Abstract
For a long time, researchers have understood that the built environment affects the satisfaction and well-being of occupants. Several authors have argued that buildings trigger a physiological response in their occupants, that the architectural design of an environment impacts the behaviour of its occupants, and that spaces provoke emotions and enhance action. The mismatch between the way the built environment is designed and the users' needs is an issue that leads to dissatisfaction and expensive and time-consuming alterations to the built environment.
Despite the knowledge of architecture's impact, few tools in interior architecture address the assessment of visual satisfaction and well-being of space occupants. Although studies have been done to assess specific elements of space and specific emotions and physiological responses, there is a lack of practical methodologies that designers and researchers can use.
The principal objective of this study is to craft a methodology for digitally assessing the spatial perception of users regarding their visual satisfaction and well-being in interior architecture, with practical applicability throughout the design process with the ultimate goal of fostering user-centric architectural design.
The development of such methodology will be operationalised using an iterative process involving the relevant stakeholders, namely interior architects and end-users of buildings, along several stages of the research. An immersive testbed that incorporates methods to convert designs into experiences and assessment methods will be devised. The testbed and assessment methods will be piloted by applying the validation square with end-users and design experts.
Since interior spaces are of extreme relevance for the well-being of their users, the development of the proposed methodology will greatly impact the scientific community and the design sector through its practical applicability and, by fostering user-centric architectural design, will have significant social relevance.
Researcher(s)
Research team(s)
Project type(s)