Gestalt theory and the impact of visual perception in architecture: Analysis of Duzce / İstanbul street building facades

In the first year of architectural education, the basic design course contributes to the development of visual perception and expression through practical applications, and provides the necessary skills of eye-hand coordination, understanding, and intuition for visualizing an image. In this context, with its original content teaching fundamental knowledge of design, the basic design course holds significant importance in architectural education. The design elements and principles used to create effective and efficient compositions in the content of the basic design course are based on Gestalt Theory. Within this study, the design principles and aesthetic understanding based on the propositions of how we perceive our surroundings according to this theory were investigated among students studying architecture, architects, and other professional groups to identify differences in perception between individuals who have received design education and those who have not, using images of building facades through a survey conducted for research purposes. The conceptual framework of the study was created by perception, visual perception and Gestalt theory of perception. The method of the study is literature review and survey. The building facades of Istanbul Street, which is one of the most heavily used and potential streets of Duzce city, which was chosen as the research area, and which includes many public buildings, workplaces, social facilities, city squares and recreation areas, were selected. The population (sample group) of the survey study consisted of architecture students, architects and different professional groups. Within the scope of the survey application, a seven-level "semantic differentiation scale" with eight different adjective pairs was used. In the survey application, individuals were asked to evaluate the visual impact of the buildings and their facades on the selected building facades, within the selected adjective pairs. In this way, it was determined which adjective pairs had an impact on the building facades and to what extent. Statistical analyzes were applied to the survey data obtained and the findings were presented. SPSS (Statistical Package for the Social Sciences) software was used for statistical analysis in the study. Finally, for the purpose of the study, building facades that showed significant differences between individuals who received design education and those who did not receive design education were examined within the framework of the principles of Gestalt Theory. In this way, the differentiation of architectural education in terms of visual perception was measured through façade perception. All findings obtained were discussed within the scope of the literature and a conclusion and recommendation section was created.