Sara AFSHAR, Ayşe TEKEL, Aybike Ceylan KIZILTAŞ

The Impacts of Perception Criteria on Aesthetic Response to Urban Streets: A Case Study in Downtown Ankara, Turkey

Man-environment relations- more specifically the aesthetic response of people to certain qualitiesof their environment- is a significant research area for urban design, as such studies provide for asolid ground for urban design criteria. The purpose of this study is to investigate the perceptioncriteria that have greater impact for satisfactory streets. For this, a web-based 'virtual tour' wasused to elicit response to scenes of three urban streets in downtown Ankara, Turkey; each oneexhibiting a range of different characteristics. The 70 subjects who participated in the study wereselected from undergraduate student population. Our analysis resulted in categorizing variablesof perception according to their relationship with aesthetic response to urban streets and to findout criteria that mostly effect sense of aesthetics toward urban streets. Findings of the study aresignificant as they can show urban planners and designers criteria for designing streets toreinforce the satisfaction derived from urban streets.

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