CONFLICTING INTERPRETATIONS OF ARCHITECTURE - AN EMPIRICAL-INVESTIGATION

The idea that environmental preferences are not solely determined by t he characteristics of individuals, but instead are socially constitute d, has fundamentally challenged many traditional psychological analyse s of landscape preference and meaning. In this paper, an attempt is ma de to suggest that the two interpretations are by no means incompatibl e, and that there is a growing need for an environmental psychology th at recognizes the importance of both individual and social factors. Dr awing on traditions within European social psychology, this paper demo nstrates how the quantitative analysis of social representations can b e used to identify both differences and commonalities in peoples' inte rpretations of architecture. Specifically, this study reports on one s egment of a larger empirical study investigating differences in archit ectural interpretation between planners, planning students and public respondents. These interpretations were examined using multiple sortin g techniques, with respondents asked to sort 15 examples of contempora ry architecture according to their own criteria. INDSCAL analysis of t his data facilitated the recognition of a shared conceptualization of these architectural stimuli, but also demonstrated a number of importa nt inter-group and inter-individual differences in architectural inter pretation, which were evident as variations from this common conceptua lization. The paper concludes by discussing the implications of this s tudy for research in environmental psychology, particularly stressing the need to consider notions of power and ideology. (C) 1996 Academic Press Limited