Friday, May 4, 2007

53 Research Papers in SOCIAL ARCHITECTURE (1965-2005), Henry Sanoff

53 Research Papers in SOCIAL ARCHITECTURE (1965-2005)


HENRY SANOFF


Aardvark Global Publishing Company
ISBN 1-59971-813-8











53 Research Papers in Social Architecture (1965-2005) is an excellent collection of papers that spans a period of four decades. Henry Sanoff felt the need to document part of his published research in order to allow others who follow to build upon such work. The collection represents Sanoff's academic career and efforts toward creating responsive environments. While many papers in this book focus on a search for knowledge that pertains to people-environment interactions, the main thrust aims at proposing methods for reshaping the way in which we approach design problems and the architectural design process itself.

The work addresses a wide spectrum of issues and themes that include people preferences, assessment methods, environmental cognition, environmental evaluation, Human needs, ecological planning, energy and behavior, participatory architecture, post occupancy evaluation, and pre-design and programming. In different forms, these issues are covered in one or more types of spatial environment or building types including environments for aging, children environments, workplaces, urban environments, among many other types.

While some scholars may believe that many of the ideas and concepts that are debated in recent literature are fairly new—especially those that pertain to sustainable communities, participatory design, social architecture, or environmental evaluation, one should assert that the roots of these ideas are generated, developed, and implemented, and are evident in the early and the new work of Henry Sanoff. Indeed, this is a marvelous collection of papers that while it records Henry Sanoff's achievements, it provides avenues and channels upon which future design research can be undertaken. Rather than digging into the literature and sometimes out of print publications to search for knowledge, scholars and graduate students, through this book, can find an easy access to many of the critical ideas. I believe the design research community should be thankful to Henry Sanoff for giving them the opportunity to capitalize on this 40 years achievement.

Ashraf Salama (April 2007)
_____________________________

Brief Bio of Henry Sanoff
Henry Sanoff received a Bachelor of Architecture in 1957 and a Master of Architecture in 1962 from Pratt Institute, New York. He came to the College of Design, North Carolina State University in 1966 from the University of California, Berkeley, where he was an Assistant Professor from 1963. A member of the Academy of Outstanding Teachers, award winner as Alumni Distinguished Graduate Professor, and a recipient of the Alexander Quarles Holladay Medal of Excellence, Sanoff has been a visiting lecturer at more than 85 institutions in the USA and abroad including Australia, Egypt, Brazil, South Africa, Denmark and Mexico. Professor Sanoff is the principal founder of the Environmental Design Research Association (EDRA).


He is listed in International Who's Who, Who's Who in the Southeast, Who's Who in Technology, American Men and Women of Science, Dictionary of International Biography and recognized as the International Man of the Year from the International Biographic Center. Sanoff was awarded the Statue of Victory World Culture Prize for Letters, Arts, and Science; awards from Progressive Architecture Design Awards Program; and the Award of Honor, and Distinguished Service Award from the Environmental Design Research Association.

He received the Sigma Iota Rho Award for Distinguished International Service and the NCSU Outstanding Extension Service Award. He also won a Design and a Post Occupancy Evaluation award for the Davidson and the Millis Elementary School from the School Construction News/ Design Share Awards program. Moreover, he is the USA editor of the International Journal of Design Studies, a member of the Editorial Board of the Journal of Architecture and Planning Research, and the Istanbul Technical University, Journal of Architecture, Planning and Design. Professor Sanoff is widely published and well known for his many books—including Community Participation in Design and Planning (Wiley, 2000) and Creating Environments for Young Children (NEA,1995) among others. Many of his works have been translated into Korean, Japanese, Spanish, Polish and Portugese languages.

Architecture-Urbanism is dedicated to a) those who are interested in creating livable and sustainable environments and buildings that meet socio-cultural and socio-behavioral needs of people, environments that are responsive to historical, traditional and physical constraints, b) to those who are interested in finding panacea for the ills of our globalized world, and c) to those who are interested in regaining what cultures and societies have lost by the acts of architects. ____________________________________________________________________________