CONTENTS Abstract i Acknowledgements iii CONTENTS v List of tables ix List of figures xi 1 Introduction 3 1.1 Experience and intuition in design 3 1.2 Possibility of an empirical approach to architectural experience 4 1.3 Methodological challenges and possibilities 5 1.4 The advent of immersive virtual reality systems and their role in new methodological possibilities 6 1.5 The Structure of this Thesis 7 2 Review of Literature and Synthesis of Research Questions 9 2.1 Virtual Display and Simulation Technologies 9 2.1.1 Evolution of VR systems 9 2.1.2 Approximation of Reality in VR systems 10 2.2 Overview of theories pertaining to architectural forms and spatial enclosures 11 2.2.1 Introduction to fundamental components of spaces, and basic definitions 11 2.2.2 Space, Structure, and Enclosure 12 2.2.3 Variation in formal attributes and specific architectural elements 14 2.3 Architecture and architectural ‘experience’ 15 2.4 Emotion, perception and cognition in humans 18 2.4.1 Sensation, Perception and Cognition 18 2.4.2 Theories of emotion 19 2.4.3 The Structure of Emotion 20 2.5 Quantifying and recording emotional and cognitive response 21 2.5.1 Biological Indicators and Facial Expressions 22 2.5.2 Affective Appraisals 23 2.5.3 The Semantic Differential 24 2.5.4 Bipolar Scales and the Circumplex Model 25 2.5.5 The Self-Assessment Manikin 27 2.5.6 Scales and framework for assessing spatial experience 28 2.6 Related past experiments empirically examining architectural experience in spatial enclosures 30 2.6.1 ‘An empirical approach to the experience of architectural space in VR’ - (Franz, von der Heyde and Bulthoff) 30 2.6.2 ‘Space And Human Perception – Exploring Our Reaction to Different Geometries of Spaces’ (Shemesh, Bar and Grobman) 32 2.7 Synthesis of key concepts and research question 33 2.8 Research Aims and Objectives 35 3 Methodological Framework 37 3.1 Defining ‘aspects’ of architectural experience and drawing up a methodological framework for objective recording and analysis 38 3.2 Defining the sets of spatial configurations for experimentation 41 3.3 The Display Technology 47 3.3.1 Gear 47 3.3.2 The setup 48 3.3.3 Generating Immersive Environments 49 3.4 Sampling 51 3.5 The Experiment Process 51 4 Results, Analysis, and Key Inferences 55 4.1 Results 55 4.1.1 Preliminary Experiments 55 4.1.2 Final Experiments 57 4.2 Analysis and Discussion 59 4.2.1 Preliminary Experiments 59 4.2.1.1 Effect of Sequence 59 4.2.1.2 Peak values of Valence 62 4.2.1.3 The emotional parameter of Arousal and Daylight Factor 66 4.2.2 Final Experiments 71 4.2.2.1 Opening configurations and perceived degree of enclosure 71 4.2.2.2 Volume configurations and perceived spaciousness 73 4.2.2.3 Partition configurations and perceived degree of separation 75 5 Conclusion 79 Rohit Priyadarshi Sanatani vii References 85 Appendices 87 A1.Results of pilot experiment testing consistency of results between appraisal Methods 87 A2.Render Sets for Preliminary Experiments 89 A3. Render Sets for Final Experiments 90 A4. Raw Data: Preliminary Experiments 91 A5. Raw Data: Final Experiments 95