DETERMINATION OF THE VISUAL PREFERENCE LEVELS AND PERCEPTUAL DIFFERENCES IN THE APPEARANCE OF CERTAIN TAXA IN DIFFERENT SEASONS

摘要

The most important elements of open spaces are plants. Also plants are important elements perception and preferences of an environment. The plants are divided into two groups based on seed properties: Angiosperms and gymnosperms. In the present study, angiosperm plants were selected. Because angiosperms are more developed when compared to gymnosperms and their seasonal differences are more effective. Angiosperms have seasonal colour, texture, size and form changes. The most distinctive feature of Angiosperms is the differentiated flowers and fruits in different season. The identification of these changes and clarification of the effects on people are quite important for landscape architecture. The aim of the present study is to reveal differences in preference levels and perceptions about certain taxa in Karadeniz Technical University (KTU) campus, located in Trabzon province, based on their seasonal differences. To accomplish this objective, trees that belong to the designated Angiosperm taxa were photographed in different seasons during 2015 and 2016. These photographs were presented to KTU, Landscape Architecture, architecture, interior architecture, forest engineer, city and regional planning students in a survey to determine which appearance of these taxa were liked, i.e. preferred, out of the four seasonal outlooks, and their visual preference levels were determined. Differences in visual perception were attempted to be determined with the semantic differential technique. The results of the semantic differential test were evaluated, and the analysis of the obtained data was interpreted based on the differences in visual perception after the evaluation. As a result of the study, it was observed that different seasonal appearances of certain taxa found on KTU campus affected the preference of the users and there were concurrent perceptual differences.