Both everyday experience and scientific knowledge demonstrate the great power of the environment to influence human behaviour and well-being. Environmental preferences have been studied widely in both natural and urban contexts as well as in the context of external building styles. However, even though people seem to spend a great deal of time in architectural interiors and homes, systematic research on the influence of these spaces to well-being, preference and behaviour seems to be negligible.

In this study, the preference for apartment interior appearance was studied in a theoretical framework obtained from earlier studies in the fields of aesthetics, perception, environmental psychology and architecture. The study examined a conjecture repeating in this earlier literature: could visual preference be defined as a construct of visual complexity and order also in the context of apartment interiors?

107 subjects were recruited and their evaluations of 43 images presenting apartment spaces were analysed. The results of this study give support to the idea that preference could to a great extent be predicted from levels of visual complexity and order also in the context of apartment scenes. Drawing more attention to this perspective in today’s design could help us to design the kind of built environment that people enjoy.