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Author
Starnes, N. | Wehrli, R. | Cormack, R.
Title
Improved Building Design Through the Psychology of Perception: Perceptual Selectivity Applied to Livability and Safety with Sample Performance Requirements. Final Report.
Coporate
National Bureau of Standards, Washington, DC New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology
Report
NBSIR 76-1046, July 1976,
Distribution
Available from National Technical Information Service
Keywords
buildings; human factors engineering; stairways; design criteria; safety engineering; architecture; user needs; research; perception; construction; requirements; handbooks | operation breakthrough
Identifiers
building design
Abstract
For over a decade, architects have been calling for applications from social science which would contribute to building design better suited to the building's users. This report provides some applications, relying upon the state-of-the-art knowledge of the psychology of perception, showing how human perception operates in the everyday use of buildings, and drawing upon this rationale to present building requirements to guide in the design and construction of safer stairs in future buildings. The building safety requirements have been written in the format and style of the Guide Criteria for the Design and Evaluation of Innovative Housing Systems, a housing performance specification written by NBS for HUD's large housing experiment, Operation Breakthrough.