Validating contextual urban design photoprotocols: replication and generalization from single residences to block faces

During the last two decades there have been vast increases in interest regarding design review, contextual design, and the validation of environmental simulation protocols. However, there appear to be few studies that specifically validate simulation protocols for the purpose of contextual design review. In this paper one such simulation protocol is described -- photocollages made up of elevation photographs of individual houses. In a validation experiment, the preferences obtained from photocollages correlated at 0.93 with those for slides of actual residential blocks. This finding suggests that the photocollage protocol can be a useful simulation medium for the review of contextual design of residential infill projects.