Degree Year

1998

Document Type

Thesis - Open Access

Degree Name

Bachelor of Arts

Department

Sociology

Advisor(s)

Daphne John
William Morris

Keywords

Housing, Socio-economic, Public housing, Urban, Design, Architecture, Planning, Le Corbusier, Walter Gropius

Abstract

Many architects and planners neglect the complex relationship between spatial organization and the needs of a particular group. Following notions of Modernism as prescribed by architects such as Le Corbusier and Gropius, they believe instead in architectural determinism or the idea that architecture should dictate the social relationships of the residents through the design itself This paper will attempt to demonstrate that the "effective environment" or the totality of variables influencing behavior, such as crime and self perception, includes both the physical design and the social factors. The design and the social factors can not be separated from one another. Instead,we must realize that the two are intertwined. Design and social factors are related insofar as the physical environment can influence the development or the expression of certain attitudes or behaviors, as well influence social relationships; (Broady, 1966 and Gutman, 1975) yet, can not determine them. We can find evidence of this interaction of design and social factors in Housing Projects such as Pruitt Igoe.

Using data from the 1990 General Social Survey (GSS) our analysis will probe attitudinal differences between the socio-economic classes that are in part shaped by their environment. It will be demonstrated that the poor and the middle class have different attitudes. The poor tend to be less trustful and more withdrawn as a result.

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