Behavioral Setting

Tom Markus, in his masterful study of the way buildings relate to systems of power and domination, has used this form of analysis most persuasively (Markus 1993). When we consider the question of surveillance and supervision, such geometry is likely to be quite critical in determining the success or otherwise of a spatial organization. Markus shows that prisons and hospitals have mostly been designed with a topology that centralizes control and facilitates supervision. In fact, the so-called Nightingale hospital ward was first suggested by Florence Nightingale entirely from the nurse's perspective (Nightingale 1860) - such layouts make it easy to see all the patients from a single nurse's station, thus minimizing effort...It does seem quite likely that this very simple idea of the topology of space has a strong impact on the synomorphy - how the physical and social structures are in harmony - of spaces in which such social arrangements are of prime importance.
- The Language of Space, Bryan Lawson p. 241