Evaluation of Coffeehouse Spaces’ Interior Design Through Phenomenological and Ocular-Centered Methods

Abstract

The perception of space is related to the consumer experiencing in the space and remembering the space. The ocular-centered perspective of modernism has created aesthetic forms far from experience with a completely relative understanding of beauty for the space designer and the space user. However, it is possible to perceive and gather information about space in memory beyond the five senses; vitalness, space-subject interaction, sensation, experience, movement, time, and subjectivity. Phenomenology is the focal point of these spatial practices. In this study, the consumer's effective roles in the perception of space have been investigated through ocular-centrist and phenomenological methods. To obtain data, study areas were determined, therefore, coffee presentation-sale areas were chosen as the study area. The continuation of the study identifies the historical district of Beyoglu as the location of five coffeehouses. Moreover, a questionnaire was conducted upon the twenty people who have experienced those coffeehouses to infer how they perceive and remember their space-design. The questionnaires inquire into the comparison between spaces that include perception elements beyond the five senses and the spaces that include solely the visual perception elements to understand the preferences of the consumers and which space type leaves a positive and permanent impression in their memory.