ABSTRACT
In The Meaning of the Built Environment (Rapoport, 1982), Amos Rapoport refers to the nonverbal communicative function of the built environment as mnemonic. The word means assisting the memory by means of cues. Thus, according to the notion, buildings and other created settings present memory cues to their human occupants and witnesses. By means of these cues, Rapoport believes, behaviors, emotions, and interpretations of the situation are elicited. The resultant responses are not necessarily mandatory, to be sure; cues as opposed to commands, exert their effects in a probabilistic fashion only. Moreover their meanings are interpreted in a subjective and culturally-conditioned way. In Rapoport's (1976) words, the relationship between people and the built environment is mutually interactive.
