Selecting building height control indicators of landmark skylines: A visual perception experiment

The landmark skyline contains a modern high-rise landmark taller than neighboring buildings. Landmark prominence and overall volatility are two essential environmental features connecting to skyline building height control, described in previous research by several indicators. A visual perception experiment is conducted in this study to assess these indicators. The experiment involves a correlation analysis between physical attributes calculated from sample images and relevant perceptions acquired by semantic differential questionnaires. The results reveal that A2 (landmark primacy by second tallest height) and A4 (landmark primacy by average height) are suitable indicators for describing the perception of landmark prominence, and B4 (average adjacent height difference) is a better indicator for the perception of overall volatility. Concerning relations, high landmark prominence and high overall volatility perceptions are incompatible. High overall volatility may suppress the perception of high landmark prominence. In addition, increasing the height of the landmark can effectively improve landmark prominence perception, while improving overall volatility perception requires regulating the heights of more buildings and conducting more precise height controls.