The International Association of People-Environment Studies (IAPS), has been promoting the interdisciplinary exchange of ideas between planning and social scientists for 35 years – above all between spatial planning, architecture, psychology, and sociology. IAPS was officially founded in 1981, although its origins can be traced back to a series of successful conferences in several European countries from 1969 to 1979.
The objectives of IAPS are:
- To facilitate communication among those concerned with the relationships between people and their physical environment
- To stimulate research and innovation for improving human well-being and the physical environment
- To promote the integration of research, education, policy and practice
People-environment studies, originating from environmental psychology (Lewin, Barker, Brunswik), have always tried to close the "mind gaps" between natural sciences, engineering, arts, and social sciences by an epistemological approach that encompasses denotations (objects and techniques) as well as connotations (subjective social, cultural meanings).
Membership
Benefits of membership include:
- The right to vote and stand for membership of the Board
- Reduced fees for attending conferences and seminars
- Free copies of the IAPS newsletter. This contains research summaries, articles, reviews, letters, lists of references, and general news of the research field
- The right to be listed in and receive a copy of the Directory of IAPS members
- Reduced subscription rates for specified journals
List of conferences
The biannual conference is the main event organised under auspices of the association. In the past years, the following conferences have been organised:
| Place, Country | Year | Conference | Theme |
|---|---|---|---|
| Dalandhui, UK | 1969 | AP1 | Architectural Psychology |
| Kingston, UK | 1970 | AP2 | Architectural Psychology |
| Lund, Sweden | 1973 | AP3 | Architectural Psychology |
| Surrey, UK | 1973 | AP4 | Psychology and the Built Environment |
| Sheffield, UK | 1975 | AP5 | Architectural Psychology |
| Strasbourg, France | 1976 | AP6 | Space Appropriation |
| Louvain La Neuve, Belgium | 1979 | IAPC 7 | Conflicting Experiences of Space |
| Surrey, UK | 1979 | IAPC 7 | Conflict and Narcissism |
| Barcelona, Spain | 1982 | IAPS 7 | Home-Environment. Man-Environment: Qualitative Aspects |
| Berlin, Germany | 1984 | IAPS 8 | Perspectives on Environment and Action |
| Haifa, Israel | 1986 | IAPS 9 | Environments in Transition |
| Delft, Netherlands | 1988 | IAPS 10 | Looking Back to the Future |
| Ankara, Turkey | 1990 | IAPS 11 | Culture-Space-History |
| Halkidiki, Greece | 1992 | IAPS 12 | Socio-environmental Metamorphoses |
| Manchester, UK | 1994 | IAPS 13 | The Urban Experiences |
| Stockholm, Sweden | 1996 | IAPS 14 | Evolving Environmental Ideals – Ways of Life, Values, Design Practices |
| Eindhoven, Netherlands | 1998 | IAPS 15 | Shifting Balances – Changing Roles In Policy, Research and Design |
| Paris, France | 2000 | IAPS 16 | Metropolis: Cities, Social Life and Sustainable Development |
| A Coruña, Spain | 2002 | IAPS 17 | Culture, Quality of Life and Globalization – Problems and Challenges for the New Millennium |
| Vienna, Austria | 2004 | IAPS 18 Archived 2007-09-10 at the Wayback Machine | Evaluation in Progress – Strategies for Environmental Research and Implementation |
| Alexandria, Egypt | 2006 | IAPS 19 | Environment, Health and Sustainable Development |
| Rome, Italy | 2008 | IAPS 20 | Urban diversities, Biosphere and Well-being |
| Leipzig, Germany | 2010 | IAPS 21 | Vulnerability, Risk and Complexity: Impacts of global Change on Human Habitats |
| Glasgow, UK | 2012 | IAPS 22 Archived 2011-11-09 at the Wayback Machine | Human experience in the natural and built environment: implications for research, policy and practice |
| Timișoara, Romania | 2014 | IAPS 23 Archived 2014-07-14 at the Wayback Machine | Transitions to sustainable societies: Designing research and policies for changing lifestyles and communities |
| Lund, Sweden | 2016 | IAPS 24 | The human being at home, work and leisure. Sustainable use and development of indoor and outdoor spaces in late modern everyday life |
Post conference publications
- People, Places, and Sustainability (2002) Editors: Moser, G. / Pol, E. / Bernard, Y. / Bonnes, M. / Corraliza, J.A. / Giuliani, V.
- Culture, Quality of Life and Globalization – Problems and Challenges for the New Millennium (2003) Editors: García Mira, R. / Sabucedo Cameselle, J.M. / Martínez, J.R.
- Designing Social Innovation - Planning, Building, Evaluating (2005) Editors: Martens, B. / Keul, A.G.
- Environment, Health, and Sustainable Development Archived 2010-12-26 at the Wayback Machine (2010) Editors: Abdel-Hadi, A. / Tolba, M.K. / Soliman, S.
IAPS Digital Library
A database of all 4,400 abstracts from conferences since 1969, which permits a full-text search through the history of environmental psychology.
Notable people
- Perla Serfaty, inducted into the IAPS Hall of Fame in 2018
References
- "Hall of fame". IAPS Association (in French). Retrieved 27 April 2023.