Aesthetic evaluation of facade integrated coloured photovoltaics designs – an international online survey

Abstract

Façade Integrated Photovoltaics (FIPV) is a promising way to utilize solar energy and to reduce GHG emission in the built environment. However, to the authors knowledge, the colour design of façade integrated photovoltaics has not been studied scientifically yet. The authors developed a theoretical pixelization design method for generation of colour designs for façades with integrated photovoltaics, in which local urban NCS colour palette and colour harmony strategies are used. The city of Trondheim in Norway acts as a backdrop for the study, and two main façade prototypes (multi-story and high-rise building) are derived from the Trondheim’s urban context. To test the method, an online international survey has been carried out. In the first part of the anonymous survey, participants’ general attitudes towards FIPV, and their basic information was collected. In the second part, participants were asked to evaluate the aesthetics of two façade prototypes having a pixelization FIPV design, on a 5-step semantic differential scale. Besides, participants were asked to choose the most preferred one among pixelization and non-pixelization façade designs. In the third part, the urban integration levels of pixelization design proposals for real buildings were evaluated with the same 5- levels semantic differential scale. Nearly half of the total 309 participants were ‘experts’ with education or working experience in architecture, urban design, or fine arts fields, while the remaining participants were ‘laypersons’ i.e. without related backgrounds. The survey results show a general preference for the aesthetic qualities of presented pixelated FIPV designs. Also, the presented pixelated FIPV designs are perceived well integrated into urban contexts by the majority of participants. In addition, laypersons tend to rate the presented pixelated FIPV proposals with higher scores in both, aesthetic quality evaluation and contextual coherence evaluation.