The Effect of Sustainable and Natural Looking on Perceived Aesthetics and Eco-Friendliness in Building Material Evaluation

With the development of material synthesis technology, many artificial materials imitating natural materials have emerged in the construction industry. The processing technology of these materials’ surface imitating natural texture is becoming more and more realistic. Some materials are not made of sustainable material but use natural textures to imitate natural materials, attempting to bring users a sense of being close to nature and ecology to attract consumers to use it. However, the intention of use still depends on the user’s other factors like health, aesthetics, and environmental friendliness of the material. Therefore, the challenge for material manufacturers and designers is to understand people’s perceptions of these materials to increase their acceptance by users. This paper aims to investigate the user’s perception of materials (sustainable-unsustainable) to evaluate their perception of naturalness, environmental friendliness, and aesthetics through the visual senses. A total of 112 participants participated in the experiment which was divided into two groups (professional architects and non-professionals). The judgment of non-professionals on the environmental protection of materials imitating natural skin is relatively accurate, which is almost consistent with the judgment of professionals. Results show the importance of maintaining the naturalness of the surface texture in the material, which can enhance the user’s demand for a natural aesthetic feeling. Therefore, it is important to maintain the naturalness of surface texture in the process of material surface treatment. Users’ natural perception of materials will affect their aesthetic perception of materials.