Speaker
Description
Streets are one of the important public spaces of daily life (Jacobs, 1961). Visual quality is an important factor that determines the attractiveness of these spaces and represents a perceptual value that represents the visual experience resulting from street views (Qi et al., 2023). In urban perception studies, street views provide indicators that allow spatial quality to be evaluated from a human scale and make significant contributions to urban planning and design processes (Biliecki et al., 2021; Jiang et al., 2022).
Lothian (1999) suggests a mixed approach in which both objective and subjective paradigms are used together in evaluating the visual quality of the natural and built environment. The literature review reveals that mixed method approaches to the aesthetic environment are limited. Nasar (1998) examined the effects of street views on people by addressing psychological factors that include subjective evaluations in the evaluation of environmental perception.
It is stated in the literature that studies on the effects of different seasons on individuals' urban perceptions and aesthetic preferences provide important findings (Zhao et al., 2017; Kuper, 2020). Seasonal change of green spaces on the streets is an important component of landscape perception and aesthetic evaluation in studies on visual quality (Junge et al., 2015). How people perceive the aesthetic value of a green space depends on both the physical characteristics of the green space and the perceptual processes that these features evoke in the viewer (Daniel, 2001). However, it has been observed that comparative studies addressing seasonal differences are limited in studies evaluating visual quality through street images (Junge et al., 2015; Palang et al., 2007; Stobbelaar and Hendriks, 2007). In the detailed literature search conducted with the keyword "seasonal differences", a total of 131 sources were reached in the Web of Science (WoS) database. However, the deficiencies in existing research limit our ability to fully understand how human perception and aesthetic preferences are affected by different seasons. In contrast, comparative studies addressing seasonal differences are reported to provide important information on how they affect people's perceptions and aesthetic tastes (Zhao et al., 2017; Kuper, 2020).
This study aims to analyze the effects of seasonal changes on visual quality through street images in Mebusevleri Neighborhood, one of the planned neighborhoods of Ankara during the early Republican period. By comparatively examining street images from different seasonal periods, the elements that determine the visual quality of urban spaces will be revealed. Fractal analysis (Cooper et al., 2010) and image statistical analysis will be applied to objectively evaluate the visual qualities of the streets, and a survey will be applied to subjectively evaluate aesthetic taste through street images. The relationship between the quantitative data set obtained with fractal analysis and image statistical analysis and the survey results will be evaluated using the correlation method. The findings will provide important clues for improving the visual quality of streets and therefore cities. As a result, the study will contribute to the creation of higher quality urban public spaces by using the existing urban fabric as a laboratory based on past experiences.
| Keywords | Public space, street trees, visual quality, seasonal differences |
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| Best Congress Paper Award | No |
