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How does place design influence human experience and behavior? How can physical environments enhance lives?

When the Environmental Design Research Association (EDRA) meets in Washington, DC (Washington Court Hotel, near Union Station) June 2-6, 2010, these are exactly the sorts of questions that will be answered.

EDRA-ites focus professionally on how the forms of physical environments affect our lives – but they’re a diverse lot. Members of EDRA work to answer questions such as:

• When are open plan work environments appropriate? What is the psychological experience of working in a green building?
• How do the aesthetic elements in a hospital room influence immune system performance?
• What classroom design features enhance elementary school age children’s academic performance? How about high schoolers? Adults?
• What makes a home welcoming? Supportive? Culturally appropriate?
• How does store design encourage impulse purchases or reward routine shoppers?
• How can urban designers create places where individuals and groups flourish?
• Why do we travel through forests or parks the way that we do? Why does how we navigate through a space matter?
• How should place experiences be investigated and how should knowledge gained be reflected in physical forms?

The psychologists, architects, sociologists, interior designers, landscape architects, urban planners, anthropologists, and other place-focused professionals who are EDRA members will meet with interested others this year to discuss:

Working with the NSF, NIH, and GSA
Friday June 4, 8-9 am

Professionals from the National Institutes of Health, the National Science Foundation, and the General Services Administration will discuss obtaining grant funding from, or working directly with, the United States government.

Designing for the Future
Saturday, June 5, 10:30-12

Patrick Tucker, Director of Communications, World Future Society, will outline demographic, sociological, cultural, and technological trends that place designers need to recognize today so that the structures they create will continue to provide value and enhance human lives in the decades to come.

Applying Research in Practice
Saturday, June 5, 2-3:30

During this session, experienced design researchers will discuss important and practical research-related topics of interest to place designers, often using case studies of their own work. These case studies, pulled from a variety of design contexts, will illustrate the value of informing design with research conducted by others or project-specific primary research. Topics to be covered include: When is research-based information needed? How can research consumers identify high quality research findings to be applied in practice? Where can useful research findings be found? Who can do research? When should designers do their own research? How should a designer proceed if research-based information seems to conflict with design experience or common design practice? How should information collected by analyzed and presented? Does research-based information limit designer creativity?

Healing Spaces
Saturday, June 5, 5:30-7 PM

Ray Pentecost, PhD, and Esther Sternberg, MD, will discuss the relationship between place design and healing. Ray Pentecost, PhD, is a former president of the American Institute of Architects’ Academy of Architecture for Health (2009). He directs the healthcare architectural practice of Clark Nexsen and is both a licensed architect and board certified in healthcare architecture through the American College of Healthcare Architects. Esther Sternberg is internationally recognized for her discoveries in brain immune interactions and the effects of the brain's stress response on health: the science of the mind-body interaction. Sternberg’s book, Healing Spaces: The Science of Place and Well-Being, was published in 2009. Sternberg was on the faculty at Washington University, St. Louis, MO, before joining the National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD, in 1986, where she is currently based.

Urban Design: A Self-Generative and Sustainable Approach
Friday, June 4, 11-12, and 1-5 (charrette)

Pavlina Ilieva and Kuo Pao Lian of PI.KL will present a series of selected works to communicate concepts and strategies facilitating a future of self-generative and truly sustainable urban development. Ideas address restorative design practices at the intersection of socioeconomic and ecological concerns in the pursuit of healthy and equitable built environments. PI.KL is an interdisciplinary design studio exploring concepts, ideas, and projects of the conceptual and built order. They have won numerous awards for their work on sustainable solutions in urban design, disaster relief projects post-Katrina, and ecological strategic planning. Their works have been featured in Architectural Record, Dwell, Metropolis, and Urbanite.

Urban Design: A Self-Generative and Sustainable Approach – Charrette Session

This charrette is a round table format and ‘idea-making’ session hosted by PI.KL to invite individuals from diverse disciplines to begin a dialogue on a particular project related to sustainable urban development. The theme of the round table could be based of the notion of ‘Recovery’ and what that will mean in the next decade and how do we rethink our urban and suburban environments and potential policies or strategies that could tackle such issues.

In addition, conference sessions will explore:

• Diverse design contexts. People are always in a space, and sessions will cover the full range, from retail and office to healthcare, academic, and spiritual, from wild outdoor spaces to carefully cultivated public parks.
• Important recent research. Scores of presentations and discussions of the latest place-focused research findings and tools will take place.
• Potential partnerships with both place researchers and practitioners. These are regularly and energetically discussed before, after, and during EDRA sessions.

This year, for the first time, EDRA is seeking CEU status for conference presentations.

Attend EDRA’s 2010 annual meeting to learn about new research findings and research tools, to find out about recent design projects, and to meet potential colleagues with similar interests. Savor evidence-based design at the 2010 EDRA conference - design that makes a difference in people’s lives.