ABSTRACT
Proxemics is usually of interest to architects and designers because it emphasizes the concept that spatial distance is a "silent language" through which men unwittingly convey attitudes, feelings, and judgments about their fellows. Proxemics represents one of several such out-of-awareness systems which fall within the general rubric of paracommunication. For the American non-contact group, and possibly for others as well, four distance sets seem to encompass most, if not all, behavior in which more than one person is involved. These are referred to as intimate, casual-personal, social-consultative and public. Each distance set is characterized by a close and a far phase. Vocalization at intimate distances plays a very minor part in the communications process, which is carried mainly by other channels. The boundary line between the far phase of the casual-personal distance and the close phase of social-consultative distance marks, in the words of one subject, "the limit of domination.".
