Wayfinding & Cognitive Mechanism And Design Strategy Of Commercial Buildings Space Environment

With the change of consumption concept and the emerging of experiential commerce,in recent years,commercial buildings in China have shown the more comprehensive,scaled,multi-level and multi-functional trends,which also lead to a series of problems such as the complex spatial organization,cognitive overload and low wayfinding efficiency.Since occupants' wayfinding and cognitive performance in commercial buildings is comprehensively affected by environmental information diversity as well as individual differences,it is of great significance for wayfinding design to explore the mechanism of environment elements on pathfinders.In addition,the development of eye tracking and virtual reality technologies has provided a guarantee for realizing more objective,accurate and controllable experimental design and data collection,which could break through the limitations of traditional experimental research methods,and also laid a technical foundation for the re-interpretion of the interaction between occupants and building environment.Aiming to reveal the main factors and key issues affecting occupants' decision-making process in commercial buildings,this study has focused on the main research line of environment-cognition-behavior,and has conducted a series of field or laboratory wayfinding experiments.Moreover,to answeo to each key issue,systematic analyses have been carried out on the correlation between the environment features and individual wayfinding and cognitive performance,and on this basis,corresponding wayfinding design strategies have been proposed,to improve occupants' cognitive experience and wayfinding efficiency in commercial buildings.Firstly,based on the review of relevant researches at home and abroad,the basic principle and process of wayfinding behavior,environmental cognition,as well as the acquisition and representation of spatial knowledge are sorted out.By analyzing design data collected by case study and field investigation,the characteristics of functional division and format configuration,layout form and circulation node,spatial interface and visual elements in commercial buildings are summarized.Additionally,the framework of the experiments are established.The technical characteristics of eye tracking and virtual reality were compared respectively,and the experimental platform was constructed.All of these lay a theoretical,case and technical foundation for the subsequent experimental research and design strategy.Secondly,by conducting field wayfinding experiments,various data including oral report of the wayfinding process,open-ended interview as well as eye tracking records are collected.By qualitatively analyzing the subjective and objective data,including behavior characteristics,route choices,wayfinding strategies usage and influence factors and so on,the theory model of occupants' decision-making during wayfinding in commercial buildings are constructed.Futhermore,two key issues about spatial topological relation cognition and landmark information acquisition are established.Thirdly,focusing on the above issues,individualized studies are carried out respectively according to the line of existing problems,influencing factors,index selection,experimental data collection,correlation analysis and wayfinding design strategy.To the issue of topological cognition oriented,wayfinding experiments in virtual scenarios with two typical layout forms are conducted.The relationship between the layout legibility indicators and wayfinding measurement parameters,with individual spatial ability as the mediating variable,is put forward through correlation analysis,repetitive analysis and so on.On this basis,design strategies are proposed from the perspective of overall layout logic,local spatial differences and information transition efficiency.To the issue of landmark information acquisition,field wayfinding experiments with mobile eye tracking glasses are carried out.And the correlation between the eye individuals' eye movement measures during wayfinding and objects' salience characteristic,which includes visual,cognitive as well as spatial salience indicators,is explained with the methods of correlation analysis and hierarchical regression.And then,strategies and suggestions on wayfinding design are put forward from three aspects,i.e.distribution,interface optimization and hierarchy screening of landmarks.Overall,this dissertation presents a interdisciplinary research which invovles architecture,environmental behavior,computer simulation and geomatics,by applying experimental methods and technologies such as eye tracking and virtual reality,and makes following contributions.The key factors affecting individuals' wayfinding performance and spatial cognition in commercial buildings are put forward,and the corresponding decision-making theory model is built.The relationship between the legibility of architectural layout and the wayfinding performance during topological relation cognition is revealed.Also,the quantitative relationship between the objects' salience features and eye movement indexes during the landmark information acquisition is revealed.Based on the above experimental results,the corresponding design srtategies for improving occupants' wayfinding performance in comercial buildings are proposed respectively.All in all,this study can help architects to have a better understanding about the interaction among architectural environment elements and occupants' cognitive psychology as well as wayfinding behavior.It can also provide a different research perspective and technical method for the optimal design of commercial b uildings,and propose specific strategies and guidance for the improvement of the wayfinding design theory of commercial buildings in China.