Affective appraisal of residents and visual elements in the neighborhood: A case study in an established suburban community

Urban dwellers perceive and respond affectively to the streetscape they live within everyday. Understanding the relationship between the visual elements and the aesthetic response that result from affective appraisal of the neighborhood becomes key to successful planning. This study investigates the underlying factors of community affective appraisal and identifies their predictive visual elements in the neighborhood of a Taiwanese suburban community. Consistent with previous findings, factor analysis reveals the two primary dimensions of affective appraisal to be pleasure and arousal. Various attributes of visual elements in the neighborhood, e.g. open space, buildings, community signage, trees, street furniture and pavement are significant predictors of affective appraisal factors. Specifically, the salience of trees and openness of open space may simultaneously induce pleasure and arousal, resulting in a positive emotion of high intensity. These findings shed light on the basis of residents’ affective appraisal of an established community and are instructive in the practice of community design.

Research highlights
► Trees and open space induce the coexistence of pleasure and arousal.
► Buildings, open space and pavement affect the pleasant factor.
► Community signage, pavement and street furniture affect the arousing factor.