Public Space in the Residential Areas: The Method of Social-spatial Analysis

Abstract

The article presents the method of social-spatial analysis of public spaces within housing estates. The method was designed to identify how to formulate a strategy to improve the quality of public spaces in housing estates, and how to take into account the specific social determinants that are associated with public space in a planning process (land development plan). This method have been developed and implemented at the Faculty of Architecture of Poznan University of Technology and have been applied to several housing estates’ regeneration projects in the Poznan Municipal Area. The current condition of public spaces in housing estates is highly unsatisfactory. This is due to many factors, like faulty use of existing public spaces, low quality of public spaces, inadequate size of public spaces for the number of residents, bad maintenance and conservation of public spaces, etc. Most of these problems arise from lack of insight into the needs of the residents and awareness of the importance of public space for the community living in an estate. As such, the main point of the method presented here, is to analyse the social determinants that are related to the needs of residents. In this approach, the basic rules describing the relationships between a community of residents and a public space include specific set of indicators related to residents’ sense of identity.