Impacts of light direction and window properties on students’ perceptual evaluations in design studios

Abstract

This study aimed to determine how light direction, window proximity and window dimensions could affect students' perceptual evaluations in design studios. The design studios of the Nuh Naci Yazgan University in Kayseri were selected as the research setting. The ‘semantic differential scale’ composed of 10 adjective pairs was used for determining subjects’ perceptual evaluations of design studios having two different window dimensions. According to the results obtained, when making drawings, right-handed students who received light from a window on the left side were determined to perceive the physical environmental factors of design studios more positively compared to students who received light from a window on the right side. In addition, students sitting near a window in design studios were observed to generally perceive the physical environmental factors more positively than those sitting in the middle close to the window, in the middle away from the window and inside. Furthermore, students who sat in an area with floor to ceiling window were determined to perceive the place more positively compared to those who sat in an area with parapet to ceiling window. These results generally confirmed that light direction, window proximity and window dimensions in design studios are effective on students’ perceptual evaluations.