JiSMART2021—005: The Evaluation of Elderly People's Preference of Architectural Features

Abstract

Understanding of the features that influence the aesthetic experience of architecture is an important topic in empirical aesthetics. Previous studies on this topic mostly recruited young participants. It remains unclear whether aging modulates the preference to architectural features. In general, elderly people and young people differ in their cognitive state and depression level and the current study explored whether aging modulates how architectural features influence aesthetic judgement. We tested three architectural features on participants' aesthetic judgments: ceiling height, openness, and contour, through a series of behavioral experiments. All participants were 65 years old or older (N = 150). A survey on cognitive state and depression level survey was administered before the experiment. The elderly participants were asked to look at pictures of architectural spaces for 3 s and then make aesthetic and pleasure judgments. The results found that elderly people preferred high openness architectural spaces, but were not significant in ceiling height and contour preferences. But not with cognitive state and depression level.