Environmental Aesthetics: Theory, Research, and Application

Product Description


How do people react to the visual character of their surroundings? What can planners do to improve the aesthetic quality of these surroundings? Too often in environmental design, visual quality--aesthetics--is misunderstood as only a minor concern, dependent on volatile taste and thus undefinable. Yet a substantial body of research indicates the importance of visual quality in the environment to the public and has uncovered systematic patterns of human response to visual attributes of the built environment. Efforts to understand environmental aesthetics have been undertaken by investigators from such diverse fields as landscape architecture, environmental psychology, geography, philosophy, architecture, and city planning. As a result the relevant information is scattered and not readily available to professionals and policy makers. The book brings together classic and new contributions by distinguished workers in different disciplines. It explores theory and data on preferences in the visual environment, and also addresses the practical application of aesthetic criteria in design, planning and public policy. Promising directions for future research are identified.


Review


"For those seriously concerned with person-environment-behavior relations in general, aesthetics and design in particular, this is certainly a book that should be on their reference shelf." Environment and Behavior


Book Description


How do people react to the visual character of their surroundings? This book explores theory and data on preferences in the visual environment, and addresses the practical application of aesthetic criteria in design, planning and public policy as well.


About the Author


Nasar is Professor of City and Regional Planning at Ohio State University. He holds degrees in architecture (BA), urban planning (Masters), and man-environment relations (PhD). A Fellow of the American Psychological Association, his other honors and awards include a Lilly Endowment Fellowship, an Ethel Chattel Fellowship, and a College Award for Excellence in Research.