Social Design: Creating Buildings with People in Mind

Sommer defines social design as working with people rather than for them, distinguishing it from traditional design by its commitment to building occupants . The book consolidates a movement that had accumulated terminology—behavioral approach, participatory design, user needs, environmental awareness—under a single name . Its core methodology involves gathering systematic input from occupants through user needs analysis for new environments, direct participation during planning, and post-occupancy evaluation to learn about person-environment interaction . A PsycCRITIQUES review noted that Sommer traces social design's foundations to vernacular architecture, where community members are both builders and occupants, and identifies its contemporary roots in psychology's humanism and behaviorism, architecture's rejection of formalism, and broader consumer and community movements .

Sommer identifies the absence of incentives as the movement's central practical failure. He states that the social design movement has not been very successful in developing incentives for practicing designers or their clients to include new techniques in current projects . Answers to why user input matters have been couched in the rhetoric of moral imperative, which has proven less than successful . While clients have begun responding to productivity arguments, no analogous incentive has emerged for designers . Lynda Schneekloth's review in the Journal of Architectural and Planning Research argued that until the movement finds a connection with architects that has meaning for their primary work of form-giving, it will continue to be peripheral .

The book's table of contents reveals a practical sequence: user needs analysis (UNA), bringing in a behavioral consultant, direct participation of occupants, and post-occupancy evaluation (POE) . UNA involves surveying users to identify needs, though Sommer acknowledges challenges including user availability and difficulty expressing needs . He suggests educating users about the design process to enhance effectiveness and advocates standardized methods to translate needs into design solutions, minimizing research costs and time . POE uses user feedback to learn about person-environment interaction . Sommer also addresses the communication difficulties between designers and social scientists, and the challenge of accurately eliciting user needs .

Reviews were mixed but generally positive about the book's synthesizing function. Lynda Schneekloth noted that Social Design does not present new knowledge to people familiar with the field but provides a major service by reviewing where the movement has been, what it is doing, and where it needs to do more . She judged it an excellent introduction to students and laymen . A review in the Journal of Environmental Psychology found that Sommer's optimistic view oversimplifies the complex theoretical and methodological challenges in social design . Schneekloth also criticized the case studies as insufficiently germane and noted the book could use graphics to appeal to visually oriented design audiences .

Sommer devotes nearly an entire chapter to the problem that social design has relied on moral persuasion rather than demonstrated productivity benefits. The language of productivity is the current incentive for clients, but Sommer's personal response is that it will be a long time, if ever, before we can scientifically prove social design increases productivity . He warns that this is not an unhealthy development, but there is a danger that quality-of-life yardsticks may be lost in the process, noting that many aspects of design cannot properly be converted into dollar terms according to accepted standards of scientific proof . Schneekloth points out that Sommer alludes to but does not discuss the potential for misuse of social design's intent when productivity language dominates .

Social Design synthesizes and extends the arguments of Sommer's preceding decade of work. Personal Space (1969) documented how people use and defend spatial boundaries; Tight Spaces (1974) indicted hard architecture that resists human imprint and proposed soft architecture as the humane alternative; Design Awareness (1972) argued for user participation in design decisions and provided building evaluation tools. Social Design consolidates these strands into a single programmatic account of the social design movement, adding detailed treatment of user needs analysis, behavioral consulting, direct participation, and post-occupancy evaluation . It also assesses the movement's institutional impact, noting that more than 60 English-speaking universities now offer graduate training in social design, but that influence on architecture practice has been widespread but rarely deep .