EFFECTS OF WALLPAPER PATTERN ON THE PERCEPTION OF INTERIOR SPACE

Relationship between wallpaper pattern type, Munsell value, illuminance, and the perception of volume, width, depth and height

Abstract

 This study was conducted to evaluate the effects of wallpaper pattern type, Munsell value, and illuminance on the perception of interior space. A series of psychological experiments were conducted to evaluate the four parameters: magnitude values of volume, width, depth, and height of interior space, using two types of one-tenth scale models of a room.
 The “horizontal model” measured 24 mc in height and 45 cm in width and depth, the “vertical model, ” measured 45 cm in height, 24 cm in width, and 45 cm in depth. The wallpaper patterns used in these experiments were vertical stripe, horizontal stripe, square, wave, floral and arabesque. The figures of the patterns were printed in three achromatic colours, N8.5, N7, and N5. The ground of the patterns and the floor were printed in achromatic colour N9. The walls and floor of a reference model with no pattern were also printed in N9. The experiments were conducted in three illuminance conditions: 750 lx, 500 lx, and 300 lx. A magnitude estimation method was applied to evaluate the four parameters. The eighteen subjects (12 women and 6 men) were asked to look into each model by turns through a viewing aperture in the rear wall and to compare their four spatial parameters of the comparison model with those of the standard model. These experiments were conducted separately with horizontal and vertical models.
 The results showed that the effects of the wallpaper pattern type, Munsell value, and illuminance were obvious. However, these effects were different between horizontal and vertical models and were more remarkable in horizontal model. It is because vertical model was so extraordinary that the effects of wallpaper pattern type and Munsell value became blurred. On the other hand, some of the effects were common between horizontal and vertical models, and can be regarded as stable results. These results can be summarized as follows:
 · The existence of wallpaper pattern decreased the magnitude value of volume.
 · The effects of the Munsell value were obvious;, the lower the Munsell value, the lower the magnitude values of volume, width, and depth.
 · The effects of the pattern type were different between horizontal model and vertical model. The pattern type had similar effects on the magnitude values of volume and depth of horizontal model. The horizontal stripe and floral patterns had higher corresponding value than did other types. The vertical stripe and horizontal stripe patterns had opposite effects on the magnitude values of width and height of both models. The horizontal stripe pattern increased the magnitude value of width and decreased that of height, whereas the horizontal stripe pattern increased the magnitude value of height and decreased that of width.
 · Illuminance was found to affect only the magnitude value of volume of horizontal model; the lower the illuminance, the lower the magnitude value of volume.