The visual environment: Consider the surface

It is the author's view that the visual qualities of an environment depend a great deal upon “minor” characteristics of form. Surface, light, color, materials are the primary sensory factors which affect appearance. While formal systems, if they persist in cities, offer the rational basis for their design, plan or organization, what influences individuality, character or flavor appeals to the senses on intimate scale. In architecture, stylistic differences are read in detailing and material, as well as in size and proportion. Color can define and particularize surface and spaces and seems to be a predominant part of any vernacular environment. The author believes that color sensitivity may be a collective reaction to specific conditions of environmental light, and what may be observed as cultural preferences may have a biological base.