An analysis of the physical factors affecting the promotion of a sense of belonging in a coffee shop (Case study: Ivy Coffee Shop)

Abstract

Today, public spaces such as cafes and restaurants play an important role in people's daily life style, and use the coffee shops have increased significantly compared to the past, and consequently the number of coffee shops has increased significantly. For this reason, attracting customers and turning them into loyal customers have the considerable importance for coffee shop owners. Since the sense of belonging to a place creates an emotional interaction and connection between man and place and leads to a strong desire to be present and stay and return to that place, paying attention to the physical parameters effective in promoting a sense of belonging should be the main concern. The purpose of this study is to explain the concept of environment to recognize the physical factors affecting it in the coffee shop ،moreover, to examine how these factors work in a case study (Ivy Coffee Shop). The present research is a type of applied and qualitative one and in terms of descriptive-analytical nature, the first part has been done through documentary and library studies and the second part has been done through survey and field studies. The results show that the factors affecting the creation and promotion of a sense of belonging to the place in the coffee shop can be divided into physical, functional, social, cultural, personal, semantic and temporal factors. The physical component includes elements of light, color, materials, nature, furniture, texture and decoration, size and scale. The characteristics' quality and desirability play an important role in increasing the sense of belonging to place in coffee shop users. The most important physical characteristics to create the sense of belonging in the case model (Ivy Coffee Shop)are indigenous materials, connection with nature through the use of natural elements and special attention to artificial lighting.