Human scale
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Human scale is the set of physical qualities, and quantities of information, characterizing the human body, its motor, sensory, or mental capabilities, and human social institutions.
Science vs. human scale
Many of the objects of scientific interest in the universe are much larger than human scale (stars, galaxies) or much smaller than human scale (molecules, atoms, subatomic particles).
Similarly, many time periods studied in science involve time scales much greater than human timescales (
Mathematicians and scientists use very
Human scale measurements, however, are more in the order of:
- one to two metres(3 to 6 ft – human arm's reach, stride, height)
- Attention span: seconds to hours
- Life span: 75 years (mean life expectancy at birth)
- kilograms– most typically, for newborns from about 3–4 kg (7–9 lb) for a human adult their weight range is about 50–100 kg (100–200 lb)
- Force: newtons (e.g. the weight of a human on Earth, on the order of several hundred newtons, or about 100–200 lbf)
- standard atmosphere (average pressure on Earth at sea level, approximately 100 kPaor 30 inHg)
- Temperature: around 300 K (27 °C; 80 °F) (room temperature); 250 to 320 K (−20 to 50 °C; −10 to 120 °F) (normal range of temperatures in most inhabited regions of Earth)
- MJ(2,400 kcal) per day
Human scale in architecture
Humans interact with their environments based on their physical dimensions, capabilities and limits. The field of
Humans also interact with their environments based on their sensory capabilities. The fields of human perception systems, like perceptual psychology and cognitive psychology, are not exact sciences, because human information processing is not a purely physical act, and because perception is affected by cultural factors, personal preferences, experiences, and expectations. So human scale in architecture can also describe buildings with sightlines, acoustic properties, task lighting, ambient lighting, and spatial grammar that fit well with human senses. However, one important caveat is that human perceptions are always going to be less predictable and less measurable than physical dimensions.
Human scale in architecture is deliberately violated:
- for monumental effect. Buildings, statues, and memorials are constructed in a scale larger than life as a social/cultural signal that the subject matter is also larger than life. One example is the Rodina (Motherland) statue in Volgograd.
- for aesthetic effect. Many architects, particularly in the Mies van der Rohe's Neue Nationalgalerie in Berlin.
- to serve automotive scale. Commercial buildings that are designed to be legible from roadways assume a radically different shape. The human eye can distinguish about 3 objects or features per second.[Wilshire Boulevardin Los Angeles in 1920.
Common sense and human scale
"Common sense" ideas tend to relate to events within human experience, and thus commensurate with these scales. There is thus no commonsense intuition of, for example, interstellar distances or speeds approaching the speed of light.
See also
- Anthropic principle
- Anthropic units
- Anthropometrics
- Ergonomics
- Leopold Kohr
- List of human-based units of measure
- Scales of measurement
- Small Is Beautiful
- Standard temperature and pressure
- Urban vitality
- Walkability