Spatial Configuration and Meaning-Related Perception in Aba Tibetan Dwellings: A Space Syntax and VR Study

Treating architectural space as a relational structure that organizes practice, this study examines how the configuration of Aba Tibetan dwellings relates to behavioral, cognitive, and meaning-related responses. A standardized prototype from 75 surveyed dwellings was analyzed using convex space syntax and visibility graph analysis; 36 culturally unfamiliar participants explored a full-scale virtual model with cultural and religious signs removed, yielding movement trajectories, cognitive maps, and perception ratings. Findings: Higher-integration spaces showed greater visitation and dwell activity; cognitive maps centered on circulation spaces rather than functionally prominent rooms; and more enclosed, lower-integration spaces received higher mystery and ritual character ratings. Boundaries: Under the pre-specified evidential rule, none of the six principal associations is established—three are suggestive and three are not established—visitation cannot be separated from the functional role of circulation spaces, and dwell activity largely reflects visitation frequency. “Structural affordance” is therefore offered as a descriptive vocabulary for these responses rather than a validated construct, and the contribution is a reproducible procedure with stated limits, not confirmed findings. Findings therefore concern controlled-condition perception, not the culturally embedded meaning of Tibetan dwellings.