An Essay on the Change of Individual's Perception of Space in the Process of Architectural Education

Many definitions have been put forward on the concept of space, which forms the basis of the profession of architecture and also appears as an architectural product. The concept of space has been discussed for years in many aspects and various ideas have been developed on it. The subject of perceiving space is still up-to-date by being examined in various aspects. Perception of space is defined as two basic concepts, sensory and cognitive perception. The effect of education on the perception of space has been evaluated within the scope of this study. Providing individuals with more detailed perceptual levels and differentiating the perception of space are among the benefits of architectural education. Many studies have revealed that architects and non-architects evaluate structures differently. This study aims to open up discussion on how the spatial perceptions of architecture students change, especially in parallel with the education they receive, the information they acquire and their ability to interpret this information. The effect of education on perception has been revealed through a survey applied to first, second, third and fourth year students studying in the department of architecture. For this purpose, four cultural structures that are important representatives of cultural heritage and reveal the characteristics of the period they live in have been selected. The students were asked to evaluate their structures with 15 adjectives selected by scanning the literature and 2 questions asked for function-material readings. Then, the obtained data was evaluated and interpreted in the SPSS 24 program. The results proved that architectural education is not only a process of training individuals with a profession, but also a process that develops the individual's perception and interpretation skills.