ABSTRACT
Architecture-related research into man-environment relations has produced by a considerable wealth of valuable data and facts covering many aspects of human behavior in manmade settings, the explicit programmatic articulation of the results of this research for actual everyday design practice. Speculative builders and developers will sometimes use social science input for commercial marketing surveys, mainly to determine sales "targets" and to promote their products. The SAR methodology is interested in floor plans only as potential solutions to a generic situation and as possible candidates for inclusion in the overall "support" system. Christopher Alexander tries to include the user by offering him or her "patterns". These patterns are linked by a hierarchically ordered tree of "relationships"that is, networks of behavior and activity. This aspect of the SAR methodology is crucial: its ability to define the general boundaries of a given specific dwelling context, while at the same time provide specific options in the context of general agreements among users and decisionmakers.
