Psicogeografía: La influencia de los lugares en la mente y el corazón (Ariel)

by Colin Ellard, Gemma Deza Guil (Translator)

Descubre cómo tu entorno afecta a tus emociones y pensamientos.

Amor, deseo, angustia, placer, asombro, nerviosismo… A través de la psicogeografía, Collin Ellard nos cuál es la relación emocional y perceptiva que establecemos con nuestro entorno y cómo influye profundamente en nuestros pensamientos, emociones y respuestas físicas. Aprenderemos que una buena planificación urbanística puede tener efectos beneficiosos en la población, pero una determinada disposición de un barrio y una arquitectura agresiva puede convertir ese lugar en un foco de ansiedad, o incluso de criminalidad. Entender cómo funcionamos y qué nos motiva puede darnos herramientas para construir un entorno que nos predisponga a sentirnos bien y, por otro lado, evitar que caigamos en «trampas» cotidianas muy bien diseñadas, como por ejemplo en los centros comerciales, donde reina una «desorientación programada» que tiene por finalidad guiar el comportamiento del consumidor.

Genres: Nonfiction, Psychology, Architecture, Urbanism, Science, Urban Planning, Geography

486 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 2010

About the author

Colin Ellard was born in the UK and, at the age of 7, decided to follow his parents and siblings across the ocean to Canada, where he has lived ever since. Ellard is a research psychologist at the University of Waterloo where he directs the Urban Realities Laboratory. The main work of the laboratory is to explore the connections between psychology and the design of the built environment. Ellard believes passionately that scientists have a responsibility to work hard to make sure that the general public understand the work that is being done in the laboratory and its implications for our lives.

Reviews

[Laurie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Psychogeography is, in Ellard’s opinion, how our surroundings affect our moods and behavior. How plants make any place seem better- and make people less apt to destroy things. How featureless concrete expanses make a person nervous and unwilling to linger. How surroundings can awe, suffocate, sooth, or tempt a person (think the insides of shopping malls). He explains how and why people have these reactions, and how they can be used to manipulate people. He also goes into how digital technology is changing things, and how it could be used to alienate or integrate.

This is important stuff for any architect, designer, or city planner. It’s also helpful for just about anyone who wants to understand why the feel the way they do in certain environments. One part I especially liked was when he wrote about Temple Grandin’s slaughter house designs that keep cattle calm instead of panicked as they go to their deaths- this is manipulation at its most obvious. How many places do we frequent that affect us in a similar way without our ever being aware of it? The book is technical but easily readable. Recommended.

[Jon · Rating 2 out of 5]

When I finished this I thought that I must've missed something. The intersection of architecture and neuroscience that the title promised and the author believed he delivered just wasn't there.

Given his credentials, Ellard must be a smart guy. Unfortunately, his writing makes him sound like one of those people who expend a lot of effort trying to sound smart.

This hit on neuroscience. It hit on architecture. There was even a bit of overlap, but not enough to deliver. Mostly, it was rambling through loosely related subjects squeezed through an unnecessarily over-academic sieve.

And I'm fine with academic, but this feels like the bad retail manager trapping you in the break room and giving you "life lessons" when all you want is to drink your coffee and stare out the window.

And how can I possibly take any text seriously that mentions advances in "dildonics."

I had high hopes for this book, but to quote Skwisgaar Skwigelf's time-travelling android clone from the future, "This book is dildonics."

[Alex · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is generally about the psychology of place (referred to as psychogeography), though I feel Ellard strays in a few chapters that deal with technology. There are some interesting studies related here, both about how spaces affect us and how we're sometimes influenced by what we think we're supposed to like/want in a space (versus what makes us happy). A section on the use of paper maps vs lists of directions on phone or sat .nav. has me feeling vindicated about my championing of the importance of paper maps and map reading skills.

I do feel Ellard sometimes conflates an issue. Twice he talks about his children not being suitably impressed by a dinosaur bone but opting for the video of how the dinosaur looked when it was alive (also moon rocks) and this being an issue of devaluing of authenticity blah blah blah. Those are two totally separate things and I don't think you can compare them. If they didn't feel any difference looking at a real dino bone vs a plaster mold, then that's an issue to talk about. Just like I'd rather see the pictures and footage taken on the moon by the astronauts than look at a moon rock in a case (vs in a room full of rocks and minerals I will gravitate toward a moon rock).

Pretty interesting book generally well written, though I felt it strayed from the stated purpose too often. Not the best of the popular science genre, but not the worst either.

[LAB · Rating 2 out of 5]

Although the title of this book, Places of the Heart (Bellevue Library, 2015) might suggest a romance novel, it is not. Instead author Colin Ellard has written about why we seek out certain kinds of places and how the evolutionary roots behind our choices might be overturned by virtual reality. He calls this emerging science -- a melding of architecture and urban planning with behavioral psychology -- psychogeography. I found the book an amazing mash-up of lopsided and unanchored summaries of psychological research coupled with the skimmed highlights of genetics, set amid the author's opinions and warnings.

But what really struck me about the book were the paragraphs. They were about one page in length and averaged six sentences filled with so many dependent clauses that I almost had to diagram them to figure out what was being said. Lurking inside were some interesting things, like our preference for curved surfaces rather than straight lines, why big box stores all look alike and no one seems to care, why we seek stimulation over reality, and the difference video presentations are making in the teaching of science.

[Nurlan Imangaliyev · Rating 4 out of 5]

How do certain places, cities, buildings and devices affect us, our perceptions of ourselves and our lives? You can find some great research-based answers in this book.

[BookishStitcher · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book was a fascinating exploration of the place where urban development meets psychology.

[Lenq rad · Rating 2 out of 5]

ich bin glaube falsche zielgruppe als so psychologin aber dieses buch war so random und somehow an einigen stellen wirklich unwissenschaftlich? Idk ob populärwissenschaftliche bücher das halt sein müssen.

Fand den Autor ganz sympathisch aber er vermittelt iwie die ganze zeit einen sehr absoluten eindruck über sehr schwammige forschungsergebnisse

uncoool
ich hab nichts gelernt leider

[Chuck Erion · Rating 4 out of 5]

In The Margins book column for The Waterloo Region Record for Saturday, Feb 13, 2016
By Chuck Erion, former co-owner of Words Worth Books in Waterloo.

Places of the Heart, Colin Ellard, Bellevue Literary Press, 250 pages, $27.95

Colin Ellard has been a professor of psychology at University of Waterloo since 1991 who specializes in psychogeography – how we experience places and spaces. His Urban Realities Laboratory conducts research in urban settings, including Toronto, Mumbai and Berlin. As a neuroscientist, he focuses on ways to measure our response to both the built environment and nature. His first book looked at mental mapping (Where Am I? Why We Can Find Our Way to the Moon but Get Lost at the Mall, HarperCollins, 2009). Places of the Heart: the Psychogeography of Everyday Life, his second book was released in mid-2015. It is being translated into several languages and published around the world.

Why does this matter? Aren’t architects and urban planners trained to design buildings and cities? Why should a psychologist have a say in this? Because Ellard brings tools to the design board that should help ensure more positive responses to urban environment, from the mundane of alleyways to the awe-inspiring cathedral or city hall. Early in the book, he shows that the layout, sound and light design of casinos is purposed to make gamblers stay longer and spend more. Long stretches of blank walls, the streetscapes of some stores and office building, are BORING – but what does this do to pedestrians and residents? Ellard suggests that vandalism, addictions and other petty crimes may result. On the other hand, frantic traffic patterns increases the cortisol/stress levels of city dwellers with long-term exposure leading to poor health. He cites a Vancouver survey where participants reported loneliness as their most significant issue in urban life, before economics or lifestyle. We spend increasing hours trolling Facebook but have fewer real friends, i.e. confidantes. Increasingly, the digital world is part of our urban experience.

In the chapter on places of awe, Ellard probes what makes us feel ‘meta-physical’ in a cathedral or on a mountaintop. His lab includes Virtual Reality helmets where participants can experience such settings, figuratively well beyond the walls of the lab. One experiment showed a digitized version of the participant’s hand, extended on a super long arm and moving in tandem to their real arm. This led to ‘out of body’ experiences, indicating that our sense of physical boundary is malleable, an instance of neuroplasticity. When you consider the far reaches of space and time, your eyes roll upwards. The same eye roll can accompany intense spiritual experiences, meditation or hallucinatory trances. Our eyes are drawn upward by the columns and arches of a Gothic cathedral. “…This upward focus of attention activates an extrapersonal information processing system that primes us to focus on the faraway, the distant or even the infinite.”

The closing chapters of Places of the Heart explore the many ways that digital technology is shaping our experience of the urban landscape. GPS on our smartphones means almost never getting lost but, if we follow online recommendations, never discovering a restaurant, store or offbeat neighbourhood firsthand. The next wave of the digital revolution, the Internet of Things, promises to monitor and adjust our environment so that our every movement is tracked and our choices are subtly controlled by Google and its advertisers. I just saw a photo on Facebook of a plaque on a building where George Orwell had lived. Next to it was a CCTV camera! - Ironic photo in an ironic setting. Big Brother is definitely watching.

Ellard concludes with a warning. “…We run the risk of cheapening the real by blurring the distinctions between the precious, unique, fleeting authentic experiences of our lives with convincing, easily duplicated facsimiles. It’s hard not to think that this will take a metaphysical toll on us.” Amen to that. Places of the Heart should stimulate debate about how our cities are shaped and how they shape us.

[Neira · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great reference book about psychogeography in modern day cities.
A thing that stayed with me was the comment about the Holocaust monument in Berlin—that kind of perception, if you know it you know it.

[Alla Komarova · Rating 5 out of 5]

Книжное открытие нумер раз (не в смысле "Вау! Это гениально!", а в смысле "открытие, сделанное после прочтения") - в мире существует профессия "психогеограф".

Нумер два: выражение "умереть от скуки" - отнюдь не фигурально. Цитата:
💬 Участников широкомасштабного опроса, проводившегося в Великобритании с начала 1970-х гг., попросили оценить, насколько скучно им жить и работать. В ходе последующих исследований, завершившихся в 2010 г., было установлено, что респонденты, которые прежде сообщали о своем высоком уровне скуки, чаще умирали до начала второго опроса 💬

Нумер три: если долго жить в окружении архитектуры типичного совка, то через два-три поколения люди станут массово голосовать за Зеленского Потому что убогие типовые совко-трущобы приводят к снижению когнитивных способностей человека.

Отлично написанная книга, где психологии, конечно же, больше, чем архитектуры, и если вы ищете что-то более конструкторское, инженерное или историческое, то "Среда обитания" Колина Элларда однозначно не то, что вам надо. А вот если хочется понять, почему не стоит выбирать себе для дачного домика проект готического храма или банковского хранилища, что бывает, если вокруг только один цвет и ровные стены, а самое главное - как изменится сфера обслуживания, когда архитекторов станут консультировать психологи, вооруженные big data, то это отличный вариант на "почитать".

[B. Rule · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book never delivers. Ellard fills out a lot of pages with various bric-a-brac, from tantalizing summaries of actual psychological studies on architecture or effects of place (few), passages geeking out on the VR rigs in his lab (many), and fatuous speculating on evolutionary psychology and/or the general metaphysics of place (scattered and scatterbrained). I found little insightful here, although it wasn't terrible for all that. He mentions lots of interesting stuff, primarily channeled as non sequiturs, but at least it reminded me of other, better books where I first encountered the ideas. These include references to Gaston Bachelard, the importance of the Black Forest to Heidegger, infant perceptions of aggression, Becker's theories about the terror of death, and Le Corbusier's ideas on city planning. It just never had much to do with how architecture affects our psychology, which is what I thought he was writing about. Oh well.

[Du · Rating 2 out of 5]

This was a struggle. I wanted it to end almost as quickly as it began. That said, I think the timing was my problem. This is a text book and a dry one at that. I should have left it for a reading period other than vacation when I am not looking for text books. I liked most of the topic chapters and found use in each one, but felt that it took too much effort to find that use.

[Brittni · Rating 2 out of 5]

I had higher hopes for this.

It was disorganized, malfocused, and read like the phone book.

There's so much potential in this subject and I think the author missed it.

[Kate Kravchenko · Rating 3 out of 5]

Есть несколько интересных фактов и историй в начале книги, но много мыла наскучивает под конец.

[Gabe Kalmuss-Katz · Rating 1 out of 5]

Specious reasoning lacking any thoughts on the ways race, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, class, or literally any other defining characteristics of individuals impact how they might experience a particular place. Ellard writes this book in unbelievably broad strokes, suggesting shared experiences for all who enter/interact with the arbitrary categories of places he writes about. The universal human whose experience he suggests here is himself, who also happens to be quite a blowhard. I can think of few books in recent that have frustrated me more.

[Derek Henderson · Rating 1 out of 5]

For me there was one interesting idea buried in this book: that we find modern inner-city facades boring because our visual apparatus evolved to find detail (in the form of natural landscapes) stimulating. Otherwise, Ellard is a dreadful writer: he keeps uttering banalities interspersed with dull personal recollection and details of uninteresting studies he carried out or interesting well-known studies that other people carried out, and which have been better reported elsewhere. Cringeworthy.

[Olivia Kapatia · Rating 4 out of 5]

Книга довольно нудная, моментами слишком затянутые описания. Но все же затрагивает некоторые важные темы и заставляет не только задуматься, но и пересмотреть свои ежедневные привычки.

[Rob Christopher · Rating 3 out of 5]

Entertaining, with a lot of food for thought.

[Herve Tunga · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very informative and researched. I learn few unexpected things though did not find what I was looking for. Still a great read.

[Anastasiia Mozghova]

в середине книги было интересно, но в целом, слишком много виртуальной реальности.

[Oleh Dukas · Rating 4 out of 5]

Книга про те як місця, в яких ми перебуваємо, проживаємо, гуляємо, проводимо час впливають на наш емоційний стан, а отже наше фізичне та психічне здоров'я. Наприклад, хворі, які бачать дерева та траву швидше одужують, ніж ті хворі, що бачать асфальт та бетон. Люди, що проживають в більш зеленому середовищі почувають себе щасливішими та захищенішими, а рівень агресії та злочинності тут нижчий. Люди ще з первісних часів некомфортно себе почувають на великих відкритих просторах, що пов'язано з відсутністю місць для укриття, тому вони інстинктивно тримаються країв площ. Якщо розглядати тип природнього ландшафту, який найбільше до вподоби людині, то це виявиться савана, тобто рідколісся із можливістю обзору території. Люди віддають перевагу формам будівель із плавними згинами на відміну від гостроконечних. Люди віддають перевагу у міському просторі різноманіттю, тобто гулятимуть тією вулицею, де насичене вуличне життя, багато маленьких магазинів та інших закладів на відміну від безликих фасадів будинків, монотонних стін торгового центру чи великих парковок. Це пов'язано з тим, що природа людини пов'язана з постійним отриманням інформації та нових вражень. Якщо місця не забезпечують вражень людині, це викликає нудьгу, що супроводжується підвищеним рівнем гормонів стресу. Такі "простори нудьги" характеризуються більшим поширенням у них наркотичної, ігрової чи інших залежностей.
Таким чином розумний підхід до проектування міських вулиць та будівель є питанням громадського здоров'я, а точніше психічного здоров'я населення.

[Marianne · Rating 3 out of 5]

an interesting, if notably optimistic, look at the intersection of architecture, psychology, technological advance, and morality. some parts were notably prescient in regards to the widespread further adoption of then-current technologies, where some seem almost laughably naive in retrospect. where i didn't expect crossover between my usual interests of art and its morality was in the dilemma of the architect presented in its final chapters, the push and pull of artistic sensibility with the moral questions raised by creating something for public consumption in an unusually literal sense. there is, in my view, a slight reluctance in the text to engage with the realities of why people might be willing to sign away permissions for data and the normalization of that that has occurred in the years since the book's release? while i don't mean to discount the problems the book already presents with these issues, they connect with other aspects of the modern world to further entrench themselves in our minds. people don't just want convenience for its own sake, they want convenience because they're exhausted, mentally and emotionally if not physically as well. it's hard to want to make decisions when you've got the stress of just trying to make it day to day in a society that places increasingly little value on the quality or importance of its citizens' lives. still an overall enjoyable read, and it gave me some more books to read so i can learn even more about the subjects it presents.

[Mike · Rating 3 out of 5]

I had mixed feelings about this book. The subject matter was relatively easy to follow along with even though it was pretty technical and had some interesting research and thoughts on the effects of shapes and architectural feature on the mind.

I am both excited and quite apprehensive personally (emotions that I also felt the author conveyed) as to the future of this sort of research. Utilizing technology more and more may actually serve to, as the author points out, lessen the thrill of real interaction with our surroundings. Not to mention that the voluntary collection of data could also turn into the involuntary collection of data (or at best voluntary collection due to real ignorance of privacy agreements). Big Tech continues to push the boundaries of personal privacy and consumerism. They mask their motivation behind a veil of transparency, but then sell the information to the highest corporate bidders yelling "pay no attention to the man behind the curtain". Movies like "The Social Network", "The Circle", and most recently the Netflix Documentary "The Social Dilemma" all warn of the dangers of where this will take us if left unchecked. The novels "Ready Player One" and "Ready Player Two" are becoming not that far fetched, and I think while they portray the ultimate use of virtual reality as a good thing, readers can also get a very real sense of how it will make society disconnected and dependent on a fake world.

[Tiffany · Rating 4 out of 5]

4 1/2 stars. I thought this exploration of psychogeography was very interesting. The author grappled with several topics which fascinate me: psychology, sociology, architecture, home design and decoration (specifically, creating a "hygge" home!) Having recently moved from a nature-filled suburban area to an urban area, I was especially fascinated by the research about the importance of creating/seeking out green spaces in crowded urban places. Just one of the quotes I liked:

"When we are removed from these everyday circumstances and brought into contact with a nature setting—imagine a walk through the woods, for example—we are freed from the need for effortful attention and we are drawn by our fascination with the physical details of our surroundings into a state of effortless, involuntary attention. Our fascination serves to fill the well again so that we may once again enter the fray of civilized life with heightened mood, a relaxed nervous system, and increased ability to focus and attend."

[Telmo Fernandes · Rating 3 out of 5]

Uma área nova para mim (parece que se chama psicogeografia), que reúne contributos da arquitetura, sociologia, psicologia e neurociências (com uns pózinhos de filosofia). Por essa via a leitura despertou o meu interesse do princípio ao fim, especialmente quando o autor abordou as mudanças iniciadas com as novas tecnologias, que estão a alterar (e a mediar) a relação complexa de efeitos que o meio (físico ou virtual) produz na nossa psique, no nosso desenvolvimento cognitivo, e na consciência que temos da nossa corporalidade e da forma como ela se posiciona com os lugares (em última instância, na nossa autoconsciência). Mas não consigo evitar algumas reticências intelectuais em relação aos estudos apresentados para fundamentar as conclusões, nalguns momentos irritantemente precipitadas. É um desconforto que sempre senti em relação à metodologia da psicologia social. Vale pelo desafio.

[Julia · Rating 5 out of 5]

What a fantastic book! The first 2/3rds (peaking with the exhilarating Places of Awe chapter) were insightful, engaging, thought-provoking, and contained some of the most warm descriptions of science and architecture that I've read in some time. The final third - the technology talks - were no less insightful or thought-provoking, but due to my innate aversion to the virtual and distrust of the information harvesting goings-on, my spirit and enthusiasm dropped off. Nonetheless, I highly recommend this book, this author (must be a wonderful professor), and even this field of study (psychogeography! how cool is that?!). I will likely add his earlier book to my bookshelves as well. I'm a fan.

[Mustafa Rushan · Rating 4 out of 5]

DƏRSDƏ müəllim bizə soruşdu:
- BAKUBUS-a minəndə özünüzü necə hiss edirsiniz?
- İnsan olduğumu dərk edirəm!
Bax belə, indi daha yaxşı anlayıram ki, mühit insan idrakına, insan əhval-ruhiyyəsinə nə qədər təsir edirmiş... Aşağıdakı kitabda məhz bu məsələr elmi səviyyədə tədqiq edilir, və mühitin insan davranşına olan təsiri sübut edilir... Maraqlı kitabdır... Lakin yazar sanki bir qədər məsələlərə səthi yanaşıb və ya orta səviyyəli oxucu kütləsini nəzərə alaraq bu üsluba əl atıb... Oxuyandan sonra, istər-sitəməz öz-özümə sual verdim: "Bakı mühitində yaşayan insanların daxili aləmi nə vəziyyətdədir, görəsən?"
Əlimdə olsaydı, tərcümə elətdirib çap edərdim. Bu cür kitablara ehtiyac var!
Ah, ana dilim!

[Courtney · Rating 3 out of 5]

Essentially this is a 200+ page literature review. If you haven't suffered through academic research before that's a fancy word for covering everything that's already written on a particular topic. Special attention is given to Ellard's own work, the work of his students and collaborators. When I heard Ellard give an interview on NPR about the book is when it initially got my interest. And at points it delivered on that interest, but I had to wade through a lot of academic psychology in the process.

[Max Grachev · Rating 4 out of 5]

The way we built cities does affect our emotional and cognitive state. For example, when you're walking through a chaotic urban grid (vs structured grid like that in New York) your brain works harder, resulting in stronger neural networks. Another example: GPS navigation (vs analogue maps) may lead your brain to degrade faster, because you lose a chance to train it in a natural environment, linking visual elements and building up neural connections (again).

The book consists of many findings like this, which makes it an absorbing adventure.

[Elizabeth Maggio-Kotkowska · Rating 3 out of 5]

Some parts were definitely useful especially the chapter about places of anxiety, because it helped demonstrate that people are at higher risk of anxiety related mental health issues in the city and that a big factor is neighbourhood cohesion, making the city feel more familiar and warm. Another interesting this is the idea that people might think they are used to busy city traffic, but their physiological signs might tell another story. I found the rest of the book quite outdated, dry and basic. but im glad to have had a look at it.