Forest for Children (Prales dětem), which protects (not only) indonesian rainforest and marine life. But it is not a typical NGO. Through education of children and public in direct nature protection it shows example of the ethical way of life and importance of values like courage, cooperation, intransigence, fairness and independence.

 

Dr. Ceren Boğaç

Dr. Ceren Boğaç is an architect interested in the ways in which people’s ways of lives are translated into spatial dimensions or architectural language. She is currently an Assistant Professor of Architecture at Eastern Mediterranean University (EMU) of the Architecture programme. She has a Master and PHD in Architecture (in the field of Environmental Psychology) from EMU. Her specific areas of expertise are environmental psychology, place attachment, sense of place, meaning in architecture, ecocity and eco-architecture, and urban peace-building studies. She gives lectures related to the interplay between human beings and environment, as well as architecture and urban design studios.

Love of place: Emotional engagements and psychological process

Through the perspective of my multiple selves, as an architect and environmental psychology scholar, with this study I want to develop an account on love of place. Reviewing on the existing inquiry on the people’s emotional engagement with a place, I will explore the meaning attributed to the love for a place and focus on the generated bond with this affection. People have transactional relationship with their places; as people act on their environment, so does the environment on them. This unbroken flow generates emotions that are evoked in a place, cognition that is associated with a place, and an expressed behavior. The psychological process of this stream has generally been neglected in architecture but have been attracting the interest of the environmental psychology for a while. Existential purpose of architecture can be defined as transformation of space to place by reflecting and upholding the meanings that people deposit on their physical environment. In this sense, architects should not only respond to the functional requirements of places but also to the emotional qualities. If people do not attach emotionally and spiritually to their places, they cannot integrate with their living environments, it directly affects their well-being. Therefore, it is important to understand the phenomenon as well as the psychological process of ‘love of place’ in order to produce better living environments.

Keywords: place, love, attachment, environmental psychology, architecture.

 

Simon Kinneir (MA RCA)

Simon is a London based designer with an emphasis on design for the everyday through appropriate clarity and subtlety. He focuses his design-research consultancy towards harnessing the inherent potential of people and place. He is a graduate of The Royal College of Art’s Design Products and Helen Hamlyn Centre for Design. He has talked widely and is a lecturer at UAL Chelsea College of Art and The Royal College of Art, London. 

How can we achieve the most through changing the least? 

This workshop will take a human-centred design-research approach to understanding people and place; with the intention of supporting people’s independence through environmental cues. Bridging your studies of environmental psychology (humans in their surrounding world) with design thinking; exploit the potential of material qualities, space and people's innate ability to adapt, to help people help themselves. 

In a previous study, Simon Kinneir sought to help people in the transition to having sight-loss maintain their independence. He translated insights of people’s and material behaviour into a range of kitchenware; a jug physically tipped forward as it reached one litre, a saucepan lid intentionally rattled on boiling, and a thumb-point of thinner ceramic on a mug meant you could feel the hot water had reached the right amount.

This workshop will seek to embody this approach of ‘subtle sensory feedback’; it will harness the theory of affordance and thoughtless acts, embodied behaviour and adaptive behaviour through the ‘double-diamond’ process. Let’s create meaningful dialogue out of inherent opportunity. (Feel free to bring interesting relevant photographs to the session).

Workshop outline

This will be a workshop for as many people who wish — 25 people is good.

It can use the full 2 hours 16.50 – 18.50 Friday night.

Suggested program:

1. A introductory presentation about 

- the communicative potential of environmental cues (John M. Hull, Dan Lockton, my own and student work)

- adaptive behaviour (own research)

- thoughtless acts (Jane Fulton Suri)

- affordance (Norman, Gibson, student work)

- design examples (Gregor Timlin, own work)

2. Discover stage: 

- Discuss thoughts about the theme, discuss key words and images; understand there is dialogue between people, place and people.

- Discuss and brain-storm different contexts of need and opportunities

- Translate observations into insights

3. Define: 

- As teams match need and opportunity for a context and audience. Write a brief and outline what to be aware of.

4. Develop:

- As teams come up with concepts of different scales 

5. Deliver:

- Present back to other teams.  

 

Dalila Antunes

Dalila is a Social and Environmental Psychologist working in Europe and Africa for 20 years. She performed studies and projects aiming to develop communities’ sustainability and resilience on the following areas: Risk Assessment and Communication, Social-Economic and Psychosocial studies, Social Impact Assessment, Resettlement Action Plans, Communication Plans, Public Participation and Community Engagement Processes, Sustainable Development Plans, Human Resources Systems, Training and Capacity Building, Awareness and Behavioural Change Programs. Dalila has broad experience working in the fields of Cities’ Planning, Transport, Energy, Waste, Industry, Tourism, Water and Health. She works for private and public organisations and participates in projects funded by European Commission, World Bank, African Development Bank...

'Environmental Psychology contributions for sustainable and resilient communities - from projects' planning to dismantling'

Environmental Psychology can play an important role on developing, implementing and operating projects that better fit their users on one hand and the community that surrounds it on another hand. 

From projects’ planning to dismantling there are several stages where Environmental Psychology can significantly contribute for projects improvement. This communication will move through project tools and present Environmental Psychology contributions. On planning stage we’ll explore contributions of Environmental Psychology to baseline studies, including social viability studies; communities’ engagement plans; and sustainability plans. During licensing stage the communication will emphasize the role of Environmental Psychology on social impact assessment and social management plans. During construction stage we’ll explore social management plans including communication plans with local communities, people relocation plans, recruitment strategies… During project operation stage the communication will focus on psycho-social monitoring, and during dismantling on closing and reconversion plans.

Across the presentation the speaker will address examples on how main psychological concepts are used on each tool, and how psychology crosses with other areas of expertise to improve projects’ psycho-social quality and how it impacts on project results as a whole. Tips on best practice for Psychologists of tomorrow will also be provided.

 

Richard Jedon

Graduated in Psychology from the Masaryk University in Brno and did a postgraduate course on Neuroscience Applied to Architectural Design at Università Iuav di Venezia. Currently works as an environmental psychology consultant for the Urban Planning and Development Institute of the city of Pilsen and lectures about Architectural Psychology at the Charles University in Prague and Università Iuav di Venezia. His main focus is on the influence of architectural and design features on human cognition.

Architecture and Well-being: Let's pay Attention to Aesthetics again?

The fact that built environment influences physical health is evident but what about mental health? One of the many emerging questions in the current research on cognitive science and architecture is the role of attention in the experience of built environments.

Stanley Milgram (1970) explored the notion of cognitive overload in the urban environment, suggesting that too many stimuli may encumber the attention span. Earlier research showed that attention span decrease might be a cause of stress and other negative health conditions (Kaplan & Kaplan, 1980; Killingsworth & Gilbert, 2010). Many philosophers and scholars of architecture and aesthetics have argued for the presence of mystery in cities, curved alleys, backstreets and niches but also for the use of ornaments, paintings or statues (Sitte, 1909; Lynch, 1964; Cullen, 1976; Nasar, 1997). The lack of stimulation of human attention (e.g. the uniform façades and materials) leads to boredom and numbness which can have fatal consequences (Berleant, 1997; Ellard, 2015).

To conclude, the aesthetic features of built environments directly affect attention and perception, two important factors that can in their turn influence the level of stress and other psychological processes directly impacting the well-being of the person.

 

Andréa de Paiva

Andréa de Paiva, Master of Arts in Architecture and Urban Planning, is a consultant at FGV Projetos (Getulio Vargas Foundation) in Brazil, specialist in neuroscience applied to architecture, joint-coordinator and Professor of the Neurobusiness course at FGV-IDE and creator and professor of the course Neuroscience Applied to Environments and Creation at FAAP (Fundação Armando Álvares Penteado). Author of the website neuroau.com/e.

Abstract:

Architects, urban planners and environmental psychologists, among other professionals, have been researching how the physical environment affects people and how can they be designed in a way to improve wellbeing. The new findings from the interdisciplinary field of neuroarchitecture - or neuroscience applied to architecture -amplifies the field of research about the relation between constructed environments and their users, improving the comprehension of various messages that the environment transmits, including those on less conscious levels of perception. However, the complexity of building neighborhoods in the cities or buildings in the neighborhoods or spaces in the building makes it difficult to build “perfect” designs since there are too many variables that can influence the performance of each built environment. Therefore, not all spaces can have a range of design elements that can guarantee psychological and physical wellbeing. There are already neighborhoods built in busy and noisy areas of cities. There are too many hospitals and schools in such neighborhoods. Some spaces, from factories to surgery rooms, cannot change all their features such as smells, layout and lighting. Nevertheless, focusing on keeping the wellbeing of the users of such spaces how is it possible for architects and urban planners to still make sure to guarantee that the built space can help to maintain the physical and psychological health of its users? In this presentation, I will try to answer this question by proposing a way to analyze buildings and cities as complex systems and to classify each space as a short or long-term occupation in order to find a balance within the system.

 

Marek Malůš

Marek Malůš is the Head of Psychology Department at the Faculty of Arts of University of Ostrava, intensively researching restricted environmental stimulation since 2010, conducting experimental studies in collaboration with the Faculty of Medicine of University of Ostrava since 2015. He has acquired the doctor´s degree at Palacký University in Olomouc in pursuance of conducting the first systematic research of restricted environmental stimulation in the Czech Republic. Since 2007, he has undergone several stays in restricted stimulation environment himself (7 days, 3 days and 14 days stays), occasionally works as a caretaker/therapist at two darkness therapy providers. He has been in professional contact with REST research Nestor, professor emeritus Peter Suedfeld from the University of British Columbia, since 2015. He has undergone five-year-long accredited training in dynamic and interpersonal integrative psychotherapy and has been presenting the topic of restricted environmental stimulation at local and abroad professional conferences in the form of original experimental studies, chapters and monographies. In November 2018, he was awarded the rectorial award for scientific-research workers under 35 for his research efforts.

Environment where there is none

The presentation shows a historical overview of an experimental scientific research ranging from perceptual isolation through sensory deprivation to restricted/reduced environmental stimulation technique/therapy. It involves laboratory experiments with immersion REST, flotation REST and especially chamber REST. These studies range from early 1950´s (McGill University, Canada) through 1980´s (University of British Columbia, Canada) until the present (University of Ostrava, Czech Republic). Examples of particular laboratory environments, and studies are discussed, as is the more recent development of applications to treatments of addictive behavior and other life problems. Summaries of results, and applications to practical life problems and issues are considered, and the variety of specific environments is shown.

The second part of the talk presents the specific application of chamber REST, called „Darkness Therapy“ (DT). It stands for procedure when an individual voluntarily stays in specially prepared environment – apartment of absolute darkness, substantial acoustic isolation and solitude, for several days, most commonly for the duration of one week. The stay includes fresh food, beverages and daily visit of caretaker/therapist. Pilot results of procedure studies will be presented (e.g. cognitive functions, psychopathological symptoms, mindfulness, burn-out, ECG, HRV, melatonin & cortisol secretion) and there will be space for discussion at the end of the lecture.

 

Karine Weiss

Karine Weiss is Professor of Social and Environmental Psychology at the University of Nîmes (France). She has conducted research on stress and adaptation in extreme situations (polar stations, manned space flights), but her work currently focuses on perceptions and behaviours related to environmental risks such as pollution, climate change, natural disasters. 

Contributions of environmental psychology to improve the preparation and management of natural disasters in the context of climate change

Natural disasters linked to meteorological events are more and more frequent and violent with climate change. Recent events (e.g. hurricanes, flash floods) have led to question how to prepare, inform and alert the populations face to this kind of dramatic events. Many psychosocial factors can be investigated: information processing capacity, over-confidence bias, comparative optimism, social representations. In addition, differences in protective behaviour between new and old occupants of floodplains have already been highlighted through collective memory. We can also question a possible risk attenuation, related to the information that is disseminated to the population. More specifically, with the evolution of information and communication technologies, the perception of warning must be analyzed, taking into account the rapid evolution of practices.

Therefore the appropriation of tools is fundamental in risk management: crisis management can be slowed down by an inadequacy to the local context, and by too complex or too technical tools. Based on the analysis of existing practices, the value of a bottom-up approach will be demonstrated, while identifying factors that allow better risk management.

 

Karel Smejkal

Teacher and Researcher at the Department of Architecture of the Czech Technical University in Prague, "Psychological Determination of Effectiveness of Architects" 

Vice-President of the Society of Czech Architects (Member of International Union of Architects) and member of American Institute of Architects.

President and co-founder of the world biggest student architecture contest INSPIRELI AWARDS

Psychology of architecture - a challenge for a new generation of architects.

The lecture in three parts explains the current state of perception of architecture psychology among architects in the world, and what is the approach of the scientific team of the applied psychology of architecture at CTU in Prague. In the second part, a comprehensive definition of Psychology of Architecture based on Existence will be explained and published for the first time, and in the last part of the lecture, the hypotheses on which the CTU scientific team is working will be presented.