Considering the Effect of Gender on women’s Understanding of Architectural Spaces

Abstract

Considering the importance of active presence and role of women in various social fields, especially in the profession of architecture and interior design, either as employer and user of space or as designer, which is increasingly progressing nowadays, access to a scientific recognition of women’s understanding in architectural spaces and their perspective on factors affecting visual quality of space is important. The aim of the present study is to investigate women’s understanding of architectural environment and space given the factor of gender with an emphasis on visual elements creating the space. In this study, existing theoretical basics regarding gender-related psychological characteristics and understanding of women were considered in a descriptive-analytical way, and based on existing theoretical fundamentals, the quality of environmental understanding was formulated according to the four components of a) mental imagination, three-dimensional understanding of space, b)understanding visual elements of space,  c) auditory imagination, and d) understanding of social space in the form of a questionnaire and it was assessed among a group of women in Tabriz, who were selected via simple random sampling, with the results thereof implying a significant relationship between gender and the degree of understanding various visual spatial elements.