Abstract
Residents have territorial cognition with different hierarchies and conduct corresponding behaviors in the outdoor space of housing blocks through sharing space and facilities. This mechanism stems from human need and might be influenced by physical environmental elements. To understand this effect, especially after a guideline for transforming existing gated housing blocks was enacted in China, this study compared the territoriality of open and gated housing blocks from the view of the cognition, behavior, and space through combined methods. Interview, snapshot, and observation were conducted to capture the situation of these three dimensions, then they were evaluated and grouped by factor analysis and quartiles. Obtained results in the open housing block were found to be inferior to that in the gated case. The conclusion was drawn based on the above that there are remarkable differences between open and gated housing blocks on the intensity of residents’ territorial cognition, the level and quantity of their territorial behaviors, and the distribution as well as continuity of the territorial space.
Highlights
Investigated residents’ territorial cognition through interviews, divide the territorial degree of space based on the result of their actual territorial behaviors, and compared the territorial space related to behaviors of two housing blocks to understand the difference on the territoriality
The outdoor space was divided into various areas for analyzing territorial spaces after acquiring results of territorial behaviors in these areas
The scores in the open group are generally lower than those in gated one, which indicates that residents in the gated housing block have stronger territorial cognition
Summary
Connecting the self with other targets to expand personal identity is the inherent need of people, and we can perceive its significance in many aspects It is called territoriality in the residential environment, which is closely related to physical elements in this environment. In the authors’ previous study, two appropriate comparable housing blocks were selected to be an experimental group and a control group, respectively, because they have a lot in common except for gated–open status [3]. Those findings indicated that spatial elements and the division of spatial types were affected by the demolition of boundary walls, which is an influence in the dimension of physical features. Investigated residents’ territorial cognition through interviews, divide the territorial degree of space based on the result of their actual territorial behaviors, and compared the territorial space related to behaviors of two housing blocks to understand the difference on the territoriality
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