Measuring view preferences in cities: a window onto urban landscapes

ABSTRACT

Landscape plays a crucial role in modern life for urban dwellers although the majority of their time is spent indoors. In this context, window view is the dominant way of connecting urban dwellers to landscapes. The visual quality of urban environments can have a great influence on the quality of life. But how can visual quality be assessed? This paper presents a novel method Active Perception Technique to measure visual preference for urban scenes. Windowscape is used as a convenient tool using graphic responses to draw from memory what landscape people recall seeing. Active Perception Technique is designed to both identify the most and least visually preferred features of urban windowscapes and to predict preference for windowscapes. Results show that natural features of urban windowscapes were preferred over built ones. However, some natural features contributed more strongly to overall preference than others. Preferences for some features were found to differ across home and workplace windowscapes. Personal association with features was also found to impact on visual preferences. Results obtained can be useful for policy makers, and planners to enhance the visual quality of built environments. Active Perception Technique may also have other uses; including examining the perceived significance of cultural features in everyday urban landscapes.

KEYWORDS:

• Urban Landscape
• preference
• windowscape
• Active Perception Technique
• green infrastructure

Acknowledgements

The authors would like to acknowledge the advice of Dr Michael Linzey and Dr George Dodd.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Leila Mirza

Leila Mirza is a Reclad Specialist and researcher at Auckland Council, New Zealand. Leila received a PhD degree in Architecture from the University of Auckland, New Zealand in 2015. Her main research interests are visual preferences of urban landscapes and their effect on health and wellbeing.

Hugh Byrd

Hugh Byrd is Professor of Architecture at the University of Lincoln, UK and Adjunct Professor of Architecture at Unitec, NZ. Hugh's main research interests are in the future form of buildings and cities to mitigate resource depletion and climate change. This has led to international collaborations with both governmental and non-governmental organisations as well as the UN and other academic institutions. Hugh is also a practicing architect specialising in low-carbon buildings. He is currently researching into the rebuilding of Christchurch, New Zealand. His reports and publications can be viewed here: https://staff.lincoln.ac.uk/6721dece-50be-4a52-b26c-9c5ea2f3bf02