Motion and the Perception of Time: Effects of Coherence and Complexity Along Campus Paths
This exploratory study explores the relationship between site users’ perceptions of time and landscape aesthetics, specifically the coherence and complexity of an outdoor higher education campus landscape, using virtual reality. This study reveals how virtual reality can be used to isolate site design variables to better understand the outcomes of design decisions.
Virtual Reality (VR) has the potential to create high-quality environmental simulations and human-space interactions in a virtual environment, providing researchers the ability to study landscape aesthetics and the people-environment relationship in a more detailed and determinate way.
Map depicting plant massing layout zones along campus walking route, with walking route approximately 200 meters long.
Categorization of VR experiences, modelled after levels of coherence and complexity.An experimental research design included four groups of study participants moving through a modelled campus path with different cases of planted landscape layouts. Following, the participants took part in structured focus group interviews (n=16). Analysis included in-depth thematic qualitative coding of the textual information as well as computational text assessments.
Diagrammed relationships between designed complexity and time, and relationships between aspects of coherence and complexity compared to perceived duration of time.
Findings reveal discernible relationships between time, coherence, and complexity, resulting in empirically-based design recommendations for how planting layouts can influence space experiences.
Movement and the Perception of Time: Effects of Coherence and Complexity along Secondary Campus Paths
This study explores the relationship between a user’s perception of time and the coherence and complexity of an outdoor campus landscape.
By isolating contrasting levels of both coherence and complexity and assessing users’ experiences, patterns are derived from components of landscape aesthetics and applied to landscape architecture to achieve design goals and utilize time as a design consideration. This study contributes to the current understanding of how certain site layouts add to a user’s sense of time and feelings about a place.
Methods include four groups of study participants experiencing various modeled environments in virtual reality, focus group discussions, and graphic exploration of findings.
In collaboration with
Dalian University of Technology, Dalian, Liaoning, CNTeam
Madelaine KinnebrewJessica Fernandez, Ph.D.Prof. David Spooner Ruiqi YangRyan FernandezPai Liu, Ph.D.Publications
Kinnebrew, M., Fernandez, J., Spooner, D., Yang, R., Fernandez, R., & Liu, P. (2024). Examining Perceptions of Landscape Coherence, Complexity, and Time Using Virtual Reality. (Under Review)