Determining the components affecting the assessment temperature dimension of the color combination in Residential buildings exterior

In addition to its roles in urban spaces, color also affects people's feelings and interests about the quality of the environment. Lack of building exterior’s control programs in urban planning policies in Iran and exterior color design based on the designer's preference and lack of attention to users' preferences in addition to visual disturbance, has caused public dissatisfaction with their visual quality. These factors highlight the need for more attention to design of the color in building exterior based on the user's visual preference. In studies on environmental color preference, colors have been evaluated in terms of two dimensions; physical dimension (hue, saturation and luminance) and emotional dimension (including temperature, harmony, etc.). Since the emotional dimensions of color evaluation are regional and diverse, and there is no consensus on their definition, it is necessary to study the emotional dimensions of color evaluation and the factors affecting their assessment.Research Question: What are the emotional dimensions for evaluating the color combination in building exterior? what are the components affecting the assessment temperature dimension of the color combination in building exterior?

 To do the research, a combination of qualitive and quantitive methods has been used. Determination of emotional dimensions for avaluating the color combination in building exterior was performed in two stages, content analysis and the Delphi survey. In the first stage, 97color emotional dimensions were obtained by reviewing and studying the 40 sources. Then, a questionnaire that was formed of 100 pictures of residential building exterior, was completed by participants. These pictures were taken of 6-7 story residential apartments, which were at most 10 years old and were placed in the north sections about 9-12 meters wide. The Delphi survey comprised 20 participants, expertised in the field of design and color (professors of architecture, painting, graphics and industrial design). This sample size was based on the purpose of the survey that was exploration of participants’ opinions. Three bipolar dimensions (cold-warm, harmonious-contrast, light-heavy) and several selected pictures for each of them were extracted by using Q factor analysis and SPSS-22 software. Due to the wide range of topics, only the cold-warm dimension was investigated in this study. In the next stage, the components affecting the assessment temperature dimension of the color combination, were obtained from semi-structured interview with 5 participants, expertised in the field of architecture and urban design. participants were selected based on snowball sampling and sample size was based on theoretical saturation. Based on the results of these interviews and selected pictures from the first survey, a questionnaire was prepared and completed by the former group of participants. The final results were obtained using Q factor analysis in two stages.

 The components affecting the assessment temperature dimension of the color combination in building exterior, were the surface area of hues, the saturation level of hues and the number of hues in the combination and the formal composition of building exterior, the form of the opening and the details of surface did not have a significant effect on the assessment temperature dimension of the color combination in building exterior. Therefore, to evaluate the visual preference of color combination in building exterior, it is recommended to study buildings in any style that their color combinations have two or maximum three colors; Buildings that to describe them as a warm color combination, At least 60% of color surface of building exterior must have warm Hue with a saturation of at least 25% and to describe them as a cold color combination, At least 60% of colour surface of building exterior must have cold hue.