Refuge and Prospect in Taike (隱蔽所和光明地)
The British geographer Jay Appleton has called this place of concealment and protection the refuge. He considers the refuge concept to be of paramount importance. Appleton illustrate the continuing presence of the refuge image in human awareness through numerous instances in poetry and painting. (p.21)
But we must get food and water too, and in safety. We need access to a place where we can hunt and forage,a placethat offers open views over long distances and is brightly lit, both to present a clear image ofthe landscape and t cast information-laden shadows.... This more brightly lit open area of extensive views Appleton has named the Prospect.(p. 22)
Refuge and prospect are opposites: refuge is small and dark; prospect is expansive and bright. It follows they cannot coexist in the same place. They can occur contiguously, however, and must, because we need them both and we need them together. From the refuge we must be able to survey the prospect; from the prospect we must be able to retreat to the refuge. (p.22)
Notes: p. 155 Jay Appleton, The Experience of Landscape, rev. ed. (London; Wiley, 1996). The framework of refuge-prospect duality has been empirically substantiated in recent years. It is also anticipated by others, Darwin himself of course, and other scholars as well.
There seems to be a difference in emphasis between the sexes: women, on the whole, seems to prefer a balance weighted toward refuge, men toward prospect. These preferences have appeared with remarkable consistency in several design studios with fifty-fifty gender distribution at the University of Washington. A similar preference has been found at a Seattle hotel lounge that has unusally clear refuge and prospect alternatives: women typically outnumber men in the interior refuge, while distribution in the interior prospect is usually roughly balanced.