The Shaping of Us
How Everyday Spaces Structure Our Lives, Behavior, and Well-Being
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- $16.99
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- $16.99
Publisher Description
The spaces we inhabit– from homes and workspaces to city streets—mediate community, creativity, and our very identity. Using insights from environmental psychology, design, and architecture, The Shaping of Us shows how the built and natural worlds subtly influence our behavior, health, and personality. Exploring ideas such as “ruin porn” and “ninja-proof seating,” mysteries of how we interact with the physical spaces around us are revealed. From caves and cathedrals to our current housing crisis and the dreaded open-plan office, Lily Bernheimer demonstrates that, for our well-being, we must reconnect with the power to shape our spaces.
Have you ever wondered why we adorn our doorframes with moldings? What does Wikipedia’s open-source technology have to teach us about the history and future of urban housing? What does your desk say about your personality?
From savannahs and skyscrapers to co-working spaces, The Shaping of Us shows that the built environment supports our well-being best when it echoes our natural habitats in some way. In attempting to restore this natural quality to human environments, we often look to other species for inspiration. The real secret to building for well-being, Bernheimer argues, is to reconnect humans with the power to shape our surroundings. When people are involved in forming and nurturing their environments, they feel a greater sense of agency, community, and pride, or “collective efficacy.” And when communities have high rates of collective efficacy, they tend to have less litter, vandalism, and violent crime.
Playful and accessible, The Shaping of Us is a delightful read for designers, professionals, and anyone wanting to understand how spaces make us tick and how to fix the broken bits of our world.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Environmental psychologist Bernheimer provides a fascinating introduction to her field in this far-reaching look at how the spaces in which humans live, work, and play affect their behavior. Avoiding jargon, Bernheimer opens with a simple simile "Space is like a secret script directing our actions" and proceeds to give countless examples to buttress that position. After recounting Winston Churchill's desire to rebuild the old House of Commons exactly after it was destroyed by the Luftwaffe, she explains how the placement of its seats facilitates the "characteristically rambunctious nature of British parliamentary debate." A real-life experiment from Holland shows how residential streets can be designed to serve the interests of residents, rather than motorists. The Broken Windows theory of policing comes under fire for being too simplistic, as Bernheimer cites studies to show the other factors which shape crime rates, such as "the level of trust, cohesion, and informal social control in an area." At the conclusion, Bernheimer challenges her audience to "rewrite the secret scripts of lives" by becoming active participants in design decisions. Readers will finish this feeling better educated about the role of design and more alert to its impact on everyone's lives.
