ABSTRACT
Architecture is a form of functional art that seeks to meet the physical requirements of any given environment-territorial or virtual-and, equally importantly, the basic physical, social, and emotional needs of the people inhabiting and interacting with it. In other words, built environments are ‘textual’ spaces that refl ect both their physical embeddedness and their social functions. Thus, according to Bryan Lawson (2001), architectural spaces are ‘containers to accommodate, separate, structure and organize, facilitate, heighten and even celebrate human spatial behavior’ (4). Buildings structure human relationships and guide human behavior in terms of power, constraint, and creativity (cf. Proshansky et al. 1970; Markus 1993). They seek to satisfy human spatial needs, which Robert Ardrey (1967) fi rst summarized in terms of stimulation (e.g., entertainment; aesthetic pleasure; amusement; sensory, cognitive, creative, and mnemonic inspiration), security (shelter, balance of temperature, stability, privacy, protection against intruders), and identity (expression of self and other, belonging), and which form the basis of human territorial behavior (Lawson 2001: 18).
