Research On Wayfinding And Cognition Of Traditional Villages In Southern Hebei Based On Virtual Reality Experiment

Buildings and streets are complex spatial structures,they can be understood and experienced only when you pass them.So it's important to consider movement in spatial form and spatial cognition study.Previous studies have identified the correlation between architectural spatial layout and human flow distribution,and a large number of empirical researches were carrid out in urban areas(i.e.,traffic stations,commercial streets,etc).However,rural areas where the spacial form is not relying on plans get less attention.The spatial arrangement of buildings and streets in southern Hebei province are formed from bottom-up carrying valuable regional cultural genes,with important historical and cultural values.Pubic open spaces,including streets and squares,in rural areas which reflect people's behavioral habits,are major objects for cognition and wayfinding studies.In this study,throuth visiting and investigating the village,we relied on the environmental psychology and spatial syntax theory to set up the relationship between wayfinding and spatial pattern of villages.Boyan,a typical traditional village of the southern Hebei province,was chosen as the experimental site.We first collected the environmental background data and constructed a 3-D village model for Boyan.Next,32 trained volunteers participated in the virtual reality experiment and their spatial behavior data(namely cognition data)during the wayfinding was recorded to determine which environment factors and in which way did they influence the wayfinding.The experiment data was analyzed based on ArcGIS nuclear density analysis and the results showed that,for pubic open space in villages,the street intersections usually have high population density and played a vital role during wayfinding.Because the volunteers did not know the target positions,during the exploration,they tended to select the way where vision was most seriously obstructed by buildings,which might also be propelled by curiosity.Under the same condition,volunteers were more likely to turn their sights toward the open area.The major road and buildings within the village,acting as the landmarks,were commenlymemorized by these volunteers as cues to support their searching for target sites.Moreover,the volunteers tended to choose their familiar routes during target finding,few of them found the shortcut.