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Designing On Nature's Terms. Visual Perception and the Emergence of Form and Meaning in Spatial Arts and Design

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Evolution shaped our eyes and brains, and the conditions of natural environments and processes-far exceeding human control options-determined which of our perceptional competences were suited best to find our way and to survive in woods or savannas. The act of recognizing and interpreting patterns of natural appearances, transitions, and metamorphoses was-and still is-the daily bread of our visual perception. Our associative intelligence stores and cross-connects this stream of experience; by analogy, it uses these patterns to decode the unknown and the unfamiliar, to find the most appropriate and probable accordances as a reference for forthcoming interactions. Gestalt psychology and psychology of perception have investigated the emergence of separable forms out of the visual field and preferences of stimulus selection. But the more complex question of evaluation, meaningful classification, and integration of forms and structures within our visual experience still is an interdisciplinary challenge for aesthetics, semiotics, psychology, philosophy, and architectural/design theory and discourse. In this article, parameters of instantaneous visual attraction associated with properties of natural environments (e.g., anthropomorphic, biomorphic, or dynamikomorphic aspects) are described and systematically related to general modes of visual perception. They are exemplified by means of tangible design matters, and methods are discussed regarding how they can be made applicable and teachable. The idea of perceptual organization by patterns of transition and metamorphosis, outlined by psycho-morphology, is transferred to aesthetics and thus complements the terms "anthropomorphism" and "biomorphism" with the new term "dynamikomorphism." A differentiated system of perspectives on design phenomenons that is able to define and to create successful design is outlined.
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The International Journal of
Visual Design
DESIGNPRINCIPLESANDPRACTICES.COM
VOLUME 10 ISSUE 1
__________________________________________________________________________
Designing on Nature’s Terms
Visual Perception and the Emergence of Form and
Meaning in Spatial Arts and Design
MICHAEL HEINRICH
THE INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF VISUAL DESIGN
www.designprinciplesandpractices.com
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Designing on Nature’s Terms: Visual Perception
and the Emergence of Form and Meaning in
Spatial Arts and Design
Michael Heinrich, Coburg University of Applied Sciences and Arts, Germany
Abstract: Evolution shaped our eyes and brains, and the conditions of natural environments and processes —far
exceeding human control options—determined which of our perceptional competences were suited best to find our way
and to survive in woods or savannas. The act of recognizing and interpreting patterns of natural appearances,
transitions, and metamorphoses was—and still is —the daily bread of our visual perception. Our associative intelligence
stores and cross-connects this stream of experience; by analogy, it uses these patterns to decode the unknown and the
unfamiliar, to find the most appropriate and probable accordances as a reference for forthcoming interactions. Gestalt
psychology and psychology of perception have investigated the emergence of separable forms out of the visual field and
preferences of stimulus selection. But the more complex question of evaluation, meaningful classification, and integration
of forms and structures within our visual experience still is an interdisciplinary challenge for aesthetics, semiotics,
psychology, philosophy, and architectural/design theory and discourse. In this article, parameters of instantaneous visual
attraction associated with properties of natural environments (e.g., anthropomorphic, biomorphic, or dynamikomorphic
aspects) are described and systematically related to general modes of visual perception. They are exemplified by means
of tangible design matters, and methods are discussed regarding how they can be made applicable and teachable. The
idea of perceptual organization by patterns of transition and metamorphosis, outlined by psycho -morphology, is
transferred to aesthetics and thus complements the terms “anthropomorphism” and “biomorphism” with the new term
“dynamikomorphism.” A differentiated system of perspectives on design phenomenons that is able to define and to create
successful design is outlined.
Keywords: Design Principles, Biomorphism, Atmosphere, Aesthetics
Introduction
n our rational world, we often try hard to regard things in a rational and “reasonable”,
unemotional way: furniture, houses, and cars are just what they are—objects that are useful
or useless for us. Nevertheless, the rational surface of our judgments, preferences and
decisions is considerably shaped by subliminal emotional projections and reactions, and „certain
aspects of the process of emotion and feeling are indispensable for rationality” (Damasio 1994).
In children’s books and cartoons, the intertwining of rationality and emotional relatedness with
the environment is expressed more directly: animals and objects—like houses or cars—are able
to talk. Moreover, they have a personality, intentions, goals, perhaps even a past that can be read
from their appearance. In childlike phantasies, in the moonlight illuminating the nursery, even
pillows and garments transform into dwarves, fairies, and sometimes into monsters (see figs. 1,
2).
A childlike perspective obviously perceives a world filled with animated objects whose
emotions and intentions can easily be read from the properties and changes of their visual
appearance. When rationality grips the mind, objects, architecture, designed spaces, and natural
sceneries are superficially demystified and depersonalized. However, there is a lot of evidence
that—even in adulthood—the world of inanimated objects retains those properties of expression
that our perception correlates—now rather unconsciously—with human, animal, or biological
manifestations, in other words, that humans beyond childhood keep on transferring subtly the
idea of human or animal sensitivities, behavior potentials, and intentions to items of the outside
world, even to objects that obviously are not animated at all.
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Such operations are known as anthropomorphism and, more generally, as biomorphism (for
a definition, see Tylor [1871] 2010; for the Piaget interpretation, see Gebhard 2009, 53; Greek
anthropos = man; morphe = shape; bios = life). In aesthetic philosophy, anthropology,
psychology, proxemics, semiotics and behavioral biology, anthropomorphisms have always
drawn attention: The rise of sciences since the 19th century and the establishment of psychology
in the 20th century have encouraged the evolution of theories (e.g., familiarity thesis, comfort
thesis, control thesis, see Guthrie 1997; theory of empathy, see Lipps [1912] 2007) and
explanations to our understanding of anthro- and biomorphism. Concerning practical
architectural and design application since ancient Greece, anthropomorphisms often were
involved deliberately into concept design, e.g., as direct visual reference (see figs. 3, 4) or as
proportional equivalent. Since the Renaissance, particularly classical architecture was
distinguished by intensive efforts to interprete and revive the antique vitruvian ideals of
anthropometrism.
Figure 3: Palazzo Zuccari, Rome. Federico Zuccari 1592
Source: Andrea Dorliguzzo 2012
Figure 4: Upper Belvedere, Vienna. Johann Lucas
von Hildebrandt 1723
Source: VUM 2015
Figure 1: Alice in Wonderland, Concept Art
Source: Walt Disney, Hollywood 1952
Figure 2: Monsters under the bed
Source: Terry Wolfinger 2008
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HEINRICH: DESIGNING ON NATURE’S TERMS
Beyond their static appearance, objects are embedded in temporal processes and thus yield a
dynamic potential. As perceivers and interpreters, do we equally use analogisms,
anthropomorphic and biomorphic attributions to draw conclusions—based on instinctive
knowledge and acquired experience—from the static appearance of objects or scenes to their
probable dynamic potential? Our mental representations are strongly characterized by our
experience of transformations and metamorphoses, and so are our analogies; Gestalt psychology
has conceptualized this idea by the approach of psycho-morphology (e.g., Salber 2009, 78f), and
with the concept of perceptual meaning, the latter complementing the gestalt laws of shape and
grouping with a temporal dimension, the attribution of “happenings” in case of deviations from a
homogeneous shape or arrangement (Pinna 2010: “The happening (...) becomes part of the
subject by qualifying it and explaining in terms of action the reason for the loss of homogeneity,
integrity and unity of the subject.”).
We have therefore reason to conclude that snapshots or static visual impressions are
mentally completed to anticipations or intermediate stages of dynamic processes. We could
characterize these spontaneous operations—including the assignment of “happenings”, but not
confining them to segregations of initially homogeneous objects—as “dynamizations of object
representations” or, more shortly, as “dynamikomorphic (Greek dynamiko = potential; Greek
dynami = force) (see Heinrich 2013; see below, 2.4.).
Dynamikomorphic attributions are narrative insofar as they integrate perceptions into the
idea of a temporal process (cf. Husserl [1926] 2007, 171f) or, in other words, into a story line.
The imagination creates fragmentary film-like sequences that try to reconstruct past
developments or try to anticipate future plausibilities. Our response depends on which of these
“stories” we intuitively select as the most probable one. As with anthropomorphism, we
experience this attribution not necessarily as our own activity but regard them usually as an
inherent property of the external world of things: objects seem to “tell” us how they have become
what we see or what could happen to them in the future (for example, the form of a spider
suggests a certain kind of sudden, fast movement; a ruin suggests instability, further decay and,
in the same instant, tells about its past as an intact structure; displaced architectural volumes
evoke visions of collapse; see figs. 5, 6, 7).
Studies and a meta-analysis (see Balling and Falk 1982; Orians and Heerwagen 1992,
savanna hypothesis; Kaplan 1992; Flury 1992; Nüchterlein 2005) decisively indicate that there is
an overall visual preference for natural environments in comparison to artificial ones. Moreover,
according to a specialist of healthcare architecture, Roger S. Ulrich (1983): “Recent research
demonstrates that responses to trees and other vegetation can be linked directly to health, and in
turn related to economic benefits of visual quality” (abstract). The considerable influence of
Figure 5: Spider
Source: Harald Nitschke 2004
Figure 6: Ruin Capriccio. Charles-
Louis Clérisseau 1760
Source: Hermitage 2009 Domain
Figure 7: Apartment Building Liesing
Brewery, Vienna
Source: Coop Himmelblau 2011
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natural design and environment aspects on health, well-being, and human effectivity is confirmed
by many relevant researchers (see Parsons 1991; Heerwagen 2000; Dilani 2009; Herzog,
Maguire, and Nebel 2003; Orians and Heerwagen 1993; Chatterjee 2013, 48–53).
Concerning the influence of cognition- and knowledge-depending factors, analyses show
that aesthetic evaluations emerge immediately based on emotional reactions rather than cognitive
consideration and that they often are processed unconsciously (see LeDoux 1996; Hasse 2012).
In conclusion, it appears reasonable to presuppose that even discrete biomorphic,
anthropomorphic, and dynamikomorphic aspects—in other words, parameter analogizing natural
structures and properties—would heighten the spontaneous, unconscious affective attraction
toward the concerned object or surrounding.
Even prior to further special investigation, we can state that the described analogic
attributions are of decisive importance for the interpretation of our everyday perceptions and our
spontaneous reactions upon aesthetic stimuli of any kind.
However, an awareness of the great importance of these analogies seems to need some more
support in the mainstream of spatial design practice and training: the multiplication of technical
possibilities absorbs the major share of time and energy for their understanding and adequate use,
and this bias again favors a pragmatic and rational view of the world and a rather functionalist
conception of man. From this point of view, the discussed peculiarities of human perception—
hard enough to systematize—tend to strand as a mildly interesting but ultimately expendable
pastime of design development.
I therefore would like to explore the former existential relevance of the discussed topics and
their strong connection of meaning with general modes of visual perception (see Heinrich 2013).
I would like to propose the term and concept of “dynamikomorphism,” acknowledging and
transferring, inter alia, central ideas of psycho-morphology (e.g., Salber 2009, 78f) and
perceptual meaning (Pinna 2010) into aesthetic contexts and a strongly extended frame of
reference. I would like to outline a basic survey of analyzing tools to support the systematic,
practical handling of the mentioned phenomena within all design disciplines, explicitly within the
spatial arts. Complementing each description of the main aspects of the vast and interdisciplinary
theme, I concisely provide suggestions of design applicability and introduce examples of
architecture and spatial design.
Whereas many treatments of the topic put their emphasis on direct mimetic applications of
anthropomorphic and biomorphic patterns and figures (as does Feuerstein 2002), I would like to
direct our attention to more subliminal biomorphic analogies emerging in almost every design
context, such as self-similarities or the zoning of objects (cf. Wölfflin [1886] 1999, 34).
2. Modes of Visual Perception
To understand how the discussed analogies—transfers of form-encoded meaning—are
established, we should first adopt a rather constructivist position: our world of structured
meanings does not exist from the outset; we ourselves construct our inner mental world, using
our perceptional templates and our classifications, out of the incessant flood of sensory stimuli
that are the messengers of the unknown outside world. Doing so, what instruments exactly do we
use?
2.1. Form-giving processes: The emergence of “Gestalten”
To turn the chaos of sensory information into entities with meaning and relevance, our perception
has to carry out many parallel performances: Numerous properties of various visual categories
(brightness, contrast, color, etc.) must be registered, correlated, and reduced to manageable units:
clearly defined shapes on a specific background or figures that maintain their stable
independence in the field of perception.
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HEINRICH: DESIGNING ON NATURE’S TERMS
We need those figures on the one hand to simplify the infinite universal complexity and on
the other hand to attribute meanings following individual qualities. Making figures (“Gestalten”)
empowers us to record these hierarchies and to make them communicable and memorizable.
Gestalt psychology has worked out such preferences and tendencies of perception systematically
as “Gestalt laws” (see Ehrenfels [1932] 1988; Koffka [1935] 2013; Metzger [1975] 2008;
Wertheimer [1923] 1950).
Usually, we will find multiple proposals for Gestalten at the same time in our field of
perception, and it is the context, the arousal level, and curiosity that determines our attention,
selection, and abstraction activities (for curiosity and exploration, see Berlyne 1960, 193–227;
for grouping laws in relation to attention, see Dodd and Pratt 2005; for Gestalt laws and the
prediction of visual attention, see Kootstra, Bergström, and Kragic 2011). We have a strong
preference for spatial interpretations and relationships of figure and ground, refined by a
completion system that reconstructs fragmented forms or jagged figures with flowing, logical
line extensions, aligning forms to projected abstract basic figures.
Relevance for Perception-Adapted Design Evolvement:
Involving the form factors (Gestalt laws) and attention principles into our design work, we can
analyze or directly control:
how attention is attracted, directed, and focused within the visual field;
how objects and spaces are divided up by our perception;
how strongly objects and spaces separate within an environment;
how fluently they integrate into their environment;
how objects and spaces are given rhythm by composing elements, inducing
similarities, or suggesting virtual lines;
how attention is focused by agglomerations;
how the plasticity of the appearance is enforced by contrasts, rhythms, contours, or
overlappings;
how strongly the observer performs his own completion of suggestive fragments;
the emergence of movement illusions;
the emergence of different contours and figures at different approaching distances
at the same object (for example, the decreasing boldness and increasing refinement
of subdivisions depending on viewing distance; see fig. 9);
the emergence of associations and analogies by providing appropriate key arrays;
the level of self-similarity at different structural levels of the object hierarchy (for
example, the use of multidimensional rhombic grids; see fig. 8), creating unity in
diversity, a strong biomorphic property (see Arnheim [1978] 2000, 63).
Most of these form factors reflect biomorphic properties or refer to their roots in the interaction
of man with his natural surroundings. Applied purposefully, these instruments can increase the
attractiveness of design concepts enormously.
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2.2. Analogy; Anthropomorphic and Biomorphic Aspects of Appearance
How does the manageable number of object-like structures with equally object-like subdivisions
now convert into a meaningful object?Unless we are newborn, we usually have had some similar
perceptual experiences with similar contexts in our lives so far. We have stored them in our
memory as four-dimensional entities of experiences. By comparison of perceived qualities with
these basic motives, we equip the formal accordances with the inherent meaning connected with
them. The memorized entities of experience are so vivid that they allow virtually infinite variants
of individual properties, and they even apply to minimal traces of familiarity. By chains of
associations, individual entities in our minds not only connect with each other to form larger
categories but also link with related, adjacent experience structures as comprehensive knowledge
matrixes.
The repertoire built up by acquired form and process experiences is primed by instinctive
interpretation patterns (such as the Kindchenschema, see Konrad Lorenz 1943; simple face
schemes, cf. Miesler 2011) and serves as a constant comparison and verification framework for
new perceptions that, in turn, differentiate the existing archive contents simultaneously. Speed
and flexibility of analogical thinking is an integral part of test arrangements for intelligence and
creativity and corresponds to the central importance of analogy for the increase of knowledge (cf.
Hofstatter and Sander 2014).
Not least, our pool of analogies includes our most fundamental experience: our own
corporeality and aliveness in their interaction with the physical forces of natural environments,
with biographical and temporal rhythms. It allows us to “know” or “sympathize” how objects
(remember the jungle scenario: every contour or shape of a wild animal could turn out to be a
real beast) are conditioned internally or how they might interact with gravity, air resistance, heat,
or cold. Thus we find basic vital and physical forces of our own experience—e.g., our sense of
balance—reflected everywhere in our environment. We identify the slightest visual key signals
of attentiveness, growth, expansion, torpor, aggression, fear, lust, greed, brood care, exhaustion,
regeneration, etc.; compare them intuitively with our own inner experiences; and thus gain a
rapid empathic access to the probable potentials and motives we encounter (see Vischer [1927]
Figure 8: The Gherkin, London.
Norman Foster 2003
Source: GM Films 2005; Michael Heinrich
2013
Figure 9: Vaux-le-Vicomte, Melun. Louis Le Brun 1661
Source: Michael Heinrich 2013
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HEINRICH: DESIGNING ON NATURE’S TERMS
2007, 27; see Ruskin 1857, 120). Usually we interpret these universal patterns of physical
conditionality, connected with our attributions, as “expression” of an object or being.
Relevance for Perception-Adapted Design Evolvement:
Analogy is a fundamental, strong process of assigning and classifying units of meaning, and it
makes use of all conceivable form-giving processes. Partly dependent on cultural conditioning,
analogies can be applied at different levels of abstraction: they can appear either directly
mimetic, highly fragmented or stylized, or eventually encoded as a semantic sign or symbol.
Playing with anthropomorphic and biomorphic analogies (e.g., Kindchenschema or as sexual
allusion) is a highly popular method to draw positive attention in the fields of advertising,
fashion, automotive and product design, pop music, and comic culture but is also—as religious or
mythological allegory—an ancient part of human cultural activity. Analogies may relate to color,
shape, orientation, or materiality. Convexity (outward bulging roundness), for example, can
strongly suggest the inner, stretching tension of a soft elastic tissue (see Sörgel 1921; Seyler
2003). The sheer verticality of an object may include an analogy of growth or the human
uprightness. Symmetry, on the other hand, is a salient feature of living organisms and therefore a
powerful analogy carrier.
It stands to reason that our sensitivity for the ratio of supports and weights could be linked
closely to various analogies. By analogy, we draw conclusions from the surface structure of an
object or volume on its consistency and weight. We see a concrete surface and know the hardness
of the object. We see a huge volume on thin brittle supports and distrust its stability, even against
better knowledge. Intended biomorphic and anthropomorphic analogies can be widely found
within works of contemporary architects, for examble with Calatrava (see fig. 39).
Deconstructivist architecture (e.g., by Libeskind or Hadid), however, shows fragmentation,
deformation, explosion, and growth processes as a sculptural snapshot, “telling” physical
transformations of stereometric basic arrays (see below: narratives). The invitation effect
(affordance: objects suggest their applicability or usability) may also be partly caused by
analogy.
Anthropomorphic, biomorphic, dynamomorphic, and other analogies can be provoked by
numerous visual key stimuli:
faces and facial expressions (for example, arrangements of openings in an ocular
manner, combined with a feature positioned in a corresponding mouth position, make a
particularly strong effect; see fig. 10–13)
zoning, silhouettes, and body schemes (for example, the ceiling/skylight form evoking
the contours of an internal organ, especially a human heart; see fig. 14)
posture and gesture expressions
materiality and weight assertions, e.g., convexity (for example, soft, bulging and
stretching surface qualities suggest a corresponding materiality; see fig. 14)
patterns of hierarchy (symmetries, rhythms, self-similarity)
indicators of motion, transformation, deformation, compaction, growth, or decay (for
example, curving and flowing lines suggest to mark motion and expansion tracks; see
fig. 14)
affordances concerning interaction (e.g., exploratory arrays, see fig. 14)
situation and arrangement analogies (see fig. 14)
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Figure 12: Villa Savoye, Poissy.
Le Corbusier 1931
Source: Wikipedia Commons 2010
Figure 13: Villa Savoye: Schematic Face; right: Comic Title.
Source: Michael Heinrich 2014; Andrew Bloor 2008
Figure 10: Court Pavilion Hietzing, Vienna.
Otto Wagner 1899
Source: ArchINFORM 2009
Figure 11: Court Pavilion Hietzing:
Schematic Face
Source : Michael Heinrich 2014
Figure 14: Set Design “Der Zauberberg,” Magdeburg Theatre:
Analogies to Glacier, Snow Drift, Hotel Lobby (Skylight, Window), Heart/Organs, Skin, Wound
Source: Michael Heinrich, 2004
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HEINRICH: DESIGNING ON NATURE’S TERMS
2.3. Visual Exploration of Space
We all are spatial beings; all our life we move within external and internal spaces. Space in itself
is hard to imagine; to be perceivable, space demands physical expansions that structure it with
different consistencies and qualities; it demands objects and their boundaries, and an observer in
motion (cf. Gibson 1986, 2f)—or, at least, the observer’s eyes in motion.
Our gaze—as a nonmaterial substitute of our physical talent for exploration—scans the
surrounding space and collects information that helps our perception to identify and define
materialities and thing-qualities (see also Klopfer [1919] 2007, 150; Berlyne 1960, 78–103).
Subsequently, we take physical possession of space via corporeal movement and interaction,
following the suggestions of our senses and the affordances provided by our environment
(concept of affordance, see Gibson 1979, 56f), and make it a physically experienced part of our
inner map. Language reveals to what extent we use our eyes as virtual extensions of our body:
the gaze can sweep, wander, ramble, or lose itself in the clouds. Eyes can be flashing, piercing, or
warming. Like our sense of touch, the quasi-haptic exploratory eye induces immediate emotional
reactions, enabling us to come to decisions on our interaction behavior.
Relevance For Perception-Adapted Design Evolvement:
With the deliberately designed visual guidance of this tentative look (e.g., by rhythmic, linear, or
depth parameters), we can, into a room or object system, inscribe a narrative dramaturgy of
reading, and we can thus support and control the quasi-physical quality of the gaze’s exploration
activity: We can:
generate dynamisms of direction and synesthetic sensations of explorative motion (see
fig. 16);
produce growing, streaming, or pacing analogies (see fig. 15);
strengthen or weaken the impression of plasticity;
determine the sequence of space experiences.
Seeing is therefore an activity that creates preforms of physical exploration: the visual perception
is a holistic experience, representing our entire physique.
2.4. Construction Of Dynamikomorphic Narratives
Visual perception—a series of snapshots (an idea suggested as early as 1826 by the exponent of
British Empiricism, David Hume)? Gibson (1986) denies that idea: “The evidence suggests that
visual awareness is in fact panoramic and does in fact persist during long acts of locomotion.
But we can go even further: To estimate—at least rudimentarily—what could happen to us in our
Figure 15: Racing Car “Survolt”
Source: Citroen 2010
Figure 16: Set Design Hamlet, State Theatre
Meiningen
Source: Michael Heinrich 2000
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interaction with other beings and with our environment, we need to draw conclusions from the
current appearance of a person or situation to its past development and its future conduct (cf.
Husserl [1926] 2007, 171f; Buss 2008, 91ff). As soon as there is slight indexical evidence for
physical transformation, we tend to extend our interpretation of static phenomena: we conceive
them as potential freezings of dynamic processes. How easily observers attribute causality to
consecutive visual perceptions has already been shown by Michotte and by the discussion of his
hypothesis (Michotte 1963). The perceiver registers an indexical object “as mainly real, as
situated in space and time, functioning according to familiar principles.” (Wildgen 2013,
translation by the author). Based on a constant flow of cues and indicators, we let evolve
animated scenarios and mental concepts about ourselves and our environment to make our
predictions and conclusions more likely and our behavior more appropriate. These narrative
particles are probabilities; we equip them with the wealth of similar experiences and analogies
we have already accumulated. The emerging expectations take the role of anticipating cues, and
indeed studies prove that visual perception shows “improved efficiency when subjects were cued
to the location of the event” (see spatial-cueing paradigm, Posner 1987; Posner and Cohen 1984,
533); “Perception of space and shape is assumed to be a process of anticipating the sensory
consequences of actions” (Möller 1999). The particular narrative, where most of the perceptions
fit into place, and the most appropriate analogy will suggest how we should respond best to the
current stimuli and settings.
We could construe these spontaneous anticipating and concluding operations as
dynamizations of object representations; visual signals and properties that evoke such operations
could be called, in consequence, dynamikomorph (= taking the form of results and potentials of
dynamic forces; showing signs of dynamic influences; Greek dynamiko = potential; Greek
dynami = force). The domain of the arts was for a long time—and still is—driven by the
ambition to inspire narrative imagination by means of static but motion-suggestive and telling
representations and thus to develop the narrative potential of merely frozen screenshots of ever-
evolving reality (cf. Weber 1976, 212ff).
Relevance for Perception-Adapted Design Evolvement:
Independent of our input, each spatial structure will tell stories and generate analogies (not only
in terms of a “Narrative Architecture” [Coates 2012]). Designing in its full sense, therefore,
means to consider the possibilities for such stories and analogies, to apply or avoid them
intentionally, and to use visual appearances as semiotic codes (as discussed by biosemiotics;
good overviews cf. Barbieri 2008; Favareau 2010; Sebeok 2001). Whether we call, for example,
a table or chair elegant or clumsy will depend on the intensity of animated agility we add to its
appearance. In other words, the furniture tells our subconscious perception which process-like
interactions it would be capable to perform if animated. (see figs. 17, 18).
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Again, it is the language that incessantly reveals such projections: we call a building
“inviting,” “repellent,” or even “overwhelming”; windows can “stare” at us, towers “greet” us
from afar. The tavern “rests” in a valley; next to it “rises” a chapel. We furnish the object with a
projection of activity extending in time and involving us as observer. The mere static appearance
of an object seems thus to allow conclusions about its probable vitality, mobility, or mood—and
about its future interaction behavior: a car can seem “spirited;” a facade “cheerful,” “cozy,”
“proud,” or “cold.” How we evaluate such impressions in each case is dependent on our current
expectations or needs.
To proceed from an intended appearance to the actual form and design, it is quite useful to
search for anthropomorphic, biomorphic, and dynamikomorphic correlates or analogies.When we
design a building with tiny openings, for example, it will be hardly taken as “friendly”—for a
friendly face is “open.” If we provide a huge room with a low ceiling but little walls or
supporting elements (for instance in a parking garage), we unwillingly evoke collapse scenarios.
Figure 17: Dynamikomorphic Gestalt Profile: Clumsy—Heavy—Slow
Armchair “Plump,”, Nigel Coates, F.LLI.Boffi; Hippo, Oregon Zoo, Portland
Sources: Architonic 2009; Bob Mielke 2009
Figure 18: Dynamikomorphic Gestalt Profile: Agile—Light—Swift
Biedermeier Chair, Southern Germany (around 1825); Springbok, Namibia
Sources: Michael Heinrich 2014; Yathin Krishnappa 2012
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2.5. Expectation and Need Orientation; Contextualization
The result of the discussed functions of perception is a world of form and meaning made of an
infinitely complex network of stimuli. But still we need some criteria to reduce this multitude to
a few dominating themes that motivate our targeted activity. Our unconscious now selects those
impressions that will best suit our current needs or situational expectations, in other words,
potentials of evolvement, discovery, interaction, and existential protection, assisted by the Gestalt
laws (cf. Kootstra, Bergström, and Kragic 2011). Impressions filtered out as irrelevant are
automatically faded out of conscious attention.
The unconscious portions of the visual field of perception, on the other hand, constitute a
situational context and expectation frame that influences the interpretation of conscious
perceptions (atmosphere, see above). Expectation frames can be so strong that unexpected
though striking features are simply airbrushed out of attention (cf. Simons and Chabris 1999).
The degree of stress on the visual perception is a matter of situational, individual need. Like any
other physical function, the perceptual apparatus requires on the one hand exercise, stimulation,
and active effort; on the other hand, it requires periods of rest and relaxation by reduced stimulus
input. A moderate level of complexity and arousal potential seems to be, on average, most
comfortable (see Berlyne 1960), a finding that exposes design dogmas of absolutized reduction
as to be questioned and contextualized: “The empirical work on architectural detail … tends to
support the hypothesis that detail is an important part of preferences for buildings.” (Stamps
2000).
Relevance for Perception-Adapted Design Evolvement:
“Form follows function” (Sullivan 1896). By the functionalist opinion leaders of the 1920s until
today, this dictum has been interpreted quite simplistically: the term “function” was
unquestionably equated with utilitarian function or use function and thus reduced to a strongly
biased interpretation. The basic assumption—a pure ideal, rational form as the ultimate aim in
design should be approached by reduction, abstraction, and authenticity—discredited the
knowledge on the wealth of subjective and atmospheric association (“ornament and crime,” Loos
1908). From today’s point of view, a differentiated, atmospherically sophisticated appearance
with a range of appropriate association options represents an essential communicational function
Figure 19: Church of Light, Ibaraki
Profile of Needs: to meditate—to congregate—to come to
rest—sincerity, inwardness
Tadao Ando 1989
Source: Bergmann 2006
Figure 20: Vierzehnheiligen Basilica
Profile of Needs: to marvel—to explore—to rejoice—to be
moved—cheerfulness, attentiveness
Balthasar Neumann 1753
Source: Gunther Seibold 2013
Photo, ©: Bujdosó, Attila (2005)
30
HEINRICH: DESIGNING ON NATURE’S TERMS
even preceding the purpose function. The level of such differentiation has always been dependent
on the perceptional needs and ambitions of the concerned users (see figs. 19, 20).
3. Evolutionary Significance Of Anthropomorphic, Biomorphic, And
Dynamikomorphic Attributions
When we are born, we initially find ourselves in a visual universe of incredible complexity. To
rearrange this chaos of disparate sensory irritations into a world of sorted meanings, our
perception at first has to subdivide and group the continuum of stimuli into objects or
subsystems. In doing so, real physical limits are reduced, analogized, interpreted, and
supplemented. This subdivision sure is a very practical matter—to turn it into an evolutionary
success, we must be able to attribute meaning to these things (including other living beings) with
regard to our existential interests. We have to be capable of checking in fractions of a second
their threats or opportunities and select the correct response immediately, namely a behavior that
enables us to meet our current needs most likely or benefits an existential advantage to us or our
horde.
At each encounter with a fellow creature in the jungle or on the savannah, our ancestors had
to detect and distinguish the finest differences of physical potential, movement, posture, outline,
or facial expressions to successfully compete and survive. They had to be able to read objectives,
intentions, needs, abilities, powers, and environmental potentials and dangers directly from the
appearance of living beings and landscape signals (see Buss 2008, 90f; Ulrich 1983) and
accomplish this, if possible, with a small head start (see figs. 21, 22).
Anthropomorphic, biomorphic, and dynamikomorphic attributions are interpretation models
that are instantaneously disposable. They enable rapid identification and unrivalled predictability
of scenarios of animate and inanimate natural systems and environments. As they can cover
innumerable situations of existential threat and crucial probabilities (see Guthrie 1997, 56), for
humans they constitute evolutionary essentials. If they sometimes come to nothing because they
prove to be completely inappropriate, they are still not in vain: they serve at least as a practice
maneuver, keeping the psycho-physical reaction chain of the next case of emergency in good
working order. When concerned objects and properties reach us beyond the threshold of
conscious perception (cf. LeDoux 1996; Hasse 2012), they are generating feelings that we can
neither define nor locate; they create sensations that condense concertedly inside us into a vague
but intense mood blend (see figs. 23, 24). This network of mood colors we interpret—again
unconsciously—as a diffuse feature of space itself, and we call it atmosphere (see Böhme [1995]
2007, 309).
An atmosphere puts us in a certain expectation and a preparatory state of mind, long in
advance of individual stimuli claiming individual reactions. The sense of atmosphere thus
Figure 21: Leopard, Kenia
Source: Nikolaus Reich 2011
Figure 22: Abandoned Cat, Montmartre, Paris
Source: Thomas Holste 2009
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THE INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF VISUAL DESIGN
supports the goal-orientation, adequacy, and speed of our interaction with the environment; it is
far from a superfluous squeamishness but highly functional.
4. Interpretation and Application History of Anthropomorphic, Biomorphic,
and Dynamikomorphic Attributions
Since the discussed topics are basic processings of human perception, we find evidence of them
in all human cultures and at all times. These attributions are particularly apparent when
unfamiliar aspects of the world are interpreted as living entities for the sake of turning their mood
to benevolence with the means of human communication. Mythologies and religions use
allegories and deities to give a human face to complex and often unpredictable forces of nature.
Since the ancient world, architecture and design cross-link themselves by all kinds of
semiotic enrichment, the use of biomorphic and dynamomorphic analogies, and properties with
the network of analogies and mythological narratives (see figs. 25, 26, 27). Similarly, the
Catholic Church uses—in the Gothic period of the Middle Ages but also in the Counter-
Reformation and beyond—art and architecture as a projection of anthropo-, zoo-, and biomorphic
analogies and narrative structures (see figs. 28, 29, 30). Since the Renaissance, the human urge
toward anthropomorphization becomes a subject of speculative philosophy, anthropology, and
architectural aesthetics, the latter making efforts to develop corresponding formal grammars (see
figs. 31, 32, 33). With the blossoming of a scientific, analytical perspective in the wake of
humanism, the rational thinking of Cartesian dualism and Enlightenment increasingly dissociates
itself from many applied forms of nonrational world experience, such as biomorphism.
Figure 23: The City of the Dead, Horror Film
Source: Hammer Studios, GB 1960
Figure 24: Snow White, Concept Art
Source: Walt Disney, Holly wood 1937
32
HEINRICH: DESIGNING ON NATURE’S TERMS
Figure 29: The Lord/Creation of
Adam, Rome, Sixtina.
Michelangelo Buonarroti 1510
Source: SwissEduc-Team 2010
Figure 28: Holy Cross Minster,
Schwäbisch Gmünd. Peter Parler
1380
Source: Wikipedia Commons 2009
Figure 30: Symbolic Sketch, St.
Peter, Rome. Gianlorenzo
Bernini 1657
Source: Specchio Romano 2010
Figure 25: Erechteion, Caryatid Porch,
Athens (ca. 410 BC)
Source: hst 2011
Figure 26: Poseidon
/Zeus, Greece
(ca. 460 BC)
Source: NAM, Athens
Figure 27: Temple of Hera, Biomorphic Entasis
of Doric Columns, Paestum (ca. 550 BC)
Source: Andrew Selkirk 2012.)
Figure 31: Trattato di Architettura:
Entablature. Francesco di Giorgio
Martini 1490
Source: BNCF Firenze.
Figure 32: Trattato di
Architettura: Church Plan.
Francesco di Giorgio
Martini 1490
Source: Wikipedia
Figure 33: The First and Chiefe
Groundes of Architecture: Ionic
Order. John Shute 1563
Source: INHA 2009
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THE INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF VISUAL DESIGN
The scientific bias increased during the nineteenth century, and it is the antirationalist
movement of Romanticism—domain of the arts and a holistic, passionate, and associative access
to the world—that takes the role of a sanctuary for natural analogies, e.g., for the forest metaphor
(see figs. 34, 35). Until the end of Jugendstil (see fig. 36), the idea of primordial nature holds its
ground as a projection screen not only for harmonic beauty but also for the “sublime” (see Burke
[1757] 1998) and for expression, soulfulness, and sentiment, a place of refuge at the edge of the
overwhelming industrialization and social upheavals.
Expressionism and the early Bauhaus movement feature a bridge from constructivism to
nature analogies with the cave metaphor (see fig. 37) or the crystal metaphor (as in Bruno Taut
and Rudolf Jahns; see Szymczak 2006, 214; see fig. 38). But the leading analogy of the coming
decades will be the epitome of speed, ratio, modernity, purity, and efficiency: the machine.
As a nonhuman mold, it generates a utopian technophile and hygienic metaphor of man (see
Drake 2008, 91–130), stripped of any supposedly infantile (cf. Gebhard 2009) or animistic
atavisms of a primitive creatural past. Since the 1960s, globalization and digitalization
increasingly mix cultural patterns in Western societies; postmodernism opens up the architectural
and design scene for semiotic and symbolic aspects of spatial communication. Beyond the
academically dominating neomodernism in everyday industrial design production, the discussed
Figure 34: St. Nikolai, Leipzig. Carl
Friedrich Dauthe 1797
Source: Wikimedia Commons 2012
Figure 35: Mausoleum for Queen
Louise. Karl Friedrich
Schinkel 1810
Source: Nationalgalerie Berlin
Figure 36: Sagrada Família
Cathedral, Barcelona.
Antoni Gaudí 1882
Source: Fanshare 2012
Figure 37: Great Schauspielhaus, Berlin. Hans Poelzig 1919
Source: Architekturmuseum TU Berlin
Figure 38: Glass Pavilion, Werkbund-
Exhibition, Cologne. Bruno Taut 1914
Source: Wikipedia
34
HEINRICH: DESIGNING ON NATURE’S TERMS
analogies are used more and more, at least since the 1950s, simply because they have proved
effective and reliable as a marketing and selling instrument (e.g., in car design; cf. DiSalvo 2003,
Miesler 2011). The comic culture owes much to these processes, if not its emergence.
Many architects and interior and product designers take a great interest in a new justifiability of
design, beyond technology addiction, arbitrary aesthetic lifestyle trends, or cemented remains of
an outdated Bauhaus ideology (see Kruft 1991, 461; see figs. 39, 40).
In this context, dynamomorphic approaches have gained widespread popularity via flagship
projects of deconstructivistic architects such as Gehry, Libeskind, Hadid (see fig. 41), or Coop
Himmelblau. The spirit of aesthetic experiment is, however, clouded in the lowlands of everyday
architecture by the challenge of energy efficiency and its economic necessities.
5. Conclusion
Anthropomorphic and biomorphic analogies and dynamikomorphic narratives are basic functions
of our perception and an integral part of our creative intelligence. As such, they can contribute
significantly to the success and acceptance of design interventions and strongly support a holistic
reference to human needs.
Many related questions remain to further scientific investigation. How exactly is health and
well-being affected by aesthetic influences? How does the abstraction tendency of our potential
to create simplified Gestalten correlate with the oppositional tendency of analogy to differentiate
perceived figures, making them match an already experienced context of meaning? Referring to
architecture and the fine arts: How can we explain the affinity to more and more sophisticated
mimesis in relation to abstraction (which neurobiologist Semir Zeki [2001] calls “a supreme law”
of the visual brain), such as appearing likewise in primitive and modern art? There is excellent
basic research and interesting speculative answers (see Worringer [1907] 2007; Arnheim [1978]
2000; Berlyne 1960, 228–61); in the last decades, the quantitative and qualitative research
concerning aesthetics has further intensified, exploiting new techniques of neurobiology and
neurosciences and connecting related fields like biosemiotics, neuroaesthetics, evolutionary
psychology, and environmental psychology.
Figure 40: Stuttgart Airport, Terminal 3, Stuttgart.
Meinhard von Gerkan 2004
Source: Ralph Wagner 1998
Figure 39: Allen Lambert Galleria, Toronto.
Santiago Calatrava 1992
Source: Jelsoft Ltd. 2006
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THE INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF VISUAL DESIGN
Figure 41: Museo Betile, Cagliari. Zaha Hadid 2006
Source: Baunetz 2006
Figure 42: TownTown Office Tower Erdberg, Vienna
Source: Coop Himmelblau 2010
Figure 43: “Form Follows Function”
Source: Regio GmbH 2014; Sugar Ray Banister
2009; Wikipedia
36
HEINRICH: DESIGNING ON NATURE’S TERMS
Within the creative practice of spatial arts, awareness of the discussed relationships of form
and perception is pronounced differently. In many trendsetting architectural, scenographic, and
communicational contexts of the 20th century, an ambitious avant-garde of interdisciplinary
designers (for example, van de Velde, Wright, Saarinen, Aalto, Calatrava, Hadid) has long been
involving conceptual, structural, or ornamental biomorphics and dynamiko-morphics, supported
by increasingly powerful CAD systems (see fig. 42). The everyday architecture of industrial,
commercial, and residential buildings, however, follows to a great extent one-dimensional
economistic urges (see fig. 43). The extensive aesthetic diversity within a heterogeneous society
requires a constant discussion on conceptual aesthetic core qualities of public and individual
spaces. Corresponding reflection and research, including the discussed matters of perception,
therefore earn an appropriate position in methodical design education: to limit the arbitrariness of
aesthetic ideologies, trends, and fashions.
Perhaps one of the major challenges for design research, design education, and design
training is to continually systematize the multidisciplinary mosaic pieces of evidence; to relate
them to each other; and, thus, to provide a structured, updating body of qualitative parameters
that can help to establish standards of differentiation and reflection in the practice of design and
architecture (an excellent approach is “A Pattern Language,” Alexander et al. [1977] 1995). This
survey wants to contribute to that aim and, by embedding the visual perception of static design
phenomena in a process-related concept of transforming meanings, extrapolations, and
conclusions (see above, dynamicomorphism), to support a dynamic perspective on human visual
perception in its relation to design approaches.
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THE INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF VISUAL DESIGN
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Michael Heinrich: Professor (Visual Communication, Set Design, Design Principles, History of
Interior Architecture), Department of Interior Architecture, Faculty of Design, Coburg University
of Applied Sciences, Coburg, Bavaria, Germany
40
The International Journal of Visual Design is one of
six thematically focused journals in the collection of
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Practices knowledge community—its journals, book
series, conference and online community.
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IS S N 232 5 -15 81
... Anthropomorphism encourages people to decode and interact with unfamiliar objects through their own corporeality and human likeness (Heinrich 2016;Verganti 2008). Designers embed anthropomorphic forms into products because they believe it will appeal to the human senses and empathize with customers. ...
... Designers embed anthropomorphic forms into products because they believe it will appeal to the human senses and empathize with customers. Design attributes such as symmetry, silhouettes, curviness, and convexity generate human analogies and visually mimic the natural contours of human bodies (Heinrich 2016). Familiar feelings of naturalness and harmony can elicit positive emotions in customers, thereby improving the user experience (Payne et al. 2013). ...
... The dynamic processes of visual perception and social cognition, which underlie these phenomena, aim to engross unfamiliar objects or technologies within familiar and changing storylines. These storylines change because as people encounter and try to make sense of consumer technologies in their day-to-day lives, they must reconstruct the past and anticipate future possibilities to THE INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF TECHNOLOGY, KNOWLEDGE, AND SOCIETY evaluate them (Heinrich 2016). In a similar vein, the findings remind us that interaction is a sociotechnical process, comprised of active participation and social presence in a digitally mediated environment. ...
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Full-text available
Human aesthetic experience: How does aesthetic evaluation work in terms of psychological and neurobiological evidence? How do we assign meaning to sensual percepts? Why do we find commonalities as well as differences between individual aesthetic perception, interpretation and evaluation? New models and categorization structures are suggested.
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Full-text available
Through sensory and sensorimotor spatial experience and its interpretation, the aesthetic qualities of the environment have been shown to have a consistent influence on the psycho-physical constitution of individuals and their social practices. A systematic, metadisciplinary examination and scientific classification of aesthetic parameters – especially with regard to salutogenic design – seems therefore an indispensable aspect of the design concept development within design professions such as urban planning, architecture, interior design, and product and communication design, but is still pending in the field of so-called „Design Studies“. In this light, the present work first examines aesthetic-relevant statements (specifically on visual perception and its aesthetic interpretation) from Western philosophy and science and integrates their common positions into a relational and categorically ordered paradigm. Core aspects of aesthetic effectiveness are identified, formulated and condensed into a compendium of complementary laws, which can be used as a structured instrument for didactic questions within design theory. The second part of the work is devoted to the question of how aesthetic perception and the intuitive evaluation of visual perception are coupled with functions of time perception and the creation of a temporally coherent flow of experience. In aesthetic perception, exogenous and endogenous factors of the control of preparedness for action and behaviour interlock and condense into a multisensory tableau and thus enable intuitive construction of temporal anticipations and reconstructions. This temporal extrapolation establishes a temporally-based narrative within which the experiencing subject can use causal attributions and the identification of process lines to prospectively align their interaction with the environment and adapt it to presumed developments. The process includes a relatively equal measure of affective reactions and rational interpretations. In a special reference to visual instruments of design, this „time-creating“ relationship of sensory-phenomenal qualities of an environment to an experiencing subject and its perception patterns is conceptualized as "morphodynamics", justified and compared to different scientific disciplinary perspectives on perception and consciousness. The concept is exemplified and illustrated by a historical examination of morphodynamics in art and design and, furthermore, by graphic visualizations. The third and final part of the work deals with the described potential of aesthetic experience in relation to health-promoting (i.e., salutogenic) environmental design. This section reflects the current state of scientific knowledge on the relationship between aesthetics and health and identifies interfaces at which creative interventions can contribute to both a high level of well-being and the healing expectations of patients/clients, as well as to the efficiency of process flow and personnel satisfaction. The modulatory effect of expectation horizons on well-being and health is the focus of examination. The overall aim of this metadisciplinary design theoretical concept framework is to both document the relevance of visual-aesthetic perception and interpretation for the experience of world and time, for human well-being and overall psycho-physical constitution, and to present the corresponding impact relationships in a structured way, as well as to provide an appropriate set of methodical approaches for design didactics and design application.
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Der Mensch ist als Teil der Natur im biologisch-materiellen Sinne an den Zustand der Natur gebunden. Ulrich Gebhard geht es um die psychische Seite dieses grundlegenden ökologischen Zusammenhangs und wie er sich auf die Entwicklung von Kindern auswirkt. Hierzu werden theoretische Annahmen ‒ vor allem der Psychoanalyse und der Umweltpsychologie ‒ entfaltet und vor diesem Hintergrund empirische Befunde und Beobachtungen ausgewertet. Neben der anschaulichen Darstellung, wie die äußere Natur ‒ Tiere, Pflanzen und Landschaften ‒ die innere Natur des Menschen beeinflusst und wie sich ein entsprechender Mangel ‒ ‚unwirtliche Städte‘ und ‚Umweltzerstörung‘ ‒ auswirken, werden ‚Naturerfahrung und Gesundheit‘, ‚Naturerfahrung und Umweltbewusstsein‘ und ‚Naturästhetik‘ thematisiert. Die Zielgruppen • Wissenschafterinnen und Wissenschaftler aus den Bereichen Pädagogik, Psychologie, Gesundheitsforschung und Fachdidaktik Biologie • Akteure in der Natur- und Umweltbildung • Lehrerinnen und Lehrer Der Autor Dr. Ulrich Gebhard war bis 2019 Professor am Fachbereich Erziehungswissenschaft der Universität Hamburg und ist Psychoanalytiker für Kinder- und Jugendliche.
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Recent legislative trends in the United States, the United Kingdom, and many other countries now require accurate and efficient assessment of environmental aesthetics. Most of this assessment is currently undertaken using traditional design judgment, but when the powers of the government are used to enforce policy the scope of the aesthetic evaluation requires consideration of questions such as `What concepts will aesthetic decision makers need to perform their intended function?', `How can they obtain the information they need?', and `What is currently known about environmental aesthetics?'. This book answers those questions with a solid, logical theory of environmental aesthetics, empirical evidence covering 277 studies, 41,000 respondents and 12,000 stimuli, and seven case histories showing how the theory can be applied to actual aesthetic decisions. The book proposes a unified protocol for measuring the magnitude of aesthetic impacts. It also applies that protocol to 94 specific findings which span a very wide range of issues.