Disciplinary architecture

Architectures of control have been considered to direct and/or prohibit certain types of behaviours within a given space. The idea of shaping user behavior is widely evident throughout the built environment. Architecture regulates behavior; its constraints are simultaneous although are enforced not through the will of the state, or through the will of a community. Its constraints are enforced through the physical power of a context, or environment. When we discuss disciplinary architecture we can consider two distinctive elements. There are those architectures of control which physically prevent or direct a certain type of behavior and there are those designs that regulate user behavior through the psychological effects of the surrounding built environments.

Architects and designers are in a position where they can cleverly put into practice physical structures to direct or prohibit certain behaviours or activities within a given space. These architectures of control can be as simple as the implementation of fencing, gates and pathways to lead people in certain directions or prevent them from accessing restricted areas. Furthermore, architectures of control can be far more specific in terms of certain designs. For instance, in educational environments, windows are often placed at certain heights to prevent students from becoming distracted by events outside. Although often unnoticed, these physical considerations play a valuable role in maintaining order within the built environment.

The idea of shaping behaviours through the psychological effects of architecture is a very clever tool used in design. Often this element of control is harder to distinguish and can even be overlooked by the public. The most common example would be the use of particular colours to influence the mood of the user. For instance, pink is known to have a calming effect, and for this reason is often used within prison facilities to control the mood of the inmates. Similarly, stadiums have been known to paint the locker rooms of the opponents in shades of pink to keep players in a more passive and less energetic state. Users are often unaware of the psychological effects of the surrounding architecture, and for this reason, are often very successful at shaping user behaviours.

The idea that architecture might regulate is nothing new. Designs of urban planners such as Baron Georges-Eugène Haussmann, who remodelled Paris for Louis Napoléon (later Napoléon III) after 1848, may include elements of physical crowd control. Many of the narrow streets, which had once made the revolutionaries’ barricades effective, were replaced with broad boulevards and avenues, allowing for a psychological level of control. A mob may feel less powerful if positioned in the middle of a large area, whether this is a park or a thoroughfare. In another example, Robert Moses built highway bridges along roads to the beaches in Long Island so that buses could not pass under the bridges. This assured that only those using cars (mainly white people) would use certain public beaches, and that those without cars (largely African Americans) would be driven to use other beaches. Consequently, social relations were regulated. Each of these considered designs have made way for a future where architects and designers can cleverly and often subtly manipulate user behavior through the use of the surrounding built environments.

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Wikipedia