Geometry & house form : An examina tion of its correla tion with User satisfaction, with special reference to User inflicted modifications on urban Housing schemes

Abstract

" It seems very unaccountable that the generality of our late architects dwelt so much upon the ornamentation, and so slightly pass over the geometrical, which is the most essential part of architecture..." Christopher Wren, 1750 It is a fact that all architectural creation rests on some kind of geometrical principle, as even the design tools used by the architects themselves depend upon the geometrical principles. Geometry, has not functioned as a conscious generator of architecture in most of the designs, instead it just has existed unintentionally. Still from the times of early Greek designers, geometrical principles behind aesthetics has been analyzed, and been applied. The human perception of complete geometrical forms has been properly utilized, by some designers but were ignored by many. Still it is a fact that geometrical principles be applied to architectural design, in order to let the psychological satisfaction of the user. Because the human mind is made to perceive the complete shape, the complete geometric form rather than it's constituents. The dissertation tries to identify the relationship between the geometrical principles and user satisfaction. How the user inflicted modifications depict the perception of geometrical principles, the axis , balance, proportion, geometrical shapes and geometrical completeness of form. In the course of the study the principles are analyzed in relation with the user inflicted modifications, and is intended to shed light on the principles that are ignored in designing for the user, but are perceived and re established by the users themselves.