ASSESSMENT OF VISUAL AESTHETIC QUALITY OF PUBLIC OFFICE BUILDINGS IN AKURE, NIGERIA.

Abstract

. For this study, public office buildings in Akure, Nigeria, are the building samples that were involved, and their external facades were investigated for visual aesthetic quality so as to verify if they satisfy Vitruvius’ third principle of delight. The objectives of the study were to evaluate design professionals’ perception of visual aesthetic quality in public office buildings; to assess their preferences for building features; to evaluate how satisfied respondents are to the façade appearance of public office buildings, and to investigate the effects of the visual aesthetic quality of the buildings on the emotional evocations of respondents. The study also tested three pioneering theories of aesthetic perception to verify if they were still relevant to aesthetic studies and assessments. The methodology involved the use of mixed methods research which combines quantitative and qualitative research methods. Twelve buildings were randomly selected from thirty-nine public office buildings using cluster classification methods. Photo-elicitations using photography, and photo-interviewing analysis which combines pictures of building samples and structured questionnaires were used to obtain data from design professionals, and design professionals were used so as to get experts opinions on visual quality of public office buildings. Empirical methods of objective analysis using statistical methods on SPSS were done for two hundred design professionals which involved architects, engineers and industrial designers/artists. Twenty-five design professionals were also interviewed through one-on-one face-to-face interactive sessions using semi-structured interview questions, so as to elicit meanings behind design professionals’ subjective feelings. Generally, features of the external facades of public office buildings were assessed based on five basic variables; roof design, façade colour, entrance design, fenestration arrangements and innovation in building form, and these variables were assessed using various 5-point semantic differential scales. Findings for this study revealed that visual aesthetics was mostly appreciated in younger age group design professionals of between 31-40 years than in older design professionals of 51 years and above. Furthermore, statistical analysis of field data showed that there wasn’t significant difference in design professionals’ perception of visual aesthetic quality in public office buildings (p=0.487), although interview analysis revealed common themes exist between architects and industrial designers/artists than between architects and engineers. Findings further showed that there is significant difference in design professionals’ preference for building features in public office buildings (p=0.047), 3 revealing that design professionals preferred fenestration designs in public office buildings, with least preference for innovation in building forms and roof designs. However, findings further showed that respondents were averagely satisfied (53.6%) with the façade appearance of the public office buildings studied, with (46.4%) indicating that the visual quality of the buildings was not very pleasing. In conclusion, the study was able to show that public office buildings external facades were still averagely ranked and that design professionals needed to do more around the variable-innovation in building forms in other to improve on further designs that will engage the minds of observers and bring about pleasurable architectural designs in public office buildings.