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Evaluating spaciousness in static and dynamic media

Article in Design Studies · September 2007

DOI: 10.1016/j.destud.2007.01.001

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Evaluating spaciousness in static
and dynamic media
Arthur E. Stamps III, Institute of Environmental Quality, 290 Rutledge
Street, San Francisco, CA 94110, USA

This article presents two studies on the following questions: (a) which physical
properties of environments influence impressions of spaciousness? and (b) does
it make a difference whether the environments are shown as static images or as
dynamic virtual reality models? Work on the first question was motivated by the
fact that lack of spaciousness can be a strong ambient stressor and the hope that,
if suitably designed, spaces can seem larger than they actually are and thus
space as perceived can be enhanced without recourse to the very expensive
solution of constructing an actually larger space. Work on the second question
was motivated by the professional need to predict peoples’ responses to future
buildings as efficiently as possible. Virtual reality programs are currently readily
available, but are they cost effective? Study 1 indicated that, for the factors of
floor area, occlusion, and light, impressions of spaciousness could indeed be
modified without recourse to making larger spaces. Study 2 indicated that, with
appropriate choice of viewpoints, findings regarding spaciousness obtained from
static simulations corresponded highly with findings obtained from virtual
reality models.
Ó 2007 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Keywords: spaciousness, virtual reality, simulation

1 Concept

M
any researchers have investigated spaciousness in environments.
But what is spaciousness? Why should it be so important? Theory
provides possible answers to these questions. The seminal citations
are Hediger (1950, 1955); a more recent summary of this issue is provided in
Casamitjana (2005). The problem was the design of zoos. A zoo has a mandate
to keep its animals in good health but in geographic regions much smaller than
the regions for which the animals have evolved. In zoos, spaciousness is very
much a major design determinant. In Hediger’s theory, the primary motiva-
tion any animal has in any environment is simply staying alive by identifying,
avoiding, or, if necessary, fighting enemies and other threats. The identifica-
tion phase requires attention. Attention is a scarce resource and so animals
Corresponding author: must use it efficiently. One strategy is to pay diffuse attention to distant possi-
Arthur E. Stamps III
ble threats, focused attention to threats that are almost in striking distance,
artstamps@att.net,
ieq@att.net, http:// and take action if the threat is too close. The closer the threat, the more stress.
home.att.net/wieq/ The distance at which reactions take place was called the ‘flight distance’,
www.elsevier.com/locate/destud
0142-694X $ - see front matter Design Studies 28 (2007) 535e557
doi:10.1016/j.destud.2007.01.001 535
Ó 2007 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. Printed in Great Britain
 because the normal animal reaction to danger is to flee. Hediger’s design
insight followed from the question of what happens if the size of the cage is
less than twice its flight distance? The answer is that there is no location where
the animal can be at least its flight distance from all walls. Consequently, the
animal is under a strong, constant, ambient environmental stressor, and even-
tually will sicken and die. For zoo design, spaciousness is not merely another
element in the program, it is a potentially lethal mistake.

Spaciousness has also been investigated with respect to human behavior in

both built and natural environments. For example, Bharucha-Reid and
Kiak (1982) reported findings for 86 respondents who evaluated ratings of
physical room affect (spacious, adequate, well-arranged) for rooms that varied
in floor area (4.7 and 22 m2) and social density (6 or 16 people). It was sug-
gested that the larger room was perceived more positively than the smaller
room. Nagar and Pandey (1987) reported findings for 60 respondents who
evaluated perceived crowding and annoyance for rooms with areas of 9.1 m2
that varied in social density (10 people vs. 3e4 people). It was suggested
that the higher social density room was rated as being more crowded and an-
noying than the lower social design room. Evans (1979) had 100 respondents
rate rooms on the criterion of crowding for social densities of small, high-
density rooms (2.9 m2 per occupant) vs. large, low density rooms (5.5 m2 per
occupant). It was suggested that perceived crowding was higher in the high-
density rooms than the lower density rooms. Lange et al. (1979) had 192
respondents rate interference for rooms varying in social density (4.2 m2 per
occupant vs. 1.5 m2 per occupant). It was suggested that perceived interference
was higher in the high-density room. More recent reviews of the literature on
density and satisfaction with the environment are given in Duval et al. (2002)
and Kwallek et al. (2005).

For responses to natural environments, there is probably no better source than

the extensive body of data collected by Thomas Herzog. In one study of water-
scapes which were evaluated for spaciousness by 21 respondents, rated spa-
ciousness and rated preference correlated at r ¼ 0.42 (Herzog, 1985). (The
symbol ‘r’ is used to indicate a Pearson product moment correlation.) A similar
study, this time of mountains, canyons, and deserts, with 23 respondents rating
70 scenes for spaciousness, produced a correlation of r ¼ 0.32, while a third
study of urban nature, with 29 respondents rating spaciousness of 70 scenes,
produced a correlation between rated spaciousness and rated preference of
r ¼ 0.46 (Herzog, 1989). Sheer spaciousness does not, of course, entail prefer-
ence. Examples can be found where smaller spaces are more desirable than
larger spaces. This is reflected in natural language by terms such as ‘cozy’,
which connotes both small and desirable, just as ‘claustrophobic’ connotes
both small and undesirable, or terms such as ‘agoraphobic’, which connotes
both large and undesirable and ‘spacious’ which, as indicated in the studies

536 Design Studies Vol 28 No. 5 September 2007

 described above, connotes both large and desirable. Emphasis in this article is
placed on the case where spaciousness is desirable. Readers interested in
reducing perceived spaciousness can utilize the findings by appropriately
modifying the conclusions.

Still other studies explored effects of specific environmental properties and

impressions of spacious. Properties have included horizontal area, lighting,
horizontal shape, occlusion, boundary permeability, and boundary roughness.

1.1 Horizontal area

Gärling conducted a series of studies on streets and alleys in a rural town. In
one study (Gärling, 1970a), 12 respondents rated slides of 12 streets and rated
them on the criterion of how large the streets appeared to be. Actual area and
judged size correlated at r ¼ 0.96. In another study (Gärling, 1970b), an addi-
tional 12 participants actually walked through the streets and evaluated them
on criteria of how large the space seemed to be. Actual area and judgments
of how large the space seemed to be correlated at r ¼ 0.79. Benedikt and
Burnham (1985) studied floor area and four other spatial measurements of
30 rooms that looked like hotel lobbies with hallways leading off from the
main room. Sixteen participants evaluated the rooms on the criterion of
‘amount of visible space’. A strong effect of visible floor area on judged spa-
ciousness was reported. Areas that were hidden (occluded) appeared to have
very small effects on judged spaciousness. Inui and Miyata (1973) had 10 par-
ticipants rate 474 models of rooms on several criteria including spaciousness.
Sufficient data were reported to permit calculation of a correlation between ac-
tual room size and rated spaciousness for 15 of the stimuli. The correlation was
r ¼ 0.63. Franz et al. (2003) had 16 participants rate 16 rooms shown in virtual
reality models on several criteria, including spaciousness. Rated spaciousness
and actual floor area correlated at r ¼ 0.84. In a related study (Franz and
Wiener, 2005), eight participants moved around in virtual reality models of
art galleries and rated them on several criteria including spaciousness. Rated
spaciousness and a combination of actual floor area and number of visible
edges correlated at R ¼ 0.88 with judged spaciousness. (The symbol ‘R’ is
used to indicate a multiple correlation.) It would seem that there is a strong,
reproducible relationship between judged spaciousness and horizontal area.

1.2 Lighting
Martyniuk et al. (1973) had 96 participants rate 6 rooms with different lighting
schemes on several criteria including spaciousness. Levels of light ranged from
about 100 to 1000 cd/m2. Amount of light correlated at r ¼ 0.27 with judged
spaciousness. Kirschbaum and Tonello (1997) also had people rate an office
in terms of spaciousness under different amounts of light (280e1235 cd/m2).
It was reported that 13% of the variance in judgments of spaciousness could
be attributed to amount of light. Inui and Miyata (1973) also collected data
on lighting as well as room size. Light levels ranged from 5 to 500 cd/m2. A

Evaluating spaciousness is static and dynamic media 537

 correlation between light level and perceived spaciousness could be calculated
for 13 stimuli and turned out to be r ¼ 0.94. Other studies, the results of which
suggest that light level and spaciousness are related, include Acking and Küller
(1972), Baum and Davis (1976), Oldham and Rotchford (1991), Küller (1986),
and Oldham and Fried (1987).

1.3 Horizontal shape

Other experiments investigated whether the shape of the space influenced im-
pressions of spaciousness. For instance, Sadalla and Oxley (1976) reported
three studies in which participants were placed in actual rooms that varied
in aspect ratio (depth/width) but had the same horizontal area. The rooms
were constructed from 1.2  2.4 m sheets of plywood. Floor areas were 13,
16, and 21 m2. Aspect ratios ranged from 1.0 to 9.0. Given equal areas, the
larger the aspect ratio, the more spaciousness the rooms appeared. Ishikawa
et al. (1998) considered the case of 12 urban streets in which some buildings
were set back from the property line. The setbacks were either shallow and
long or deep and short. The pending question was whether the aspect ratios
of the setbacks would make the street seem more or less spaciousness. The
streets were constructed such that one side would have shallow setbacks while
the other side would have deep setbacks. Actual open space was the same on
both sides. Fifty-seven participants viewed the streets on a computer screen
and evaluated the streets on criteria including which side of the street seemed
to have more open space. Altogether, 36% of the participants perceived the
block with the deeper setbacks to have more open space while 11% of the par-
ticipants perceived the block with the shallower setbacks to have more open
space.

1.4 Occlusion
Imamoglu (1973) had 90 participants rate spaciousness for a room with 3 dif-
ferent amounts of furniture. Judged spaciousness and percentage of floor cov-
ered by furniture correlated at r ¼ 0.54.

1.5 Boundary permeability

Franz et al. (2003), in their study of museum rooms, also measured percentage
of walls that were windows. Impressions of spaciousness and proportion of
boundary covered by windows correlated at r ¼ 0.12.

1.6 Boundary roughness

A pair of experiments investigated the question of how the roughness of
boundaries influenced impressions of spaciousness (Stamps and Krishnan,
2006). In one study, 49 participants rated 16 rooms in which the roughness
of the walls was created using fractal mathematics. Rooms with rougher walls
were judged as being very slightly more spaciousness than rooms with smooth
walls (r ¼ 0.10). A follow-up study, with 16 respondents, had 12 rooms in
which boundary roughness was changed by having walls that were flat sur-
faces, open bookcases, and open book cases partially filled with books.

538 Design Studies Vol 28 No. 5 September 2007

 Boundary roughness was again correlated with increased impressions of spa-
ciousness (r ¼ 0.28).

1.7 Other
Finally, still other possible determinants of spaciousness in landscapes, includ-
ing boundary height, boundary variation, soil texture, isolated elements in
space, light, and coming from small or large spaces for landscapes, were re-
ported by Coeterier (1994).

A general understanding of the above research is that impressions of spacious-

ness can be changed by modifying design features other than the sheer size of
an environment. These previous studies relate to the current undertaking in
that they provide an empirical context for the present work, they identify de-
sign features that should be controlled, and they assist researchers in locating
additional sources of data on the topic of spaciousness.

Thus, in view of its theoretical and practical importance, spaciousness per se

seemed to be an important property of environments and so worth inquiry.
The ripe question thus becomes: which variables should be investigated next?

1.8 Variables
The dependent variable (the effect we intend to produce) in this article is
spaciousness. Spaciousness, as the OED has it, is ‘of vast, large, or indefinite
superficial extent or area, widely extended, extensive’. The independent
variables (causes) were three properties of the environment: total floor area,
occlusion, and light. Based on the literature summarized above, it was
expected that:

H1: Spaciousness f floor area.

H2: Spaciousness f lack of occlusion.
H3: Spaciousness f amount of light.

In addition, in view of their demonstrated effects on spaciousness, the follow-

ing variables were controlled in the present studies: shape of rooms and
amount of walls that were windows.

2 Experiment 1: static medium

2.1 Methods
2.1.1 Overall research design, measuring system,
and measuring scales
The overall research design consists of conducting rigorous empirical experi-
ments. The measuring system consists of reporting findings in terms of effect
sizes such as correlations (r) or standardized differences between means (d).
These are the current standards for best practice in both the behavioral

Evaluating spaciousness is static and dynamic media 539

 sciences (American Psychological Association, 2001, Section 1.10) and for
translating scientific research into recommendations for professional decision-
making (Cochrane, 1972; Cochrane Collaboration, 2005). A numerical/visual
Rosetta Stone for this measuring system, showing 94 design applications and 8
case studies, is given in Stamps (2000). Four examples are shown in Figure 1.
The top row shows a contrast between Yosemite without and with its moun-
tains. The effect size, measured with d, is 1.1. (When d is converted to r, the
number becomes 0.54.) What makes this measurement system so useful is
that the interpretations of d (or r) can be compared across different studies.

Figure 1 Examples of a mea-

suring system based on stan-
dardized mean differences
(d) or correlations (r). Better
looking scenes are on the right.
A d of 1.1 is, literally, the
visual impact of a mountain
(top row). A d of 0.80 is the
difference between a car wash
and a Beaux Arts building;
a d of 0.35 is the effect of
street trees; a d of 0.05 is
the effect of a molehill. For
the mathematics, please see
Rosenthal and Rosnow (1991)
and Cohen (1988)

540 Design Studies Vol 28 No. 5 September 2007

 Thus, if one obtains a d of 1.1 for the difference in spaciousness between
a prison cell and an auditorium, it makes sense to say that that difference is
the size of a mountain. A d of 0.80 calibrates into the difference between
a car wash and a Beaux Arts building (row 2), while addition of small street
trees improved the visual amenity of the street by d ¼ 0.35, and the presence
of a molehill lowered the amenity of a meadow by 0.05.

The scientific support for the Rosetta Stone measuring system consisted of 277
studies, over 12 000 stimuli, and over 41 000 people (Stamps, 2000). Applica-
tions for the creation and review of research are given in Stamps (1997a,b,
2002). The actual mechanics of the overall research design require, necessarily,
technical jargon that is beyond the scope of this article. For readers interested
in implementing these standards, the three basic references are Rosenthal and
Rosnow (1991), Cohen (1988), and Hedges and Olkin (1985).

For measuring scales, the present work utilized semantic differential responses.
In this method, participants rate a stimulus using pairs of verbal anchors such
as ‘not spacious’ and ‘spacious’. In the present experiments the ratings range
from 1 (not spacious) to 8 (spacious). Semantic differential scales have been
used extensively to measure feelings. For a review of 40 relevant studies
with 7168 respondents and 1768 stimuli please see Stamps (2000, pp.
71e85). Many other measuring processes are, of course, possible. However,
a review of studies covering 1150 stimuli indicated that many common
methods of scaling (ratings, rank orders, qsorts, physically placing stimuli
on a table, raw score, comparative judgment, true score, and signal detection
theory) generated findings which correlated at r ¼ 0.99 (0.05 CI ¼ [0.99, 0.99])
(Stamps, 2000, pp. 98e101). It may also be possible that ratings data should
not be used as dependent variables in the general linear model because ratings
data are not interval-scaled. However, Zimmerman and Zumbo (1993) found
that the power of parametric and nonparametric tests were virtually identical
even for n values as small as 10. Consequently, it is likely that the use of other
scaling methods will have minor effects on the results, and so the simplest
method d semantic differential scaling d was used.

Other possible aspects of the overall research design include viewing condi-
tions such as size of presentation room, viewing distance, ambient light levels,
time of day, time stimuli were displayed, alternate presentation orders, or
other conditions under which the stimuli were shown. These aspects were
not held constant because previous studies indicate that psychological
responses to environments can be replicated without controlling for these con-
ditions. In one pair of experiments, preferences were obtained for the same 13
scenes but using different participants, different locations, different viewing
conditions, different viewing orders, and different scaling methods (Stamps,
1992). The preferences between the two replications correlated at r ¼ 0.90.
In another experiment on preferences for 35 houses, two sets of responses

Evaluating spaciousness is static and dynamic media 541

 were obtained from different groups of respondents, in different cities, under
different viewing conditions (Stamps and Nasar, 1997). The results again
correlated at r ¼ 0.90. Feimer (1984) reported findings from a large (1148 par-
ticipants) study on effects of experimental conditions on evaluations of environ-
ments. One of the tests compared evaluation scores obtained from two different
rooms (a room in a church and another room, at a different location, in
a school). The effect of interview site was very small (r ¼ 0.006, t (103) ¼
0.07, p ¼ 0.94). Similar results were obtained in a literature review of demo-
graphic effects on environmental preferences (Stamps, 1999). The review
covered data from over 19 000 participants and over 3200 environmental
scenes. Of particular relevance was the contrast between results generated
from the protocols used in the present paper with results obtained in other lab-
oratories. The size of the contrast was quite small (h ¼ 0.03, F1,36 ¼ 0.048,
p ¼ 0.83), indicating that the protocols used in this paper are quite repro-
ducible. Accordingly, the present experiments did not control for viewing
conditions.

Overall, therefore, the research design was a formal factorial experiment, the
measuring system was reporting effect sizes, and the measuring instrument
consisted of semantic differential ratings. These protocols were used because
extensive previous research indicates that they (a) generate highly reproducible
results, and (b) do so in a very cost-effective manner.

2.1.2 Environments
Choice of media is often an issue in design studies. For example, the École des
Beaux Arts often conjures visions of huge ink and water color wash elevations
of classical buildings. These boards were used in the year-end jury to decide
who would and who would not graduate. However, the reason why these
boards were all elevations is generally not well known. Students were present-
ing their projects using perspectives, and the faculty of the École was con-
cerned that the effect of the medium might be influencing judgments
regarding the merits of the project per se. Accordingly, on 14 January 1868,
the faculty eliminated perspective renderings from the jury (Silvergold,
1974). More recently, in the 1970s and 1980s, empirical research was done
on the question of how various media influence judgments of affective re-
sponses to environments. Based on findings from 1215 environments and
4200 people, emotional responses to static color images were much better pre-
dictors of the same responses to actual environments than black and white
sketches (Stamps, 1993, 2000). In addition, responses to static color images
correlated at r ¼ 0.83 (n ¼ 185 scenes, 0.05 CI ¼ [0.79, 0.87]) with responses
obtained on-site (Stamps, 2000, pp. 101e113). Palmer and Hoffman (2001) ex-
tended the analysis to include 470 scenes. The revised estimated effect size was
r ¼ 0.78 (0.05 CI ¼ [0.73, 0.82]). The conclusions seem to be that (a) responses
to static color images of environments are strong predictors of responses
obtained in actual environments, and (b) the current issue on media is not

542 Design Studies Vol 28 No. 5 September 2007

 whether static color images are valid but rather whether the more elaborate
media of virtual realities are cost effective.

In order for the static color images to predict responses to actual environ-
ments, care must be taken to make the images as accurate as possible. Images
used in this article were created in a professional CAD program (Microsta-
tion). Use of professional CAD programs is recommended for the following
reasons: (a) the resulting environments can be built (no Escher-type geometric
impossibilities), (b) the environments can be designed to meet precisely the re-
quirements of scientific experiments, (c) all dimensions are in real-world units,
and (d) lighting is also specified in real-world units (cd/m2) that can be ren-
dered with both ray-tracing and radiosity.

In the static images it is necessary to select station points. Moreover, for scien-
tific purposes, this selection must be done in an unbiased procedure. The pro-
cedure used in this article was to calculate amount of floor area visible for each
point in a 50  50 cm grid and select the location with the least, average, and
most visible floor area in each room. Floor areas were calculated using the
mathematical concept of the isovist. A review of isovists and the ways to cal-
culate 25 of their properties, covering over 15 000 examples, is given in Stamps
(2005). Once the station points with the minimum, average, or maximum
visual floor area were identified, it was necessary to pick a direction of view.
In this experiment, the direction of view was chosen to maximize the amount
of visible area. Figures 2 and 3 illustrate these ideas.

The venue for the present study consisted of museum galleries. Floor plans are
shown in Figure 4; black and white versions of the images are shown in Figures
5 and 6. The overall shape was a randomly constructed convex hull with seven
sides. There were two sizes of floor area: 77.5 and 155 m2. All walls were 5 m
high. Half the rooms were open; the other half had three partitions in each
room. Lighting was designed to provide either 300 or 600 cd/m2 at floor level.
Station points and directions of view for the minimum, average, and maximum
visible floor areas were calculated as described above.

For scientific readers, the experimental design was a factorial of horizontal size
(77.5 and 155 m2) by occlusion (absent, present) by light (300 and 600 cd/m2),
with three views within each cell (minimum, average, and maximum visible
floor area), for a total of nstim ¼ 24.

2.1.3 Participants
The required number of respondents was determined using statistical methods
(Cohen, 1988, p. 413). Calculations indicated that, with 24 stimuli, only 6 re-
spondents would be sufficient to achieve the desired levels of alpha and beta
errors. Participants were undergraduate engineering students. There were

Evaluating spaciousness is static and dynamic media 543

Figure 2 (1) A convex shape
is one where a line connecting
any two points on the bound-
ary does not go outside the
shape. This implies that, no
matter where you stand in
a convex shape, you can al-
ways see the whole shape.
Since visibility is the isovist,
a convex shape is its own isov-
ist. (2) If there are partitions,
then some of the shape might
be hidden from some of the
station points. Selection of
station points in experiment
1 involved creating trial points
(3), calculating the areas of
their isovists (4), and identi-
fying the station points with
the smallest, largest and aver-
age isovists (5 for the small-
est visible area; 6 for the
largest visible area)

26 respondents, of whom 21 were males, 3 were females, and 2 did not state
sex. Average age was 20.9 years (SD ¼ 3.6 years).

2.1.4 Task
Stimuli were presented in a Power Point show during a class. Two warm-up
images were shown to help respondents calibrate their responses; then each
stimulus was shown. Stimuli were shown until all respondents finished their re-
sponses. Average presentation time was about 20 s. Presentation order was
randomized with respect to the independent variables.

2.2 Results
This experiment addressed the following research questions: (a) How strongly
did floor area influence impressions of spaciousness? (b) How strongly did
amount of light influence impressions of spaciousness? And (c) How strongly
did inclusion of interior partitions influence impressions of spaciousness?

544 Design Studies Vol 28 No. 5 September 2007

Figure 3 Once a station point
and its corresponding isovist
are chosen, it is necessary to
select an viewing angle. This
can be done analytically by
rotating the view angle, calcu-
lating how much area is visi-
ble within the isovist, and
picking the angle with the
largest area

Figure 7 shows the contrasts and Table 1 lists their numbers. Doubling the
floor area increased the perceived spaciousness by d ¼ 0.54. Doubling the light
from 300 to 600 cd/m2 increased perceived spaciousness by d ¼ 0.40, while sub-
dividing the room with partitions decreased the perceived spaciousness by

Figure 4 Floor plans for stim-

uli. Dots indicate the location
of the observer. White areas
indicate what is visible (the
isovist) from the observer’s
location

Evaluating spaciousness is static and dynamic media 545

Figure 5 Some stimuli for the static medium

a similar amount (d ¼ 0.46). Implications of these findings for practice and

research are described in Section 4.

3 Experiment 2: dynamic medium

3.1 Methods
3.1.1 Environments
The medium for this experiment was a virtual reality model in which partici-
pants could walk around the environment. There are many VR models cur-
rently available. Summaries of current alternatives are given in Cubukcu
and Nasar (2005a, 2005b). Emphasis in this experiment was on creating VR
models that matched the static color images used in experiment 1, and, more-
over, doing so in an efficient manner. The most efficient process I have found is

546 Design Studies Vol 28 No. 5 September 2007

Figure 6 More stimuli for the static medium

to export the CAD model from Microstation into an OpenGL game engine.
This can be done with Visual Basic for Applications (VBA) that ships with
Microstation and, I believe, also ships with AutoCad. VBA will export the sur-
face geometry, but each surface also has to be textured with a bitmap. In order
to preserve the real-world lighting, this means each surface has to be rendered
in Microstation, and then each bitmap has to be attached to its surface in the
game engine. Rendering each surface separately turned out to be the time-
consuming part of creating the VR models. Altogether, it took about a day
to convert each room from the static to the dynamic medium. Figure 8 shows
one stimulus as shown in the static condition (top), and a screen shot of the VR
model (bottom). The result of this process was a set of eight VR models, with
one model corresponding to each cell in the factorial experimental design of
horizontal size (small, large) by light (dim, bright) by occlusion (absent,
present).

Evaluating spaciousness is static and dynamic media 547

Figure 7 Results for the static
medium. Solid lines indicate
contrasts that were significant
at p < 0.05. Confidence inter-
vals on the means are not
shown because they were
smaller than the dots used to
represent the data points

Table 1 Contrasts for spaciousness, static medium, mse [ 2.27

Factor Levels Floor plans m F1,506 a d r

2
Floor area 77.5 m OUJRDNWQLVAG 4.90
155 m2 ESTFPBXHMKIC 5.72 40.78 3e10 0.54 0.26
Occlusion Present WQLVAGXHMKIC 4.96
Absent OUJRDNESTFPB 5.66 29.43 9e8 0.46 0.22
2
Light 300 cd/m OUJWQLESTXHM 5.08
600 cd/m2 RDNVAGFPBKIC 5.69 22.53 2e6 0.40 0.20

The column ‘Floor plans’ lists which stimulus belongs to each level of each factor. Thus, ‘O’
refers to floor plan (stimulus) O. Please see Figure 3 for the floor plans. d is the standardized
mean contrast between two groups of stimuli; r is d converted into a correlation.

548 Design Studies Vol 28 No. 5 September 2007

Figure 8 One room as shown
in the static medium (top)
and as a screen shot of the
corresponding VR model
(bottom)

3.1.2 Participants
Eighteen participants were selected by a commercial survey research firm. The
respondent sample was balanced for sex (nine and nine) and political affiliation
(six liberals, six moderates, and six conservatives). Average age was 49.2 years
(SD ¼ 20.1 years). Occupations ranged from clerical and sales to teaching
and law.

3.1.3 Task
The VR models were presented in a laptop data collection program (Stamps,
2004). Use of this program greatly facilitated the analysis by guaranteeing
complete data and by eliminating possible transcribing errors. In order to
help the participants learn how to use the virtual realities, they were first given
a demonstration program. This program explained how to move around the
virtual reality model and how to record responses. Participants practiced until
they felt comfortable with the controls. The stimuli were then shown on a lap-
top computer. Locations and viewing directions were recorded at intervals of
1 s to permit subsequent time and motion analyses. Presentation order was
randomized with respect to the independent variables. Each stimulus was

Evaluating spaciousness is static and dynamic media 549

 shown with a row of buttons and verbal labels to anchor the scales. Respon-
dents rated each stimulus on a scale of Not Spacious (1) to Spacious (8). When
a button was pressed, an OK button came on; when the OK button was
pressed, the answer and total time spent in the environment were recorded,
and the next image was shown. Total times per room ranged from about 30
to about 90 s.

3.2 Results
The time and motion data were first plotted to see if the participants made use
of the dynamic capabilities of the VR. Paths taken by all participants for one
room are shown in Figure 9. Each arrow indicates a position and view direc-
tion at a temporal interval of 1 s. Each participant did, indeed, utilize the dy-
namic features of the VR, albeit in different ways. Some just spun about (the
wagon wheels in the figure); others wandered around and looked behind the
partitions before making spaciousness judgments. One interesting point that
is not apparent in Figure 9 is a possible gender difference in exploration strat-
egies. In the original figure, sex was coded in color, and it was apparent that
most of the wagon wheels were paths taken by females, while the extended ex-
ploratory paths were made by males. The participant sample was too small to
analyze this difference, but it may be interesting for future researchers to con-
sider possible demographic differences in exploration strategies.

The main result from this study is the correspondence between spaciousness as
evaluated in the VR model and spaciousness as evaluated in the same scene
shown in three static images (minimum, average, and maximum visible
area). The mappings between the two sets of stimuli are shown in Table 2.
Thus, the rated spaciousness for the VR models with small floor areas was
compared to the average rated spaciousness of static images OUJ, RDN,
WQL, and VAG. Likewise for the other contrasts. The correspondence

Figure 9 Paths taken by all

18 participants in 1 room.
Arrows indicate location and
direction of view of partici-
pants at 1-s intervals

550 Design Studies Vol 28 No. 5 September 2007

 Table 2 Standardized mean contrasts for spaciousness, dynamic medium,
mse [ 1.22

Factor Levels Floor plans m F1,119 a d r

Floor area 77.5 m2 OUJRDNWQLVAG 4.917

155 m2 ESTFPBXHMKIC 5.958 32.01 1e7 0.943 0.426
Occlusion Present WQLVAGXHMKIC 4.68
Absent OUJRDNESTFPB 6.19 67.61 3e13 1.37 0.56
Light 300 cd/m2 OUJWQLESTXHM 5.27
600 cd/m2 RDNVAGFPBKIC 5.65 5.47 0.02 0.39 0.19

The column ‘Floor plans’ lists which stimulus belongs to each level of each factor. Thus, ‘O’
refers to floor plan (stimulus) O. Please see Figure 3 for the floor plans. d is the standardized
mean contrast between two groups of stimuli; r is d converted into a correlation.

between spaciousness as rated in static and dynamic images could be calcu-

lated as a correlation. That correlation was r ¼ 0.79. This means that the
two media produced highly similar results.

The VR models also replicated the findings for the contrasts obtained from the
static images. Figure 10 shows the plots and Table 2 shows the numbers. Light
had an almost identical effect in both media (d values of 0.40 and 0.39). Floor
area and occlusion had the same effects in both experiments: larger rooms were
perceived as more spacious, as were lighter rooms, but the effect sizes were sub-
stantially larger when obtained via VR models.

4 Discussion
4.1 Specific findings
The work described in this article addressed four questions: (1) How strongly
did sheer size (represented as floor area) influence impressions of spaciousness?
(2) How strongly did occlusion (represented as the presence or absence of in-
terior partitions) influence impressions of spaciousness? (3) How strongly did
amount of light (represented as cd/m2) influence impressions of spaciousness
And (4) did the medium of dynamic, virtual reality models generate different
conclusions from data obtained from static, colored images?

4.1.1 Floor area

Inspection of Tables 1 and 2 suggests that sheer floor area is a solid predictor
of perceived spaciousness. The strength of the effect, measured in terms of d,
was 0.54 in experiment 1 and 0.94 in experiment 2. This means that the efficacy
of sheer floor area with respect to inducing impressions of spaciousness is
stronger than the visual effect of adding street trees (d ¼ 0.35) but a little
less than the visual impact of a mountain (d ¼ 1.1). The present findings are
also consistent with the prior research by Gärling (1970a, 1970b), Benedikt
and Burnham (1985), Inui and Miyata (1973), Franz et al. (2003), and Franz
and Wiener (2005). The direct, practical implication for designers is that sheer
floor area has a strong influence on perceived spaciousness.

Evaluating spaciousness is static and dynamic media 551

Figure 10 Results for the dy-
namic medium. Solid lines in-
dicate contrasts that were
significant at p < 0.05. Confi-
dence intervals on the means
are not shown because they
were smaller than the dots
used to represent the data
points

4.1.2 Occlusion
The effect of occlusion d in the present experiments, partitions d deceased
the apparent spaciousness of the rooms. The effect sizes were d ¼ 0.46 (more
than a street tree) in the first experiment and 1.37 (more than a mountain)
in the second experiment. This is consistent with the findings reported by

552 Design Studies Vol 28 No. 5 September 2007

 Benedikt and Burnham (1985). The direct, practical implication for designers
is that removing partitions will increase perceived spaciousness of rooms.

4.1.3 Lighting
Effects of lighting on perceived spaciousness were the same in both experi-
ments. Doubling the light from 300 to 600 cd/m2 increased perceived spacious-
ness by d ¼ 0.39 (the same effect achieved by adding trees to a street). These
findings are in accord with findings by Martyniuk et al. (1973), Kirschbaum
and Tonello (1997), and Inui and Miyata (1973). The design application is
that, even if floor area is fixed, designers can make a room appear larger or
smaller by adjusting the ambient level of light.

Overall, therefore, larger spaces are, indeed, judged to be more spacious than
smaller spaces. However, according to the data, so are open spaces vs. spaces
divided by partitions or lighter spaces vs. darker spaces. The implications
seems to be that, when confronted with a design program calling for the effect
of being more spacious, the designer has the alternatives of (a) making the
space bigger, (b) eliminating internal partitions, or (c) increasing the amount
of ambient light.

4.1.4 Media
On the media question, the relevant datum is the correlation of spaciousness
responses obtained with static, color images vs. responses obtained with dy-
namic, virtual reality models. For the environments in this study, the correla-
tion was r ¼ 0.79. This correlation is close to the correlation calculated for
affective responses obtained for static color images vs. on-site evaluations
(r ¼ 0.78; Palmer and Hoffman, 2001). Inspection of Tables 1 and 2 reveals
that both methods generated the same conclusions: rooms with larger floor
areas, no occlusions, or more light were perceived as being more spacious
than were rooms with smaller floor areas, occlusions, and less light, regardless
of the simulation medium. These findings have a practical implication for any
designer or researcher who is considering using dynamic media in the design
process. Creation of accurate virtual reality models is a labor-intensive and
hence costly operation. If static color images produce the same results as
VR models, then perhaps the VRs are not cost effective. For instance, when
creating the VR models for experiment 2, the design was done by rendering
each space from three station points. Each rendering took less than a minute,
so numerous design options could be explored. Exporting the designs to the
VR game engine took a day for each room, which is clearly too long a cycle
to support interactive design. On the other hand, for presentation purposes,
the VR models have been quite effective. In the author’s professional practice,
clients were captivated with the models and spent a considerable amount of
time playing in them. The media decision, of course, will have to be made
by each designer who best knows the available resources and whether the cli-
ents are willing to pay for VR presentations.

Evaluating spaciousness is static and dynamic media 553

 4.2 Implications for future research
Numerous options are available for possible future research. First, the findings
of strong effects of floor area, occlusion, and light on perceived spaciousness
means that, in any future research on spaciousness, these factors should either
be included in the experimental design or controlled out of the experimental de-
sign. Second, the effect of sheer floor area on spaciousness is pretty solidly estab-
lished, so researchers would probably find it more rewarding to control for floor
area and focus on other design options. Third, researchers may wish to attempt
replication or even generalization. Replication would entail re-using the same
stimuli. The present stimuli are available from the author for research purposes.
Generalization would entail testing for occlusion and light in other rooms.
Fourth, there might have been a demographic difference in exploration strate-
gies in experiment 2. Future work on demographic effects may be of interest to
some researchers. Can anyone replicate the observation that females find a spot
and stay in it, while males wander around? Fifth, the correspondence between
responses obtained from static color images and VR models is based on one ex-
periment. Additional experiments would be highly desirable before making any
general claim regarding the inter-changeability of the two media. Sixth, the ex-
isting literature on perceived spaciousness and other variables such as shape,
boundary permeability, and boundary roughness is currently quite sparse, so
additional work on those factors might be rewarding. How does elongation in-
fluence spaciousness? Does a short, fat space seem more spacious than a long,
thin space of equal horizontal area? How strongly does the addition of windows
influence perceived spaciousness? Is it the case that flat walls make a room ap-
pear more or less spacious? The finding that occlusion diminished perceived
spaciousness could be refined by considering the question of whether people
judge the spaciousness on the basis of the largest visible area, the whole actual
area, or some combination of the largest and other areas. On the response side,
future research could be done by changing the response to perceived safety, pri-
vacy, or crowding. Given the theoretical basis described in the introduction,
these responses should all be related to spaciousness, so any physical design fea-
tures that influences perceived spaciousness should also influence perceived
safety, privacy, and crowding.

5 Summary of findings
This article presented two studies on the following questions: (a) which phys-
ical properties of environments influence impressions of spaciousness? and (b)
does it make a difference whether the environments are shown as static images
or as dynamic virtual reality models? Study 1 indicated that, for the factors of
floor area, occlusion, and light, impressions of spaciousness could indeed be
modified without recourse to making larger spaces. Study 2 indicated that,
with appropriate choice of viewpoints, findings regarding spaciousness ob-
tained from static simulations corresponded highly with findings obtained
from virtual reality models.

554 Design Studies Vol 28 No. 5 September 2007

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