Evaluating Visual Quality of Educational Campus Based on Users Preferences (Case study: Sistan and Baloochestan University, Iran)

Nowadays, landscape is considered as one of the most important and vital components in environmental identity recognition and also as a tool in connecting environment and its inhabitants. The most significant case in the past decades is the connection between landscape and its inhabitants through biological, physical and also perceptional and behavioral approaches. Among the mentioned approaches, landscape and its connection with people’s perception is valued with great importance. Although human's connection with its surrounding is achieved through different senses, still more than 80 percents of its connection is achieved by observing. Therefore, landscape observation and its perception by human, plays an important role in the environmental recognition and perception and also determining whether a landscape is aesthetically appropriate or not. Nowadays, the aim for assessing visual quality of landscape is to define and determine certain criteria and factors that can be used for conservation, rehabilitation and renovation of landscapes as well as determining whether a landscape is aesthetically appropriate or not. By this way, landscapes with aesthetic values are conserved and the rest are amended. Because of university departments’ permanent connection with their users and also their great role and influence on the quality of life and mental health, they are considered to have great importance. Because of the daily development and vast extension of building structures and spaces in the University of Sistan and Baloochestan, yearly increase in the number of students and also being located in the arid and semi arid region of Iran on one hand, and the importance in providing desirable visual qualities in order to promote and improve the quality of environment and education for students on the other hand, this university is a suitable case study for this research. In this research, it is tried to provide reasonable suggestions and strategies by using quality sort method and participatory planning and design approach in order to develop and extend visual qualities for the mentioned site and also identify landscapes with unique characters. MethodsIn this research, after compiling theoretical bases, assembling required information and site surveys, site zoning is fulfilled through using satellite images, aerial view photos, existing condition maps and analyzed information achieved through studying various spaces and activities in the site. Parts with more similarity in usage, space and activities are considered as one zone. Through this, the site is divided into 3 zones which are educational (zone 1), residential (zone 2) and Auxiliary (zone 3).The quality sort method is used in this research. Q methodology is a way of extracting and describing subjective viewpoints. It assumes that subjectivity is structured and it combines qualitative and quantitative analysis to provide a systematic and rigorous means of objectively describing human subjectivity. Q methodology allows respondents to model their viewpoints in response to a sample set of stimuli, which can be statements or images.