The dissertation shows how institutional environments in the period between 1963 and 1974 acted as laboratories where architects, psychologists, sociologists and criminologists studied the use of the built environment to govern the behavior of populations. These collaborations resulted from government-funded programs that sought to redesign psychiatric facilities, prisons, and public housing in order to economically and humanely manage patients, prisoners, and residents. This dissertation investigates a series of research programs in the United States, each concerning a different typology of institutional environment: mental health centers, prisons and public housing. Using archival sources and interviews with architects and other key actors, the research demonstrates the rise of social scientific scholarship on the "permeable institution", the maturation of the theory of the new mass institution, and the major turning point in institutional design caused by the popularity of Crime Prevention through Environmental Design research. The dissertation also analyzes the impact of that turning point, which was a split between ongoing environmental psychology research by organizations such as the Environmental Design Research Association and a reaction against social science in the discipline of architecture as the field turned to critical theory, literary criticism and other humanities to guide work and design.
The dissertation contributes to earlier studies of the movement of psychological and sociological expertise out of the laboratory and into society in the 20th century, showing an intermediate step wherein institutional environments acted as a site of experiment into social behavior as well as an application of science to a social problem. The research demonstrates how social scientific knowledge is used in the United States (beyond the academy); it shows the direct impact social science has on identity, behavior, and space. Critical investigation of these experimental institutions adds to a broader understanding of the relation between science and society by reinforcing the argument that neoliberal philosophies of governance tend to favor the use of psychology and sociology to govern more "softly" by diffusing control in the environment.
Activities: The grant funded research on the use of the institutional environment to govern deviant populations during the 1960s and 1970s, yielding a history of government-funded collaborations between specific architects and social scientists. Using the grant I was able to conduct research on an architect at U.C. Berkeley, Sim Van der Ryn, and his research and teaching on new correctional architecture in the mid-1960s. The funds allowed me to travel from Princeton, New Jersey to visit the U.C. Berkeley College of Environmental Design to document a number of manuscripts at the College of Environmental Design Library. I documented the following manuscripts for further study in Princeton, among others: 1. Sim Van der Ryn; Christopher Alexander, "Outline of Special Study on Urban Amenities", November 1, 1963. 2. Sim Van der Ryn and William R. Boie, "Value Measurement and Visual Factors in the Urban Environment" ([Berkeley]: College of Environmental Design University of California, 1963). 3. Three Proposals for Innovative Correctional Facilities, Department of Architecture, University of California , Berkeley, 1967. 4. Sim Van der Ryn and Robert Reich, Notes on Institution Building, September 1968 First draft. Behavioral and Systems Approach to Design, Grant #1 R01 MH16285-01 from the NIMH 5. Sim Van der Ryn, "Architecture, Institutions and Social Change", December 1968, Mimeograph in College of Environmental Design Library 6. Journal of Environmental Design Contributions within Discipline: My research has helped the discipline of architecture understand the way that environments have been shaped by theories from social science, most specifically psychology, between 1963 and 1974. Research on institutional environments helped architecture gain a more dexterous understanding of the occupants of buildings and the way that they are impacted by their environment. The architects under study produced a "softer", more aesthetic approach to institutional design. Contributions to Other Disciplines: The project has also contributed to the history of social science and its interest in the built environment during an age of growing neo-liberal strategies of government in the 1970s. The study of environment and behavior in this period made use of standard arguments and drawing types from late modern architecture, showing how a popular reception of a theory can be influenced by larger cultural beliefs. Contributions to Human Resource Development: If human resource development includes giving non-scientists an understanding of the relation between science, technology and society then the project has enhanced my own and will enhance other architects understanding of the benefits and dangers of collaboration with social science. The benefits seem to be a greater precision and self-awareness with regard to the ideas being tested and implemented but the dangers seem to be an overemphasis on the deterministic aspects of human / environment relations. Contributions to Resources for Research and Education: I am using material gathered through the support of this grant to teach students about the history of social science and its use in architecture The project has given me information for teaching students the relationship between social science and design, as it has been used for large institutional settings, mental health centers, public housing and for community based therapeutic penology. I have also used my research skills to find manuscripts and reports developed by architects under a favorable climate of government sponsored research during Lyndon Johnson's presidency. The material is helping me study the interrelationship of government and science and architecture.
