Spaciousness in interiors

Abstract

Since traditional criteria for window design, e.g. the daylight factor, have lost their force, interest in re-evaluating the function of windows has been growing rapidly. The concept of spaciousness as an alternative criterion is introduced, and observations in scale models differing in spaciousness under an artificial sky have been carried out. From these, spaciousness for different sky luminances has been shown to be a function of interior illuminance, room size and window size. Observations in full scale interiors were also made to confirm the validity of the results. From additional experiments, it has been found that a lower limit of just acceptable spaciousness does exist. This would be a useful criterion for use in design.

Egocentric biases in comparative volume judgments of rooms

“…Applied to visual volume perception of indoor spaces, this would mean that perceivers' judgments could be biased by one salient dimension of the enclosure. This hypothesis is consistent with architectural findings showing elongation biases in area judgments of rectangular indoor spaces (e.g., rooms: Inui & Miyata, 1973;Sadalla & Oxley, 1984) and outdoor spaces (e.g., streets: Gärling, 1970;Ishikawa, Okabe, Sadahiro, & Kakumoto, 1998). Typically, rectangular architectural spaces are judged to be larger than square spaces of equal area (Inui & Miyata, 1973;Sadalla & Oxley, 1984).…”

“…This hypothesis is consistent with architectural findings showing elongation biases in area judgments of rectangular indoor spaces (e.g., rooms: Inui & Miyata, 1973;Sadalla & Oxley, 1984) and outdoor spaces (e.g., streets: Gärling, 1970;Ishikawa, Okabe, Sadahiro, & Kakumoto, 1998). Typically, rectangular architectural spaces are judged to be larger than square spaces of equal area (Inui & Miyata, 1973;Sadalla & Oxley, 1984). In the case of urban streets presented on a computer screen, the greater the depth of the street scene, the more spacious it appeared (Ishikawa et al, 1998).…”

The Physiological and Psychological Effects of Windows, Daylight, and View at Home: Review and Research Agenda

“…Most of the literature on preferred window size is based on office environments (Butler & Steuerwald, 1991;Inui & Miyata, 1973;Keighley, 1973aKeighley, , 1973bMarkus, 1967;Ne'eman & Hopkinson, 1970). Inui and Miyata (1973) developed a predictive model, finding that Japanese participants judged the spaciousness of a scale model of an office based on the average horizontal illuminance on the work plane, the room volume, and the visual angle of the window at the viewing position (expressed as a percentage of the view); the coefficients varied with the sky luminance (of a diffuse artificial sky). These equations showed good agreement to judgements of a real office.…”

Windows and people :

“…In still another type of approach Inui and Miyata (1973) examined the effect of a window upon a subjective variable which they termed "spaciousness". Defining "spaciousness" as the feeling of openness or enclosure produced by an interior, they claimed that it is primarily determined by a person's visual perception of a space.…”