Experimental Assessment between Building Regulations and Claustrophobia

Abstract

During the past decades there was a noticeable effervescence characterizing the space-psychology related studies. These studies established a connection between the characteristics of the environment and behavior. Therefore, this paper would like to join this field of research. Consequently, the issue raised would be the role played by architecture in the context of the space-perception discussion. In order to provide a practical answer, the paper debates the results obtained through an experiment which analyzed the interaction between certain characteristics of a 12 m2 room, according to architectural building regulations in Romania, and the variations of anxiety, comfort and safety. This experiment tested certain situations in which the natural adaptation process has been short-circuited, triggering phobic reactions. Thus, the paper focuses on questioning whether Romanian building regulations take into account aspects regarding the psychological comfort of the individuals.

Keywords

• space psychology
• space perception
• claustrophobia
• building regulations