Relating material experience to technical parameters: A case study on visual and tactile warmth perception of indoor wall materials

Abstract Experiential aspects of materials are addressed rather intuitively by architects during the material selection process for buildings. This paper explores the possibilities of relating material experience in architecture to technical material parameters and uses the perceived warmth of indoor wall materials as a case study. Various building materials were assessed technically and their perceived warmth was evaluated by participants. As people experience a building and its materials through multiple senses, the separate effects of vision and touch were considered. Results show that the senses used for evaluation have a major impact on the perception of warmth, and that a distinction should be made between the visual warmth and tactile warmth of a material. The overall perception of warmth was shown to correspond to its visual perception. Furthermore, the perception of material warmth was correlated with several technical material parameters, such as the thermal effusivity, the surface gloss and the hue and saturation of the material color. The color study suggested that the material color has a larger effect on the perceived warmth than other material parameters. An indication of the relationships between the perceived material warmth and measurable technical material parameters offers architects insights on how to change the experience of warmth by changing specific technical parameters and thus allows to select materials in a better informed way.

[1]  J. Stevens.  Applied Multivariate Statistics for the Social Sciences , 1986 .

[2]  H. Schifferstein,et al.  THE TACTUAL EXPERIENCE OF OBJECTS , 2008 .

[3]  Nancy J. Stone,et al.  Designing effective study environments. , 2001 .

[4]  H. Schifferstein,et al.  Capturing product experiences: a split-modality approach. , 2005, Acta psychologica.

[5]  John Fernandez.  Material Architecture: emergent materials for innovative buildings and ecological construction , 2005 .

[6]  J. V. Kasmar.  The Development of a Usable Lexicon of Environmental Descriptors , 1970 .

[7]  G. E. Myers,et al.  Analytical Methods in Conduction Heat Transfer , 1998 .

[8]  L. Rainwater,et al.  The meanings of color. , 1962, The Journal of general psychology.

[9]  Hendrik N.J. Schifferstein,et al.  What makes products fresh: The smell or the colour? , 2009 .

[10]  P. Hanselaer,et al.  BRDF and gloss measurements , 2007 .

[11]  B. Wright.  The influence of hue, lightness, and saturation on apparent warmth and weight. , 1962, The American journal of psychology.

[12]  G. Gescheider.  Psychophysics : method, theory, and application , 1985 .

[13]  N. Camgoz,et al.  Colour and lighting in hospital design , 2006 .

[14]  Thomas Thiis-Evensen,et al.  Archetypes in Architecture , 1990 .

[15]  R L Klatzky,et al.  Identifying objects by touch: An “expert system” , 1985, Perception & psychophysics.

[16]  P. Desmet,et al.  The effects of sensory impairments on product experience and personal well-being , 2007, Ergonomics.

[17]  Brian Henson,et al.  Exploring Relationships between Touch Perception and Surface Physical Properties , 2009 .

[18]  H. Schifferstein.  The perceived importance of sensory modalities in product usage: a study of self-reports. , 2006, Acta psychologica.

[19]  J. Lienhard.  A heat transfer textbook , 1981 .

[20]  L.A. Jones,et al.  Material identification using real and simulated thermal cues , 2004, The 26th Annual International Conference of the IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society.

[21]  Magali Bodart,et al.  Photometry and colorimetry characterisation of materials in daylighting evaluation tools , 2008 .

[22]  Lisa Heschong.  Thermal delight in architecture , 1979 .

[23]  Astrid M L Kappers,et al.  Thermosensory reversal effect quantified. , 2008, Acta psychologica.

[24]  William Morris.  The American Heritage dictionary of the English language , 1969 .

[25]  Hendrik N.J. Schifferstein,et al.  Looking hot or feeling hot: What determines the product experience of warmth? , 2010 .

[26]  P. Hekkert,et al.  Meanings of materials through sensorial properties and manufacturing processes , 2009 .

[27]  Paul Hekkert,et al.  Shifts in sensory dominance between various stages of user-product interactions. , 2010, Applied ergonomics.

[28]  William D. Callister,et al.  Materials Science and Engineering: An Introduction , 1985 .

[29]  Pieter Jan Stappers,et al.  Materials in products selection: Tools for including user-interaction in materials selection , 2007 .

[30]  Juhani Pallasmaa,et al.  The Eyes of the Skin: Architecture and the Senses , 1996 .

[31]  Kemal Yildirim,et al.  Effects of indoor color on mood and cognitive performance , 2007 .

[32]  C. B. Holmes,et al.  Color preference as a function of the object described , 1984 .

[33]  Yuzo Furuta,et al.  Research on better use of wood for sustainable development: Quantitative evaluation of good tactile warmth of wood , 2005 .

[34]  Tore Kristensen,et al.  The Meaning of Colour , 2003 .

[35]  C. Spence,et al.  The Handbook of Multisensory Processing , 2004 .

[36]  Brian Henson,et al.  Materials’ tactile testing and characterisation for consumer products’ affective packaging design , 2009 .

[37]  Ine Wouters,et al.  Architects’ considerations while selecting materials , 2012 .

[38]  Teaching thermal physics by touching , 2008 .

[39]  Michael F. Ashby,et al.  Materials and Design: The Art and Science of Material Selection in Product Design , 2002 .