AI-Based Environmental Color System in Achieving Sustainable Urban Development

Abstract

Confronting the age of artificial intelligence, exploring art through technology has become one of the directions of interdisciplinary development. Not only does artificial intelligence technology explore sustainability on a technical level; it can also take advantage of itself to focus on the visual perception of the living environment. People frequently interpret environmental features through their eyes, and the use of intuitive eye-tracking can provide effective data that can contribute to environmental sustainability in managing the environment and color planning to enhance the image of cities. This research investigates the visual responses of people viewing the historic city of Macau through an eye movement experiment to understand how the color characteristics of the physical environment are perceived. The research reveals that the buildings and plantings in the historic district of Macau are the most visible objects in the environment, while the smaller scale of St. Dominic’s Square, the Company of Jesus Square, and St. Augustine’s Square, which have a sense of spatial extension, have also become iconic environmental landscapes. This also draws visual attention and guides the direction of travel. The overall impressions of the Historic Centre of Macau, as expressed by the participants after the eye movement experiment, were mainly described as “multiculturalism”, “architectural style”, “traditional architecture”, “color scheme”, and “garden planting”. The 60 colors representing the urban color of Macau are then organized around these deep feelings about the environment. Therefore, for future inspiration, the 60 colors can be applied through design practice to create color expressions that fit the local characteristics, and thereby enhance the overall visual image of the city.