ENVIRONMENTAL CONCEPT OF ARCHITECTURAL DESIGN HOW VALUES INFLUENCE THE ENVIRONMENT As a future housing expert or interior designer, you will be dealing with people on a daily basis. Your belief is that the physical environment, when developed properly according to the situation at hand, can enhance peoples lives, fulfill them and make them happier and healthier. Most times you do not know what your client's problem is, so you must deal with that person on an interpersonal place; you have to find out what he or she is willing to do to improve the environmental situation. Probably foremost, you have to be able to communicate well enough to determine the real problem. When you try to improve a person's living or working environment, you are working with minds and values. You have to be able to find out what people think and what they feel. In this profession, you are spending other people's money, and everyone gets very touchy about that. Some people have ill-gotten wealth or instant money while some have toiled hard and saved hard earned money for a new house, So you've got to be careful and be sure of your client and the ultimate goal so that you will be able tc follow the proper course of action, An example is when a client wants to have their house completely renovated including furnishings, lighting and all wall finishes. However, they have only a very limited budget. A designer must then know the client's values to decide whether to accept the job or not and set a special condition or not. Human Relationships are very important. If you can speak with people and make them feel at ease, they will trust you more, you will feel better, and the chances will be greater that the job you do will turn out well for all concerned. Trust and little things count, and they become important cues in human behavior. The living environment is deeply affected by human values, and the housing environment rises in part, upon human feelings: that is values. Some designs are, indeed vernacular. This means that their seemingly primitive form is actually as highly evolved as the present people and environmental conditions permit and require. Vernacular living environments most often satisfy people quite comfortably and completely. Their materials are indigenous to the area, and the physical arrangement of the living spaces is uniquely and adequately planned for the lifestyle of the inhabitants. The residents usually are well adjusted and desire nothing different. It takes sensitivity, along with knowledge to realize what you can change and when. Recognizing the value of an institution as large as a country or as small as the family can help guide your selection of an appropriate design. Misinterpreting information can lead to disastrous, perhaps to the creation of a totally inappropriate environmental solution. HOW THE ENVIRONMENT INFLUENCES VALUES Values can influence people's own self-concept. In design, it is readily accepted fact that people will generally take better care of a space and its contents if it contains some extra comforting additions that normally are absent. For example, carpeting, in a residence hall or office might make the users feel that those providing for them cared more about creating a pleasant place for them to live and work than just building a basic shell for their use, University Residence halls can enhance or diminish self-image. Lately they are more sensitive to human "eed. They provide a “sense of place’, an environment where students can feel at home and where they valhave a relationship to space. They allow for individual creativity. Many schools allow students to paint their rooms and put objects on the walls. Such personal touches are of extreme importance, this is because they feel that they belong here. You must recognize the implication here that the human values are evident in the physical environment. As a designer, you should discover what will please people enough to draw them to a particular place and what will make them stay there. In most cases, the success of the venture will not depend on that environment, no matter how special it is. Think about a restaurant. It cannot survive on a lively unique atmosphere unless the food is good in the first place. The point is though, that the environment does have an effect upon people, and provided all things are equal, it can improve the visitation or business of the establishment. Lately, offices have been receiving some attention too. Remember how frightening it was to go into the sterile, white dental office? This is one sight that has been known to provoke hysterical behavior in adults. But what if the office resembled a home instead of a hospital? True, you cannot do anything about the medicine! smell, but what about the floors, walls and furnishings? Carpeting, because of its psychological and actual warmth, can create relaxed feelings among people, particularly if it is in a relatively cool or low- intensity color. Earth tones are also appropriate. Carpeting will absorb and help diffuse sound waves so that you will not hear the screams of terror that might actually be emanating from the work room. How about the furnishings? If there is anywhere on earth that you need comfort, it is the dentist's office; and how about music? Music should be loud enough for you to hear but not loud enough to distract the doctor. FOLK BELIEFS IN CONSTRUCTION & DESIGN In the process of a building, a man makes decisions which is derived from his own idea. His ideas, and therefore in a sense his self, seem to be embodied in the building ~ in the design. The architecture of a folk is evolved and modified by ideas and imitation. Man discovered that over and above satisfying his functional needs, the decisions he made in designing a building created a relationship between him and the building, giving it meaning. Architecture is building with which people have identified themselves, giving it significance. Folk beliefs mostly influence the design of most Asian houses, particularly the Philippines. SOME BELIEFS 1. Do not start the construction of a house at a period when the moon is waning, or entering its last quarter. Pick a time on or about a full moon. 2. Start a construction on a Monday, never on a Friday. 3. Avoid starting a construction when the year is about to end. A better time is when the year has just begun, January to June. 4, Never have a house built when your wife is pregnant, and is expected to give birth at that very month. 5. Before giving the order to lay the foundation or put up the posts of your house, make peace with all your ‘enemies — especially those belonging to your own family or clan. { 6. Insome families, they usually practice the flowing of blood from some animals or chicken and all footings : and corners of the walls are splattered with this blood as an offering to honor the spirits that might be living within the premises. Also a few drops of wine or a morsel of food is scattered within and a whisper of prayer dedicated tothe spirits.12. 13. 14. 15. 16. 17. 18. 19. 20, ¢ § D0ured into the foundation, a peso or dollar coin should be dropped inside thé forms to ce. According to old folks, the coin head should be facing up, not the eagle as they claim the : with luck, Sometimes medallions of patron saints for protection are also placed, including air foundations. nen any vertical part of the house is being erected like the first post, or the first row of hollow block wall, tne father or the eldest of the family should be present as a witness. This contribute to the solidity of the house. Bo not built a house directly perpendicular to the street. If space still allows it, locate the house such that ities in position which is at angle with the street. This way, the inhabitants keep out of the way of disaster. Do not occupy a new house until it is completely built and blessed. Before occupying it, bring in first the common necessities in a house like salt, rice, and may be the statue of your patron saint or Christ. ‘As muchas possible, avoid using materials that came from the owner's old house. The bad luck of the old house will be transferred to the new house, the old people say. Itis taboo to use wood the sap of which is still fresh, this, they call weeping wood and is considered bad luck. The number of posts should never be 13 and must always be in even numbers. Flooring planks must be laid parallel to the stair steps. Making it perpendicular will bring bad luck. The number of steps in every flight of stairs is counted gold, silver, lead, in that order. The last step must be gold or silver but never lead (oro, Plata, mata in folk dialect), as lead or death brings bad luck. The principal stairs and the master’s bed should be oriented to face the East, so that the rising sun brings good luck. To the Muslims, the principal room and stairway should face the direction of Mecca, their holy land, Ditto for their mosque. Doorways should not face each other along a straight path, or a door to a window. Good fortune will immediately flow out of the house if arranged in such a way. Main doorway are best to face the East, but never on the west where the sun sets. Main door should always open to the inside to bring in good luck. Never opening to the outside as it lets out the good luck The arrangement of the bed should not be directly parallel and perpendicular to the girt and rafter as the old folks say it seems to cut the body or good fortune in half. not this 73