Abstract
The relationship between the multimodal perceptual characteristics of traditional building materials and material-level place meaning remains unclear. Existing research largely focuses on the immediate perception of materials and lacks a framework for systematically analysing the association between multimodal perceptual characteristics and material-level place meaning. This study collected visual texture and material-related acoustic features from traditional tiles and wall bricks in the KuanZhai Alleyways, Chengdu. Combining eye-tracking and electroencephalography (EEG) experimental data, the k-means algorithm was employed to perform multimodal perceptual clustering, whilst a questionnaire survey was used to construct the Material Sense of Place Index (MSPI), in order to explore the associations between building material types, multimodal perceptual patterns and local significance at the material level. The study found that materials can be categorised into three multimodal perceptual patterns across the integrated dimensions of visual, auditory and physiological perception: brick materials are predominantly assigned to the texture-exploration cluster, whilst tile materials are predominantly assigned to the auditory-relaxation cluster; the overall MSPI of traditional bricks and tiles is generally higher than that of modern materials, and the material-related place identity dimension received the largest weight in the construction of the composite MSPI; the interaction between material category and sensory cluster was statistically significant, but the incremental explanatory power was small, indicating that material category is the primary distinguishing factor for MSPI differences, whilst sensory cluster provides only limited supplementary explanation. The framework proposed by the study—‘multimodal perception data collection–cluster analysis–assessment of material–place association’—provides a research pathway and empirical reference for analysing the relationship between material types, multimodal perceptual patterns and material-level place meaning.