Abstract
In order to meet the needs and desires of the community and to shape the environment successfully it is important to reveal how we perceive the landscape and the factors that affect our preferences for different landscapes. This study focused on the role of several visual quality concepts, including complexity, coherence and historicity, and on the preference for changing the scenery of a city. To fulfill the objectives of the research, 107 people were asked to evaluate old and new scenes of Trabzon city using these concepts, and their preferences for various scenes were identified. Findings showed that complexity, coherence and historicity have an influence on environmental preferences. An inverse U-shape relationship was found between complexity and preference. The scenes with a medium level of complexity were preferred to the scenes with a higher or lower level of complexity. Coherence and historicity were found to be directly related to preference. In this paper, the general features of complexity, historicity and coherence were considered valid for assessment and preference of the urban scene.
