Assessing Women's Visual Preferences towards Tehran Urban Spaces

Urban visual environment plays a significant part in the citizens’ lives and the impact of its quality on individual’s environmental experiences have been well attended to when designing urban environment from scratch. Meanwhile، the most important aspect in this context is to recognize and assess the main criteria of citizens’ preferences in urban spaces. Like other inter-individual differences in preferences (including the living environment، age، socio-economic status، ethnicity and income level)، gender has an impact on environmental perception and preference. This research examined the visual preference of female citizens for urban public spaces. Through a simple random sampling method، 250 respondents were recruited by which the most and the least visual preferred places in Tehran were determined. Respondents rated the environmental attributes of two sample spaces including Vali-Asr avenue and Enqelab square according to the predictor variables derived from literature review. The obtained data on rating (5-point Likert scale) were analyzed using the correlation and regression statistical techniques. Our findings revealed that attributes such as naturalness، typicality and mystery have the most mean-difference between the two selected spaces. Regression analyses showed that association، naturalness، upkeep، legibility، historical significance and coherence should be considered in planning and designing of Vali-Asr avenue to promote its preference. On the other hand، attributes such as mystery، association، typicality and legibility were considered as priorities for promoting women’s visual preferences for Enqelab square.