Complexity and Order in Commercial Streetscapes: How to Maintain User Satisfaction With Visual Quality in Contemporary Cities

The aim of this study is to provide a tool, for planning practice and policy making, in order to preserve the visual quality of historic streetscapes located on commercial areas. This tool involves the development and testing of a comparative method to calculate complexity levels of commercial streetscapes and to ascertain their correspondence with levels as perceived by users. The concept of complexity is understood as a variety of elements and relationships, in an aesthetic configuration, which are structured according to some overall principles of Gestalt Theory. The method, developed here, to calculate levels of complexity in street facades was tested utilising urban users from different cities and countries, including Brazil and England. It is the intention of the authors that this tool is used by urban designers, architects, and planners, before a new building intervention is added to an existing context, to ascertain whether it will increase or decrease people's evaluation of overall visual quality. As there is a relationship between the affective dimensions of user satisfaction, with street scenes and levels of complexity, the model has potential implications for urban design professionals.