Sailer, K; Psathiti, C; (2017) A Prospect-Refuge Approach to Seat Preference: Environmental psychology and spatial layout. In: Heitor, Teresa and Serra, Miguel and Silva, João Pinelo and Bacharel, Maria and Silva, Luisa Cannas da, (eds.) Proceedings of the 11th International Space Syntax Symposium. (pp. 137.1-137.16). Instituto Superior Tecnico, Departamentode Engenharia Civil, Arquitetura e Georrecursos, Portugal: Lisbon, Portugal.

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Abstract

The interplay between mind, behaviour and world has been extensively examined by the field of environmental psychology. This approach investigates the ways in which environment furnishes human spatial behaviour as well as individual’s responses to information retrieved by his or her immediate stimuli. Despite the fact that scholarly work in this field has provided valuable conclusions about social functioning in various spatial settings, the spatial context is usually conceptualised as if unstructured and without distinctive physical or organisational properties as a spatial whole. For these reasons several approaches from the built environment tried to address this gap by combining space syntax theoretical and methodological tools with key concepts from the field of environmental psychology and examined spatial cognition, movement, wayfinding, navigation and visual perception. This paper aims at contributing to this existing body of literature by drawing on Appleton’s (1975) prospect-refuge theory and examining stationary activities such as seat preference. The coffee shop like settings of three customer lounges in the UK serve as empirical case studies to investigate customers’ seat preferences. The methodology implemented for this study combines a consistent analysis of spatial structures captured by space syntax analytical tools with behavioural data retrieved by detailed onsite observations of space usage. Furniture settings were mapped and classified according to orientation of seats (‘directness’), presence or absence of attractors (such as windows, TV, coffee bar) and furniture types (armchairs, sofas, booths, etc.). This study found that there is no linear relationship of occupancy with spatial variables and that various contributing factors determine seat selection. In essence, seat preference is rendered as a rather complex phenomenon which depends on the degree of control that is given to the occupant, furniture type as well as furniture directness. At the same time, the paper develops joint metrics that aim at tackling Appleton’s concept of prospect-refuge. In summary, this research by adopting a more empirical and behavioural approach centred on seating preferences presents an innovative way of jointly analysing spatial variables alongside space usage preferences for the examination of stationary activities.

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