A CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK FOR VALUES IN THE BUILT ENVIRONMENT Abstract Along with formal knowledge and technology, individual, professional and societal value systems are fundamental determinants of numerous aspects of the built environment. Despite this importance, there appears to be no well-established, coherent and systematic framework for a discussion of value related issues in environmental analysis. This paper addresses the problem by
considering the fundamental concepts that may be used in a discussion of
values and interrelates them to form a conceptual framework. The preliminary
discussion is centered around the need for and the importance and effect
of value systems in the activity of designing, constructing and using the
built environment. The concepts that form the elements
of the framework are based on a process model describing the life-cycle
of the built environment. It is claimed that the values held by planners,
designers, builders and users have significant effects on this process.
Concepts such as value, value judgement and value system are discussed
and illustrated in environmental terms through examples. Further discussion
concerns the origin and formation of values, their nature and types, codification;
the expression and transfer of value judgements, changes in and conflicts
between value systems. The paper concludes with suggestions
for possible topics of research related to values in the built environment. Keywords: Values, Value Analysis, Built
Environment, Theory Introduction Among cultural factors that affect
various aspects of the built environment, individual, professional and
societal values are probably the most influential. This is so not only
because they determine how the built environment is evaluated by users
but also because they form the basic precepts through the use of which
the built environment is designed and resources are allocated to it in
competition with other socio-economic needs. Despite this importance, there
appears to be no well-established, coherent and systematic framework for
a discussion of value related issues in the analysis of the built environment.
The issue of value has received attention in the behavioral sciences, where
"[n]umerous books have been written on the subject, but [even there] often
the reader comes away more confused than enlightened because the author
has not defined his terms and has used the concept so loosely and broadly
that his meaning cannot even be inferred" (Kilby,
1993: 31). Some study in values has also been directed at the allocation
of resources to "the conservation of environmental assets and the improvement
of environmental quality" (Pearce, 1994: 1329) in
an environmentalist sense, but not from a built-environment studies perspective. In this paper, an attempt is made to
address the problem by considering the fundamental concepts that may be
used in a discussion of values and interrelating them to form a conceptual
framework. The discussion is based on the place and importance of value
related concepts in the life-cycle of the built environment, consisting
of the activities of planning, designing, constructing and using. Although
the model used appears to be founded on the conception of a professional,
industrialized building process, some reflection will reveal how it can,
in reality, be applied to many different instances of the building activity. Life-cycle of the Built Environment In a manner similar to that of a majority
of human activities, the life-cycle of building consists a four stage process:
problem formulation, problem solution, implementation and use. This process
is cyclic; most building reaches the end of its useful life due to some
reason or other and, thereby, leads to a repetition of the cycle in the
form of renovation, remodeling, re-adaptation of use or new building. The
duration of this repetition is variable and often indeterminate. In formalized-professional (i.e. non-vernacular)
building, the stage of problem formulation comprises the planning and programming
stage. Here, a misfit is recognized between the present state of the built
environment and some ideal conditions that are deemed to be desirable for
that environment. The first of the two components that define this misfit,
namely the present state of building, can be described in terms of state
descriptors which range from simple quantitative variables such as the
average thermal conductivity of the building shell or qualitative behavioral
descriptors such as spaciousness to complex composite descriptors such
as quality. The other component that describes the misfit, namely the conditions
that are desirable, express what kind or level of the state variables are
acceptable or ideal. These conditions are obviously bound to value-related
statements and they form the subject matter of this paper. This misfit that underlies a problem
may result, on the one hand, from an observed lack or deterioration over
time of the conditions defined by the state descriptors. Alternatively,
people's conception of the desirable conditions may change over time, thus
leading to a consequent misfit, as would happen, for example, due to changes
in fashion or socio-economic status. The definition of the problem may
take an explicit form or may be felt implicitly. In today's architectural
construction, the problem will be made explicit through a definition in
terms of the state descriptors that make it up and conditions are stated
under which such misfit will be deemed to be resolved. This statement would
correspond to the architectural brief or the architectural program. The next stage, that of problem solution,
corresponds to the stage of design in building. In this stage decisions
are made as to how a projected state of building should be so that the
misfit between the state descriptors and the desirable conditions shall
no longer exist. Here, the design's outcome will reflect the designer's
interpretation of the problem, as well as his own understanding of the
desirable conditions that he deems are fit to the situation. The period of the actual construction
of the built environment is where a major transformation of materials,
energy, finance and manpower into the building product takes place
based on the decisions made in design. This is the stage of solution implementation.
Being a stage which is characterized by an intense concentration of economic
resources, construction will necessarily reflect the interests of the parties
concerned with it. What are now considered to be desirable are likely to
be quite different than those of the owner or the designer. The stage of use is the longest stage
of the life-cyle of the built environment. However, very often the user,
who shall be involved longest in the life-cycle has very little to say
about its formation until he occupies the building. It may even be the
case that he remains unknown until much later. These four stages of the built environment
exist in a medium of environmental and cultural factors, with technology,
knowledge and value systems being components of the latter. Neither environmental
factors, nor knowledge and technology, however, determine on their own
or together, the nature of a building problem or the outcome of a design
or the quality observed by the users to any fundamental extent. What do
determine these, however, are the beliefs that owners, users or professionals
hold as to what is desirable and acceptable. It is these beliefs that form
the ultimate perceptions that are related to the built environment and
how the built environment is evaluated by people is dependent on these
beliefs. Values, Value Judgements and Value
Systems The question of how preferable conditions are conceived and expressed by professionals involved in the built environment and by people who are users of it is a question related to values. A widely-quoted definition given by Kluckhohn sees a value as a "conception, explicit or implicit, distinctive of an individual or characteristic of a group, of the desirable which influences the selection from available modes, means and ends of action" (qtd. in Kilby, 1993: 32). This definition stems mainly from work that involves people's personal, social and moral values in affecting their behavior and has continued in that vein (Rokeach, 1973; Schwartz and Bilsky, 1987 and 1990). Closely related are studies of attitudes inthat they determine people's behavioral intentionas and actual behavior (Fishbein and Ajzen, 1975). What is characteristic of values understood in this sense is that the thing valued and the act of valuing it are integrated into the same notion. There are, on the other hand, conceptions
of value in other fields, such as engineering and economics, which are
directly related to issues in the built environment. Biddulph
(1995), drawing on Gottdiener (1995), discusses,
for example, the structure of the relations between use value, exchange
value and sign value. Issues of meaning of the built environment (Rapoport,
1990) are also very closely related to values in this sense.The manner
in which values are examined in the behavioral sciences is not a convenient
approach for considering these conceptions. Kilby,
working from the behavioral science perspective, states explicitly that
he ignores all of the technical meanings of value except the one in behavioral
science (1993: 31). Studies of value of the built environment, however, need a wider conception of value since different parties involved in the life-cycle of building do not see the question of value in the same way. Furthermore, it should also be possible to incorporate the notions of worth and measure since the built environment is intimately connected with economic, engineering and artistic phenomena. To do this, we need to introduce interpretations of three concepts into the analysis of value-related questions in the built environment: value, value judgement and value system. These concepts and their interrelation will form a framework in which further discussion may proceed. In Kluckhohn's definition, we may interpret
the "conception of the desirable" as a belief that guides a choice or preference
behavior. This is a judgement on the acceptability of some state or entity.
For the built environment, this quality or quantity is one of the various
state descriptors that define its characteristics.Thus, we now define as
a value any state descriptor which forms the subject matter of a
belief in the correctness or preferability of a choice. In this manner,
the act of valuing is dissociated from the value itself. Also, it becomes
possible to allow for different people to hold different beliefs of preferability
based on the same value. Values that can affect the nature and
outcome of human activities may be classified under general categories.
Among these, those that can be called technical values are predominant
in the formation of the built environment. Three such technical values
in this context are reliability, efficiency and compatibility. Reliability
is a measure of the probability that a solution will perform its function
satisfactorily. In the built environment, this may be interpreted, for
example, to mean the probability that a building will provide enclosure
and the necessary meso-environmental conditions. Efficiency concerns the
ratio of the utility obtained to the amount of the resources supplied.
In the built environment, efficiency measures may be such quantities as
amount of useful space or quality obtained per unit of investment, or the
efficiency of the heating system provided. Compatibility is a value related
to the inverse of the degree of conflict that the solution implemented
will create with the users, as well as other beings and entities in the
environment. A foremost example of compatibility is safety. Also affecting the formation and perception
of the built environment are perceptual values, among which we may mention
stimulation, dishabituation and aesthetics. Stimulation is a measure of
the extent to which the senses, emotions and thoughts of observers and
users are invoked by the solution. In the built environment for example,
such stimulation may consist of giving an impression of monumentality or
historical continuity, invoking feelings of homely coziness or community,
or creating a display of light, shade, reflection and color. Dishabituation
is a measure of the novelty and the creativity of the solution. In building
this would correspond to the provision of novel spaces through new uses
of materials, vistas that people are unaccustomed to and novel uses of
space, materials and other architectural elements. Aesthetics comprise
qualities that are conveyed by formal aesthetic characteristics such the
unity of the design, the refinement in details, the degree of perfection
attained in design and construction. The actual form and range that these
general values take depends on the area that they are related to. In the
built environment, there are many values ranging from structural parameters
to acoustic variables, from material costs to formal aesthetic measures.
Several different values would fall in the same category: for example,
the safety of the building against collapse due to poor design and construction
or during earthquakes, safety from household accidents or toxic emissions
from the building materials, the degree of blockage of the sunlight of
neighbouring buildings are all instances of compatibility values, which
exist simultaneously in building. The diversity in the range of these values
is a major problem in studies of the built environment. Another major problem concerning values
appears to be their measurement. Whereas some values can be measured on
a binary basis, others are measured categorically or on a continuous scale.
Many of the values related to engineering and economic aspects of building
are usually measurable as continuous variables. Even though some scales
of measurement for values have been developed such as the Rokeach
(1973)
scale of values, for a majority of the behavioral and perceptual values
involved in the built environment there appear to be no established procedures
of measurement. Values are characteristics of the built
environment which are used by people in valuing things. By themselves,
they do not determine how people are to make their preferences. What are
needed by people are beliefs, often expressed as rules of behavior or decisions,
regarding the desirability or acceptability levels or conditions of these
values. Re-wording Kluckhohn's definition to read "beliefs, distinctive
of a group of professionals or users, of the desirable conditions which
influences their decisions and perceptions" would provide a definition
of such a belief. We may call such beliefs value judgements. Examples of
value judgements that may be expressed explicitly are specifications regarding
the structural requirements of strength and deformability or thermal
comfort conditions or performance criteria of building materials. Social
status criteria such as location of housing or fashion or other preferences
guiding choice of style are examples of implicitly held value judgements.
Interests, not usually considered as value components, also have to be
considered as value judgements because they affect the manner in which
decisions and choices are made. Depending on the type of measurement
that is associated with the corresponding value, value judgements may be
prescriptive, selective or of a threshold type. Prescriptive value judgements
hold the existence of a specific binary value to be preferable. An example
may be judging a sea-view in a house as valuable. Selective judgements
dictate a choice among alternatives, whereas threshold-type judgements
express levels of acceptability such as maximum total cost or minimum indoor
temperature or total observed quality. Many of the value judgements in building
are explicity stated as we have in the clauses of professional standards,
building codes and other codes of practice. Ordinarily, such clauses are
not considered to fall under a behavioral science understanding of value,
but they are, nevertheless, totally consistent with the definition of value
judgement given above. Other judgements that do not appear in an explicit
manner are carried implicitly by professionals in their individual style
of practice and design. Value judgements are formed mainly
through the accumulation of successful professional examples and the practice
of criticism. They are transferred throughout the professions by processes
of education, professional guidance and control, and through society by
processes of enculturation. In parallel with the range of cultural phenomena,
value judgements vary in time and in space. Whereas judgements related
to technical values have a tendency to remain fairly constant, those judgements
that concern other values change more often and are variable from group
to group, and society to society The value-related features that characterize
specific groups and societies are not the value judgements that they hold
regarding individual values but rather their value systems. A value system
may be defined as a collection of value judgements held by a person or
a group regarding various values involved in a phenomenon. Within a value
system, value judgements do not exist independently of each other; there
are bound to be interactions and conflicts between the various value
judgements, as formulated, for example, by Schwartz and Bilsky (1987).
The conflicts that exist between quality judgements and economic interests
are very real examples of such conflicts. Two main problems appear in the formulation
of value systems: how to compromise two different value judgements and
how to aggregate them. Regarding the first, the value system must contain
additional rules that prioritize value judgements and dictate when precedence
may take place. In the case of conflicting judgements, the value system
must contain ways of resolving this conflict. Regarding the problem of
aggregation, it is helpful to find a value to which different values may
be converted thus reducing to value analysis to a common basis. Cost is
one example of such a value. In case such a common value cannot be formulated,
various value judgements may be aggregated by weighting them and forming
a composite. Stern, Dietz and Kalof (1993: 328), for
example, have used such an approach to model the motivation to act
on the environment. Value judgements may also be aggregated
to form composite values such as quality. Quality in the built environment
is a composite value incorporating all other values technical and perceptual
values. It is a composite value that is continuous and variable throughout
the life cycle of a built environment. Some Value-related Issues Because it is the value systems held
by various groups that guide the formation and the use of the built environment,
many of the problems that generate debate may be re-formulated in the light
of value systems. One such issue concerns the conflict that is observed
between different groups. For example, there appears to be constant conflict
in the needs and approaches of professionals versus users, in the attitudes
of architects versus engineers, in the interests of contractors versus
users. A re-analysis of these problems in value-related terms may help
not only in understanding but also in resolving these differences. Another occasion where value systems
and some problems associated with them become apparent in the built environment
is architectural competitions. Competition documents expressing the problem
are prepared by a planning/programming group that also set performance
criteria and acceptable standards. The actual choice of the solution to
be implemented, however, is governed by the value system of the jury. It
is very easy to foresee that different winners would emerge if different
juries were to judge the same entries. The perennial complaints by designers
that documents are not clear, or too restrictive, or have not been taken
into consideration by the juries are likely to find grounds for explanation
when viewed in a value-related perspective. Education constitutes one of the main
issues of debate in built-environmental discourse. A major portion of the
energies that are devoted to education go towards building up the value
systems of the student. This effort would be better guided by a consciousness
of value systems through an understanding of the values involved and their
formation and examining past and present value systems held by different
groups. Similarly, value-related analysis may also be used in the studies
of designer attitudes and behavior. It is very probable that designers
make adjustments in their value systems when dealing with specific design
solutions, disregarding some judgements or giving preference to others. Conclusion The discussion contained in this paper
has the purpose of providing a framework for considering value related
issues in the built environment by suggesting concepts that may be used
in the analysis. Some aspects of these concepts have been examined in relation
with built-environmental issues. It may be suggested that further progress
in value-related issues can be attained by the following studies: References Biddulph, M.J.,
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