One more coincide between architects and laypersons on the aesthetics of Zaha Hadid's buildings

Abstract

PurposeThis study focuses on the subject of environmentalaesthetics and aims to identify the differences and similarities that emerge in the general aesthetic evaluations toward the individual style, particularly examining the physical and connotative meanings in the buildings by Zaha Hadid. The study further seeks to understand how individual style fosters aesthetic awareness or common perceptions on a universal level without causing a cultural difference. Design/Methodology/ApproachA survey was conducted to understand the visual aesthetic evaluations of architects and laypersons over 16 buildings of Hadid—an architect who managed to develop her own individual style.The visual images created were evaluated in terms of sensorialand physical concepts in order tounderstand whether there was a common language by evaluating the aesthetic perceptions of subjectswith different backgrounds, and to reveal the effect of individual style in forming a universal tongue.Descriptive statics, correlation analysis and independent t test were performed to conduct the evaluations.FindingsAccording to analysis results, the rhythm and organic lines of a building are the most significant elements for building façades and masses in aesthetic evaluations. In addition, no significant differences regarding the dimensions of “liking”, “ornate”, “attractive”, “meaningful” and “warm” were found between the groups. Research Limitations/ImplicationsThe survey was conducted betweentwo different subject groups;architectsand laypersons. Specific parameters related to the sensorialconcepts of the buildings were used. These parameters included the concepts of liking, pleasant, complex, familiar, meaningful, ornate and warm, while for the physical characteristics of the buildings, the concepts of regular/ irregular, full/ empty, rhythmic/ arrhythmic, soft/ hard, meaningful/meaningless and symmetric/asymmetric were used. Originality/ValueThis study is significant insofar as it is among the rare research studies that found there to be no differences between architects and laypersons but rather, similarities between them.