Abstract
In Kuwait, design considerations like culture, identity, and human behavior are often neglected, where Kuwait City is made out of zones that are disjointed and not communicating with each other. This is seen in the miscommunication and lack of knowledge when designing urban projects in its various forms, where the role of human behavior in the unfolding of unique forms of public spaces in different parts of Kuwait City is forgotten. This paper will discuss the influence of architectural interventions on human behavior in public spaces in Kuwait City. This goes back to the need to understand the reasons behind the creation of non-physical boundaries between spaces, which would explain the forgotten public spaces in Kuwait City. could be re-instilled, and as a result, Kuwaitis would live in the City. These architecture interventions would vary in scale from micro to macro, impacting the site in different ways. This thesis will focus on Fahad Alsalem Street to convey this lack of knowledge by stitching a specific disjointed zone together. The proposal will show how interventions, whether big or small, could have a positive impact on an already existing built environment without replacing what already exists as an urban dynamic.
Key Words: behavior, boundary, public
Key Words: behavior, boundary, public
Introduction
Human behavior is the way humans act and interact reacting to internal and external stimuli. Although not proven, architecture’s role in influencing human behavior cannot be ignored. Proven by data, sensual elements in the environment influence the mind, brain, and nervous system. Architecture’s influence in human behavior is so strong, that it is described as the human’s third skin, where the the first layer is the real skin, which acts as a cloak. The second layer, clothes, acts as a filter and insulation. Finally, architecture, is the third skin which is the layer in which different elements catalyst certain reactions from humans (Elyacoubi, 1999). The impact of architecture in our lives cannot be ignored. This made many theorists and architects dissect the reasons and dynamics in which architecture can be used to reach certain goals and agendas. Architectural determinism, a term created by Maurice Broady in 1966, is the approach of groundlessly stating that the built environment effects and manipulates human behavior in a predictable and encouraging way. This school of architecture is outdated and has been disregarded due to its aggressive emphasis that human human behavior is solely influenced by architecture. Many models created by architects in order to control human behavior and manipulate their actions exist. Michel Foucault’s panopticon is an example of controlling in this case, inmates’ behavior, by its circular form and a central tower that creates the omnipresence atmosphere of being watched. Today, models used by IKEA and shopping malls is evidence that architects are trying to control human behavior by controlling human flow by aiming to create a certain circulation pattern. This raises the question: are there typical architectural approaches that are efficient and proven for a particular problem in a particular function?
Key Words
In general, behavior is the way in which one acts and conducts himself, especially towards external stimuli, whether it was an object or a person. It's a noun derived from a verb. First, I will dissect the word by looking at its origins and how the combination of words, prefixes, and suffixes resulted in the word behavior. Let's start with its simplest verb form, behave. “Be” is a prefix from old English which means “about, around, on all side.” Its original form, bēon, is an irregular and defective verb, which is to “exist, come to be.” The contemporary versed today, to be, is a result of the merge of two once district verbs. The “b-root” depicted by be and the am/was verb, which was itself a combination. It was mainly used to make transitive verbs and as a privative prefix. It can also be causative. Be was most actively used to make new words around the 1550s through the 1630s. Many literates had an opinion about the word. Roger Lass (Old English) describes the verb as "a collection of semantically related paradigm fragments," while Weekley calls it "an accidental conglomeration from the different Old English dialects.” It remains as one of the most irregular verbs in Modern English and the most common. Moving on to have, the remaining part of the word behave, also known as habban in Old English, which means "to own, possess; be subject to, experience.” It is used to translate a sense of possession, or to “have at one’s disposal.” Its is a shift from older languages, where the thing possessed was made the subject and the possessor took the dative case. The word has taken on more functions over time. Finally, now that the components that make up behave have been dissected, behave is a word that started to be used in the 15th century. It is to "con-duct or comport" oneself, in a specified manner. Alternatively, the modern sense of behave might have evolved from behabban through the understanding of "self-restraint." In early modern English it also could be transitive, "to govern, manage, con-duct.”Behavior, is the noun form of the word behave, which started to be used around the late 15th century. The addition of havour “possession," from Middle English, a word altered (by influence of have) from aver, noun use of Old French verb aveir "to have” resulted in behavior. According to Merriam Webster, behavior is the way in which someone conducts oneself or behaves. The Oxford dictionary states that its the way that somebody behaves, especially towards other people. Let’s now look at the term from a specific perspective and put context into it. Behavior is often linked to human behavior, in other words, psychology. Many factors contribute in explaining human behavior. Genetics, social norms, creativity, religion, weather and climate all play a role in shaping one’s behavior. In my approach, social norms is an important factor that cannot be ignored in order to understand and analyze the objective at hand. Social norms are often the unspoken rues of a group or a setting. as dynamic and abstract humans can be, social norms often keep them in check in a somewhat standard set of rules and codes. Depending on the setting, social norms from one place to another differ. It is based on the environment they are in as well as their physical surroundings. Behaviorism, a movement in psychology started by John Watson in his article “Psychology as the Behaviorist Views it.” This approach is only concerned with observable stimulus response behaviors. Behaviorism heavily emphasizes the affect of the environment on one’s behavior, and nearly disregard the affect of internal factors. We learn new behavior through classical or operant conditioning (collectively known as 'learning theory’). Empirical data obtained through careful and controlled observation and measurement of behavior is used to support theories and hypothesis. Watson (1913) stated that “psychology as a behaviorist views it is a purely objective experimental branch of natural science. It's theoretical goal is prediction and control.” This is exactly what architects do in order to achieve a specific goal in their design. Ideally, they study the environment and observe anything worth analyzing, and based on that, the design solution is created by hypothesizing what each element would do.
The work of Amos Rapoport and William Whyte were used as references throughout this thesis, as they are pioneers in this field of architecture. The work of Amos Rapoport may be seen as a whole. His work is a series of many books and texts that completed each other, where each piece of work cannot be looked at solely in order to understand his school of thought . In “The Study of Spatial Quality,” Rapoport discusses the many misconceptions architects make when approaching open spaces, where he claims that “within the perceived environment, space is not the relatively simple physical space which designers have traditionally been taught to manipulate.” This reveals the existence of many dimensions that comes with open spaces. The term space and spatial quality that was often used by Rapoport is complicated as they are dependent on many factors including the “appreciation” of values, cultures, and life-styles as described by Rapoport. The importance of treating each setting as its own is crucial, as it has its own identity and background. This approach aids in the understanding of the affect of architecture in human behavior, which as a result, helps the designer in creating a dynamic space that suffices its functions and intended goal.
William Whyte Describes cities as inherently messy places, but the human interaction and commerce that takes place on the street cultivates an inviting, engaging environment unlike the bland, car-dominated milieu of the suburbs.
“within the perceived environment, space is not the relatively simple physical space which designers have traditionally been taught to manipulate” -Amos Rapoport
Location of street conversations lasting two minutes or more at Saks Fifth Avenue and Fiftieth Street. Cumulative for five days in June. Note main concentration at corner, secondary one outside entrance.
Background
Kuwait City is a dynamic, complex, and unique city. Although of its unique features, Kuwait City lacks a lot of important elements that are crucial to a healthy city. The lack of residential buildings, proper public spaces, pedestrian friendly streets, straight forward transportation, and general services like accessible parking spaces are some of the features it lacks, which are crucial for a healthy city. Kuwait’s history is often looked at from 2 lenses: pre-oil Kuwait and post-oil Kuwait. Before the discovery of oil, Kuwaitis lived inside what we know now as the first ring road. As Kuwait became more independent politically, and with the discovery of oil, a new city ought to be built. As a result, the dynamic of the urban fabric of Kuwait was transformed completely to accommodate the city. New residential districts were built outside the city, surrounding the city completely. Although the state planned to have residential zones inside the city, bringing the citizens of Kuwait back to the city didn’t work. Alsawaber, Alwataniya complex, and Almuthana were all late attempts to bring Kuwaitis back to the city. Initially, to some extent, some of them worked but in the end failed miserably due to the weak administration and poor maintenance. One must not ignore the never-ending relationship of politics with residential complexes in Kuwait City. Politics shouldn’t be an obstacle in a developing city, that is yet to be seen fully built. This is not the case in Kuwait, where the impact of politics can be seen, scattered everywhere since the beginning of the process of rebuilding Kuwait.
Problem Statement
Kuwait City is a disjointed city with a lot of potential. It has become a temporary destination for Kuwaitis, a place of work or leisure. Any citizen in Kuwait can begin to have many questions tackling Kuwait City’s current status. Why is Kuwait City not a place to live in? What went wrong in the attempts to bring back Kuwaitis back to the city on a permanent basis? Many explanations can be made to answer these questions. In reality, the problem deserves a much more complex question, that needs a complex answer due to the many factors contributing in this “glitch” that has been haunting Kuwait City since the 1970s. As mentioned previously, Amos Rapoport concluded in his years of practice “within the perceived environment, space is not the relatively simple physical space which designers have traditionally been taught to manipulate.” In other words, we must under-stand the existing space and what it has become. Factors like human behavior, culture, identity, and context must all be taken into consideration when approaching a problem like this. This leads us to the question of how can human behavior be used, understood, and analyzed in order to rejuvenate or redefine a space by intervening architecturally?
Fahad Alsalem Street
Literature Review
Amos Rapoport is an architect and one of the founders of Environment-Behavior studies (EBS), making him one of the pioneers in the dialogue between human behavior and architecture, which has been instrumental in building ups this thesis. On the Cultural Responsiveness of Architecture and The Study of Spatial Quality are two papers that have been looked at. In On the Cultural Responsiveness of Architecture, he approaches the relationship between culture and the built environments from the perspective of environment-behavior studies. It is a guide in understanding the importance and role of culture and how it explains how people and the environment around them interact. In The Study of Spatial Quality, Rapoport discusses the many misconceptions architects make when approaching open spaces. This paper examines one aspect of the environment, space, and defines it and its placement in a built environment. It is merely one aspect of the study of environmental quality - of what is meant by a good environment and how we evaluate it - the study of spatial quality should be simpler than the study of environmental quality. This paper offers an understanding of the meaning of space, and how it is an element of the environment. This reveals that the built environment consists of many elements that work together to create a harmonious result. He claims that “within the perceived environment, space is not the relatively simple physical space which designers have tradition-ally been taught to manipulate.” This reveals the existence of many dimensions that comes with open spaces. The term space and spatial quality that was often used by Rapoport is complicated as they are dependent on many factors including the “appreciation” of values, cultures, and life-styles as described by Rapoport. The importance of treating each setting as its own as it has its own identity and background is shown through this notion. The approach aids in the understanding of the affect of architecture in human behavior, which as a result helps the designer in creating a dynamic space that suffices its functions and intended goal. Amos Rapoport’s work is a collective of readings that work together to form a framework when looking at architecture and the built environment through a “human behavior” lens.
a diagram that summarizes Amos Rapoport's take on the built environment.
After looking at Amos Rapoport and his work on human behavior, understanding the city was needed. Therefore, under-standing the dynamics of a specific city is essential in order to link and analyze observations made with a design solution that makes sense and will hypothetically have a positive effect. The Image of the City by Kevin Lynch is another source that was used.
The Image of the City is a book by the American urban planner and author Kevin Lynch. He is known for his work and input on the dynamics of urban spaces and environments. The Image of the City was written in 1960. It is the result of a five year study mainly aimed at how observers take in information of the city. The book focused on three American cities: Boston, Jersey City, and Los Angeles. Lynch analyses how humans behave and navigate themselves through situating themselves in the city. He argues that cities should have opportunities of exploration, whether it was through pockets of spaces or having different distinct zones that give residents a continuous chance to explore. In the first chapters of the book, new notions of “legibility” and “imageability” are presented to form the theoretical framework Lynch used for the entire book. The productions of environmental images are influenced by a two way process between the observer ands the observed. An environmental image consists of three components:
1) Identity: the recognition of urban elements as separate entities
2) Structure: the relationship of urban elements to other objects and to the observer
3) Meaning: practical and emotional value to the observer
In the Third and final part of the book, Lynch introduces 5 elements and links them together by extracting the highlights of previous research. This acts as the core content of the book. Lynch states that people form mental maps using 5 elements:
1) Paths: streets, sidewalks, trails, etc.
2) Edges: Perceived boundaries such as walls.
3) Districts: relatively large parts of the city distinguished by some identity.
4) Nodes: focal point intersections.
5) Landmarks: readily identifiable objects which serve as external reference points.
By understanding those elements, one should be able to actively form their own stories and create new activities. A city should be designed in a way where room is given for three related movements: mapping, learning, shaping. People are sup-posed to have a clear mental map of their urban surrounding, navigate in their environment by training, and operate upon their urban setting. Lynch also briefly mentions the issue of serendipity, an eternal question discussed in relation to mobile media and location based media. He discuses its role in undermining the chance of adventure and exploration in cities. In conclusion, this book reveals that urban space is not just a built environment made out of of its physical characteristics, but is equally composed of representations of mental images. An initial framework is created after looking at both Amos Rapoport’s and Kevin Lynch’s work. This narrows the lens in which the city would be analyzed under, where the focus of human behavior is combined with Lynch’s notions of legibility, imaginability, and the 5 elements that form mental maps that could be directly linked with human behavior. After looking at the city from a macro point of view, looking at micro-level elements of a city is critical to be able to dissect it. Therefore, Changing Values for Public Spaces by Marc Francis and ‘Downtown Is for People': The street-level approach in Jane Jacobs' legacy and its resonance in the planning debate within the complexity theory of cities by Camilla Perrone are two papers that investigate the dynamics of the city in public spaces, and the city from street level.
In Changing Values for Public Spaces, Francis claims that public spaces reflect ourselves, beliefs, and values. It is the space that acts as a “common ground” where culture is shared and communal activities unfold. He raises several questions that revolve around today’s public spaces. For example, do our public landscape fulfills the growing demand for public culture? How can design and management better contribute to the making democratic public life. Francis mentions some occurring changes to present public spaces, like the added restrictions, the fact that they are locked, plazas moving indoors, and con-trolled by time locks. He argues that government officials block plans made by urban designers to redesign urban parks due to economical based thinking. The lack of knowledge in many governmental bodies of the affect a public space could have in an urban environmental as a whole is disappointing, where this is revealed by the fact that the public realm is being altered due to an increased interest in private and public control of public open space behavior. As a result, Francis lists multiple ingredients that make up a healthy public space: use and user diversity, comfort, accessibility, environmental learning and meaning, discovery, delight, and challenge, conflict and resolution, management, and ecological quality.
Finally, in Perrone’s overview of Downtown is for the People by Jane Jacobs, she looks at Jane Jacob’s view of the way a city works with reference to self organization and ethical aspects. Jacobs suggested that “just and diverse streets” reflect the functioning of the city as “a problem of organized complexity.” The “street level epistemology” theory is used for this paper, which refers to the knowledge of ordinary people to observe different ways to approach contemporary complex urban systems, resulting from myriads of self organized practices and vital plans. To sum things up, cities are made out of many elements that change to scale and significance, therefore one must not neglect the need for understanding the dynamics of a city from macro to micro scale elements.
Streets can either act as boundaries that separate spaces, or a bridge that connects many different spaces together.
Hypothesis
A theoretical framework is built, creating a foundation to drive this proposal. This provides a lens that looks at the city by understanding human behavior and elements that make up a city. Using this approach, the role of architecture in redefining boundaries by influencing human behavior in spaces is possible. For this thesis, I will be working on Fahad Alsalem street as seen below, where this space is dissected into three zones. By using the theoretical framework, and studying the site from the lens created, architectural interventions of different scales will be designed to stitch the three zones together.
Site Selection & Methodology
In order to fully understand the street, and where it stands in relation to its context, a set of qualitative research methods were used. Anwar Alsabah complex is located on Fahad Alsalem street. Therefore, a complete, thorough understanding of the street is essential in determining what kind of architectural intervention is needed in order to stitch the three zones as seen below. Several visits to the site were made on different days of the week. This is important in the process of understanding the pedestrian dynamic of the zone, where Friday and Saturday were the busiest day of the week in terms of pedestrian activity. This is due to the zone in which expats gather, where there are no signs of proper seating areas.
Anwar Alsabah, a residential complex located in Fahad Alsalem Street built in the 70s, is a zone that is isolated from its context. Its deteriorating state scares away any pedestrian interaction, making it dead in relation to the surrounding built-environment. One must not forget the significance of this street in Kuwait’s history, making every piece of land along the street extremely valuable. Therefore, it is ironic how can a project like Anwar Alsabah Complex can be in such a state. Similar patterns can be seen in the whole city, where old, deteriorating buildings still stand and is under threat of demolition by real estate investors that disregard the fact that those buildings represent the identity of Kuwait City. In conclusion, this reveals that if this building is reused in a way that it blends with its context, a new trend in Kuwait City could embark, where all existing building built from the 1970s would be saved, and the tragedy of Alsawaber’s demolition wouldn’t be repeated.
The second zone, which includes Alsalhiya Complex and Plaza, is a zone that even though is adjacent to the first zone, it is completely detached to its neighboring zones. Non-physical boundaries are created between the first and second zone, as seen in the below:
