Abstract
This study is part of a research project whose goal is to define improvement strategies, using color as a criterion, for the visual integration of architecture that impacts on the urban landscape. To evaluate urban landscape integration, most studies use concepts from experts or from other geo-demographic contexts. The potential shortcoming is that this approach might not correspond to the conceptual schematics of the users who are the subject of the study, which supposes a considerable risk to its legitimacy. The aim of this particular study, therefore, is to define a comprehensive methodology to identify these variables and to then apply them in the specific case of Valencia. For this reason we have used the focus-group approach. The sessions that were attended by expert and non-expert profiles were aimed at saturating the semantic use of the informants and to evaluate the main expressions used in earlier landscape integration projects. For this reason we used visual stimulations consisting of a sample of chromatic intervention approaches, which, due to their incompatibility with the urban fabric, were designated non-compliant; to these, we then applied a series of chromatic intervention approaches in order to reduce the aesthetic impact and improve their valuation scores. The methodology employed allowed us to identify the criteria, impressions and attitudes of two different profiles (expert/non-expert), structured around the concept of landscape integration, condensing them down to 34 expressions. In this way, we are able to ensure that for this particular study, the questionnaires that use them will be easily recognized. The precise definition of variables is essential for later correlation with the final assessment of the intervention and with the design variables.
