Subjective and Objective Factors in Subjective Semantic Evaluations of Architectural Works

Abstract

This research focuses on empirical explorations of psychological features and mechanisms of the perception of architectural space in professional architects; on the comparison of semantic evaluations and factors of the perception of architecture in professionals and non-professionals; and on the comparison of the perception and semantic evaluation of real architectural works and of photographs of these works, measured with techniques of personality and architectural semantic differential and the Value Spectrum technique. As it was revealed, the perception and semantic evaluation of architectural works differs in professional architects and non-professionals only when the perceived object is somewhat unusual, complex and does not correspond with conventional images, for example, like it is in constructivism. Also, it was found that value/semantic evaluation of architectural works as measured by the Value Spectrum technique provides more information about the process of perception and understanding of architecture when carried out in the real environment. At the same time, personality and architectural semantic differentials did not reveal any significant differences between the perception of the real object and its photograph, which suggests that these techniques can be employed for the study of the perception and semantic evaluation of architectural works using just photographs.

Keywords

• perception of architecture
• subjective semantics
• semantic code
• semantic differential