Nonexpert Evaluations on Architectural Design Creativity Across Cultures

Abstract

This article examines the relationship between cultural differences and the nonexpert evaluations of architectural design creativity. In study I, Caucasian Americans (N = 126) and East Asians (N = 137), who did not major in architecture and urban design, evaluated the novelty and appropriateness of 5 unusual architectural shapes, selected by 5 experts in the field of architecture. In study II, the 2 cultural groups selected preferred alternatives from 3 pairs of silhouettes of architectural shapes that were distinctive and indistinctive from the adjacent environments. The data were collected by an online survey tool. Multiple analysis of variance (MANOVA) and subsequent t-tests revealed that East Asians awarded lower scores as regards the novelty and appropriateness of unusual, novel architectural forms, and that they accepted unusual and distinctive architectural shapes less than the Caucasian Americans did. These results indicated that cultural differences between these 2 groups affected the nonexpert creativity evaluations, as introduced in previous cross-cultural studies. The East Asians’ creativity evaluations and preference tests were possibly influenced by their perceptions of contextual information and emphasis on the holistic and interdependent relationships amongst environmental elements, whereas the Caucasian Americans’ evaluations were related to their analytic tendency to be aware of focal objects and independent identity.