Design-Based Methodology in a Specific Virtual Environment to Develop a Relationship between Spatial Quality and Spatial Structure

Problem statement:

The relationship between spatial quality (spatial preferences) and spatial structure has been confirmed, and many studies have been conducted to determine the relationship between these two important architecture variables. However, the results of studies are often inconclusive and there are no quantitative and consensual theories about the relationship between these two variables due to the intrinsic complexity of both variables and the complexity of the relationship between them.

Research objective:

This study proposes a new method for discovering and formulating the relationship between spatial preferences and spatial configuration and tests the accuracy and efficiency of this proposed method.

Research method:

In this methodology, a unique virtual environment was created to allow continuous changes and design in the environment and controls of the intervening variables. Experts wereasked to design and increase the quality of space in this environment. The process of changing the spatial structure variables during the design process, and improving the spatial quality wereexamined. Then, the relationship between these two indicators wasexplained.

According to the results, the proposed methodology performs well in finding the relationship between spatial quality and spatial structure. It also indicates a high statistical correlation between some isovist analyzes and the trend of increasing spatial quality. The results also show that places with more visibility and less visual connections, accessibility, and complexity are of higher quality in some space syntaxes.