<abstract xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"><p>Concerns with the social inadequacy of architecture and the movement towards user-centred design call for new perspectives and architectural visions that can help alleviate usability problems and make buildings more user-friendly and accommodating in supporting user operations. Accordingly, this study proposes the concept of the sociospatial system. This conceptualization is based on premises of the systems approach and a social science interpretation of the problem. We provide a foundation for relating spatial-material objects and sociocultural phenomena, for homogenizing different discipline perspectives, and for developing relational descriptions of the systems components. This allows the built environment to be represented in terms of the sociocultural organism that it accommodates. The elastic concept of the sociospatial system described herein can be used as a holistic framework for the study of sociospatial interactions; including facilities programming and design, where this way of thinking can facilitate a holistic interpretation of a wide array of considerations.</p></abstract>

Concerns with the social inadequacy of architecture and the movement towards user-centred design call for new perspectives and architectural visions that can help alleviate usability problems and make buildings more user-friendly and accommodating in supporting user operations. Accordingly, this study proposes the concept of the sociospatial system. This conceptualization is based on premises of the systems approach and a social science interpretation of the problem. We provide a foundation for relating spatial-material objects and sociocultural phenomena, for homogenizing different discipline perspectives, and for developing relational descriptions of the systems components. This allows the built environment to be represented in terms of the sociocultural organism that it accommodates. The elastic concept of the sociospatial system described herein can be used as a holistic framework for the study of sociospatial interactions; including facilities programming and design, where this way of thinking can facilitate a holistic interpretation of a wide array of considerations.

The Architectural Object as a Sociospatial System

School of Family and Consumer Sciences, American Culture Studies affiliated faculty

European Review Of Applied Sociology

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 3.0 License.

{"article-title":"The Architectural Object as a Sociospatial System"}

Concerns with the social inadequacy of architecture and the movement towards user-centred design call for new perspectives and architectural visions that can...

The Architectural Object as a Sociospatial System

Published Online: Feb 16, 2018

Page range: 41 - 53

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1515/eras-2017-0008

© 2017 Lubomir Popov et al., published by De Gruyter Open

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 3.0 License.