Investigating the Application of the Concept of  Affordance in the Design and Evaluation of the Built Environment

There are numerous concepts in the field of environmental psychology that deal with the interaction of the structure of the environment and human behavior. One of the most applicable concepts to the design of environments is the concept of “affordance” which originates from ecological psychology and has been widely used in various design disciplines, i.e., industrial design and product semantics. In architecture, however, the concept is not yet clear or explicit as regards how to be applied to the different phases of architectural design (planning, design, post-occupancy evaluation…). The successful application of affordances in other design fields hints that by defining and adjusting the relationship between designers, users, and built environments, the concept could help increase the efficiency and success of architectural projects. The theoretical background of the concept of affordance along with other key concepts in ecological psychology and architectural design, such as niche, form and function, and agency, are discussed in this paper. The research uses an inductive analysis method to develop a conceptual framework. It is evident that further research is proposed for a more precise application of affordances through the different phases of architectural design.