INTRODUCTION

Reform the environment, stop trying to reform people. They will reform themselves if the environment is right. (Buckminster Fuller).

Man, to a large extent, is a product of his environment. His physical being as well as his entire life and lifestyle are conditioned by the environment in which he is placed. Environment is basically of two types-physical and social. Physical environment consists of factors like climate, rainfall, soil, geological strata and flora & fauna. The social environment of man, in any region, comprises of factors like the history of the region, traditions, legends religions and cosmologies of the communities inhabiting it, the social groups he belongs to and their customs, folkways, mores, folk beliefs, marriage and family types, the rules of succession and laws of inheritance of property. Talking about a community, the social environment of any community also includes factors like, lifestyles of its members, the sense of segregation held by them and the degree and form in which they exercise it among their various sections, the system of classification embedded in their culture as well as the concepts of sacredness and profanity held by them. (p24,OGBURN WILLIAM AND NIMKOFF MAYER, 1956, Handbook of Sociology,
London, Routledge and Kegan Pal.)

The exploitation and use of, and adjustment with, the physical environment that nature provides in any region depends upon the social environment of the people in the region. In any region, nature provides certain physical elements for the culture to use. But whether culture uses these materials or not is another matter. Moreover, even where the materials presented by nature are utilized, the mode of their utilization is culturally determined. (p45, RAPOPORT AMOS, 1969, House form and
culture, New Jersey, Prentice-Hall.)

One must, therefore, conclude that the physical environment plays no precipitating or creative role in building the social heritage. The growth of culture or its variations cannot be attributed to the physical environment.

External Environment

The external environment is all the conditions surrounding a person, and has been classified in various ways. External environment can be categorized as an interactive sensory physical-socio-cultural phenomenon. The interaction of these four environmental dimensions creates further sub-dimensions such as political and economic environments. Physical aspects of the environment refer to the natural and constructed surroundings that form physical boundaries. The physical environment is often viewed as tangible; it is partially shaped by other environmental dimensions. For example, socio-cultural environmental influences determine the way a physical environment looks. Sensory aspects of the environment also contribute to its physical characteristics. Differences in the style, structure and physical components of an Arctic environment are quite different to those in a desert environment. The sensory environment links most directly to the sensory and cognitive components of the internal environment and provides the natural cues that direct occupational performance. Fundamental to information supplied by the sensory environment is information about its survivability, for example, determining whether an environment is too hot or too cold to sustain life. Culture here refers to transmitted patterns of behavior shared by members of a group which provide them with effective mechanisms for interaction (Krefting

& Krefting, 1991). Culture can be thought of as an overriding concept (eg. western cultures and indigenous cultures) that directs the socio-cultural specificity of group environments each with its own beliefs and rituals that are used to determine behavioral norms. Some theorists have suggested that the social environment is constructed of several layers (Llorens,1984b; Barris, Keilhofner, Levine & Neville, 1985).These layers have been developed based on notions of degrees of intimacy occurring between people in a family, neighborhood, community and wider society (Llorens,1984b).

Sensory Environment
A broadly acceptable definition of a sense would be - a system that consists of a sensory cell type [or a group of cell types] that respond to a specific kind of physical energy and that correspond to a defined region [or group of regions within the brain where the signals are received and interpreted. It's a more biological definition to begin with but to be more precise, senses are the physiological methods of perception and vary from individual to individual depending on ones upbringing, cultural background and moral values. Sensory Environment refers to the sensory surroundings of a person. Sensory aspects of the environment give person information about the physical socio cultural aspects of the environment and its survivability.

Socio-Cultural Environment
From time immemorial, man has been in search of space in which he can establish his identity as a person. The human mind makes man a social entity. Living beings in general are conditioned by the environment whereas man has the capacity to mould his environment to his purpose. Purpose, therefore, lies at the vital core of human conduct. Every individual in the world forms a nodal cultural region, as does every household, village, city or nation. Individual is the focal point of his daily movements to or from work, his social or religious activities, his consumption, his communications and much more. Culture is the product of consistent interaction among people. This interaction is itself conditioned by the environment and circumstances in which it is nurtured. Culture cannot be superimposed since it sprouts, grows and evolves itself. Culture can also not be forcibly injected. It has to be felt, experienced and savored. Culture can be nourished in cultural areas and cultural complexes but cannot grow outside them. The emergence, sustenance and growth of culture is of an organic nature and a by-product of willing people acting spontaneously under all types of circumstances. All is well with society and civilization so long as the cultural ethos is an important determinant in the house form, streetscape and neighborhood formulation and structural concept of cities. (RAPOPORT AMOS, 1969, House form and culture, New Jersey,
Prentice-Hall.)

Cultural Environment
Cultural Environment refers to an organized structure which is composed of systems of values, beliefs, ideals and customs which are learned and communicated to contribute to the behavioral boundaries of a person or group of people. The design of a home or community is affected by the cultural values, privacy regulation practices, and perception and cognition of members of a society. But the design of a home or city in turn can affect perceptions and cognitions and privacy-regulation practices. There are many environmental places that can be examined from a cultural perspective homes, communities, cities, schools, playgrounds, hospitals, prisons. By considering the design, location, and use of such places, one can learn a great deal about how cultures are similar and different in their relation to the physical environment.

Social Environment
Social Environment refers to an organized structure created by the patterns of relationships between people who function in a group which in turn contributes to establishing the boundaries of behavior. People, cultures, and physical environments form a social system all of whose parts work together in an integrated way. People, culture, and environment operate as a unified system, each influencing and being influenced by others,

each as much a cause as an effect of the others, and each understandable only if considered only in lights of other.

Physical Environment
Physical Environment refers to the natural and constructed surroundings of a person, which form physical boundaries and contribute to shaping behavior. As we as architects have a great role in creating a physical environment its our responsibility to create positive environments at a micro or a macro level. Recalling the words of Sir Winston Churchill in a speech to Britain's House of Commons on Oct 1943, We shape the buildings and afterwards the buildings shape us. And hence an architect should understand the environment for which one is creating a space.

SPACE
Space is defined as an expanse which extends in all directions, in which all material objects or forms are located. External space surrounds people as objects in space, but people themselves contain internal space that is filled with objects in the form of body structures. The concept of internal space corresponds with contemporary notions of human function. Theorists describe a human three dimensional spatial coordinate system that functions to understand external space and an internal spatial system that identifies body parts as they relate to each other and external space (Gilfoyle, Grady & Moore, 1981; Stelmach, 1982). Space is a particular frame of reference for an object. Specifically, it defines the transformations that are applied to an object to put it into the frame of reference. As an Element of Art, space is created by the emptiness between, around, behind or within a given object or group of objects. Space defines shapes and constantly encompasses our being yet it is an inherently formless vapor. As space begins to be captured, enclosed, molded and organized by the elements of mass, architecture comes into being. Relation of space and body, show that space is a plastic environment, charged with meaning, that reflects the distinctive character of human embodiment in the full range of its moving, perceptual, emotional, expressive, developmental and social capacities. Processing of the complex sensory information involved in movement through space and interactions with objects in space results in cognitive understanding of the body in space and of its relationship with objects in space. Part of the

meaning that is attributed to space and objects within space contains an affective or emotional component that contributes to feelings about oneself as an object in space, about the type of relationship that exists between oneself and space, and about the relationship between oneself and other objects in space Although people are surrounded by physical space, the meaning they attribute to it, the way they use it and their interactions within it, are largely determined by how they interpret it.

ATTITUDE TOWARDS ENVIRONMENT

Environmental theory is earthbound and oriented to reality. Its objective is the discovery of laws and relationships that typify the dynamics of nature and the interaction between man and his environment. The particular methods adopted have changed throughout history. Ancient hypotheses employed astrological and mystical elements. Modern work emphasizes scientific procedure: empirical classification, formation of hypothesis, examination and testing of data, and generalized conclusions. Recent environmental thought demonstrates high degrees of scientific rigor, including applications of statistics, systems theory, and computer analysis. Still, the direction of study has remained steady. Environmental theory seeks to comprehend an environment, not to create one. It seeks to identify the processes of nature, not to evaluate them. A successful analysis indicates how things are, not how they ought to be. Substantive conclusions of environmental theorists have varied with time and with changes of method. Despite this diversity, a common thesis can be discerned in almost all environmental theories, although it is presented with varying degrees of insight and emphasis. Essentially, environmental thought emphasizes the ability of nature co limit the ambitions and achievements of mankind.

DETERMINISM
Environmental determinism is the purest case of a theory that defines man as helpless before the forces of nature. Determinism is more than a belief in the environment's ability to limit human endeavour. It speculates that nature retains causal power over the actions of men. Culture and social institutions are responses to environmental conditions; free will is an illusion (indeed, an illusion presumably produced by environmental forces). Environmental determinism remained a dominant theoretical approach through the beginning of the 20th century. Even if it was granted that the environment had some influence on human activity, critics objected to the argument that it was the major influence. Numerous cases were advanced of Situations in which other, non-environmental factors I had predominant causal impact. Thus, Some critics questioned the relationship between environment and patterns of food consumption by noting that the difference in consumption between social classes within a given geographical area is often greater than the difference between residents of differing areas. Critics of determinism wished to know how major changes in social and political organization could take place in a context of environmental stability if the latter phenomena determined the structure of the former. Critics also objected to conceptualizing the environment as an autonomous variable without considering the nature of the organism whose environment was in question.(Wikipedia.org)

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POSSIBILISM
As a reaction against determinism, there appeared a new theory, possibilism which emphasized the role of man in the unfolding of history. According to this view, man is not a passive creature helpless before environmental pressures. The environment of each area provides a set of possibilities, but it is man who evaluate the options to select those which he will persue.(Wikipedia.org)

PROBABILISM AND PRAGMATISM

For several decades, possibilism and determinism defined the parameters within which geographers debated the relationship between man and environment. The bases of the dispute became extremely confused. One problem concerned the difficulty of deciding whether factual evidence should be interpreted as proof of determinism or possibilism. Consider a hypothetical case in which man makes a technological response to his environment, such as the introduction of air conditioning in the tropics. Does this demonstrate that the environment has determined the direction, 'of man's technological development? Or does it indicate that man has mastered the environment by managing to escape its unpleasant between human action and an environmental condition is insufficient to indicate whether an act represents determinism or the free selection of an advantageous possibility characteristics? The evidence can be used either way. A simple correlation. (Moos,Rudolf 1934)

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ENVIRONMENTAL PSYCHOLOGY
including all that is natural on the planet as well as social settings, built environments, learning environments and informational environments. When solving problems involving human-environment interactions, whether global or local, one must have a model of human nature that predicts the environmental conditions under which humans will behave in a decent and creative manner. With such a model one can design, manage, protect and/or restore environments that enhance reasonable behaviorEnvironmental psychology examines the interrelationship between environments and human behavior. The field defines the term environment very broadly. (Berry, JW 1976)

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Human Habitation: Some Spatio-Social Dimensions

This chapter is a synthesis of points, relevant to the theme of the present work, based on some of the papers presented at various seminars/ conferences and/ or published elsewhere. The spatial and social aspects of human habitations are inextricably interwoven into each other. Every human group attaches some social meanings to physical spaces and elements of its habitation. Physical spaces have social meanings. By themselves, these spaces may have very little significance. They derive their real and respective significance and intrinsic value from the social meanings attached to them which they come to acquire in course of time. Social meanings of spaces and elements are culture specific. Moreover, the most significant factor in this context is the arrangement of these spaces and this itself is culturally determined. For reasons of academic convenience, the socio-cultural aspects mentioned in the present seminar have been tentatively placed in a number of broad categories viz. Forms and Patterns, Culture and Social Systems, Change Planning and Development Process and Socio-Anthropological Approach. (Chandoke,S.K 1977). The term habitation refers to a place of adobe and its physical environment. The habitation pattern' of any community, therefore, is an indication of the practice or custom of the community with regard to the pattern of its place of abode.

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A habitation is not confined to the houses alone or areas in their immediate vicinity. It is also conditioned by and, therefore, rightly includes the other habitable areas and the environs and regions in which they exist. A human habitation, be it at any level, has of necessity to be in conformity with the way of life of its inhabitants from cradle to grave. It is, in fact, like the horoscope of its inhabitants. The pattern of any habitation, therefore, reflects the lifestyle and culture of its occupants/inhabitants. (Chandoke,SK 1976). Definite groupings of population are a conscious human response to a number of factors. The way people build their houses and group them, the way arteries of internal and external communications are formed, lends itself to ecological and anthropological analysis. This line of thinking is amply supported by innumerable instances where whole communities or parts of communities, having migrated to different regions, repeat their old habitation pattern at the new places, even though the physical conditions there may be totally different and the original habitations, scientifically speaking, may be inappropriate for the climatic conditions of the new regions. Examples of this have been observed in the vicinity of Govind Ballabh Pant , University of Agriculture and Technology (Nainital), in Medak and Nizamabad districts of Andhra Pradesh and many other parts of India and elsewhere. The form of villages and houses of the Bhoksa, Santhal, Toda, Girasia, Bhil and Kharia tribes in .the country present some very interesting examples of the manifestation of tribal and caste control of rural habitation. Some other interesting examples in this respect are provided by the habitations of Meos, Jats, Ahirs and Brahmans in the Bharatpur district of

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Rajasthan and also a number of such caste groups in the Varanasi district of Uttar Pradesh. These examples point to the necessity of studying the sociological aspects of the subject - a fact which is now being increasingly acknowledged even by scholars in other disciplines. (Chandoke,SK 1963).

Social Vs Physical Environment

In order to sustain and re-produce himself, man has always been making ceaseless efforts to modify nature for creating for himself some sort of a habitation. The exploitation and use of and adjustment with the physical environment that nature provides in any region depends upon the social environment of the people in the region. In any region, nature provides certain physical elements for the culture to use, but it is upto the culture to decide whether to use them or not. Moreover, even where these are utilized, the mode of their utilization is culturally conditioned. The physical setting only provides the possibilities among which choices are made and these choices themselves are culture specific. The house is a tool invented by man to help him in his adaptation to this environment. But the needs of man are not determined by physiological drives alone, they are determined under conditions of culture also in a more or less round-about process. The habitat of any community, though itself basically a resultant of continuous interaction between its culture and physical environment, plays a significant role in the life of the community.

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The shelters of all land animals are fixed by instinct, in contrast, human dwellings are diverse products of invention and cultural tradition. (Chandoke,SK 1981)

Housing and its Functions

Housing, one of the three fundamental human needs, provides shelter from animals, security for infants and a place for social interaction. A house which does not fulfill these basic biological needs is not worthy of being called a 'dwelling house'. House is the nest in which family life grows and develops. The residence must reflect the lifestyle of its inhabitants. A house is an institution, not just a structure. It reflects the thinking, feelings, beliefs and aspirations of its occupants. In fact, house building is not a natural act and is not universal. Houses are not merely shelters, these are homes where people can live not as human aggregates but can grow and develop into well-knit harmonious communities. It is very important to know he place and priority of house in the life of its inhabitants. Its position in the scale of 'Consumer Priorities' has a significant value. (Chandoke,SK 1983)

Factors that Shape and Sustain a Pattern

Each habitation pattern is formed and sustained by different factors or groups of factors such as: (a) Cultural and community factors,

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(b) Economic factors, (c) Historical factors, (d) Physical factors. History of the area, customs and traditions of the communities inhabiting it, their religious faiths and mythologies, social organization, folk beliefs, caste, kinship, family, marriage, rules of inheritance of property and succession, etc. play an important role in this respect. The successional changes in the socio-economic trends and historical events also influence human habitations. Similarly, the occupations of those inhabiting an area, the stage of their economic development and the type of farming they are engaged in have an influence in this sphere. Also important in this respect are the systems of revenue settlement and land ownership. Physical conditions include factors like topography, soil, water supply and other conditions which are by and large beyond the control of human beings whether acting individually or in social groups. Security is also an important consideration. In the same region, areas which have enjoyed longer periods of security have developed different patterns of habitation than the ones whose people have suffered continued harassment. Although in the initial stages of the evolution of the pattern of any habitation it is the physical factors which generally play a more influential role and carry a comparatively higher decisive weight, once the pattern hem clearly emerged and become somewhat stabilized, it becomes a part of the culture and social heritage of the community and consequently, therefore, develops a tenacity, that is, a

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strong tendency to perpetuate itself even in the face of changed physical conditions and modified social circumstances. Thus the term 'traditional'. A very good case in instance is that of the chowkband (central court, or patio) house in different parts of India and even outside. (Chandoke,SK 1988) Habitation patterns also seem to have more to do with tradition than either geography or agriculture. The history of habitation of villages in a region exerts an important influence in regard to the formation of pattern. In civilized countries with social freedom each natural region develops a pattern for it while in backward countries social organization is more powerful than physiography.

Inter-regional and Intra-regional Differences

Habitation patterns vary from region to region, within the same region in different sub-regions and sometimes even in adjacent villages. Different villages under almost similar physical conditions, economic circumstances and law and order situations have assumed different patterns, and factors causing dissimilarities are mainly sociological. (Chandoke,SK 1976)

The Gestalt, Levels of Living and Elements of Habitation

The gestalt of any habitation lends itself to an interesting and informative ecological and anthropological analysis. Various communities in the world have different levels of living. In villages of the Union Territory of Delhi and the adjoining State of Haryana, for example, there are three different levels of living. The first level is that of the household, and it consists of ghar (residential house),

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baithak (men's quarters) and gher (place for cattle). The second level is that of the village abadi (habitable area) while the third level is that of the sim (boundary of the village estate). A detailed study and analysis of these three levels is a highly revealing and rewarding exercise. Similarly, one way to understand certain aspects of this complicated and longdrawn process is to look at the component parts of the habitation of a community at various levels and observe various uses of these parts. The component parts of a habitation and their respective uses reflect the process of interaction between culture and habitat. A study of the various spaces and elements at different levels of a habitation, their spatial and social arrangement, the actors and activities carried out there on different occasions and their alternative uses as well as the actors and activities prohibited/tabooed, or restricted/constrained there provides a deep insight into the subject. (Chandoke,SK 1985) It is an interesting sociological observation that the mixing of various components of habitation at the various levels, for example, ghar, baithak and gher at the level of the household; is usually not acceptable to the community in general.

Multi-village Groups and Panchayat - a nesting series

Village groupings - based on different considerations exist in almost all parts of the world. The most noticeable point in the history of the Haryana region, for example, is the grouping of villages of each tribe, or sub-division of a tribe, at one

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spot. This arises in most cases because the surrounding villages have been separated off and founded from a central village. The local term for a group of villages belonging to people of the samegotra (nonlocalised patrilineal clan) is khap. Villages in this region do not stand alone, they are generally part of a wider cluster of villages with traditions of a common origin and descent. In certain matters the khap acts as a unit of social interaction. A khap always has a common leadership, common code of conduct and sanctions. Every khap has a panchyat (a council of elders which performs certain special functions. Every khap, again, is divided into smaller groups of villages based on very meticulously worked-out criterion. These groups act as a body at that level and have their own panchayats (councils), controls and functions. Just like these horizontal linkages, there do exist some vertical linkages also. Similar situations exist in some other regions as well as traditional urban habitations. (Chandoke,SK 1963)

Internal Structure of Habitations

Just like its gestalt at the level of the total habitation including presence or absence of hamlets, etc., its internal structure also varies considerably depending upon spatio-social considerations. The settlement of habitation in caste-wise or sub-castewise sectors, the phenomenon of closed clusters of houses generally of closely related agnatic kins - known by different names in different regions, startlingly different densities in different sectors occupied by different sections of the local community; a strict control on the height of the base or roof of houses of certain

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groups; segregation and even discrimination at the levels of various elements of habitation not only like the water source, etc. but right upto even those meant for the disposal of the dead, all point to the significant blend of social factors in the physical matrix of the habitations of human groups. The pattern of any habitation is, in fact, the physical manifestation of the social configurations of the community inhabiting it. (Chandoke,SK 1977)

Complexity of the Process

The affiliation of a group with any particular caste or religion by itself is not a sufficient consideration/cause for the particular pattern of its habitation. The habitation patterns of similar groups in even neighboring habitations are sometimes quite different. An important consideration in this respect being whether a group belongs to the proprietary or nonproprietary body of the local estate.

Even the presence or absence of the processes of Westernisation and Sanskritisation and the stage, that is, the intensity, of these processes in a group makes a considerable difference in the pattern of its habitation. (Chandoke,SK 1981)

Cultural Relativity
All the studies - theoretical as well as analytical inevitably lead to one point namely that for a realistic understanding of this important though neglected subject, one must always adopt an attitude/approach of cultural relativity 21

otherwise his study would lead to an unrealistic understanding and impractical approach, suffering as, in that case, it would inevitably be at least from the absence of an appropriate framework, if not from the element of cultural ethnocentricism. (Chandoke,SK 1987).

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CONFINEMENT TO PHYSICAL ENVIRONMENT

HUMAN BEHAVIOR AND THE ENVIRONMENT

The systematic regularities of individual human behavior have to be not only inherent in, but crucial to, these larger geographic manifestations. Otherwise, the patterns would appear only fortuitously and inconsistently. A rational description of individual human behavior, however, to say nothing of its prediction, still seems chimerical today. The argument must rest, accordingly, on arbitrary premises, and whatever inferences follow will remain contingent on these premises validity. The familiar and legitimate conception of life as a creative process inspires the heuristic invention of the figure of Expressive Man. He reveals himself to his fellows in his actions and commemorates himself before succeeding ages through enduring material creations. He regards the world as the instrument of his insistent selfhood and mankind as his audience. All society is a mutual admiration society as men perpetually exchange the tokens of there own vitality and identity. Let this image be the core of our cultural geography. (Wagner, P.L, 1972, p2) All men enter early into, and remain enmeshed in, ceaseless sensory contact and interchange with their fellows. People thus involved react to, and mutually influence, each other. In a given social-sensory milieu, a particular performance

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tends to elicit consistent responses from an individual's companions, just as he tends to assume an identifiable role. People, notoriously, do not watch uncomprehendingly and impassively what their neighbors do, nor in the presence others, will they act mindlessly and meaninglessly, the imputation of human acts of significance, deliberately and intelligibly conveyed to those familiar the actor's repertory, we take for granted. People who are socially related can communicate. what they do communicate, however, may in its particulars elude a stranger .It can nevertheless fairly be supposed that identity and vitality, however expressed according to the culture and social context invariably constitute the crux of what communication imparts at its deepest level. Selfhood experienced and manifested through action in the world must, indeed, count as, a chief distinguishing attribute of mankind. The artificial world of man is made of monuments. It hardly strains the imagination to conceive the birth of true mankind as having taken place at some time fifty thousand hundred, thousand, years ago, when glorious cave art, decorated burials, rich ornament of weapons, and mighty deeds of prowess like giant mammal hunts and perilous migrations attest a new level of pride and style that must have been self-conscious. Is it not plausible to say that man created himself as a man when he discovered his selfhood? And perhaps he did so while brooding for the first time on his own mortality. The expression of a human self, more explicit than the ordinary animals signal of its presence, manifests a temporal dimension. Selfhood pierces through a moment and extends deep into a past and onward into a future. It cannot be fully

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environed, as an animal existence can, nor encompassed in the working of some instantaneous mechanism. This fact conditions all of cultural geography. The meaning of environment for cultural geography goes much deeper than the immediate spatial surroundings, or the field of sensory perceptions, or the mere domain of mechanical contact and interaction of individual bodies, or even the habitual spatial range of individual movements. Environment has larger relevance as a momentary coexistence among varied presences, human and artifactual. Through it a person may experience vicarious exposure to people, things, and places that are distant or remote in time.

This enormous weight of representation or symbolism that suffuses all environments is inherent within the temporal dimension. The expression of the self through action has not only temporal directions, but also a formative effect upon the self, fixing the imprint of, particular environments and what they symbolize. Whether intentional or accidental artificial or spontaneous and refer through time and distance to potentialities of experience. Accordingly that reaction to environment which we call perception consists are far more than mere tropism. in effect any given environment of the moment of a piece with unbroken fabric of a life , and through it run the wrap and woof strands of the perceivers continuous existence and experience. A mans perception, therefore are his very private property. Some intimation of their nature comes, however out of our thoroughly selective and repetitive usage of conventional symbolism. Much reiterated association disclosed in material forms attest to habits of perception.

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Symbols, deliberately marshaled and manipulated, serve the express end the conditioning perception. Perception itself exists at part of larger universe of communication, as response to actual or inferred expression. Its characteristic functions, interpretation and evaluation, are uses of symbolism. Perception searches for conventional, and therefore communicable, expression. The capacity for this expression is the gift of a society.

PHYSICAL ENVIRONMENT
.

ARCHITECTURE AND PHYSICAL DESIGN

People necessarily function in a specific physical context that can impose constraints on the range of possible behavior, and that can serve to determine certain patterns of individual action. The design of buildings and cities has an effect on the behavior of the people who live and work in them. The arrangement of apartments, hallways, and exits in housing units can encourage the formation of friendships among neighbors and discourage the occurrence of crime. The pattern of streets may promote their use as playgrounds in one neighborhood and thoroughfares in another. The placement of chairs in a room may facilitate or inhibit open discussion. For example, Harvey Osmond has offered a basic bipolar dimension along which physical environments vary. At one end of the continuum are "Sociofugal environments that discourage social contacts and the formation of interpersonal relationships. Railway stations, hotels, and most mental hospitals

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are examples of this type of design. At the other pole is socio-petal environments, such as teepees, igloos, and mall seminar rooms, which encourage contacts and the development of interpersonal relationships. A circular or radial design for group living quilters would encourage interaction by placing bedrooms at the outer circumference of the structure and common recreation and meeting areas in the center, thus eliminating all hallways. People going from bedroom to bedroom, or into the lounge, would be frequently put into contact with others. These unavoidable contacts would provide people with practical opportunities to increase involvement and social cohesion.

Architectural design can have a wide impact by affecting the life styles and values of people. One aspect of suburban life that has received considerable attention is the possibility that it discourages individuality. William Whyte has discussed the consequences of a neighborhood design that tents to encourage interaction and make isolation and privacy impossible. As Whyte noted, "The court, like the double bed, enforces intimacy, and self-imposed isolation becomes psychologically untenable." (Moos Rudolph. 1977,p44). A leveling, homogenizing process may take place with both positive and negative consequences. One unexpected consequence of intense interaction and group cohesion in small neighborhood areas may be little participation in civic or cultural affairs. People active in the overall community that Whyte studied came' from less socially active, less cohesive course, and conversely, the courts where interaction was most intense contributed few civic leaders.

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The major point for our purposes is that architectural variable may exert an important impact on behavior and thus must be carefully considered in the physical design.

COMMUNICATION TO BUILT AND UNBUILT SPACES

Architecture is shelter, but it is also symbol and a form of communication. As Sir Herbert Read observed, all art is "a mode of symbolic discourse." Architecture is a physical representation of human thought and aspiration, a record of the beliefs and values of the culture that produces it. In an introductory study such as this, it is necessary to start at the beginning, but this raises the intriguing question of exactly when it was that humans began to reshape their living environment and to formulate symbols that were given expression in architecture. We need to move well back from the period of recorded history, to the dim ages when the ancestors of the Homo sapiens appeared. In doing so we uncover suggestions of the origins of human society and human institutions. We discover, too, that what we build is shaped only in part by the need to provide for a particular functional use; architecture seems to have been built from the very first as a symbol of communal belief. Architecture accommodates psychological as well as physiological needs of the human family, whose basic social institutions are perhaps a million years old. Thus the strictly utilitarian or functional considerations of modern architecture defined during the last century are only the smallest part of the broad social and cultural functions that architecture fulfills. Communication ultimately depends upon the senses. The individual field of 28

sensory awareness-the immediate environment- conveys whatever information reaches a human being. Whatever form connection takes, they all abut upon the sensory receptors. The flows of communication go through the environment as expressive state presented to perception. Definite, deliberate significance inheres in all environments affected by the work of man. Expression there awaits discovery. Some expressions are enduring and explicit, others ephemeral and ambiguous. Everything about the body is in itself a declaration, slight facial movements, posture, position of the hands, level of the voice, breathing rhythm, body heat and perspiration, skin color, odors, every motions. The language of dress likewise states its message, as do the character of a mans possessions generally and the way he keeps and uses them. An Americans house and car figure prominently in defining him socially. (Wagner, P.L, 1972, p43).

In less purified guises, vitality declares itself around everyone, informing the manmade environment. Even beyond mans own work, nature in general, regarded through lenses of developed sensibility, seems to have moods or a message. A man contemplates his entire surroundings and sees a specious harmony nature full of clear intention, human works all tending together; a compelling illusion lends more plausibility to existence. Mankind thus always insisted on perceiving an intended concert in the world.

Besides all this, the natural components, as suggested, may seem to bear intended meaning too. Artifacts (and sometimes the arrangements of them,

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notably in settlements) accuse the identity and style of their makers, and often manifest their own uses and properties. All incorporate a degree of ulterior references- they are variable symbols, if only in a small way. Whatever betokens or admits to having a maker, must symbolize him; intelligible sign of use, built in, must count as symbols of actions involved. The phenomenon of symbolism, or vicarious meaning, derives from the continuity of life and experience, so that any one environment, any person any object, any quality of things is capable at times of retrospectively evoking images or values- responses- not otherwise possible.

A symbol is no accident. it constitutes deliberate and skilled communication; therein lie its special virtue and distinction. Environment includes a host of situations, actions, and object with symbolic content but not all have equal intensity and clarity.

Environment always infringe on freedom, not only because of prevailing laws of nature but also an account of manmade features like buildings, bridges, tower etc. Such things communicate through action, but to the perceptive may carry a symbolic value too. Think of a bridge, localizing the operation of streamcrossing, but also embodying its broader suggestiveness. (Wagner, P.L, 1972, p44).

The work of art, a presence in its own right, claiming an individuality a lost personal and disdaining mortality, partakes of some of the character of a symbol,

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and also of another kind of expression somehow show analogy to the unity of the person who, however he may behave and whatever repertory of expression he may employ, remains identified as himself, conditioning thereby whatever he may enact (e.g. a nun who swears is simply not convincing).

ENVIRONMENTAL MEDIA
Expressive environments represent the only possible kind of environment for true humanity to live in. It has been previously explained the reason for absence and impossibility of any other kind of authentic Homo sapiens than an expressive one. But it still remains to ask what environment says that is, what people actually tell one another through environmental expression. Environmental modification has the important consequence of setting out inescapable patterns of future behavior. It bequeaths limits. Once a road becomes laid out, traffic deviates from it only with great difficulty. Routes, acquire permanence when accordant property lines come into existence, when people erect walls, fences or hedges, when houses are sited. So traffic, even if uninfluenced by 'habits of its own, capitulates to necessity and follows the road. This principle applies to countless facilities and articles of use. The physical layout of a settlement or a house and the physical shape of a tool, impose rules. (Wagner, P.L, 1972, p55) Another sort of content in expression hinges on rhythm. Continuance at familiar tasks may seem almost easier than stopping. Spontaneous responses to cycles of community life, as well as acquiescence to imperious bodily rhythms, impel 31

people to perform at their turn or as part of the concert. What is not, as it were, graven into the material body of environment inheres in its temporal shape-a very real element. Rural life inveterately finds itself regulated both by the life rhythms of crops and animal in relation to the seasons and by the human life cycle and subsidiary body rhythms. The purely mechanical rhythms of a great city, too, can impose themselves, on individual lives.

Waking and sleeping are more closely governed by the noises of environment than most people think, and probably appetite, mood, and general health reflect them. Church bell used to signal the time, and no one misinterpreted their meaning, much less question it, but somehow city sounds do not enjoy the same credibility. Mere expression of vitality in itself certainly counts for something in coordinating the life of people living close together. Abundant and telling vital signs surround us all, surely they guide us.

The media just cited, particularly written matter, hold another interest for geography of expressive environment, namely their capacity for governing action. Since history began the scribes behind the scenes have governed if hot ruled. In the China of the mandarins, minute recording and prescription everywhere affected daily life; today they do so universally, just consider the astonishing and familiar habit of writing all over buildings and landscapes.

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THE DIALECTIC OF EXPRESSION

Settlements as displays, representing all their past and present denizens through individual material creations, and manifesting their corporate identity, their customs, rules, and rhythms with the concrete features of their landscapes, form a central subject of study for cultural geography. No complete catalog of their features, needless to say, has ever been made or ever can be, for each place stands apart as unique and particular. Nonetheless, the particulars group into general types, and the movements of change can be traced geographically. Morphology of settlements brings out inevitable resemblances and regularities, so that regional distributions and relationships appear. Field patterns, agricultural practices, house types, internal circulation and zoning, industrial processes, decorative motifs, all reveal a larger geographic order. Moreover, the historical progress of innovations, as they move through communication channels and expressive landscape, lends itself to accurate summation. Thereby, geographers invoke both the concept of the cultural landscape" and the notation of culture history in explanation, and cast their findings in the framework of culture area.

The genesis of culture areas, however, result from dynamic processes not always clearly indexed by resulting forms, or accounted for by known connections. Hence, in order to provide an adequate account of culture areas, their formative processes-which again fall into general types, may need consideration. The investigations of "cultural ecology" attend to this need.

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Communication

processes

complete

themselves

through

expression

in

environments, but that expression emerges, at last, only out of work. an idea takes material shape in the world only when translated into an object or a sensible attribute of an object. (Wagner, P.L, 1972, p60) Art illustrates this principle. The artist wrestles with his material in order to compel it to express his vision. Recalcitrant words or stones or harmonies have to be subdued by dogged work. A real artist reveals his integrity in this stubborn effort, refusing to compromise his master vision to accommodate the material, forcing it insistently to yield and take the shape he dictates. In the same way architect also put some expression in his designed building or any object to convey his vision. So all type of physical object in this environment communicate with us, whether it natural or manmade but we should have our senses good enough to catch them.

The point here is that human behavior rests upon some kind of interaction with the environment. And expressive style and form is as if wrenched from nature, the fruit of struggle. The ways of making nature yield to mankinds expressive urge are many, and unanimously difficult. So every landscape, every settlement embodies the result of long and tense relations of the people with the environment, the marks of slowly growing skills and potency, and slowly crystallizing certainties of form. (Wagner, P.L, 1972,p61)

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MACRO AND MICRO LEVEL STUDY

BEHAVIOURAL SETTINGS
According to Roger Barker and his associates, they have developed the concept of behaviour setting, which they consider to be the essential element in studies of the ecological environment. They believe that this unit provides the "basic building block" of ecological psychology. Behaviour settings are extra individual that is, behaviour settings refer not to the behaviour of particular individuals but to group of individual, behaving together. When you attend a lecture go to a baseball game, shop in a grocery store or go to a baseball game, go to the dentist you are participating in a behavior setting. The behaviour-setting unit includes temporal and physical aspects of the environment, the standing patterns of behaviour in the environment, and the relationship between the two. In addition, the behavior-setting unit is intermediate in size. It is not as small as individual nor is it as large as a school or a factory. Behavior settings can serve as an important link between the behavior of a particular individual and that of large contexts, such as organisations or schools. It is possible to survey the entire population of behavior settings in a small town, that is, in an environmental unit that is approximately the same size as some utopian communities. In fact, one study examined all 455 settings identified in one town in terms of 43 different descriptive variables. This study identified 12 behaviour setting types, for example, government settings (township board

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meetings, city council meetings), local business settings (banks, barber shops, lumberyards, grocery stores), family-oriented settings (picnics, public dinners), religious settings (religion classes, worship services, fellowship meetings), and so on. This type of classification may provide hypotheses concerning the economic, political, and behavior-control functions of social settings in the context of an entire community. Behavior settings have important impacts on the people who function within them and are therefore of major importance in the planning of an optimal society. Descriptions of one or two behaviour settings may help provide a concrete "flavor" of what life in a utopian community would actually be like. A third dimension concerns the scale of environments. There are very small built environments, such as bathrooms, kitchens, and homes, and rather large built environments, such as communities and cities.

Proxemics
In the mid 1950s anthropologist E. T. Hall wrote "The Hidden Dimension" which developed and popularized the concepts of personal space and his more general name for this field, proxemics. He defined proxemics as, "the study of how man unconsciously structures microspace - the distance between men in the conduct of daily transactions, the organization of space in his houses and buildings, and ultimately the layout of his towns." Hall defined and measured four interpersonal "zones" intimate (0 to 18 inches) personal (18 inches to 4 feet)

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social (4 feet to 12 feet) public (12 feet and beyond)

TERRITORIALITY
The important function of territoriality concerned with regulating and managing social processes within and between groups. As noted by Edney (1976) and others, territoriality serves to smooth out the functioning of social groups. Breakdowns in territoriality may be associated with social disruption.

MICRO LEVEL
As environmental psychologists have theorized that density and crowding can have an adverse effect on mood and even cause stress-related illness. Accordingly, environmental and architectural designs could be adapted to minimize the effects of crowding in situations when crowding cannot be avoided. Factors that reduce feelings of crowding within buildings include:

Windows, particularly openable ones, and ones that provide a view as well as light

High ceilings Doors to divide spaces and provide access control Room shape: square rooms feel less crowded than rectangular ones Using partitions to create smaller, personalized spaces within an open plan office or larger work space.

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Providing increases in cognitive control over aspects of the internal environment, such as ventilation, light, privacy, etc.

Conducting a cognitive appraisal of an environment and feelings of crowding in different settings. For example, one might be comfortable with crowding at a concert but not in school corridors.

A fundamental way in which we use the environment in social interaction is to distance ourselves from other people. By moving closer to or further away from others, we make ourselves physically and socially more accessible or less accessible to them. 1. You are on a large, empty elevator. Someone gets on and sits down directly next to you. Or you are on an empty bus and someone gets on and sits down right beside you. How would you feel if someone acted in these ways? What would you do'? How do people normally position themselves in such situations? 2. Next time you are at an airport, observe how people select seats in a boarding area. If plenty of seats are available, do they sit right next to one another or not? Do they sit in the same row or area of the lounge? What happens as more and more people arrive; how does the seating pattern change? These examples illustrate the simple but often unverbalised fact that we actively use distance between ourselves and others in everyday social relationships. Personal space refers to an area with an invisible boundary surrounding the person's body into which intruders may not come. Personal space is not

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necessarily spherical in shape, nor does it extend equally in all directions. It has been likened to a snail shell, a soap bubble, an aura, and breathing room.

MACRO LEVEL
COMMUNITIES AND CITIES Cities have always been controversial places. During some periods of history cities were viewed in very negative ways; at other times people considered them ideal places. But regardless of how people presently feel about urban settings, there is simple and inviolable facts that we must face cities are here to stay. People have lived in cities for centuries, and much of the world's population presently does. Extrapolations suggest that this pattern will continue far into the future. So the issue is not whether people will or should live in cities but what can be done to make cities and communities better place. Not all traditional communities used a circular community design. For example, the Haida Indians of the northwestern American continent lived in linearly arranged winter villages (Fraser, 1968, p64). These fishing-and-hunting people lived in large, wooden, rectangular houses that were lined up in a straight row parallel to the sea. All dwellings were built alike, and there were no salient status differentials among houses. Houses often were, separated by only 2 to 7 feet. Fraser noted that the extraordinary wind velocities and extensive rainfall in the area may have resulted in these close living arrangements. Another example of a linear community, the Mailu people of New Guinea, an agricultural and fishing society lived in villages of up to 500 people. Each 39

village consisted of two rows of houses facing each other across a street 30 to 50 feet wide. The whole community paralleled the seashore. Houses were all alike except that men's club buildings were located directly in the middle of the street between the rows of houses, and members of an extended family lived in close proximity to one another. Community design is also often related to economic considerations among certain cultures in Africa; livestock are important resources and are placed in the middle of compounds, whereas in other societies granaries are. In many medieval towns, marketplaces were in or near town centers, easily accessible to inhabitants. Shops were located along the main streets leading to the city gates and the marketplace. Furthermore, homes were also located as close to the main streets as possible (Saalman, 1968). In fact, well-to-do people in medieval towns lived on the main streets around the town square, and the poor lived away from the town center the opposite of the pattern in many modern cities. The lives of people in modern urban settings often involve a multiplicity of roles and places. People function as parents in one place, as business people in another and as religious worshipers in still another. City and community designs often reflect these different roles through the physical separation of places, with commercialism and economics an increasingly visible urban function. This perhaps because of their size and technological complexity and because of rapid cultural changes, modern cities do not always reflect a unity of factors in their designs.

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LIVING IN CITIES
Theories state that city life is bad for people. It is hypothesized to be stressful and to lead to crime, mental illness, and an assortment of social evils. At the other extreme, some theories argue that urban life is invigorating, stimulating, and growth enhancing. In between are a variety of views to the effect that city life is sometimes good and sometimes bad, that it is all right for some people but not for others, and ti1at it requires certain coping mechanisms to handle adequately stress, noise, and high population density.

DIALECTIC ANALYSIS OF CITY LIFE

Analysis of city life will emphasize three dialectic processes:

order/disorder, homogeneity diversity, and individuality community. The city living involves a continuous interplay of these (and perhaps other) processes, in which the strength of each dialectic opposite varies from one time and circumstance to another. Examining community and urban life in terms of the dialectic interplay of order/disorder, individuality/community, and homogeneity/diversity. Our analysis suggested that oppositional forces associated with these dialectic processes foster the potential for both instability and change in city life. The first dialectic, order/disorder is reflected in the fact that many communities that were originally

41

designed according to systematic plans eventually exhibited disorder and uncontrolled growth. And many communities that apparently had little initial planning or order gradually developed coherence and unity. The interplay of order and disorder may well create vitality in city life and set the stage for change to meet the demands of new social, political, religious and other factors. Similarly, many cities convey unity and homogeneity of image that is reflected in style of architecture, layouts of streets, and types of people and activities. Yet they are often places of considerable diversity in regard to such factors. Thus, diversity and homogeneity often exist side by side in urban settings. Again, such opposition not only may contribute to the stability of a city but can set the stage for change and evolution. In regard to individuality/community, the residents of cities often have a strong sense of identity with their community and with other residents. These feelings can be reinforced by Slogans and symbols, architecturally unique factors, and community activities. But there also are forces in cities that create feelings of individuality and separatism. Such as resistance to restrictions on individual freedom, conflicts among ethnic groups and clustering of people into distinct and often rival neighborhoods.

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The process of environmental design

The process of environmental design is complicated. An attempt has been made to highlight briefly how sensitivity to culture/ environmental relations can be applied at several stages in the design process.

1. Diagnosing and assessing cultural practices and needs. It is almost a truism that a home, community, school, or city should be responsive to the needs, practices, and styles of its users. And assessing these needs and practices is usually the first step in the design process. Frequently they then use those unstated assumptions in the design process without questioning their applicability to new settings and cultures. It almost becomes traditional to use certain configurations with little systematic evaluation of the workability of the design. Although this may be acceptable in some cases, especially within one's own culture, it might lead to a disaster in another culture. Hence it is crucial to adopt an orientation in the early stages of the design process; the environmental designer must try to learn the cultures values, norms, and behavioral practices- that is, understand the culture from its perspective, and not simply impose one's own orientation.

Cultures vary widely in their orientations to the physical environmentperceptually, cognitively, and behaviorally- and we cannot possibly design

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effective environments for others unless we have a genuine appreciation for their relationships with their environments. (Altman, Chemers, 1980, 316)

2. Development of design solutions The second stage of the design process is the development of alternative proposals for the problem at hand. It is essential that several types of participants contribute to the process. Although the environmental designer is necessarily at the center of proposed development, the researcher can evaluate and contribute to design ideas using his or her knowledge of the culture. In addition, the consumer can evaluate and help develop design proposals using his or her distinctive perspective on the every day life of the people in the culture. Thus, the development of proposals should, ideally, involve a series of checks and balances from several vantage points, in order to enhance the compatibility of alternative environmental designs with the culture.

3. Implementing the design Actual construction and initial use of an environment occur in the design process. Here too it is crucial that knowledge about a culture be used to help people adjust to and effectively use their new environment. Frequently the design process ends with the completion of a building, community, or facility; the environmental designer and other consultants rush off to another project before or soon after a physical structure is completed. It is essential that all participants in the design process continue to be involved before and after construction. Their

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talents can be applied to educating users about the characteristics and use of an environment and how it fits with cultural practices and values, even though it looks different from their traditional environment. People often need to be taught how to use a new environment, how to achieve the goals that are important to them, and how to fit and blend with the new environment in a viable way:

Environmental education is especially crucial in a cross-cultural context; For example, people in a culture in transition may be baffled by new environmental settings and facilities, but their confusion and problems in adjustment can be alleviated if they are shown how the new environment is responsive to their cultural values and practices. Thus environmental design In a cultural context involves far more than the construction of physical environments. It also includes, as an essential component, the education of people to use their environments in productive and viable ways.

4. Evaluation of environments. The final stage in the design process is evaluation. This means that on both a long-term and a short-term basis we should try to determine how well environments work. How effective were they? In what respects could they have been designed differently? How have the people changed the environment to better suit their life styles? How has the new environment altered the lives of the people?

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Given the complexity of cross-cultural problems, the need for evaluation is even more crucial. Here again, environmental designers, researchers, and consumers can function as a team.

A FINALNOTE An appreciation of the dynamics of culture and environment relations can facilitate the creation of a better environment for more people. Perhaps most important, the study of culture and environment may help us better understand, respect and accept the similarities and differences among people of the world.

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BIBLIOGRAPHY Altman, Irwin, Amos Rapoport and Joachim F. Wohlwill (eds.), 1980. Human Behavior and Environment. New York: Plenum. Altman.I. Chemers, M, (1980). Culture and Environment, Wadsworth: Plenum press. Altman, I (1975) the environment and social behaviour: privacy, personal space, territory, and crowding. California: Brooks / Cole. Altman, I, Chemers, M (1980) Culture and Environment. Wadsworth: Plenum press. Baum A., Singer J E and Valins S (Eds) (1978). Advances in Environmental Psychology: Vol I - The Urban Environment: John Wiley & Sons, Inc.;New York. Chandhoke S.k., (1977), Rural habitat: making villages livable, New Delhi, Rural Housing Wing, School of Planning and Architecture. . Chandhoke S.k., (1977), Problems of Urbanisation, Patriot, New Delhi, August, p.14. Chandhoke S.k., (1977), Chaupal - the traditional village centre, Haryana, India, Ekistics Vol. 41, 253, 221-223. Chandhoke S.K., (1986), The influence of social structure, cultural factors and world View on patterns of habitation: a comparative study, Indian Council of Social Science Research, New Delhi. Ching F.D.K., (1986)Architecture - Form, Space and Order, New York: International Thompson publishing.Inc. Edney, J.J. (1976) .Environment and Behaviour. New York: Wiley publishing house. Fischer, C.S. (1976) The Urban Experience. New York: Har Court Brace Jovanovich. Fraser,D. (1968) .Village Planning in the Primitive World. New York: Braziller. Hall, E.T. (1966). The Hidden Dimension. Garden City, New York: Doubleday.

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LANG JON T. (1987), Creating architectural theory-the role of behavioural sciences in environmental design, New York, Van Nostrand Reinbold Company. Leela Dube, ' Black Beauties and Dark Brahmins' Times of Indi 7 Nov, 1996, p.12 Of in The a,

Moos Rudolph. (1977). Environment and Utopia: a synthesis. New York: Plenum press. Rapoport Amos. (1969). House form and culture, New Jersey, Prentice-Hall. Saalman,H. (1968) Medieval Cities. New York:Braziler. Sehdev Kumar, 'Proxemics and Contem porary Architecture in. India' Architecture+Design. M ay-June 1986 Wagner, P.L, (1972), Environments and People, Engelwood Cliffs, N.J, Prentice Hall Inc. Yatin Pandya, (2006),Concepts of Space Architecture.Ahmedabad ,Mapin publications. in Traditional Indian

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