However much we may prefer to discuss architecture in terms of
visual styles, its most far-reaching practical effects are not at the
level of appearances at all, but at the level of space. By giving
shape and form to our material world, architecture structures the
system of space in which we live and move. In that it does so, it
has a direct relation - rather than a merely symbolic one - to
social life, since it provides the material preconditions for the
patterns of movement, encounter and avoidance which are the
material realisation - as well as sometimes the generator - of
social relations. In this sense, architecture pervades our everyday
experience far more than a preoccupation with its visual
properties would suggest.
But however pervasive of everyday experience, the relation
between space and social life is certainly very poorly understood.
In fact for a long time it has been both a puzzle and a source of
controversy in the social sciences. It seems as naive to believe that
spatial organisation through architectural form can have a
determinative effect on social relations as to believe that any such
relation is entirely absent. Recent reviews of sociological research
in the area (Michelson, 19761) do not really resolve the matter.
Some limited influences from such generalised spatial factors as
density to social relations are conceded, subject to strong
interaction with such sociological variables as family (p. 92),
homogeneity (p. 192) and lifestyle (p. 94). But little is said about the
ways in which strategic architectural decisions about built form
and spatial organisation may have social consequences.
The puzzle is made more acute by the widespread belief that
many modern environments are 'socially bad5. Again, there is a
tendency to discuss these in terms of simple and general physical
variables, such as building height. However, the inference that
more fundamental spatial factors are involved is strongly
supported by the failure of recent low-rise, high-density schemes to
provide a convincing alternative following the debacle of
highrise housing. Modern high- and low-rise housing have in common
that they innovate fundamentally in spatial organisation, and both
produce, in common it seems, lifeless and deserted environments.