Research on Architectural Color and Visual Comfort in Historic Landscape Areas

• Published in: Buildings (Basel) Vol. 13; no. 4; p. 1004
• Main Authors: Wang, Zhanzhu, Sun, Hao, Li, Jie
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Basel MDPI AG 01.04.2023
• Subjects: Aesthetics; Analysis; architectural color; architectural heritage; Architecture; Buildings; Color; color evaluation; Cultural heritage; Culture; Design; Emotions; Energy efficiency; Green buildings; Historic buildings; Historic buildings & sites; Historic districts; Historic preservation; Historical buildings; urban renewal; Urbanization; China
• ISSN: 2075-5309; 2075-5309
• DOI: 10.3390/buildings13041004

New buildings continue to be constructed in historic districts as urbanization accelerates. This leads to incongruities between historic and modern buildings, as well as degradation of the historic landscape. As a means of resolving these problems, this study uses the expert scoring method to solicit opinions from relevant experts through anonymous methods for architectural samples and establishes two groups of architectural images that have been screened for objective color attribute analysis. Comparing the architectural color codes on site was conducted using the Chinese Architectural Color Card based on the Munsell color system. Furthermore, questionnaires were used to measure the differences in visual comfort between different building types by asking the subjects to rate architectural colors when viewing architectural images. This study will also combine the advantages of measurement and analysis of objective objects with the study of human perceptual experience in order to enhance its practicality. In general, the buildings in the West Nanjing Road Historic Landscape District are painted in warm yellow, and the public is aware of its comforting color. Both historical and modern buildings in the historic district are mostly of medium and high brightness, and both use low-purity colors for the main body of their structures. Despite some differences between people of different genders, ages, and literacy levels, all of them agree on the main tone of warm yellow color in architectural colors.