Architectural Design Categorization
Up to the date, there is no a defined way to connect the perception of the architectural space by users and the spatial properties of the architect’s design. In other words, the architect still misses –in most of the cases- the feedback of the user of buildings in order to modify his/her design. This normally leads to problems such as unsatisfying experiences for users, budget increase with rehabilitations and adaptations of the building, or waste of efforts for the architect. The final goal of this project is to elaborate a method which categorizes the architectural design based on: the vocabulary describing the spatial perception from both architects and users and, a set of already existing metrics describing the properties of the space -in terms of geometry, visuals, acoustics, etc.-
The project proposes a three-step process in order to generate a bridge between both worlds:
- Novel descriptive analysis techniques are used such as semantic differential or multifactor analysis.
- Diversity in the tested population is a key factor when analysing the daily life’s implications of the architectural design.
The collected adjectives are used in a test in order to construct a personal weighted vocabulary.
- Individual profiling provides direct knowledge of what people is judging.
- The architectural scenarios are presented in laboratory conditions, allowing reproducibility and control of the variables.
The subjective data is, then, correlated with objective data extracted from the architectural environments. We can learn from the relations between them in order to predict how people would judge new architectural designs.
- The existing literature provides a wide range of objective and subjective metrics of the architectural space and perception.
- The main output is to generate a tool which prioritizes the architectural elements of new architectural designs.