Explaining Components of Architectural Aesthetics Based on Humans’ Experience(Case Study: Prominent Cultural Buildings in Tehran)

Problem statement:

 Aesthetics, an experience that manifests itself in various forms under different conditions, is primarily experimental. What appears pleasant in the built environment has always been contentious and ambiguous. It can vary in geographical, social, and cultural contexts depending on the type of relationship it has with human perceptions. However, aesthetics has been overlooked in terms of users’ experience with an environment due to an overemphasis on its preferential nature, as well as obliviousness to sociocultural commonalities that lay the groundwork for subjective perceptions. As a result, some anomalies in architectural design have come to light. The following questions arise in this regard: What factors influence the development of architectural aesthetic experience from the standpoint of an ordinary user? What factors contribute significantly to the intensity of this experience?

The purpose of this paper is to explain aesthetics and its criteria through users’ perceptions and lived experiences to revive their aesthetic feelings by translating them into effective components.

This descriptive study employed the philosophical phenomenography of people’s lived experiences in buildings. It is also classified as interpretative-inductive research.

Perceptual, motivational, sensorimotor, cognitive, behavioral, and emotional components all play important roles in the process of aesthetic perception from the user’s standpoint, resulting in the architectural aesthetic experience. In fact, the role of each component in this experience is highlighted differently depending on the features of different buildings, which are distinguished by variable component priority and feedback. However, when all components in an experimental process play complementary roles, the experience can be maximized. Moreover, for this experience to be effective, the emotional component must be strong.