The Present of Architectural Psychology Researches in China- Based on the Bibliometric Analysis and Knowledge Mapping

Abstract

Architectural Psychology is an interdisciplinary subject of psychology and architecture that focuses on architectural design by using Gestalt psychology, cognitive psychology and other related psychology principles. Researchers from China have achieved fruitful achievements in the field of architectural psychology during past thirty-three years. To reveal the current situation of the field in China, 129 related papers from the China National Knowledge Infrastructure (CNKI) were analyzed by CiteSpace II software. The results show that: (1) the studies of the field in China have been started since 1984 and the annual number of the papers increased dramatically from 2008 and reached a historical peak in 2016. Shanxi Architecture tops the list of contributing publishing journals; Wuhan University, Southwest Jiaotong University and Chongqing University are the best performer among the contributing organizations. (2) "Environmental Psychology", "Architectural Design" and "Architectural Psychology" are the most frequency keywords. The frontiers of the field in China are "architectural creation" and "environmental psychology" while the popular research topics were"residential environment", "spatial environment", "environmental psychology", "architectural theory" and "architectural psychology".