Subjective space needs in the built environment RobinsWilliam J. 2018 Various references have been made in technical and popular literature to the idea that individuals regulate their external contacts with their surroundings by maintaining around themselves the intactness of a sensory–spatial ‘bubble’. This account investigates the elusive properties of the human demand for subjective space as arising from territorial considerations, from perceptual influences, and from regard for protection of the self-image. It is suggested that certain subjective space needs are manifest in highly structured security patterns of spatial observances. The validity of the suggestion is supported by descriptions of tests in which walking observers were confronted with stationary obstacles to their forward progress.