A Conceptual Model of the Relationship between Human Being and the Urban Environment in the Perception Process

Problem statement: 

Perception of space is obtained based on a mutual relationship between human being and the environment and following a gradual process. The perception of space is related to all sciences whose concern is “creating a good place to live” for human beings and is grounded in the specialized literature of environmental sciences. However, the concept of perception as an epistemological subject is the concern of other fields of knowledge such as philosophy, something that has not been considered enough by environmental science researchers. Awareness of the essence of perception and explaining its mechanism and role it plays in the knowledge of existence has been considered for a long time by philosophers. Referring and paying attention to the views of our country’s philosophers to clarify the concept and process of perception and its role in the knowledge of urban environment design is the main subject of this research. The effectiveness of philosophers’ views in clarifying the features of perception, its levels, and how the process of perceiving the urban space based on it is the subject of this article.

This study aims to recognize the concept of perception (Apperception) and its practical features in designing the environment using Iranian philosophers’ views.

  This research is descriptive-analytical, and its content is the result of bibliographic studies, analysis of texts, and exploration of the thoughts of selected philosophers using logical reasoning. This research studies the issue of perception from two dimensions, substantive (nature of perception) and procedural (its structure and process) in the field of philosophy and its effectiveness in the field of urban design knowledge.

The research results indicate that getting help from the Iranian philosophers’ thoughts can be useful in clarifying the nature of perception and its four characteristics, including the re-creative process, impressionability, activism, and dynamism, as well as explaining the process of the urban environment perception. Finally, this article uses the two theoretical bases of philosophy and urban design to formulate the conceptual model of the “human-city perceptual relationship” and identifies the function and output of each level of the perceptual process.