Tall buildings and the urban skyline: The effect of visual complexity on preferences

Abstract

Tall buildings are a significant feature of many urban skylines. The visual complexity of the tall buildings that make up the urban skyline can vary according the degree of silhouette complexity and the extent to which the facade is articulated. This article reports a study in which 60 undergraduate psychology students ranked a set of 9 synthetic skylines according to either the perceived complexity of the skyline or their preference. The pleasure and arousal associated with each skyline was also measured using the Affect Grid. The strongest influence on preference, arousal, and pleasure was the degree of silhouette complexity, with higher silhouette complexity associated with higher levels of perceived complexity and preference and higher arousal and pleasure. Facade articulation only influenced the evaluations of skyline complexity, although this isolated finding may be due to the pretask training.