A survey on the emotional responses of users to building forms: focusing on digitally manipulated curvilinearity

Abstract

In recent years, computer technologies in architecture have been chiefly changing the form of buildings, as it proposes a novel geometric language and different form-finding methods. It is widely known that computer technologies have enabled the design and construction of curvilinear forms to be more economical and faster than the pre-digitalization period for most cases and helped to design amorphous curvatures. Therefore, curvilinear forms have become more prevalent in architectural discourse and practice. This study approached the subject of digital curvilinearity from the perspective of the user. The aim of this thesis is to measure the emotional responses of the users to curvilinear building forms and compare them with the reactions to rectilinear ones. In order to measure peoples' responses to various building forms, 12 building cases were created, including rectilinear and digital curvilinear forms in this study. An online questionnaire is prepared with the visuals of these various building forms, and the answers are arranged according to Mehrabian and Russell's adjective pairs. 114 respondents voluntarily answered these questions, and the results were evaluated by using SPSS software. The responses of the respondents to rectilinear and curvilinear forms were compared. The results showed that participants' emotional responses were more positive for the digital curvilinear forms proposed compared to conventional rectilinear forms. In addition, there was no significant difference between the participants' emotional reactions to forms that are generated with different form manipulation methods.