Student behavior modes in educational buildings: Interpretations on visibility and permeability parameters

Behaviour of the people are affected by stimuli of various kind in the built environment, whereas one of the major issues is the “interaction” and in which interface the interaction is taking place is crucial. In the context of this study interaction is defined as interaction with other people; interaction with the space and its geometry; and interaction with the occasions within the environment. “Interaction” herein is also mainly based on three parameters that are co-presence, visibility and permeability. In this study, spaces and the inhabitants of the selected universities are the focus point in case of the relation between configuration of space and behaviour. The study improved upon the “interface possibilities” in social interaction spaces of selected universities of Istanbul that are also educational buildings. In Space Syntax Theory, interface is defined in the context of individuals (visitor-inhabitant; different kinds/groups of users of the building); whereas in this study, interface is taken as the interaction of different kinds of spaces that is space-space interaction. In addition, permeability is taken as the feature of a space to be accessed at knee level and visibility is taken as the feature of a space to be accessed via eye level. While defining these, in permeability analysis, all the obstacles at knee level (obstacles related with the physical access) are taken into consideration whereas in visibility analysis, just the obstacle at eye level (obstacles related with the visual access) are taken into consideration. For the interface possibilities, two types are defined: interface based on visibility and interface based on permeability. The main question is whether permeability or visibility within the environment is more effective on the behaviour of people, this argued upon the relative asymmetry of these concepts. For the investigation of this main discussion five architecture schools in Istanbul are selected as case studies which has different characteristics and possibilities in case of visibility/permeability relations. In these schools, entrance floors are the focus point as they are hosting both two parameters more than other floors of the faculties. The cases are examined through quantitative methods including convex space graphics that are produced from justified graphs; visual graph analysis; space syntax analysis and statistics are supported with the qualitative methods based on observations of users’ behavior modes. In order to evaluate the analysis firstly, convex space analysis based on visibility and permeability evaluated comparatively between five schools and some pre-results put forward. Then results from “syntax 2D” analysis and observations overlapped with statistical analysis of Regression Analysis investigated through SPSS and compared with foreseen situations from the comparison of convex space graphs. In conclusion, the behaviour of people seemed to be depending on visibility more than permeability in social interaction spaces of architecture schools. Moreover, informal usage of the spaces seems to be more in spaces where relative asymmetry is high as it is stated in the study of Araguez and Psarra (2015) for Rolex Centre, as well. Further discussions to be held in other levels and other organizational charts.