On Relationships between Physical Form and Human Behavior: The Use of Merg

Abstract

Behavioral scientists and physical designers havefor some time tried to collaborate. They have failed because physical design is primarily a 'visual thinking' process and behavioral science is not. The expression of this dichotomy is at the bottom of the cultural gap which exists between the two disciplines. In an effort to bridge this gap, the author has sought to develop a methodology that will fit the needs of both the behavioral scientist and physical designer. The process developed, called MERG (Man Environment Response Gram), is a multi-dimensional, non-lineal integration of visually recorded overt behavior with projective statementsfrom the professional designer and subjective responses of users. These three layers of data are abstracted into a single visual medium or MERG, which speaks to the visual thinking process. The first application of MERG (completed by the author in 1969 in a comparative study of open plan schools) indicated that a pattern relationship does exist between human behavior and constructedphysical environmentalform. This relationship was supported in objective time-lapse photography, in subjective responses from a user sample and in projective graphic abstractions from a designer-researcher.