Branded spaces : mental mapping architectural design and experience

In commercial architecture projects, there is often an expectation for architects to integrate qualities intended to evoke defined user responses. This expectation has become increasingly prevalent in today’s world of pervasive branding where all assets are considered to have marketing value. This can be good news for designers by virtue of expanding areas of demand for their advice, but there has been little in the way of examining this field empirically. Architectural theory focuses attention on the role of marketing strategies in the external design of major new buildings and urban spaces rather than on the experience during occupancy of designed spaces. However, the alignment of spatial qualities of workplaces with corporate branding is an explicitly practised strategy. The success of delivering preconceived spatial qualities in new workplaces that are appreciated by users is the subject examined in this thesis. Users’, clients’ and architects’ perspectives are considered by constructing mental maps that capture the structure of their thoughts and feelings about a designed environment. The structural characteristics of these maps are investigated using network analysis due to its ability to address complexity and interconnectedness. Conclusions about the significance of spatial elements are drawn from the pattern of association in the mental maps. The thesis finds that the mental maps representing experience of built environments consist of constructs that fall into four thematic categories. The differences in outcomes between stakeholder groups suggest that a range of spatial qualities important to users go unrecognised by clients and architects. The results from mental mapping suggest that integrating corporate brand values into a design appears to be achievable, and that their successful incorporation would also be a desirable practice from the point of view of the users. The mental maps have a capacity to act as a conduit for all parties involved in spatial design to communicate with one another. By introducing new research methods from outside the standard architecture discipline, new insights into architectural response, perception, and new ways of structuring approaches to design are gained