Thesis, PlanB (M.S.)--University of Wisconsin--Stout, 2004. / Includes bibliographical references.

The research evaluated the remodeled lobby and reception office of the Linn- Benton Housing Authority, Albany, Oregon. Programming goals identified five needs: protect client privacy, provide for orderly queuing at the reception counter, decrease contact time between clients and staff, and improve reception office for attention focused tasks and for space intensive tasks. These five goals formed the basis of a post-occupancy evaluation (POE) of the lobby and reception office. Concepts from cognitive theory and culture and methods from ethnography and environment-behavior research were used to study public visitors and staff in these areas. Data were analyzed according to cognitive cultural categories then compared to criteria specified for building performance. The performance was measured and evaluated for concordance between the criteria and performance. Ethnographic methods provided insights into the knowledge, beliefs, and values of the users of the study area. This information served as a measure of building performance reflecting cultural meanings attributed to the study area; it provided information about how visitors and staff used these meanings to mediate their experiences within the building. Data was compared to data from the programming study and from an earlier series of exit interviews with public users after the remodeling was completed. Information from the programming phase was used to develop the criteria for building performance. Exit interviews were based on open-ended questions about activities, impressions, and feelings about the housing authority lobby. This contributed to the measures of performance. Data collected for this research was based on ethnographic interviews, semi-structured interviews, ethnographic observations, and behavior maps. These four methods allowed triangulation of data to ensure adequate and reliable coverage of the complexity and variety of behaviors and activities within the study area. This information provided the major data for evaluating building performance. The evaluations of the five programming goals indicated generally positive results for privacy, queuing, contact with staff, and space intensive tasks. There was a negative evaluation for attention focused tasks. Cultural meanings attributed to the remodel design include an improved sense of self-worth, sense of confidence and trust identified as professionalism, improved staff security, and improved valuation of privacy. / Graduation date: 2004 / p.58 missing from both paper copies. Author unavailable to supply.

Summary: The healthcare environments of the future are developing at a rapidpace, which is a built-in change for us visitors. Today's waiting rooms are often open rooms and can be a problem for users' privacy.This study intends to investigate how zoning can affect the visitor's sense of a safe and secure waiting room environment. The underlying interest in the study is about the research of environmental psychology, which shows that the design of the room can affect the users' perception of privacy and personal space. The visions of this study is that the work will become an aid to future waiting room plans where the aid is in the form of a spatial concept with focus on zoning and its colors. Research question: • Can a zoned waiting room affect the visitor's feeling of a safe and calm waiting environment? • What environmental psychological principles can affect the feeling in the different zones in the waiting room environment? • How can the zoning be shaped in color and form to give the visitor a sense of safety and calm? Purpose: The purpose of the report is to investigate how the waiting room environment in hospitals can be designed with a focus on the user's need for privacy and intimacy and how this can increase the feeling of security. The purpose is also to develop a concept for health care in Region Sörmland that will contain vital and decisive factors in spatial design that are important in a waiting room and which the local development unit can relate to for future renovations of waiting rooms. The waiting room should break the traditional waiting rooms and contribute to a sense of security and integrity. Methodology: Several different methods have been used to obtain the most credible result possible. The study has a qualitative approach where primary data is collected with the help of interviews and surveys. Conclusion: The respondents in the study generally felt that an open waiting room with chairs along a wall felt more insecure than a waiting room with separating walls with different types of seating. Because there were different seating options, the patient could control his or her desire to sit more or less securely and the control could affect safety. The design of the different zones through color and light also affected the room's feel in different ways. Strong colors felt stressful while more saturated, dull colors felt calm and safe. A stripped-down environment with few colors and impressions felt sterile and insecure. The method result resulted in a design proposal where different types of seating possibilities and other selectable activities were divided into zones in the room with the colors that according to results from method and theory create security. / Sammanfattning: Framtidens vårdmiljöer utvecklasi snabb takt, vilket innebär förändringar för oss besökare. Dagens väntrum är ofta öppna rum och kan vara ett problem för användarnas integritet. Denna studie har för avsikt att undersöka hur zonindelning med kan påverka besökarens känsla av en trygg och säker väntrumsmiljö. Det bakomliggande intresset för studien handlar om miljöpsykologins forskning som visar att rumsutformningen kan påverka användarens upplevelse av avskildhet och integritet. Visionen är att arbetet ska bli ett hjälpmedel för kommande väntrumsplaner där hjälpmedletär i form av ett rumsligt konceptmed fokus på zonindelning och dess färger. Frågeställning: •Kan ett zonindelat väntrum påverka besökarens känsla av en trygg väntrumsmiljö? •Vilka miljöpsykologiska principer kan påverka känslan i de olika zonerna i väntrumsmiljö? •Hur kan zonindelningen gestaltas i färg och form för att besökaren ska få en känsla av trygghet? Syfte: Syftet med rapporten är att undersöka hur väntrumsmiljönpå sjukhus kan gestaltas med fokus på användarens behov av avskildhet och intimitet och hur detta kan öka känslan av trygghet. Syftet är också att ta fram ett koncept för sjukvården i Region Sörmland som ska innehålla vitala och avgörande faktorer inom rumslig gestaltning som är av betydelse i ett väntrum och som lokalutvecklingsenheten kan förhålla sig till inför framtida renoveringar av väntrum. Väntrummet ska bryta mot de traditionella väntrummen och bidra till en känsla av trygghetoch integritet. Metod: Flera olika metoder har använtsför att får ett sågenomgripanderesultatsom möjligt. Studien har en kvalitativ ansatsdär primärdata samlats in med hjälp av intervjuer och enkäter. Resultat: Det respondenterna i studien upplevde generellt var att ett öppet väntrum med stolar längs en vägg känns mer otryggt än ett väntrum med avskiljande väggar med olika sorters sittmöjligheter. Genom att det fanns olika sittmöjligheter kunde patienten själv kontrollera sin vilja till att sitta mer eller mindre avskilt och kontrollen kan påverkar tryggheten. De olika zonernas gestaltning genom färg och ljus påverkade också rummets känsla på olika sätt. Starka färger kändes stressande medans mer mättande, dova färger kändes lugna och trygga. En avskalad miljö med få färger och intryckkändes steril och otrygg. Metodresultatet resulterade i ett designförslag där olika sorters sittmöjligheter och andra valbara aktiviteter delades in i zoner i rummet med de färger som enligt resultat från metod och teori skapar trygghet

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