Advisor: Dr. Natheer Abu Obeid

Abstract:
The subject of structure aesthetics is of great importance, especially with the significant contribution of technology to the built forms. This significance is expressed in this research on the non-conventional structures. This research has dealt with structural forms within the factors of the resolution of forces, emotions and associations, knowledge and experience, formal attributes, nature and intuition and materials aesthetics. One hundred and fifty (150) students from three groups representing the three types of expertise: architects, engineers, and non-experts were selected from Jordan university for science and technology. They had to evaluate fourteen (14) non-conventional structural systems using a seven-step semantic differential scale, on 38 items. These items cover perceptual, cognitive, and affective responses toward the built environment. The results indicated that the formal/structural and symbolic aspects of the different structural systems influenced our perception. The three groups of expertise different in their responses in relation to the knowledge structure² of the field of experience. The novelty of the stimuli was found to be of significant importance to our perception of the structural forms, where each structural system had revealed its own criteria, according to which it was evaluated and analyzed perceptually.