Abstract
The purpose of the present study was to investigate visual characteristics of townscape. Thirty-three observers viewed colour slide projections of various townscapes (fifteen scenes) in several cases of exposure (1/500, 1/250, 1/60, 1/4, 1, free (3〜4) seconds). The observers were asked to sketch what they perceived. The process of visual differentiation of townscape according to increasing time of exposure was deduced from the sketchs. On the basis of the process, the visual characteristics of differentiated elements of townscape were classified into seven classes. The classification was made by aspects of degree of visual differentiation of townscape. Although the same kind of differentiated elements-for example, buildings, trees, roads, billboards, etc, -did not always belong to the same class of visual characteristics, there was correspondance between them on the whole. Then the meanings that differentiated elements belonging to the same class had in townscape, were discussed. If a differentiated element belonged to the class which had a higher degree of visual differentiation, then that element became more important in visual characteristics of townscape.
