Exploring the Perceived Dimensions and Their Associations with Aesthetic Pleasure for Liu Yuan, a Chinese Classical Garden
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sustainability Article The Humanmade Paradise: Exploring the Perceived Dimensions and Their Associations with Aesthetic Pleasure for Liu Yuan, a Chinese Classical Garden Xin Li 1 , Bing Xia 2,*, Anne Lusk 3, Xing Liu 4 and Ning Lu 5 1 School of Urban Design, Wuhan University, Wuhan 430072, China; [email protected] 2 College of Civil Engineering and Architecture, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou 310058, China 3 Harvard T. H. Chan School of Public Health, Department of Nutrition, Boston, MA 02109, USA; [email protected] 4 Department of Architecture, Fine Arts Academy, South-Central University for Nationalities, Wuhan 430074, China; [email protected] 5 College of Architecture and Urban Planning, Qingdao University of Technology, Qingdao 266033, China; [email protected] * Correspondence: [email protected] Received: 1 February 2019; Accepted: 26 February 2019; Published: 4 March 2019 Abstract: Investigating how people perceive Chinese Classical Gardens (CCGs) and their appeal are important issues of landscape studies. By considering the Liu-Yuan Garden, we developed a measurement instrument to investigate the perceived dimensions of landscape appreciation. Based on literature review, the descriptive items to measure how people perceived Liu-Yuan Garden were developed. Then, the explorative factor analysis and confirmatory factor analysis were employed, and six dimensions were extracted and validated including “Adoration”, “Nostalgia”, “Liveliness”, “Exquisiteness”, “Hedonic Value”, and “Placeness”. Finally, the Ordinary Linear Regression method was employed to estimate how the aesthetic appreciation is influenced by these perceived dimensions. The result revealed that four of these dimensions were significantly correlated with aesthetic pleasure. The influences of these perceived dimensions on aesthetic pleasure were measured and compared. The results indicated that “Placeness” provided the most important influence on aesthetic pleasure, whereas “Liveliness” was the least influential of the four related dimensions. Keywords: landscape; aesthetic pleasure; perceived dimension; Chinese Classical Gardens; regression model; Liu-Yuan 1. Introduction People are affected by the aesthetics of nature, landscapes, and architecture [1–4]. Different landscape characteristics influence people’s attitudes, and eventually translate to the landscape experience and aesthetic pleasure [5]. As a distinctive branch of the world’s landscape family and excellent carriers of East Asian cultures, Chinese Classical Gardens (CCGs) encapsulate advantages of sustainability, ecological value, urban function, pleasure, and healthcare [6]. Among these benefits, the landscape aesthetics of CCGs have been extensively recognized as important attributes to evaluate their overall quality [7], although empirical studies on this issue with quantitative methods are still in a lack. Aesthetic pleasure involves comprehensive judgments in a complex process that includes perception, interpretation, and appraisal [8]. It was suggested to assess landscape aesthetics from a formal perspective, which was regarded as the sensate appreciation of the physical attributes in the visual world (e.g., volume, order, and richness) [9–11]. For landscape studies, there has been persistent Sustainability 2019, 11, 1350; doi:10.3390/su11051350 www.mdpi.com/journal/sustainability Sustainability 2018, 10, x FOR PEER REVIEW 2 of 16 visual world (e.g. volume, order, and richness) [9–11]. For landscape studies, there has been persistent accentuation of investigating the visual properties when assessing the aesthetic value of a landscape work [12–14]. For instance, plants are often regarded as one of the most important components that influence people’s perception of landscapes among these visual elements [15,16]. The scenic beauty estimation methods that rely largely on the photos prepared by researchers were wellSustainability used 2019to evaluate, 11, 1350 aesthetic values [17,18]. Nine visual concepts, i.e. naturalness, complexity,2 of 16 coherence, and historicity, were identified trying to characterize landscape aesthetics [19]. However, suchaccentuation framework of investigating was developed the visualmainly properties for the landscape when assessing assessment the aesthetic rather valuethan offor a landscapeanalyzing correlationswork [12–14 ].between For instance, these plantsvisual are concepts often regarded and landscape as one of aesthetics. the most important To our best components knowledge, that attemptsinfluence of people’s validation perception with such of landscapesframework among have been these scarcely visual elementsreported. [ 15The,16 weights]. The scenic of different beauty visualestimation concepts methods contributing that rely largelyto landscape on the pleasure photos prepared have been by neither researchers clarified were yet. well used to evaluate aestheticMoreover, values although [17,18]. Nine previous visual studies concepts, on i.e.,CCGs naturalness, have been complexity, explored on coherence, space qualities and historicity, [20,21], configurationswere identified [22,23], trying toand characterize visual aspects landscape [24–26], aesthetics whereas [similar19]. 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