This study examines individuals' color associations with different building types (i.e., residences, schools, official buildings, hospitals, shopping malls, entertainment buildings, restaurants, hotels, factories, and religious buildings)

No abstract

This study is an investigation of the e¡ects of short-term crowding on the invasion of personal space.The analysis was carried out by means of research designed for automatic teller machine (ATM) users in Ankara.The activity, withdrawing money from an ATM, requires certain levels of privacy which may vary with the personal characteristics of the individuals. Among these, sex of the user is considered an important factor. Also, situational variables such as density conditions have an e¡ect on interpersonal distance. The survey was carried out through participant observation and short interviews with the users under two Ð low and high Ð density conditions. It was found that personal space was invaded more under high density conditions and when the space was perceived as narrower. However, this did not cause a signi¢cant di¡erence in the privacy requirements of the users as they mostly preferred a private space under both density conditions. Sex did not appear to be a dominating factor in this choice although people of opposite sexes tended to keep longer distances between them. The only di¡erence was the females'approach to males which was more distant than males'approach to females. Utilizing the ¢ndings of this research, appropriate design solutions for an indoor ATM hall were proposed.

Students' degree of territoriality based on gender and seat preferences in different types of classroom arrangements was studied. The types of classroom arrangements included rows of tablet-arm chairs, U-shaped, clusters, and rows of tables with individual chairs. The study was carried out through a survey at a large public institution in the southeast region of the United States. Results indicate that students who preferred seats at the end of rows of tables with individual chairs and tablet-arm chair arrangements had higher scores on claiming a particular seat than those who preferred middle seats in a row. In the rows of tables with individual chair arrangement, students who preferred seats at the end of rows also had more need to define their own territory than students who preferred middle seats in a row. No significant results were found in the U-shaped and cluster layouts. Females had higher scores on claiming a particular seat than males regardless of seating arrangement.

This article examines the effects of floor height on the perception of room size and crowding as an important aspect of satisfaction with a dormitory building. The analysis was carried out by means of a survey research designed for dormitory residents at Bilkent University, Ankara. Two 5-story dormitory buildings, one housing men and the other women, in which all rooms are of identical size and have equal density, were chosen for the survey. The highest (fifth) and the lowest (ground) floor were included in this research with a sample of an equal number of male and female students for each. As predicted, residents on the highest floor perceive their rooms as larger and feel less crowded than residents of the lowest floor. Overall, when the room is perceived as larger and the feeling of privacy in a room increases, the satisfaction with a dormitory room also increases.Satisfaction of users in the built environment is particularly important when the duration of staying is long. Although home is the best example of long-term environment, public spaces such as dormitories and residences for the elderly are other notable cases in which various aspects of interaction between user and environment can be investigated. Their public nature makes user satisfaction a harder goal to achieve for builders and organizers.35