RESUMEN
Buildings are an integral part of our physical environment and have aesthetic significance with respect to the organizational integrity of architectural elements. While Gestalt principles are essential in design education, their relationship with architectural features remains understudied. The present study explored how Gestalt principles and complexity levels influence evaluations of building façades through the use of questionnaires and eye tracking. Twenty-four two-dimensional black and white façade drawings, manipulated using selected Gestalt principles (similarity and proximity) to achieve different levels of complexity (low, medium & high), were presented to 79 participants. The results suggested a negative linear relationship between aesthetic ratings and complexity levels across selected Gestalt principles. In addition, as expected, participants had the highest number of fixations, shortest fixation durations, and lowest aesthetic ratings for higher levels of complexity. Results involving Gestalt principles revealed that proximity-based designs received higher aesthetic ratings, demanded less time, elicited lower number of fixations, and resulted in shorter fixation durations. Conversely, similarity-based designs received lower aesthetic ratings, demanded more time, elicited higher number of fixations, and resulted in longer fixation durations. These findings offer insights into architectural aesthetic experiences and inform future research directions.
RESUMEN
The basic variables associated with the dormitory satisfaction of 140 undergraduate university students were examined using a questionnaire. Secondly, the roles of (a) gender differences and (b) distance of the rooms to communal areas, (c) room density (i.e., identical rooms housing three vs. four students), and (d) dormitory layout (i.e., clustered vs. long corridor design) on crowding and privacy were explored. The aims of the present studies were twofold: The first aim was to explore variables associated with students' satisfaction with their university dormitories. The second aim was to examine differences in dormitory satisfaction as a function of density, room location with respect to hallway design, and distance to communal areas. The results indicated that the level of dormitory satisfaction seems to increase with decreasing room density, having a clustered hallway design as opposed to a long corridor design, and being further away from as opposed to closer to communal areas. In other words, higher density and proximity of rooms to communal areas seem to increase crowding and reduce privacy. Although female students reported being less satisfied with their dormitories, they seemed to be more satisfied with their social relationships compared to men. The study examines the role of multiple factors involving the relationship of room density, dormitory design, distance of rooms to communal areas with reported privacy, crowding, and dormitory satisfaction using both correlational data and field experiments. The results may contribute to improving dormitory designs and enhance our understanding of issues related to privacy and dormitory satisfaction.