Beyond Buildings

Book excerpt: Beyond Buildings: Designed Spaces as Visual Persuasion is an assessment of the visual persuasiveness of designed spaces. It demonstrates that these spaces are as socially influential as speeches or advertisements are, and that an awareness of this influence provides an insight into the cultural roles of designed spaces. The book considers a diverse array of spaces ranging from pleasure gardens and parks to city parks and cities themselves, and includes assessments of the visual impact of national parks, zoological gardens, amusement parks, battlefields and monuments, and the interior spaces of buildings. Beyond Buildings is an extension of theories of persuasion and visual communication to landscape architecture and interior design. The book bases its assessments on the elements of visual literacy, as well as the elements of landscape and interior design to show that such designed spaces as gardens, parks, battlefields, and cities affect the viewer in such a way as to have social impact.