Perceived and experienced quality of glass façades in glass-rich buildings

Komulainen J., Nieminen L., Laine A. & Nyman G.
Department of Psychology, Visual Quality Research Group, University of Helsinki

Glass façades of modern highrise buildings evoke strong quality experiences in laymen, building owners, architects, and constructors. There is clear need for this knowledge that is important e.g. for predicting how the glass quality and actual installation affect the experienced quality of façades. The experienced quality can have also brand-related implications that are important for companies and communities inhabiting the buildings. We present the first results from our study that aims at developing systematic methods for measuring such quality experiences. Altogether 25 subjects participated in our study, of which 14 were “laymen” and 11 were architects. Photographs of 89 glass façades were shown to the subjects who grouped them according to the experienced quality. A detailed analysis of these experiences was conducted using qualitative attribute clustering. In total, our subjects expressed their quality experiences by more than 2000 subjective attributes corresponding to approximately 80 attributes per subject. This shows that people can express their quality experiences in a very rich way. The data also demonstrates some differences between architects and laymen. The method is shown to be applicable for measuring perceived façade qualities.

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The Authors

Prof. Göte Nyman Professor University of Helsinki, Department of Psychology Read more