Inquiry by Design: Environment/Behavior/Neuroscience in Architecture, Interiors, Landscape, and Planning

Illustrated evidence-based building and open space case studies demonstrate E-B’s continuing design impact. Fundamental theory and practical research methods are presented for planning, programming, designing, and evaluating the effects of physical environments in use. Part I describes how designers and researchers employ a similar creative process that promotes collaboration and yields greater design creativity and research effectiveness. Part II focuses on research methods to understand how buildings and spaces work: observing behavior and the physical environment, asking questions in interviews and surveys, and employing archival records that include data and physical plans.

This update of a classic text folds the new field of neuroscience for design into well-established environment-behavior (E-B) methods and approaches.

John Zeisel is president of Hearthstone Alzheimer Care in Lexington, Massachusetts, and lives in New York City.