The ‘visual attractiveness’ of a building façade refers to the extent to which it provokes an immediate or ‘pre-attentive’ physiological response. Two factors that can shape this response are ‘visual complexity’ and ‘strength of attraction’. The former refers to the innate capacity of a façade to draw the viewer's eye, and the latter to its capacity to hold the viewer's gaze. In this article two computational methods – fractal dimension analysis and visual attention simulation – are explored for their capacity to measure these attractive properties and to predict immediate physiological responses to architectural façades. This article describes the application and limits of these methods, along with the ways they simulate key visual properties. The methods are demonstrated using an analysis of three styles of façade designs: Modernism, Postmodernism and Neo-modernism. This research contributes foundational knowledge to the computational assessment of aesthetic and environmental preference theory relating to buildings and cities.

建筑立面的“视觉吸引力”是指它在多大程度上激发了即时或“预先注意”的生理反应。影响这种反应的两个因素是“视觉复杂性”和“吸引力强度”。前者指的是立面吸引观者眼球的内在能力，后者指的是其承载能力观众的目光。在这篇文章中，两种计算方法——分形维数分析和视觉注意力模拟——探索了它们测量这些有吸引力的特性和预测对建筑立面的即时生理反应的能力。本文介绍了这些方法的应用和限制，以及它们模拟关键视觉属性的方式。通过对三种立面设计风格的分析来展示这些方法：现代主义、后现代主义和新现代主义。这项研究为与建筑和城市相关的审美和环境偏好理论的计算评估提供了基础知识。