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A Post-Jury EvaluationThe Ohio State University Design Competition for a Center for the Visual Arts
Abstract
Given the increasing use of architectural competitions to select an architect for public projects, this paper argues that Preand Post-Jury Evaluations (PJEs) are needed to monitor and improve competition results. For demonstration purposes, we conducted a Post-Jury Evaluation of the Ohio State University Competition for a Center for the Visual Arts. Using the criteria stated by the jury for their selection of the winner, we assessed public responses to the entries. The public ranked the winning entry as third or fourth out of five. The results confirm potential problems in the reliance on architectural experts to judge public reactions, and they demonstrate the need for further study of the jury process.
... To determine the common factors in evaluating the image of street trees, we adopted visual property variables representing perceptual and cognitive meaning and affective properties variables representing affective meaning. We sampled variables for visual property from the research of Lynch [44], Nasar [46], Russell and Lanius [47], Nasar and Kang [48], Russell and Snodgrass [42], Hanyu [40,45], Ataov [49], Herzog and Miller [50], and Peron et al. [51]. We selected six visual property variables, including simple-complex [40,42,45,46,49], covered-exposed [40,44,46,50], closed-open [40,45,46,48], common-unique [40,42,45,46,49,51], low nuisance-high nuisance [40,45,46], and unfamiliar-familiar [40,45,47,51]. ...
... We sampled variables for visual property from the research of Lynch [44], Nasar [46], Russell and Lanius [47], Nasar and Kang [48], Russell and Snodgrass [42], Hanyu [40,45], Ataov [49], Herzog and Miller [50], and Peron et al. [51]. We selected six visual property variables, including simple-complex [40,42,45,46,49], covered-exposed [40,44,46,50], closed-open [40,45,46,48], common-unique [40,42,45,46,49,51], low nuisance-high nuisance [40,45,46], and unfamiliar-familiar [40,45,47,51]. We excluded those variables with low relevance to street trees, such as legibility, coherence, naturalness and vehicles. ...
... Since people can express differently about the feeling of a same object, SD can adopt similar adjectives. Affective property variables were sampled from the research of Abelson and Sermat [53], Nasar [46], Russell [54], Russell and Pratt [41], Nasar and Kang [48], Russell and Snodgrass [42], Hanyu [40,45,55], and Russell and Mehrabian [56]. We selected nine affective property variables, including pleasant-unpleasant [40,41,45,48,[53][54][55][56], exciting-boring [40][41][42]45,48,54,55], relaxing-distressing [40][41][42]45,48,55], fearful-safe [40,45,54], interesting-uninteresting [40,45], beautiful-ugly [41,55], good-bad [55], likable-dislikable [46], and cold-warm. ...
Street tree species are selected mainly based on functional utility. This selection practice results in effective management. If the value of street trees as perceived by citizens is added to the existing selection criteria, satisfaction will be improved in addition to effective management. This study attempted to find a way to reflect citizens’ values in street tree selection criteria through empirical analysis. A preference survey and the visual and affective evaluation of 12 street tree species in Busan Metropolitan City were conducted. With the collected data, principal component analysis (PCA) was performed to draw common factors of evaluation. Additionally, multidimensional scaling (MDS) was used to group tree species that were considered similar. The study results revealed that citizens prefer species that provide visually positive feelings and intimacy. Some species appropriate for urban greenspaces are not preferred for street trees. Although a low level of nuisance is an important aspect of street trees, citizens do not prefer species that are excessively free from nuisance. When selecting species with a polarized preference, dealing with undesired aspects is required. It is necessary to acknowledge the different preferences of citizens and street tree authorities; reflecting citizens’ values can provide more citizen-friendly street plans.
... Actually, research seems to indicate quite the opposite; numerous studies demonstrate that public opinion seems to be quite consistent in terms of questions of visual preference (e.g Yi 1992, 78 theoretIcal framework • aesthetics theoretIcal framework • aesthetics 79 Stamps, Nasar 1997, Strumse 1996, Nasar, Kang 1999, Nasar 1983, Berlyne, Robbins & Thompson 1974, Valentine 1962p. 169-180, Roberts 2007 (Cattaneo et al. 2015), design competition entries (Nasar, Kang 1989), urban street scenes (e.g. Nasar 1988d), natural scenes (e.g. ...
... Several studies indicate a preference on the part of the general public for traditional architectural styles over contemporary ones " to complexity than to the mere age of the buildings, providing some support for the assumption that preference for traditional buildings might be associated with stylistic characteristics rather than mere "oldness" of buildings as such. Gifford et al. 2000, Ghomeshi, Jusan 2013, Akalin et al. 2009, Nasar, Kang 1989, Kaplan 1988a, p.53, Devlin, Nasar 1989). "One way or another, it is now well established that design professionals in general, and architects in particular, hold a different system of constructs through which they understand and evaluate the environment" (Wilson 1996 p.33). ...
... For example in one study (Nasar, Kang 1989) an architectural competition entry chosen as the best by a jury composed of architects was found among the least liked by the public. ...
Both everyday experience and scientific knowledge have demonstrated the great power of the environment to influence not only our emotions and behaviour but also our well-being and health. There is also reason to believe that intuitive preference exerts a significant influence on choice of apartment. Environmental preferences have been studied widely in both natural and urban contexts as well as in the context of external building styles. However, considering the amount of time that people spend inside buildings, including homes, systematic research on visual preferences for architectural interiors seems to be surprisingly negligible. Therefore, studying architectural characteristics that increase visual preference for apartment interiors has to be considered relevant from the perspective of both the well-being and health of people, and also that of enhancing the quality of apartment stock.
The primary aim of this thesis was to study architectural characteristics that increase the experience of the visual appeal, or pleasantness, of apartment interiors. I have striven to achieve this aim, first by exploring the literature for attributes that may influence visual preference. Based on these findings, I defined several variables that I considered possibly predictive of visual preference for apartment interiors. Finally, the influence of these variables on visual preference for apartment interiors was studied experimentally.
As previous research is scarce on architectural characteristics and their influence on preference in the context of apartment interiors, I ended up searching for characteristics through a broad, interdisciplinary theoretical framework. Two concepts - visual complexity and order - were found to emerge repeatedly from this theoretical framework. In the field of aesthetics, a great number of both theoretical and experimental studies lend support to the assumption that visual aesthetic preference would in one way or another be related to visual complexity and order. Similar results have been obtained in the field of environmental psychology, mainly in the context of outdoor environments; visual elements that promote both exploration and comprehensibility of the environment have been found to increase environmental preference. Besides, several architectural characteristics that can be seen to relate to visual complexity and order are typical of traditional architectural styles, and classical architectural theories emphasize their role in the context of building aesthetics. However, it seems that these concepts have received only minor attention in present-day architectural discourse, research and theory.
Based on the literature, a broad set of architectural variables that were considered to potentially explain visual complexity, order and preference of apartment scenes, was created for use in the experimental part of this thesis. Additionally, a total of forty-three test images - where the architectural variables in question obtained different values - were created for this purpose. In the experiment, 107 medical students, who acted as test subjects, evaluated the images according to their interestingness - the term used in this thesis to describe the level of interest they aroused - (an operationalized measure for complexity), spatial organization (an operationalized measure for order) and pleasantness (an operationalized measure for appeal or preference). The relationships between these evaluations and the architectural variables were then analysed by using regression analysis, by comparing the similarities and differences in the evaluations of four subgroups (males, females, participants with prior artistic training and participants without prior art training) and by visually analysing the images and their ratings. In addition, the different affective qualities that might be related to different architectural characteristics were assessed by using the Circumplex model for affective quality attributed to environments created by Russell, Ward and Pratt (1981).
The most important and the most reliable result of this thesis can be considered to be that the ratings for interestingness and spatial organization of apartment interiors were found to predict the ratings for pleasantness. The same finding was perceived within the whole group as well as within each of the four subgroups. This study thus lends support to the finding that has emerged in research from other disciplines: the environment should be both complex and ordered at the same time in order to be pleasant. In addition, certain physical architectural characteristics were found that predicted the majority of variance of the ratings for interestingness (83%) and spatial organization (87.6%). For instance, the total number of outward directions from the room, the amount of detail (the number of black pixels in the binary image) and the surface area of the windows were found to increase the ratings for interestingness in the regression model of the whole group and in that of at least three subgroups. In the same way, the bilateral symmetry of the room was found to increase and the number of aligned element lines to decrease the ratings for spatial organization. Together with the ratings for interestingness and spatial organization, the use of classical proportions and verticality were found to predict the majority (76.6%) of variance in the ratings for pleasantness. However, creating and defining the architectural variables used in this study was challenging, within certain characteristics in particular, and therefore the results concerning these can only be regarded as preliminary. Studying the phenomena perceived in this study further with both different subject groups and architectural variables provides interesting and important research topics for future studies.
... Despite subjective characteristics of aesthetic judgments, empirical research into an understanding of potential factors affecting people's aesthetic evaluations clearly has major importance to designers, architects, planners and public. Among the broad range of issues that can be studied about environmental aesthetics, many studies have been devoted to the similarities and differences in aesthetic preferences of design professionals and 'lay' people (Brown & Gifford, 2001; Cubukcu & Akgul, 2007a; 2007b; Devlin 1990; Devlin & Nasar, 1989; Duffy et al., 1986; Gifford et al., 2000; Groat, 1982; Groat & Canter, 1979; Hershberger & Cass, 1974; Hubbard, 1996; Leff & Deutsch, 1973; Nasar, 1989; Nasar & Kang, 1989; 1999; Purcell, 1986; 1995; Purcell et al. 1998; Stamps, 1991; 1993; Vischer & Marcus, 1986; Wilson, 1996; Wilson & Canter, 1990). Although limited number of these studies found that design professionals and lay people share some meanings about the physical environment (e.g. ...
... For example, Hubbard (1996) focused on high-tech, vernacular, and postmodern commercial buildings, Wilson (1996) focused on modern, postmodern, high-tech, and neovernacular buildings, Nasar (1989) focused on Farm, Colonial, Salt box, Contemporary, Mediterranean, and Tudor style houses, and Nasar and Kang (1999) focused on house exteriors representing 15 architectural styles including Garrison Colonial, Farm, Greek Revival, Georgian, Spanish, French, Itallianete, Tudor, Post Modern. Furthermore, some other studies categorized buildings into two classes; 'high' and 'popular' architectural styles (Devlin & Nasar, 1989; Nasar, 1989; Nasar & Kang, 1989; Purcell, 1995; Purcell et al. 1998; Stamps & Nasar, 1997). Buildings that were less typical, likely to be published in architectural magazines, and had more concrete surfaces, more flat roofs, more off centered windows and entrances were defined as 'high style buildings.' ...
... Future studies may compare high and popular style examples. Although a number of studies found a significant interaction effect of major (design education) and architectural style on preference judgments (Devlin & Nasar, 1989; Hubbard, 1996; Nasar, 1989; Nasar & Kang, 1989; 1999; Purcell, 1995; Purcell et al. 1998; Stamps & Nasar, 1997; Wilson, 1996), this study failed to find such an effect. Two explanations are plausible. ...
Perceived quality of building exteriors has been an important research area in the field of environmental psychology since the 1960's. Although a voluminous number of studies have analyzed the influence of personal factors and architectural style on building exterior evaluations, previous studies have overlooked the physical environmental features. This study examined the effects of (1) participants' major, (2) buildings' architectural style, and (3) physical environmental factors (roof type, window size, amount of open space, and level of complexity) on aesthetic evaluations of building exteriors. Twenty planning students, twenty architecture students, and twenty students from general university population evaluated the photographs of 18 high style modern and postmodern houses. Results showed that physical environmental factors including roof type, window size, amount of open space, the level of complexity have a stronger effect compared to participant's major. Informed by research, which objectively evaluates the effect of physical features on preference judgments of building exteriors, designers could improve the physical quality of neighborhoods and design better environments.
... Studies show that people have the same conclusion about location (Rapoport, 1977: 65-80). They can use their inferences about the context to express their preferences about the validity, social status, or level (Cherulnik & Wilderman, 1986;Duncan 1973;Nasar, 1989) character or identity (Rapoport, 1993), neighborhood intimacy, proportion to an area and lifeable (Nasar & Kang, 1989), its security (Nasar & Jones, 1997), privacy, territory and potential for robbery and crimeability (Brown & Altman 1983;Newman, 1972). Those meanings may affect the reactions and sensational behaviors in relation to a location. ...
... Studies show that people have the same conclusion about location (Rapoport, 1977: 65-80). They can use their inferences about the context to express their preferences about the validity, social status, or level (Cherulnik & Wilderman, 1986;Duncan 1973;Nasar, 1989) character or identity (Rapoport, 1993), neighborhood intimacy, proportion to an area and lifeable (Nasar & Kang, 1989), its security (Nasar & Jones, 1997), privacy, territory and potential for robbery and crimeability (Brown & Altman 1983;Newman, 1972). Those meanings may affect the reactions and sensational behaviors in relation to a location. ...
... The architectural style (traditional vs. modern buildings) and the profession of the observer (architects vs. the other professionals) could have a signiicant inluence on diferences of response. High levels of complexity seem to be accepted beter by architects than by the general public, in special for modern architectural styles [25,[30][31][32]. Traditional architectural styles achieved a beter acceptation of complex paterns among the general public [33][34][35][36]. ...
... After centuries, these buildings have kept esthetically readable and recognizable, and represent often by themselves the identity of a culture. Examples of this style in the European seting are found from the ancient Roman world until present [3,31]. Partial stone claddings and wooden timbers are currently arranged into the façades just for decoration purposes. ...
... However, according to the results of some studies, the evaluations of the jury members may be quite different from those of the users. The winner of Ohio State University's Visual Arts Center competition finished in fourth place after a re-evaluation by users (Nasar and Kang 1989). Marans and Spreckelmeyer (1982) found a discrepancy between the evaluations of users and professionals regarding the aesthetic features of a government building. ...
... However, user satisfaction levels for this settlement were found to be quite low (Rapoport 2004;Sherwood 2002). There are examples of other construction projects that led to similar results that is, despite being chosen by the competition juries, they were not given high satisfaction rates by the users (Marans and Spreckelmeyer 1982;Nasar and Kang 1989). ...
Traditional living spaces contain climatic and cultural elements that may be used in the design of future living spaces. The sustainable characteristics that have been developed by trial and error for hundreds of years can be reinterpreted in contemporary architecture according to modern conditions. In this study, user satisfaction levels have been examined in the new living spaces in Sanliurfa, a city located in southeastern Turkey. The design of the mass housing settlement examined within the scope of this study was inspired by traditional living spaces. It has been shown that, contrary to expectations, the similarities between the modern and traditional living spaces are not always accepted by today’s users. In this study, users reflected that they would be more satisfied if there were some changes in the design of their houses terms of spatial organization. They also raised some concerns about the setting and characteristics of the settlement.
... 92 5 13 16 2 12 (Groat, 1989) .97 97 1 3 25 2 13 (Devlin & Nasar, 1989) -.27 40 1 2 40 3 14 (Nasar & Kang, 1989) .55 65 1 7 10 5 3 15 (Nasar, 1989) .91 285 1 2 6 3 16 (Pennartz & Elsinga, 1990) .66 ...
... 11 -1 -1 -1 10 (Kocher, 1988) .75 31 1 -1 -1 11 (Groves & Thorne, 1988) .85 16 1 -1 -1 12 (Groat, 1989) .97 25 1 -1 -1 13 (Devlin & Nasar, 1989) -.27 40 1 -1 -1 14 (Nasar & Kang, 1989) .55 5 -1 1 -1 15 (Nasar, 1989) .91 6 -1 -1 -1 16 (Pennartz & Elsinga, 1990) .66 16 1 -1 -1 17 (Hubbard, 1994) .66 15 1 -1 -1 18 (Rodriguez, 1995) -.62 40 1 -1 -1 19 (Kaplan & Herbert, 1989) .84 ...
As design review and multicultural constituencies become more and more prevalent, planners will have increasing needs to make aesthetic decisions that may be contingent on social or cultural factors. Accordingly, it would be useful for planners to have access to the body of empirical literature that has been published on the demographic effects in environmental aesthetics. A literature review found 107 relevant references. These references covered more than 19,000 respondents and 3,281 environmental scenes. Overall, the correlation of preferences between different demographic groups was r = .82. Correlations are also reported for the following factors: multiculturalism, designers and other people, students and other people, children and adults, gender, and special interest groups. Correlations were very high except for children, designers and others for avant-garde architecture, and special interest groups.
... Most of the literature on A & UD competitions focuses on the diversity of entries and jury deliberations [5,31] or discusses the competitions' aims and challenges historically [11,12], assessing the impact on the profession [5,14]. However, the perspectives of clients and future users are often overlooked [32,33]. ...
The focus of this study is to integrate the DEX (Decision EXpert) decision-modeling method in architectural and urban design (A & UD) competitions. This study aims to assess the effectiveness of integrating the DEX (Decision EXpert) decision-modeling method into the evaluation process of A & UD competitions to enhance decision-making transparency, objectivity, and efficiency. By using symbolic values in decision models, the approach offers a more user-friendly alternative to the conventional jury decision-making process. The practical application of the DEX method is demonstrated in the Rhinoceros 3D environment to show its effectiveness in evaluating A & UD competition project solutions related to the development of the smart city. The results indicate that the DEX method, with its hierarchical and symbolic values, significantly improves the simplicity of the evaluation process in A & UD competitions, aligning it with the objectives of the smart cities. This method provides an efficient, accessible, and viable alternative to other multi-criteria decision-making approaches. This study importantly contributes to the field of architectural decision making by merging qualitative multi-criteria decision models into the CAD environment, thus supporting more informed, objective, and transparent decision-making processes in the planning and development of smart cities.
... Studies have been conducted on environmental aesthetics to explain people's landscape preferences using various parameters. Proposed parameters include naturalness (Kaplan & Kaplan, 1989), vehicles (Nasar, 1987), traditional characteristics (Arriaza, Cañas-Ortega, Cañas-Madueño, & Ruiz-Aviles, 2004), legibility (Herzog, 1992), openness (Appleton, 1996), complexity and coherence (Herzog, 1992;Kuper, 2017), brightness (Flynn, 1988), evaluation (Nasar, 1987), excitement, relaxation, activity (Nasar & Kang, 1989), and fear (Appleton, 1996). Hanyu (2000) conducted a study in which participants were asked to rate the extent to which images of residential areas contained these characteristics to determine the interrelationships between visual elements and affective appraisals. ...
This study aimed to develop a methodology for applying the framework of landscape value, which has been used to evaluate natural landscapes on a large scale, to the evaluations of the micro-scale urban places. First, the typology of landscape values that could be applied to urban areas was established based on the literature review of previous studies. Next, an online questionnaire survey was conducted, in which a total of 1,730 residents of the Tokyo metropolitan area were presented with the street-level images and asked to rate their overall impressions of places and the 18 types of landscape values. The results revealed: (1) the degree of correlation with the overall impression of an urban place depends on the type of landscape value, (2) it is sometimes difficult to distinguish between the types of values in the evaluation of urban landscapes despite their mutual exclusiveness verified in natural landscapes, (3) eight types of values are rated significantly higher when the participants are familiar with the place, and (4) gender and age affect the evaluations of landscape values. The correlation coefficients with the overall impression of the place are more significant for women than men for all types of values. The associations between landscape values and the favorable impressions of places are stronger for the older generations. A limitation of this study is the geographic scope of the survey limited to Tokyo, Japan. The verification of the differences in the types and natures of place values among countries is a future issue.
... Izkušnje in interesi naročnikov in njihovih strank kot prihodnjih uporabnikov stavb in prostorov so običajno zanemarjeni (Nasar, 1999;Nasar in Kang, 1989). Natečaji niso namenjeni samo za to, da se izbere najboljša ideja za rešitev prostorskega problema (Spreiregen 1979), temveč se s tem posledično izbere tudi tisti, ki bo to izvedel. ...
Decision making in architectural and urban design is a process of selecting the alternative
solution to the spatial problem that best meets the set goals and requirements. The spatial
planning process is based on the creation of a set of solutions that are sorted, analysed
and finally selected, discarded or evaluated in the process and ranked in relation to other
solutions. The planning process is based on both the physical simulation of the space
- drawings and models - and the digital (computer) simulation of the abstract model.
The research objective is to present the possibility of using multicriteria evaluation
models in the selection of spatial solutions, to implement (realise) the model in Rhino
6 environment, to test the model on the example of current architectural competition
and to test and compare six methods of multicriteria evaluation for proposed spatial
solutions; analysis of advantages and disadvantages, PMI method, Abacon method,
K-T method, MAUT method and DEX methodology. To test the hypothesis and research
questions, documentation was selected from a closed, public, project-based, open,
anonymous, single-stage architectural competition. The selected solutions were
evaluated using the six methods. For the first three selected multicriteria methods,
we can state that they are very subjective, not too precise and as such unsuitable for
evaluating solutions to the spatial problem. The K-T and MAUT methods are both more
objective and more suitable for evaluation in the design process in different cases. The
DEX method is representative of multi-criteria methods that use symbolic parameters
in evaluation. According to the defined criteria, the MAUT method of multicriteria decision
making has proved to be the best or most useful method among the analysed methods.
... Many types of research about experimental aesthetics have been conducted to investigate various aspects of buildings and cities to ensure user satisfaction Sánchez-Pantoja, Vidal and Pastor (2018), Amer and Attia (2019) (Stanislav and Chin, 2019). Although the literature includes many studies examining the different views and perceptions of architects and laypersons (Hershberger, 1969(Hershberger, , 1988Canter, 1969;Kaplan, 1974;İmamoglu, 1979;Groat, 1982;Devlin and Nasar, 1989;Erdogan et al., 2010a;Erdogan et al., 2010b;Nasar and Kang, 1989;Devlin, 1990;Nasar and Purcell, 1990;Purcell, 1995;Hubbard, 1996;Purcell et al., 1998;Imamoglu, 2000;Gifford et al., 2000;Gifford et al., 2002;Brown and Gifford, 2001;Fawcett et al., 2008), only a limited number of studies have indicated there to be similar views between these two groups (Kunawong, 1986;Kuller, 1973;Özbudak et al., 2015). A number of studies have evaluated whether the meanings imposed by the architects and laypersons on to buildings matched with the names assigned to buildings and have assessed the spatial elements, regulations and power factors of various buildings (Hersberger 1969(Hersberger , 1988. ...
Purpose
This study focuses on the subject of environmental aesthetics and aims to identify the differences and similarities that emerge in the general aesthetic evaluations toward the individual style, particularly examining the physical and connotative meanings in the buildings by Zaha Hadid. The study further seeks to understand how individual style fosters aesthetic awareness or common perceptions on a universal level without causing a cultural difference.
Design/Methodology/Approach
A survey was conducted to understand the visual aesthetic evaluations of architects and laypersons over 16 buildings of Hadid—an architect who managed to develop her own individual style. The visual images created were evaluated in terms of sensorial and physical concepts in order to understand whether there was a common language by evaluating the aesthetic perceptions of subjects with different backgrounds, and to reveal the effect of individual style in forming a universal tongue. Descriptive statics, correlation analysis and independent t test were performed to conduct the evaluations.
Findings
According to analysis results, the rhythm and organic lines of a building are the most significant elements for building façades and masses in aesthetic evaluations. In addition, no significant differences regarding the dimensions of “liking”, “ornate”, “attractive”, “meaningful” and “warm” were found between the groups.
Research Limitations/Implications
The survey was conducted between two different subject groups; architects and laypersons. Specific parameters related to the sensorial concepts of the buildings were used. These parameters included the concepts of liking, pleasant, complex, familiar, meaningful, ornate and warm, while for the physical characteristics of the buildings, the concepts of regular/ irregular, full/ empty, rhythmic/ arrhythmic, soft/ hard, meaningful/ meaningless and symmetric/asymmetric were used.
Originality/Value
This study is significant insofar as it is among the rare research studies that found there to be no differences between architects and laypersons but rather, similarities between them.
... Systematic study of the jury decision revealed a different story. The public viewed the design as unsafe, rating it as distressing, unpleasant, and inaccessible (Nasar and Kang, 1989). Figure 1 shows a site plan of Wexner. ...
"Banking on design" is only possible in terms of a particular belief system, widely shared by designers and non-designers. This belief system divides the world into two realms. Creative thinking and art belong in one. Pragmatics and scientific knowledge belong in the other. The division is both psychological and sociological. This is an ideology in the sense that it has no empirical basis but serves to legitimate and maintain the status quo. It is a serious impediment to the application of research and should be abandoned. An alternative, unified view of designing is sketched.
... In addition, current literatures have indicated obvious differences of aesthetics evaluation and preferences between professional designers, such as architects and ordinary people. (Devlin & Nasar, 1989;Duffy, 1986;Gifford, et al., 2000;Groat, 1982;Nasar, 1989Nasar, , 1997Nasar & Kang, 1989) To better understand the possible differences caused by professional education, respondents are divided into interior design majors and non interior design majors, gather research data via self-developed questionnaires, then proceed analysis and comparison. ...
Beautiful objects and things are welcome by everyone; beautiful view and scenes are attractive. How can interior design works be attractive? This is one of the most important issues of the field. What aesthetic attributes or features of an interior design work should possess to arouse aesthetic response? What visual components compose these aesthetic features? How to decide the order of each visual component and the composition of all visual components in the design process to reach the best effect? All of these are important key issues, and they have not yet been deeply and systematically studied in the world. Information entropy and Multidimensional scaling are two research approaches usually applied by other fields. The information entropy approach applies the “entropy” concept in Thermodynamics to explore the casual link and the best decision order of those compositional elements of an object. The multidimensional scaling approach can find out the most ideal composition of elements by analyzing the relational position of each element in the stimuli space. These two approaches are very suitable to explore the aesthetic evaluation related issues, but the literatures are quite few. By using color photos of designed interiors as measuring instrument, conducting an investigation to the domestic college students, collecting data of aesthetic evaluation of these subjects to the color photos, this study intends to respectively explore and compare the results of aesthetic evaluation analysis of these two approaches. The result of this study will be meaningful and valuable to the fields of interior design and empirical aesthetics.
... To check the differences between respondents with different backgrounds, architecture and engineering students of the same university were used as respondent groups (3rd consideration). Past studies have strongly indicated that architects differ from nonarchitects in their assessments of the built environment (Devlin, 1990;Devlin & Nasar, 1989;Gifford, Hine, Muller-Clemn, & Shaw, 2002;Groat, 1982;Hersberger, 1969;Hubbard, 1996;Imamoglu, 1979Imamoglu, , 2000Jeffrey & Reynolds, 1999;Nasar, 1989;Nasar & Kang, 1989;Pennartz & Elsinga, 1990;Purcell, 1995;Purcell & Nasar 1992;Purcell, Peron, & Sanchez, 1998;Stamps, 1991;Vischer & Marcus, 1986). Evidence suggests that architects as a group cannot predict the public's aesthetic evaluations of architecture (Brown & Gifford, 2001). ...
... The authors did not include understanding sustainability in that list, but precedent suggests that aesthetic representation of this relatively new cultural value will be important to its assimilation. A caveat may be in order, however, because architects and nonarchitects do not necessarily share aesthetic sensibilities-and architects often misjudge the opinions of the public (Amdur & Epstein-Pliouchtch, 2009;Brown & Gifford, 2001;Ghomesh & Jusan, 2012;Nasar, 1989;Nasar & Kang, 1989;Stamps, 1999). This means that architects might not always fully understand what users are decoding from a building's appearance. ...
As the United States adjusts to the necessity of ecological sustainability, buildings play an important role because of their use of resourcesand because they are potent nonverbal symbols of new societal values. The David Brower Center in Berkeley, California, strives to be a model for sustainability. Environmental impact is often the focus of those concerned with sustainability, but here, additionally, the designers aim to raise public awareness of sustainability through the building. For this reason, this building became the site for a postoccupancy evaluation class exercise; architecture students analyzed the building and what it communicates about sustainability from the perspective of its users. Findings indicate that many people did not adequately read the building's green design characteristics: Social and symbolic communication could be improved by increasing signage and evolving clearer symbolism for green.
... The same argument may be made about some "high style" modern architecture characterized by impressive dimensions and the predominance of cold materials and colors. Although there is a reasonable body of literature on the aesthetic judgments of and preferences for such buildings by experts and lay persons (Devlin & Nasar, 1989;Nasar & Kang, 1989;Purcell, 1986;Purcell & Nasar, 1992;Wilson, 1996), little is known about their impact on social-cognitive processes. ...
MAASS is an associate professor at Padua University. Her main areas of re-search are social cognition, stereotyping, and, more recently, environmental psychology. ILARIA MERICI is psychology student at Padua University and is currently work-ing on her master's thesis on the effects of architecture on social cognitive processes. ERICA VILLAFRANCA is a psychology student at Padua University and is cur-rently working on her master's thesis on the effects of architecture on social cognitive processes. ABSTRACT: This study tested the hypothesis that courthouse architecture may affect the feelings of hypothetical users as well as their estimates of likelihood of conviction. Participants (N = 120) from Northern Italy were asked to imagine a hypothetical trial to which they accompanied a wrongly accused friend; the trial either took place in a medieval or in a modern "high-style" courthouse. Compared to the old courthouse, the modern courthouse elicited significantly greater discomfort in participants already familiar with the respective building. Regardless of familiarity, participants estimated a greater likelihood that the friend would be convicted when the trial took place in the new building. Although the two courthouses were judged equally attrac-tive on general dimensions of aesthetics, the new one was judged as more 674 AUTHORS' NOTE: The study reported here was conducted during a research semi-nar on environmental psychology under the supervision of the first author; this accounts for the unusually high number of authors.
... The aesthetic preferences of architects and laypersons often have been compared (e.g., Devlin, 1990; Devlin & Nasar, 1989; Duffy, Bailey, Beck, & Barker, 1986; Friedman, Balling, & Valadez, 1985; Groat, 1982 Groat, , 1994, 1969; Nasar, 1989; Nasar & Kang, 1989; Stamps, 1991a Stamps, , 1993 Vischer & Marcus, 1986). The general finding from these studies has been that architects and nonarchitects differ in their assessments of buildings or the way they conceptualize buildings although some researchers (e.g., Hubbard, 1996) found that the groups share certain common conceptualizations of architecture. ...
The physical and affective bases of the differences between architects’ and laypersons’ aesthetic evaluations of building facades were examined. Fifty-nine objective features of 42 large modern office buildings were related to ratings of the buildings’ emotional impact and global aesthetic quality made by architects and laypersons. Both groups strongly based their global assessments on elicited pleasure (and not on elicited arousal), but the two groups based their emotional assessments on almost entirely different sets of objective building features, which may help to explain why the aesthetic evaluations of architects and lay persons are virtually unrelated.
... The same argument may be made about some "high style" modern architecture characterized by impressive dimensions and the predominance of cold materials and colors. Although there is a reasonable body of literature on the aesthetic judgments of and preferences for such buildings by experts and lay persons (Devlin & Nasar, 1989;Nasar & Kang, 1989;Purcell, 1986;Purcell & Nasar, 1992;Wilson, 1996), little is known about their impact on social-cognitive processes. ...
This study tested the hypothesis that courthouse architecture may affect the feelings of hypothetical users as well as their estimates of likelihood of conviction. Participants (N = 120) from Northern Italy were asked to imagine a hypothetical trial to which they accompanied a wrongly accused friend; the trial either took place in a medieval or in a modern “high-style” courthouse. Compared to the old courthouse, the modern courthouse elicited significantly greater discomfort in participants already familiar with the respective building. Regardless of familiarity, participants estimated a greater likelihood that the friend would be convicted when the trial took place in the new building. Although the two courthouses were judged equally attractive on general dimensions of aesthetics, the new one was judged as more intimidating. Links between architectural features and social-cognitive processes are discussed.
... The character of a design competition has a lot to offer in sense of participation options with stakeholders of the future building. Preferences of a jury do not always correspond with those of users and visitors (Nasar & Kang, 1989) because they tend to focus on the meaning of designs instead of convenience and durability (Nasar, 1999). Nasar therefore pleads for systematic visual quality programming as pre-jury evaluation among all groups of people that might experience the building as, especially users. ...
... The character of a design competition has a lot to offer in sense of participation options with stakeholders of the future building. Preferences of a jury do not always correspond with those of users and visitors (Nasar & Kang, 1989) because they tend to focus on the meaning of designs instead of convenience and durability (Nasar, 1999). Nasar therefore pleads for systematic visual quality programming as pre-jury evaluation among all groups of people that might experience the building as, especially users. ...
Design competitions are part of the design tradition since ages. Still structured empirical research about this topic is lacking. This paper describes the results of six months participatory observation as a member of a project team responsible for the organization of an international ideas competition. The data include observations, interviews and document analysis. The results for this paper focus on the design of the competition and stakeholder participation from a client perspective. The findings show four combinations of aspects that underlie several problems of design competitions as currently perceived by architectural practice: the dynamics of the brief, the balance between professionalism and ambition, the link between participation and competition aims, and the influence of expertise at client obligations. It is this constant search for a balance between ambitions, aims, opportunities and needs that make clients experience numerous difficulties during the design of a competition. It is however the same search that makes every competition unique and a wealth of information about clients and architectural design. Starting at the latest with the Greeks, competitions have traditionally been a vehicle for the creation of major civic buildings and public spaces, such as government buildings, performing art centres, educational facilities, public libraries, museums and housing (Strong, 1976). The purposes of design competitions are several fold (de Haan & Haagsma, 1988; Larson, 1994; Spreiregen, 1979): disclose new talent, challenge 'convential wisdom', create a dialogue on design, enlarge support, increase competition, select an architect, educate students, gain insight in competences, contribute to the cultural dimension of the built environment and expand the boundaries of design. Svensson (2008) adds the aims of marketing a project, assuring quality through jury assessment, running architecture politics and coordinating different fields of interests. Information on both past and recent design competitions is fragmented, inadequate and frequently unrecorded (Lipstadt, 2005). Still design competitions are considered as a treasury of the profession (de Haan & Haagsma, 1988). The relevance of design competitions is acknowledged worldwide in the world of architecture. Historically competitions have proven to be a breakthrough for several architects. They have produced high profile projects but also a lot of debate, dispute and affairs (Strong, 1996). "Competitions clearly represent for the hopeful contestants the possibility that the best person may win at least for this once, what happens next after that is another story" (Larson, 1994, p. 475). Spreiregen (1979) talks about three myths in case of design competitions that remain to be persistent: competitions cost money, competitions take more time and competition designs never get built. In the long history of design competitions hardly any attempt has been made to observe, analyze or evaluate the selection process of architects (Strong, 1996). Most publications on design competitions show the diversity of the competition and a statement by the jury on the relevance and quality of the entries for the architectural profession (e.g. de Haan & Haagsma, 1988; Glusberg, 1992). Others describe the aims, procedures, potentials and pitfalls in a historical perspective (Lipstadt, 2005; Spreiregen, 1979; Stichting Bouwresearch, 1980; Sudjic, 2005). Recently a few scholars studied the judgement process of jury panels in the current context of design competitions (Kazemian & Rönn, 2009; Kreiner, 2006, 2008; Spreiregen, 2008; Svensson, 2008) and the strategies of architectural teams that join competitions (Kreiner, 2007a, 2007b; Manzoni, Morris, & Smyth, 2009). These publications indicate that problems in competition mainly concern the honesty of (criteria for) selection of the participants, the requirements of the client, the composition of the jury panel, the objectivity of the jury's judgement, and the financial compensation compared to the amount of work. All these issues are based on decisions that clients make during the organisation of a competition. Yet research from the client perspective is lacking. The main research question is therefore: which difficulties do clients experience in designing a design competition in architecture? This paper addresses four main difficulties that I distinguished from empirical research about clients organizing a design competition.
... To check the differences between respondents with different backgrounds, architecture and engineering students of the same university were used as respondent groups (3rd consideration). Past studies have strongly indicated that architects differ from nonarchitects in their assessments of the built environment (Devlin, 1990;Devlin & Nasar, 1989;Gifford, Hine, Muller-Clemn, & Shaw, 2002;Groat, 1982;Hersberger, 1969;Hubbard, 1996;Imamoglu, 1979Imamoglu, , 2000Jeffrey & Reynolds, 1999;Nasar, 1989;Nasar & Kang, 1989;Pennartz & Elsinga, 1990;Purcell, 1995;Purcell & Nasar 1992;Purcell, Peron, & Sanchez, 1998;Stamps, 1991;Vischer & Marcus, 1986). Evidence suggests that architects as a group cannot predict the public's aesthetic evaluations of architecture (Brown & Gifford, 2001). ...
In this study, five different sets of single-family house facades from private Suburban cooperative housing developments in Ankara, Turkey,, were analyzed; with each set comprising one example each of minimum and maximum complexity. Although the houses in each set had the same appearance when they were first built, their facades have since been altered by their owners. The main hypothesis of the study was that preference rates would be high for intermediately altered houses by showing the existence of a U-shaped relationship. On the other hand, it was hypothesized that perceived complexity and perceived impressiveness would have a linear relationship, with perceived complexity increasing and perceived impressiveness decreasing as the complexity level changed. In terms of these two basic hypotheses, it Was also assumed that there would lie a difference in the ratings of particular respondent groups with different backgrounds. Thus, a questionnaire was given to 100 undergraduate Students of the Architecture and Engineering Departments of Gazi University, Ankara (41 from architecture and 59 from engineering). These students were asked to rate a total of 15 photographs from five housing sites with the help of five-point semantic differential scales under three headings; namely; Preference: beautiful - ugly, warm - cold, pleasant - unpleasant: Complexity: unimposing - imposing, simple complex: and Impressiveness: impressive - Unimpressive. The results proved the existence of a U-shaped relationship between complexity and preference criteria. That is, facades representing an intermediate level of complexity were favored over less and more complex ones. The facades that seemed the most impressive were the most complex ones, but these, however, were not the most preferred. Amongst these results. it was also noted that the architecture Students replied fit a more critical way than the engineering students as they criticized what they saw as negative design decisions.
... s more agreement on two other evaluative criteria: both groups considered 'high' architecture novel and more complex. It has been suggested (Gifford et al., 2002) that differences between architects and the public in the categorization and evaluation of architecture may well indicate that their appreciation of the built environment will differ too. Nasar and Kang (1989) used the criteria formulated by the jury for the selection of the winner of a competition for the design of The Ohio State University Centre for the Visual Arts, to assess the public's evaluation of the competition entries. They found that local residents, students, and faculty of The Ohio State University, after having judged five comp ...
In our study we explore similarities and differences in the evaluations of 12 design gardens by students of landscape architecture and psychology students. The participants in our study visited the gardens and judged them on location. We used a questionnaire to assess similarities and differences in the evaluations of gardens by the two groups. We also provided the participants with the opportunity to describe their experience of the gardens in their own words, using their own evaluative criteria. We found significant differences between the two groups on the evaluation of four gardens. The analysis of the physical properties of the four gardens gives some clues as to what may have caused the differences, as they were 'minimalist', 'art-like', 'experimental', and 'traditional' gardens. In contrast, in spite of the large variation in the design of the gardens, no differences in evaluation were found on eight out of 12 gardens. The results of our study suggest that a high level of appreciation may be expected from the public for unusual formal designs of gardens while alerting the experts to the physical and formal properties of gardens most likely to raise conflict.
... It has been accepted and demonstrated that there can be a clear divergence between the opinions and judgements of design professionals and lay people (Hershberger and Cass, 1988;Hubbard, 1997;Nasar and Kang, 1989;Purcell, 1986;Wilson, 1996), which can in turn lead to a lack of user satisfaction (for example, Kang, 1989, Newman, 1973). That same body of research has also shown that preferences can also differ among 'lay people', and that demographic, economic, cultural and social factors combine to ensure that a coherent generic group does not exist in reality. ...
Urban greenspace has consistently been argued to be of great importance to the wellbeing, health, and daily lives of residents and users. This paper reports results from a study that combined the visualisation of public results from a study that combined the visualisation of public greenspace with environmental economics, and that aimed to develop a method by which realistic computer models of sites could be used within preference studies. As part of a methodology that employed contingent rating to establish the values placed on specific greenspace sites, three-dimensional computer models were used to produce visualisations of particular environmental conditions. Of particular importance to the study was the influence of variables including lighting, season, time of day, and weather on the perception of respondents. This study followed previous work that established a suitable approach to the modelling and testing of entirely moveable physical variables within the built environment. As such, the study has established firmly that computer-generated visualisations are appropriate for use within environmental economic surveys, and that there is potential for a holistic range of attributes to be included in such studies.
... Differences in opinion between design professionals and lay people have been the focus of much research (Hershberger, 1969, Hershberger & Cass, 1988, Hubbard, 1997, Nasar and Kang, 1989, Purcell, 1986, Wilson, 1996, Wilson & Canter, 1990. Indeed, it is now a widely held view that design professionals hold a different system of constructs to lay people, through which they understand and evaluate the environment (Hubbard, 1997, Wilson, 1996. 1 ...
This paper provides an overview of work undertaken on measuring the environmental values of green spaces, coupled with spatial analysis tools for aiding decision relating to the planning of urban green spaces. The work involved a complex array of data collection and analysis packages, including a case study inventory, public participation, methodological design, visualisation, and the analysis of survey results. A central aspect of the research aimed at providing the decision maker with data that combined the visualisation of open public green space with environmental economics. As part of a methodology using contingent rating which aimed to establish the values placed on specific green space sites, three dimensional computer models were used to produce visualisations of particular environmental conditions. The study demonstrates that visualisation tools are appropriate to represent a range of attributes for inclusion within environmental economic surveys, and that the resulting datasets can be used within GIS-based decision support models to indicate levels of preference and patterns of use. The focus of this paper is on the integration of the visualisations of green spaces, a contingent rating survey and the compilation of an open space inventory, as part of a GIS-based decision support system. Results from the study and its potential implications for future study and practice are discussed. This research has been funded under the European Commission Science, Research and Development, Fifth Framework Programme 1998-2002 Key Action 4 “City of Tomorrow and Cultural Heritage”, contract EVK4-2000-22054. It should be noted also that the work described in this report has been undertaken by a consortium working in seven European countries. Details of the project and research team can be found at http://www.ucd.ie/greensp/
... L. Nasar, , , 1989aJ. L. Nasar, , , 1998; J. L. K. J. Nasar, 1989). See ...
Typescript. Thesis (M.C.R.P.)--University of Oregon, 2006. Includes vita and abstract. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 86-90).
... We have seen an increase in the number and cost of design competitions for the delivery of public buildings [1]. Because design competition architecture occupies public space, uses public money, and affects the ordinary person's experience of their surroundings, it should be accountable to the public. ...
We have seen an increase in design competitions for delivery of public buildings. Architectural groups such as the AIA or RIBA often call for a jury dominated by architects. A series of studies of a highly publicized design competition (Peter Eisenman's Wexner Center for the Visual Arts) show the building as a functional and "aesthetic" failure for the public. Some may argue that this is only a short-term appraisal, and that eventually the aesthetic statement will come into favor. To the question of whether architects (the experts) lead public tastes over time, we only have anecdotal evidence. Otherwise, there has been consistent findings of differences between what architects like and what the public likes. How can we look at long-term trends? This paper discusses two historiographic studies of competition architecture through history. One looks at the record of "masterpiece" buildings derived from frequency of reference in books and encyclopedias, and then tallies how many of those "masterpieces" result from competitions. Because of potential flaws in generalizing from these numbers, a second study has architects and non-architects judge photos of competition winning and competition losing designs from a 100-year period. The results show that both groups preferred more losers to winners. This suggests a need for an alternative model for design competition juries.
... Followup research in other contexts led to Nasar's 1998 book Evaluative Image of the City, in which he proposed procedures for conducting post-occupancy evaluations or programs for aesthetics (visual quality) and meaning. Other research applied the idea of post-occupancy evaluation to assessing a jury's design competition decision (Nasar, 1989a), which he found tied to meanings they expected the building to convey to users. He also evaluated user reactions to the site in terms of features likely to evoke fear of crime (Nasar and Fisher, 1993). ...
This article chronicles the evolution of the field of post-occupancy evaluation and visual quality (aesthetic) programming and evaluation from their origins in the 1960s, and describes their transformation into current developments in systematic building performance and visual quality assessments. Major components of post-occupancy evaluations are highlighted, and examples of outcomes presented. This consumer-oriented approach is part of a new democratic paradigm embodying autonomy, self-organization, ecology, sustainability, adaptation, and continuous improvement. Methods range from qualitative self-reports of likes and dislikes to quantitative multivariate analyses, from verbal scales to observations of use, and last but not least, expert judgments. The paper discusses questions about the future of this field, its viability, cost-effectiveness, and benefits for all stakeholders. It concludes with the examination of a recent project, reported in the book Designing for Designers that used distributed technology to systematically evaluate the performance of 17 contemporary architecture school buildings from around the world. The approach is discussed, as well as methods, lessons learned, and ways in which the methodology and findings apply to other kinds of facilities and future developments in the field.
Analysis of variance was used to find out how much variance in preference for residential facades could be attributed to places or people. In accordance with previous findings based on other stimuli, places accounted for more preference variance than did people (16% vs 0%). More focused results were obtained for the subjective factor of sex and the objective design features of number of turns in a silhouette and the percentage of a facade covered by small visual elements. Preferences across sex correlated at .98, indicating that this demographic distinction had a very small effect. The objective factor of visual complexity had a multiple correlation of .90 with preference, indicating a strong effect. These results indicate that design features were much more effective than subjective factors in predicting preferences for environments. Moreover, this finding was reproducible over different samples of people and places.
Objective
This study investigates preference for five different seating arrangements (e.g., rows, clusters) in a doctor’s office waiting room, whether these reduce stress and improve judgments of medical care, and how such choices may have changed over the pandemic (2013 vs. 2021).
Background
What is called the doctor’s office layout, with chairs lining the perimeter of the waiting room, is criticized by designers, yet little empirical evidence exists to support that assessment.
Method
Data collected in 2013 and 2021 used sketches of five different seating arrangements; people saw just one of these. The study examined the effect of time and seating arrangement on anxiety, need for privacy, situational awareness, evaluation of the environment, and perception of the doctor.
Results
There was no significant impact of the seating arrangement on any of the dependent variables, but ratings were higher for situational awareness, need for privacy, evaluation of the environment, and aspects related to the physician in 2021. In addition, seating preferences favored end, not middle seats, and chair selections with the chair back to a wall.
Conclusion
In this study, no evidence exists that the doctor’s office layout is less preferred than four other seating arrangements, but seat choice shows people prefer end seats (not middle seats) across arrangements. The doctor’s office layout may offer a supportive familiarity to people; also, given the percentage of people who visit the doctor unaccompanied, layouts designed to encourage social interaction may not always be appropriate.
Imagine walking through an unfamiliar city. As you proceed, the surroundings change from what you see in Figure 1 to what you see in Figure 2. You might evaluate the change as unpleasant, feel less safe, and change your behavior, walking faster or leaving the area. In contrast, had you passed by the scene in Figure 3, you might evaluate it favorably, feel a calming change in emotion, and you might slow down or enter the area to savor the experience. In each case, environmental cues, which you may not have noticed, affected your appraisal of the scene, emotions, inferences, and behavior. This chapter is predicated on the conviction that the visual character of buildings has important impacts on human experience—aesthetic impacts.
The ability to generate innovative products and services is a critical success factor for organizations. The trend of open innovation has brought about many-faceted, IT-based tools (e.g., lead user method or online tool kits), among these, the innovation contest seems particularly promising and continuously gains in importance as a corporate practice. However, a deep understanding of this online innovation practice is still lacking. Contrary to other methods used to realize open innovation, research in the field of online innovation contests displays a growing, but only rudimentarily intertwined body of publications. This paper provides the quintessential systematization of the field by integration of academic knowledge and business deployment. Juxtaposing 33 relevant journal and conference publications with empirical basis and an analysis of 57 real-world innovation contests, interesting disruptions are pointed to and six pathways for future research are described. These cover the optimal degree of elaboration, the interplay of competition and community, the importance of community applications, the trajectory toward open evaluation, and the identification of additional design elements.
Mit Laienurteilen hat wohl jeder praktizierende Architekt (und jede Architektin) so seine (bzw. ihre) Erfahrungen. Die Summe dieser Erfahrungen resultiert in einem mehr oder minder konsistenten Vorstellungsbild darüber, wie Laien Architektur wahrnehmen und beurteilen. Dieses Vorstellungsbild hat Folgen: Es prägt die Erwartungen, die der Architekt in jeden (imaginierten oder realen) Kontakt mit Laien einbringt und die den Rahmen für sein eigenes kommunikatives Verhalten gegenüber Laien abgeben. Damit nicht Vorurteile über das Laienurteil ("Laien lieben Jägerzäune") einer offenen Auseinandersetzung im Wege stehen, ist eine möglichst realistische Kenntnis der Laienperspektive auf Architektur wünschenswert. Aus Sicht der empirischen Psychologie erscheint es oft erstaunlich, wie wenig systematische Beschäftigung mit Laienurteilen und –bedürfnissen in der Architektur selber stattfindet. In jeder Ausgabe einer Architekturzeitschrift finden sich zahlreiche Aussagen darüber, welche Wirkungen bestimmte gestalterische Maßnahmen auf die Wahrnehmung oder das Verhalten der Betrachter, Benutzer oder Bewohner haben (oder haben sollen), aber kaum einmal wird berichtet, inwieweit sich diese Annahmen (bei denen es sich implizit um psychologische Hypothesen handelt) im Nachhinein bestätigt oder als falsch erwiesen haben. Die systematische Akkumulation von Erfahrungen über Gebäudewirkungen durch nachträgliche Evaluation einzelner Projekte (also Fallstudien) oder auch durch grundlagenorientierte Untersuchungen findet in Deutschland, im Gegensatz zu den angelsächsischen Ländern 1 , kaum statt. Dennoch gibt es mehr psychologische Forschung darüber, wie Laien über Architektur urteilen, als in der hier gebotenen Kürze dargestellt werden kann. Ich beschränke mich daher auf einige Beispiele und daraus abgeleitete Anmerkungen. Aber zunächst: Gibt es denn tatsächlich stabile Urteilsunterschiede zwischen Architekten und Nicht-Architekten? Diese Frage ist auf der Basis der vorliegenden psychologischen Untersuchungen eindeutig zu bejahen. So uneinig Architekten manchmal untereinander sein mögen, sie urteilen doch systematisch anders als Nicht-Architekten. Dies konnte für unterschiedliche Gebäudetypen, für künstlerische wie für Alltagsarchitektur, und für verschiedene Untergruppen von Laien (Studierende, Bankangestellte, Bewohner bestimmter Quartiere, Jugendliche) gezeigt werden 2 .
Computer visualisations are widely used to evaluate future urban environments in international competitions. Rapid technological progress in graphics computer software has enabled architects and landscape planners to produce sophisticated images that are not only capable of transmitting the characteristics of the future environment, they also manage to evoke in observers the sort of feelings and emotions which can only be aroused by experiencing the space. This present paper attempts to identify the affective responses that influence the evaluation of urban environment proposal, analysing the model of architects and non-architects’s preferences. A sample of 104 architects and 113 non architects expressed their opinions on 48 urban computer simulations. The results show that for both groups the success of a digital visualisation is associated to the feelings of innovation and wellbeing.However, their assessments differ significantly because each group associates these feelings with different aspects. In general, architects are more critical in their assessments.
Innovation contests as a means to realize innovative product or service solutions are growing in popularity among practitioners and researchers. An increasing number of organizations worldwide have adopted innovation contests, not only for innovation purposes, but also for other reasons such as promoting sustainability. At the same time, innovation contests represent a growing research field to scholars from different backgrounds, e.g., economics or information systems. In this article, first, the growing body of literature on innovation contests is reviewed and classified into five research categories: economic perspective, management perspective, education focus, innovation focus and sustainability focus. Second, some design elements of innovation contests that are central for the understanding, design and management of innovation contests are presented based on the current body of literature. Finally, current research gaps are presented and some of the research questions are developed that could be explored to contribute to the body of literature.
The present study examines multiple relationships within and between two sets of variables—visual properties and affective appraisals—in daytime neighborhood experience. Twenty-four participants rate twenty daytime neighborhood scenes on twelve visual property and six affective appraisal variables. Canonical correlation revealed five relationships. The first and second relationships were consonant with those revealed for the night scenes in the earlier study. These two relationships—evaluative and natural/open; arousal and disorder dimensions—were considered as prominent and general relationships in the scenes studied over time of day. The others were considered as unique relationships for the daytime scenes. The third relationship was interpreted as a physical/behavioral activity and vehicle/clarity dimension; the fourth as a safe and brightness/vehicle dimension; and the fifth as a distress/pleasant and well-kept man-made dimension.
This article examines fear of crime in relation to exterior site features on a college campus. The authors propose and test a theoretical model that posits that places that afford offenders refuge, and victims limited prospect and escape, will be seen as unsafe. In three studies, the authors observed behavior, obtained responses to site plans and on-site responses to perceptions of safety in relation to exterior campus areas that varied in prospect, refuge, and escape. The findings confirmed that fear of crime was highest in areas with refuge for potential offenders and low prospect and escape for potential victims. In places such as campuses, which have pronounced fear of crime, designs that manipulate prospect, refuge, and escape could reduce the fear of crime, as well as opportunities for crime.
How might an urban environment be evaluated visually? What different stories might be told when using different assessment techniques? Since the 1960s, researchers and others have developed a rich array of design evaluation approaches. This paper uses six different tools to measure three transit station area environments. Some focus mainly on visual issues such as colour, complexity and dominance. Others are more concerned with urban design features and qualities related to how people use environments. Together they provide a rich vocabulary for describing and assessing various design types and strategies such as transit-oriented development.
This paper explores three controversial and large-scale attempts by architects to build more attractive suburban areas: Cumbernauld in Scotland (key designs constructed in the 1950s and 1960s), Irvine in California (key designs from the 1960s and 1970s onward), and Poundbury in England (key designs created in the 1980s and built from the 1990s on). They represent major approaches to the issue of aesthetics and place—modernism, humanistic imageability and legibility, and new urbanism or the Urban Villages Movement. The paper distinguishes between several terms relevant in assessing visual character: objective aesthetics, style, place and satisfaction. It is argued that all three developments conform to some principles of the visual and psychological aspects of good design; but these principles differ, resulting in criticisms from those promoting different styles.
The role of complexity in preference for and familiarity with two-storey traditional and modern house facades has been explored. Two sets of (8 traditional, 8 modern) house facade drawings, each representing minimum, intermediate and maximum complexity levels were prepared. Seventy-two Turkish university students (36 males, 36 females) from architecture and non-architecture departments rated these 16 drawings and 5 buffers on 7-point semantic differential scales, consisting of ‘beautiful–ugly’, ‘pleasant–unpleasant’, ‘liked–did not like’, ‘simple–complex’, ‘plain–ornate’, and ‘familiar–unfamiliar’; and specified their most and least liked drawings among each of the modern and traditional sets of houses. Results indicated that the manipulated complexity levels were perceived as intended and the relationship between complexity and preference was an inverted U-shape, such that drawings representing the intermediate level of complexity were favored over the most and the least complex ones. The intermediate level of complexity appeared to be the most complex level within respondents' range of familiarity because they were equally familiar with houses of minimum and intermediate complexity levels, but their familiarity decreased for houses of maximum complexity level, as did their preference. The general pattern of these relationships seemed to be valid for different measures (rating and preference), respondents' background (architecture and non-architecture), and house types (traditional and modern), in spite of some minor differences.
The present study examined multiple relationships within and between two sets of variables — visual properties and affective appraisals — in night-time neighbourhood experience. Twenty-eight participants rated twenty night-time neighbourhood scenes on 12 visual property variables and six affective appraisal variables. Canonical correlation revealed relationships between evaluative and natural/open dimensions, arousal and disorder dimensions, and between behavioural active/safe and well-lit/visible dimensions.
To improve community appearance, most cities in the United States have implemented design review, but empirical studies of design review are rare. Key issues are the effects on preferences of: (1) design reviewper se; (2) common design review principles such as visual bulk; (3) common demographic factors such as geographical location, age, gender, ethnic or political affiliations; and (4) the personality factor of sensation seeking. The present article describes a preference experiment on 35 houses as judged by 82 respondents in two different cities. Results indicate that design review, bulk, demographic and personality factors account for much less preference than did the architectural components of style or individual buildings.
Innovation contests in their basic structure have a long-standing tradition and can be attributed to continuously gain in importance as a corporate practice. A deep understanding of this online instrument, however, is still lacking. Contrary to other methods used to realize open innovation, research in the field of online innovation contests displays a growing, but only rudimentarily intertwined body of publications. This paper provides the essential systematization of the field, integrating both, academic knowledge and business deployment. Juxtaposing 33 relevant journal and conference publications with empirical basis and an analysis of 57 real-world innovation contests, we highlight interesting disruptions and distill six pathways for future research. These cover the optimal degree of elaboration, the interplay of competition and community, the importance of community applications, the trajectory towards open evaluation, and the identification of additional design elements.
The ability to generate innovative products and services is a critical success factor for organizations. The trend of open innovation has brought about many-faceted, IT-based tools (e.g., lead user method or online tool kits), among these, the innovation contest seems particularly promising and continuously gains in importance as a corporate practice. However, a deep understanding of this online innovation practice is still lacking. Contrary to other methods used to realize open innovation, research in the field of online innovation contests displays a growing, but only rudimentarily intertwined body of publications. This paper provides the quintessential systematization of the field by integration of academic knowledge and business deployment. Juxtaposing 33 relevant journal and conference publications with empirical basis and an analysis of 57 real-world innovation contests, interesting disruptions are pointed to and six pathways for future research are described. These cover the optimal degree of elaboration, the interplay of competition and community, the importance of community applications, the trajectory toward open evaluation, and the identification of additional design elements.
In times characterized by the growing "architectural criticism"; to the same extent as by the helplessness of the anonymous user the communication process between contractors, planner and users gains in importance. If communication is successful will not only depend on the quality of the project but also on the means of conveyance, e.g. visualizing or model representation. Can planning evaluation be effectively supported by virtual reality (VR)? The principal item of a full-scale lab preferably features a court-like facility where the 1:1 simulations are performed. Such lab facilities can be found at various architecture education centers throughout Europe. In the early eighties the European Full-scale Modeling Association (abrev. EFA, full-scale standing for 1:1 or simulation in full-scale) was founded acting as the patron of a conference every two years. In line with the conference title "Full-scale Modeling in the Age of Virtual Reality" the participants were particularly concerned with the relationship of physical 1:1 simulations and VR. The assumption that those creating architecture provide of a higher degree of affinity to physical than to virtual models and prototypes was subject of vivid discussions. Furthermore, the participants devoted some time to issues such as the integration of model-like ideas and built reality thus uncovering any such synergy-effects. Thus some major considerations had to be given to the question of how the architect?s model-like ideas and built reality would correspond, also dealing with user-suitability as such: what the building artist might be thrilled with might not turn out to be the residents? and users? everyday delight. Aspects of this nature were considered at the ?Architectural Psychology Meeting? together with specialists on environment and aesthetics. As individual space perception as well as its evaluation differ amongst various architects, and these being from various countries furnishing cultural differences, lively discussions were bound to arise.
Analysis of variance was used to find out how much variance in preference for residential facades could be attributed to places or people. In accordance with previous findings based on other stimuli, places accounted for more preference variance than did people (16% vs 0%). More focused results were obtained for the subjective factor of sex and the objective design features of number of turns in a silhouette and the percentage of a facade covered by small visual elements. Preferences across sex correlated at .98, indicating that this demographic distinction had a very small effect. The objective factor of visual complexity had a multiple correlation of .90 with preference, indicating a strong effect. These results indicate that design features were much more effective than subjective factors in predicting preferences for environments. Moreover, this finding was reproducible over different samples of people and places.
Using data from a post-occupancy evaluation of an award-winning federal office building, asthetic or architectural quality and the factors associated with it are considered. Various measures of quality are derived from responses to questionnaires administered to three user groups: the office workers, public visitors, and the community at large. Findings show that, on average, the public is likely to agree the building is worthy of its architectural awards. The office workers on the other hand, tend to rate the architectural quality of the building poorly. The analysis demonstrates that views on architectural quality are significantly related to the way workers assess the building as a place to work and the general ambience of their particular agency. Agency ambience is seen as having both asthetic components and functional components such as noise levels, temperature, and people movement. It is suggested that linkages exist in the minds of occupants between the quality of the workplace including its nonaesthetic components and assessments of overall architectural quality.
An orthogonal set of 20 places (shown via color photographs) was scaled in 7 studies with 69 18–47 yr old undergraduates and 134 students at the University of British Columbia, representing the major scaling techniques. In this way, dimensions of environmental meaning valid across methods could be explored, and a quantitative assessment could be made of the relationships among diverse environmental attributes to test whether environmental meaning can be represented as a small set of orthogonal dimensions. All 7 scalings (e.g., multidimensional scaling of judged dissimilarities between all possible pairs of environments, and a verbal scale of the information rate of each environment), despite apparent differences in methodology and in the labels for dimensions, shared a large proportion of variance. All scalings, except information rate, predicted behavior ratings well, and the perceived similarity among places could be interpreted in terms of almost any of the perceptual, cognitive, affective, and behavioral ratings. Environmental meaning thus cannot appropriately be represented as a single small set of orthogonal dimensions. Instead, it should be viewed as involving numerous environmental attributes related to perceptual, cognitive, affective, and behavioral responses to places. (68 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
The Environmental Preference Questionnaire (EPQ) was developed to assess patterns of satisfaction and preference pertaining to various environmental settings; its focus is not so much on past experience as on current outlook. The 267 teenagers who completed the EPQ in this study also responded to questions relating to facets of self-esteem and reasons for selecting their favorite activities. The Nature and Suburbs scales of the EPQ provided complementary patterns of esteem and motivation dimensions; the interaction of environmental settings and various kinds of contacts with peers and friends was another theme that ran through the pattern of results. The findings give credence to the notion that environmental preferences can be partitioned into a manageable number of meaningful dimensions. They further hold promise for a useful partitioning of the domain of self-esteem, an area which has traditionally been dominated by global or unitary measures and concepts. Peer Reviewed http://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/68269/2/10.1177_001391657792003.pdf
A model is described that links ongoing environmental experience to affective responses to the environment. In brief, ongoing experience is the result of a matching process between the characteristics of currently available particular instances and a representation stored in memory of the gist of previous similar experiences. The stored representation is conceptualized as a schema with the default values of the attributes of the schema being based on prototypical examples. The attributes of the particular instance are therefore matched against the default values in the relevant schema. Affective response occurs when there is a mismatch or discrepancy between the attributes of the current instance and the attributes of the prototype. The characteristics of the affective response will depend on the type and extent of the discrepancy. An experiment is reported that uses a set of churches as stimuli in order to investigate this model. The results of the experiment are consistent with the model, and the implications of the model for design are examined.
A set of 18 adjective descriptors of visual attributes in the environment were given to design professionals to assess 60 residential scenes. In a factor analysis of these data, four factors Diversity, Nuisances, Enclosure and Clarity were obtained. The 60 scenes were divided into two sets of 30 scenes. Two groups of laypersons were asked to use four bipolar adjective scales to evaluate one or the other set of 30 scenes. The laypersons' composite preference scores were highly correlated with variables representative of each descriptive factor. Separate multiple regression equations for each set of 30 scenes and for the full set of 60 scenes were developed relating the visual attributes in scenes to composite preference scores. In both cases, the responses predicted bythe equation forone set of respondents and scenes correlated with obtained preference scores for the other respondents and scenes. People preferred residential scenes which were described as ornate, well kept, open and clear in use.
Independent groups viewed either an existing designated California Highway Scenic Corridor, a sympathetically modified version consisting of minimum human intrusion, or a more unsympathetic version of the present corridor reflecting greater human intrusion. The introduction of sympathetic or more urbanized development along the scenic roadway reduced overall scenic quality. The development and validation of a suitable, kinetic simulation technique for use in the evaluation of roadside environments is also presented.
A set of 105 commonly used adjectives descriptive of the affective quality of molar physical environments was developed and factor analyzed (based on 323 subjects' ratings, each of a different environment). Two, independent, bipolar factors of affective quality-pleasing and arousing quality-were obtained and shown to correlate highly with subjects' affective reactions of pleasure and arousal to the environments. The pleasing and- arousing quality dimensions were hypothesized to summarize the emotive capacity attributed to environments and to adequately define the numerous affective descriptors commonly used: peaceful, festive, hectic, disgusting, boring, and the like. They were also offered as partial interpretations of the semantic differential factors of evaluation and activity, respectively.
For Post-Modern architects and others with an interest in architecture that communicates desirable meanings to the public, empirical study of the meaning inferred from styles can be helpful. This research examined the connotative meanings laypersons infer from various home-styles, the variability of those meanings with sociodemographic characteristics and region, and whether architects share or know public meanings. Adiverse sample of 118 adults in Columbus, Ohio, and 102 adults in Los Angeles rated six styles of homes in terms of desirability, and the friendliness and status of assumed residents. In total, 65 architects in Columbus answered the same questions and tried to guess how the Columbus public responded. Laypersons in Columbus and L.A. displayed remarkably similar patterns of response. Significant effects of style revealed that both groups rated Farm and Tudor as most desirable, Mediterranean and Saltbox and least desirable, Farm as most friendly, Colonial as unfriendly, Colonial and Tudor as highest in status, and Saltbox and Mediterranean as lowest in status. Differences in meaning emerged in relation to sociodemographic characteristics, and the architects responded differently from and misgauged the public responses.
A general formula (α) of which a special case is the Kuder-Richardson coefficient of equivalence is shown to be the mean of
all split-half coefficients resulting from different splittings of a test. α is therefore an estimate of the correlation between
two random samples of items from a universe of items like those in the test. α is found to be an appropriate index of equivalence
and, except for very short tests, of the first-factor concentration in the test. Tests divisible into distinct subtests should
be so divided before using the formula. The index
[`(r)]ij\bar r_{ij}
, derived from α, is shown to be an index of inter-item homogeneity. Comparison is made to the Guttman and Loevinger approaches.
Parallel split coefficients are shown to be unnecessary for tests of common types. In designing tests, maximum interpretability
of scores is obtained by increasing the first-factor concentration in any separately-scored subtest and avoiding substantial
group-factor clusters within a subtest. Scalability is not a requisite.
Landscape perception research during the past two decades has responded to legislative mandates and landscape management, planning and design issues in a number of countries. It has also engaged the interests of individuals from a variety of disciplines and professions. This paper presents an analysis of the paradigms that have been followed in assessing perceived landscape values, and identifies the theoretical or conceptual bases which underlie these approaches. Four paradigms are identified from review of over 160 articles published in 20 journals during the period 1965–1980. Publications in each paradigm (expert, psychophysical, cognitive and experiential) are reviewed with reference to contributions to pragmatic landscape planning and management issues and to the evolution of a general theory of landscape perception. Trends in publications within the paradigms are indicated over time and by professional-disciplinary orientation. Overall, the absence of an explicit theoretical foundation is noted. Arguments in support of the development of a theoretical framework for landscape perception research are advanced and a proposed framework based on an interactive perception process is presented.
The relevance of the multiple sorting task as a research tactic for the empirical study of environmental meaning is illustrated in the context of a specific study of Modern and Post-Modern architecture. The assumption of architectural critics that Post-Modern buildings are more meaningful to the general public than Modern buildings forms the basis for the research hypotheses of this study. Twenty-four buildings, ranging from Modern to Post-Modern are evaluated by 20 architects and 20 accountants whose responses are structured through a multiple sorting task. The sorting data are interpreted in terms of regional analyses of multi-dimensional scaling structures, following the general principles of Facet Theory. These results suggest that (1) architects and accountants do employ different sets of criteria (different codes, in effect) for evaluating buildings, and yet (2) Post-Modern buildings (despite their architects' intentions of relating their designs to a popular code) are not perceived by the accountants as distinct from Modern buildings. The particular strengths of the multiple sorting task as a research tactic for this and other studies of environmental meaning are discussed and summarized.
This study compares scenic quality ratings across age groups. Previous landscape perception research has tended to limit participants to young adult and middle aged persons. The 294 subjects in this study range in age from six years to over 70 years. Subjects sorted each of 56 colored photographs on scenic quality. For each photograph, four dimensions were derived (perceived naturalism, land use compatability and relative relief) and used in testing hypotheses about the relationship of age with specific attributes of the landscape. Findings from the study indicate that young children do rate landscapes differently from adults and that the ratings of the older adults differ slightly from those of young and middle-aged adults. Relationships of the four descriptive dimensions with scenic quality judgments varied by age group.
The identification and interpretation of dimensions underlying aesthetic behavior in the daily urban environment
- A Oostendorp