Abstract
One argument of this study is that the policy to handle and landscape of cultural and historical property had to do with people's visual preferences. This study seeks to investigate people's visual preferences toward the landscape of cultural /historical property, specifically dealing with 'Namdaemun', which is the first class cultural property of Korea. People's visual preference was specifically examined into the four specific concepts : 'visual identity','harmony','beauty of the target property', and 'overall beauty'. Two objective variables, such as, 'distance' between the viewer and the cultural property, and 'height' of background buildings were considered possible predictors of the four visual preference variables. Photos of 'Namdaemun' were taken at three different directions and at three different distances. The photographed images of 'Namdaemun' were transferred ito the digitalized graphic images, where the height of background buildings was artificially changed and simulated. The simulated visual images were taken into the slides again. A total of 59 students of the Department of Landscape architecture at Seoul City University were sampled as subjects. A series of 17 slides were shown to the subjects four times. The subjects were asked to check their preference ratings concerning the four concepts on a 7-point Likert scale. The results found in this study were as follows : 1) In the results of ANOVA, it was clear that people visually preferred the view where the height of background buildings were lower than 15 floors to the view of more than 15 floors . 2) From the results of the path analysis, it was found that 'harmony','visual identity' and 'beauty of the target property' were direct predictors of 'the overall beauty'. The 'height ' of background buildings and the viewer's 'distance' were not found to be direct predictors, however, they demonstrated their effects on 'the overall beauty' through the other variable, which were direct predictors of 'the overall beauty'. In sum, the longer the distance and the higher the background buildings, the lower people's preference with the 'overall beauty'. These indirect paths, in turn, also explain why and how the 'height' of background buildings and the viewer's 'distance' negatively influence the 'overall beauty'. An implication from the these results is that when the height of background buildings were not controllable, there would be some other strategies for improving people's visual preference toward the historical /cultural view. To increase 'visual identity' of the cultural property, for example, changing colors of the cultural property or increasing the lighting level, etc., would be one strategy, since the increased 'visual identity' will, in turn, increase 'the overall beauty'.