Response to Edward T. Hall's Article on Anthropology and Space

     The article explained that people act certain ways in certain environments and situations. People's actions and reactions to spaces also change with the number of people present, one person, a small group, a whole city, etc. Hall explains that each room in a house causes one to act, in what our society labels, accordingly. He defines this as "fixed-feature space," explaining that it has to do with territoriality. This fixed-feature space helps to organize activities for people entering a home. We live in a world where most rooms are easily differentiated from one another. We can look at a room and know this room is for food preparation, eating, sleeping, socializing, working, etc. For example, when you enter a house and you see a room with a stove, refrigerator, and counters in it your brain automatically tells you that it is a kitchen and a place to cook. If you happen upon another room that has a bed and dresser in it you know that it is a bedroom and a place of rest. Most people do not linger in the doorway of a bedroom because they know it is a private place that is owned by someone who lives in the house. When in someone else's home you know what rooms are open and what rooms are off limits. If you were to use the bathroom, you wouldn't go to the bathroom that is adjacent to someone's bedroom, you would use one that is more communally accessible. Commonly there are living rooms that are located in the same space as a dining room, subconsciously we are able to tell where that boundary is that separates the two. Humphry Osmond came up with a definition for a space that separates people, "sociofugal space." This refers to the fact that if a group of people were in that space that included both a dining area and a living area the separate spaces wouldn't face each other and the people inhabiting those spaces would probably only interact with those around them. I.E a person sitting on the couch would talk to the person in the chair next to them, not the person sitting around the table. In our society today the way humans interact with architectural space is more of a known way of acting instead of social experimentation.