Amenity Space Research Articles

Bowling alleys in residential buildings—Noise control and measurements

In the competitive world of residential development, developers are striving to construct residential buildings that will be more desirable to occupants by providing a diverse range of amenity spaces, such as a bowling alley. Understandably, noise concerns from the addition of bowling alleys in residential buildings were raised during the design stage of various projects. To address the issues, a jack-up floating floor system was proposed for the bowling alley to mitigate the noise impact from the pin setting machine, initial ball impact on the bowling alley lanes, rolling on the lanes, and ball impact with the pins. Apparent Impact insulation class (AIIC) and heel drop testing were completed at various stages during the floating floor construction to confirm the impact sound isolation performance of the floating floor system. Testing results concluded that the implemented floating floor system reduced impact noise significantly and satisfactory sound levels resulted in the closest occupied spaces.

지자체 저수지 우선순위 관리대책 설정을 위한 위험특성 유형 분석

While the local reservoirs are aging severely, the resident's living space is increasing due to the expansion of amenity space downstream of the reservoir. Additionally, damage cases due to abnormal weather occur every year due to lack of practical disaster measures. This study categorized risk characteristics based on the elapsed years and the scale of human and facility damage downstream for 13,118 reservoirs under the jurisdiction of local governments, which can provide location and attribute information. It proposed priority management strategies for each category. 9,139(69%) of the analyzed subjects were identified as priority types for facility maintenance and management, 6,044(46%) were identified as priority types for downstream damage prevention support projects, and 3,495(26%) were identified as priority types for an EAP(Emergency Action Plan). Based on this research methodology, it is necessary to analyze the potential risk characteristics of reservoirs and derive reservoirs that are deemed to need management first, and establish basic data to establish management directions for reservoirs and downstream areas.

Deciphering the ‘cosmopolitan grid’: The production of space in diversifying heartland neighbourhoods of Singapore

Global capital and highly-skilled international labour are sought by cities for economic growth. Much research has been about Western cities, but less is known about how pro-growth developmental Asian countries, which have become key global hubs, organise their urban planning and policy efforts to gain global capital and skilled labour in their cities. In Singapore, the state is active in reshaping the city into a ‘cosmopolitan grid’ by planning and developing new urban amenity spaces that can attract human capital to fuel the desired urban growth, such as international schools, private housing options, and access to a global selection of goods and services. Oftentimes, the socio-cultural and socio-spatial changes at the neighbourhood level are seemingly ignored, despite the significance of the neighbourhood as a critical social space for the daily practice and formation of social relations in demographically diverse cities. Drawing on cognitive mapping interviews with foreign-born and native-born residents in two upper-middle income suburban neighbourhoods in Singapore, which are recognised as the heartlands of the native-born but have become popular with highly-skilled foreign-born families (namely Western expatriates) in the last decade, this article shows how the top-down rational production of cosmopolitan space by the state framed in a formation of the ‘cosmopolitan grid’ has played out and shaped the everyday production of social space among the native and foreign-born residents which determines the experience and opportunities for integration in this city-state.

Evaluating the Vibration Performance of Existing and Future Building Structures for Laboratory Tenants

Major cities were recently experiencing a large demand for life science and biotech spaces, which led to the possibility of using existing building spaces or new developments for lab space rather than their original or intended usage. The vibration requirements of a building are a critical concern when it is intended for laboratory use - these requirements often flow down and affect the structural design. For buildings that were not designed as sensitive facilities, an evaluation process is often necessary to assess suitability. Fitness-related amenity spaces, often desired by developers, further complicates the design of vibration sensitive facilities. Whether it be new construction or re-use of an existing building, the vibration consultant plays a key role in the ultimate success of the facility. This paper discusses the latest test and analytical methods being used by the author for evaluating the vibration performance of existing and future building structures. The main vibration sources under consideration are environmental, footfall activity, and fitness amenity spaces.

Exploring the Driving Factors that Influence the Design, Function, and Use of Urban Wetlands in the United Kingdom.

This paper aimed to investigate the driving factors for the creation of urban wetlands and their functions and uses. A mixed methods approach was used, comprising an online survey for the general public and structured interviews with four urban wetland ‘experts’. Quantitative data was obtained from the survey, and cross tabulation was used to analyse relationships between variables. Thematic analysis was used for the qualitative data from the interviews. It was found that one of the urban wetlands was created for flood control and to create an amenity space, whilst the driving factors for the other three urban wetlands were associated with biodiversity and habitat creation, which was also perceived as the most important function of an urban wetland from the survey participants. Three themes emerged from the thematic analysis: ‘wildlife conservation interest’; ‘landscape character development’; and ‘urban wetland as an amenity space’. The survey found that participants perceived climate resiliency as an important function of wetlands, despite this not being a driving factor for the four wetlands in the interviews. Survey participants would be willing to invest time in visiting a non-local wetland landscape to encounter nature and contribute to their quality of life and wellbeing. The results of this research may be useful to inform the planning, design and management of urban wetlands as they evolve towards being a multi-use spaces. More education and awareness are needed about the benefits of these landscapes to wildlife, the environment and local communities.Supplementary InformationThe online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s13157-022-01610-1.

Amenity mix of innovation districts

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to compare and contrast amenity mixes of innovation districts worldwide and to identify the types of amenities in the districts.Design/methodology/approachUrban amenity data were collected from Google Maps as 31,236 points of interest (POIs) in 24 innovation districts. The data were compared and categorised based on the density and diversity of amenity mixes using correspondence analysis. An overall amenity space of the 24 innovation districts was created using correlation and social network analyses.FindingsThis study found that innovation districts have broad ranges of diversity and density. Five groups were identified by correspondence analysis, including retail, foodie, balanced, emerging and health-care districts. The amenity space of innovation districts created using correlation and social network analyses categorised amenities into four broad types – necessary, anchor, vibrant and contextual amenities – based on eigenvector centrality scores and density.Practical implicationsTo improve their innovation districts, managers are encouraged to create a foundation of innovations with anchor amenities, to ensure the “live-work-play” environment with necessary amenities, to foster buzz and vibes with vibrant amenities and to strengthen the identity and authenticity with contextual amenities.Originality/valueDespite some understanding, no previous research has thoroughly analysed the amenities available in innovation districts. This study is the first to comprehensively explore the amenities in innovation districts using data from Google Maps. Place managers can use the method introduced in this research to analyse innovation districts and other kinds of places.

The economic resilience of a city: the effect of relatedness on the survival of amenity shops during the COVID-19 pandemic

Abstract Amenity clusters consisting of coffee shops, restaurants and other small businesses improve urban life and are a source of employment for city dwellers. Although most small business clusters were hit hard by restrictions imposed during the COVID-19 pandemic, some were able to adapt. What determines the economic resilience of amenity clusters? Using store-location data for Seoul from 2016 to 2021, we identify spatial clusters of amenities, and from that build an amenity space to examine the effect of relatedness on the resilience of each cluster. We find that businesses are more likely to survive when located in clusters of related amenities.

Vertical Gentrification: A 3D Analysis of Luxury Housing Development in New York City

New York City has experienced a boom in elite “luxury” housing development. With large apartments and expansive amenity spaces, luxury buildings offer uncrowded living in an otherwise densely populated landscape. However, making space for these luxuries requires novel engineering, especially high-rise development. This article maps the expanding footprint of luxury real estate in three dimensions, analyzing 943 housing projects built between 2000 and 2020. It assesses how construction of taller buildings with larger footprints increased height and volume of the built environment, and how these landscape changes interact with social changes related to gentrification. On average, new build luxury development increased height by 6.8 stories and more than doubled building volumes. Building heights and volumes are also significantly larger than neighboring structures. The resulting intensification of land investment leads to new kinds of displacements, especially middle class displacement. Vertical development is closely associated with super-gentrification, the further intensification of gentrification processes in already gentrified or otherwise middle class neighborhoods.

Potential of urban green spaces for supporting horticultural production: a national scale analysis

As urban areas and land-use constraints grow, there is increasing interest in utilizing urban spaces for food production. Several studies have uncovered significant potential for urban growing to supplement production of fruit and vegetables, focusing on one or two cities as case studies, whilst others have assessed the global scale potential. Here, we provide a national-scale analysis of the horticultural production potential of urban green spaces, which is a relevant scale for agri-food and urban development policy making using Great Britain (GB) as a case study. Urban green spaces available for horticultural production across GB are identified and potential yields quantified based on three production options. The distribution of urban green spaces within 26 urban towns and cities across GB are then examined to understand the productive potential compared to their total extent and populations. Urban green spaces in GB, at their upper limit, have the capacity to support production that is 8× greater than current domestic production of fruit and vegetables. This amounts to 38% of current domestic production and imports combined, or >400% if exotic fruits and vegetables less suited to GB growing conditions are excluded. Most urban green spaces nationally are found to fall within a small number of categories, with private residential gardens and amenity spaces making up the majority of space. By examining towns and cities across GB in further detail, we find that the area of green space does not vary greatly between urban conurbations of different sizes, and all are found to have substantial potential to meet the dietary needs of the local urban population. This study highlights that national policies can be suitably developed to support urban agriculture and that making use of urban green spaces for food production could help to enhance the resilience of the national-scale food system to shocks in import pathways, or disruptions to domestic production and distribution.

Improving local pedestrian-level wind environment based on probabilistic assessment using Gaussian process regression

Many wind comfort assessment standards have been proposed to evaluate wind comfort and safety in spaces with intended use for pedestrians, such as pathways, building entrance areas, amenity spaces, and outdoor sitting spaces. However, the optimization of the wind environment presents a unique combination of complexities in assessment, simulation, and design. Conventionally, designers rely heavily on wind tunnel experiments or computational fluid dynamics simulations based on which only limited proposals are examined to select the one with the best wind performances. A new design framework for proactively improving the wind conditions at various measuring positions is demonstrated in this paper. Gaussian process regression models are combined with the Latin hypercube sampling method to approximate the relationships between design variables and wind velocities at discrete locations. Gaussian process regression is a non-parametric model well-suited for modeling the non-linear and stochastic wind behaviors. Moreover, it can provide the prediction mean and variance, and the latter is incorporated into a prediction quality function to quantify the modeling uncertainty. In the case study, with the objectives of maximizing the winter and summer wind comfort and minimizing the modeling errors, the robust and near-optimal designs of a target building in an infill development project are explored using the evolutionary search algorithm. We believe that this framework can be migrated to other urban design practice to better predict and simultaneously optimize the microclimate performances at locations of interest, such as solar access, indoor ventilation efficiency, and thermal comfort.

Willingness to Pay for Green Infrastructure in Residential Development—A Consumer Perspective

This paper investigates the literature and theoretical underpinning of the concept of “willingness to pay” (WTP) for green infrastructure (GI) with consequences for residential development. The benefits of GI in urban settlements include improved air quality, attenuation of the urban heat island, thermal insulation and lower energy bills for green roofs and walls, the creation of social amenity space, a habitat for biodiversity, and stormwater water attenuation. Collectively, these benefits are termed eco-system services and enhance sustainability. The role of GI, the “lungs of the planet”, is heavily correlated to atmospheric conditions; high levels of GI improve air quality, which is acknowledged widely with many cities increasing GI to make them more resilient to future predicted challenges with respect to heat and poor air quality. In addition, there is evidence that the biophilia effect enhances human well-being. There are some studies claiming that purchasers pay a premium for property with good GI. However, there is little research about the process in consumers’ minds leading to such a premium—if, how, when (under what circumstances), and then to what extent are consumers willing to pay for GI. This process, if better understood, may enable sellers or policy makers to influence the amounts of GI in developments, thus making it possible to enhance the value of GI to buyers. There is some research pointing to factors to be considered when modeling such processes. For developers, knowing the optimum amount of GI would enable them to design and construct developments with maximum purchaser appeal. To do this, stakeholders need to predict the level of WTP amongst potential purchasers for which they need to understand the decision processes behind WTP. In this way, sustainability in residential property development could be optimized. The paper analyzes the literature and theories concerning WTP, focusing on dwellings and GI. Our findings are that some quantitative evidence exists that purchasers pay more for residential property with high levels of GI in some cities, but they do so without any understanding of the possible decision processes leading to those premiums (if, how, when, and then to what extent). The paper proposes a comprehensive conceptual model that may explain buyers’ WTP for a dwelling based on a presumed cost–benefit analysis performed by buyers, which has been extended here to include GI and psychological factors. Thus, the paper has a consumer perspective. The model may be used to select variables and test them in empirical studies, and by integrating with other factors in the model, it can attain a more comprehensive understanding of WTP for GI in residential development.

Urban cemeteries’ potential as sites for cultural encounters

Population increase has drawn attention to the need in cities for easily accessible and attractive public spaces that will promote interaction regardless of gender, age, ethnicity and religious belief. This paper focuses on the role urban cemeteries play in a culturally and religiously diverse society. Norway is described as an increasingly secularised society. Immigration and transmigration, on the other hand, have brought a revived interest in religion and interreligious interaction. We explore two questions that relate to the cemetery as a public shared urban space: The first concerns the need for communities of all faiths and none to access burial space that meets their need. The second relates to the appropriateness of using cemetery as amenity space in a multicultural context. Diverse qualitative methods have been used; a focus group interview with participants from different religious and life-philosophy communities, interviews with key informants representing various religious communities and with visitors in two cemeteries in Oslo in 2014. The findings imply that there is a commonality that bridges differences: sharing human compassion. These sites have a potential in stimulating intercultural and interreligious encounters. Their special character as open shared urban sites can increase understanding and acceptance of each other’s difference and hereby render strangeness and differences harmless.

The interrelationship of green infrastructure and natural capital

The terms green infrastructure and natural capital are interrelated. Natural capital as a concept is focused upon environmental assets which can provide ecosystem services, either directly or indirectly to humans; the concepts of natural capital and ecosystem services emphasize the benefits humans obtain from the natural environment. Green infrastructure is a concept with a wide range of definitions. The term is sometimes applied to networks of green open spaces found in or around urban areas. In other contexts green infrastructure can describe alternative engineering approaches for storm water management, with co-benefits of temperature control, air quality management, wildlife habitats and/or recreation and amenity space. No environments are completely free of human influence and therefore no environments are entirely natural. Rather, there is a spectrum of degrees of ‘naturalness’ ranging from environments with minimal human influence through to built environments. A trio of case studies presented herein illustrates how green infrastructure projects are a practical application of the natural capital concept in that they seek to preserve and enhance natural capital via a management approach which emphasizes the importance of environmental systems and networks for the direct provision of ecosystem services to human populations. Natural capital forms critical components of all green infrastructure projects.

Contextual Factors for Aging Well: Creating Socially Engaging Spaces Through the Use of Deliberative Dialogues

Home and community engagement are key contextual factors for aging well, particularly for older adults in vulnerable social positions. A community-based participatory action research project conducted in Western Canada examined how to best use the shared amenity spaces in a low-income seniors' apartment complex in order to connect services and programs with tenants and to provide opportunities for service providers and local stakeholders to build upon and create new relationships toward collaboration and service delivery. Pre-move deliberative dialogue workshops (n = 4) were conducted with stakeholders (e.g., service providers, developers, and municipal government employees). Workshop participants (n = 24) generated ideas and plans on how physical and social environments can contribute to the social engagement of senior tenants. Shared dialogue led to community investment and asset sharing by integrating the knowledge and experiences of multiple stakeholder groups into the planning process. This article highlights how collaborative planning approaches for the effective use of the social environment (e.g., social programming), within the physical environment (e.g., amenity and community spaces), can generate rich and illuminating data for informing enhancements in the social environment of apartment dwelling low-income seniors. Contextual challenges to service provision are discussed, including the need for communication about and coordination of on-site programming, culturally diverse and responsive programming, and long-term funding. Prolonging independent community living with the assistance of support services should be a goal to both delay premature relocation into institutional care and meet the preferences of older adults.

PERSPECTIVE WORKSHOPS: CO-CREATING SERVICE SOLUTIONS FOR SENIORS IN AFFORDABLE HOUSING

Effective home and community services and supports can enable older adults to successfully age-in-place, enhancing physical, mental, and social health outcomes through improved social participation, heightened independence, autonomy, and choice. One challenge in affordable housing developments for seniors surrounds the integration of place-based services. This presentation reports on four Perspectives Workshops conducted with service providers that aimed to: (i) understand challenges and opportunities experienced by service providers when delivering senior-friendly services and (ii) determine actions that can be taken to enhance the needs (e.g. staffing and financial resources) of service providers, enabling them to serve seniors more effectively. These deliberative dialogues sessions were conducted with the goal of co-creating sustainable service provision solutions for tenants transitioning into a newly built low-income seniors housing development. Results of the workshops included ideas for effective utilization of the shared amenity space, which generated resources for an on-site service delivery program.

Challenges facing fitness center designers in multifamily buildings

Amenity spaces in multifamily and mixed use developments have become extremely popular and possibly mandatory to the economic success of the project. Of these amenity spaces fitness centers are extremely common and pose significant design challenges to the noise control engineer. This paper will compare several mitigation techniques used to control fitness center noise from today' prominent sources including treadmills, group exercise, weight machines, free weights, and cross fit weight drops. Mitigation in both wood and concrete structures will be addressed.

Cooling performance of residential greenery in localised urban climates: a case study in Shanghai China

Residential greenery provides accessible amenity space and moderated microclimate for local community. Research has indicated that the cooling performance of urban greenery is impacted by the geometry and fabric of surrounding humanised envelope. The paper proposes a research framework inspired by the idea of urban climate zone (UCZ) to investigate cooling performance of residential greenery in localised urban climates. The inner-city of Shanghai was divided into four UCZs, the meteorological as well as greenery form/density data was measured from ten residential quarters throughout four UCZs. The tree canopy shading and overall foliage density, qualified by the tree view factor and green plot ratio respectively, were found capable of partly explaining the variation in air temperature mitigation. The local urban effect has notable effect on the cooling rates. Residential greenery should be integrated into local green network to optimise its cooling performance.

A prototype community-based planning tool for evaluating site suitability for the temporary reuse of vacant lands

The development of a holistic approach for the implementation of reuse strategies on vacant urban lands is essential if cities are to optimize the potential utility of these untapped resources as public amenity spaces, at a neighbourhood-, community- or city-wide planning scale. Many cities across the globe struggle with the presence of vacant and underutilized land in the urban environment. This is a wasted resource that has significant potential to contribute to a city’s green infrastructure/amenity capacity if the suitability of reuse strategies can be better understood. This paper presents a prototype community-based decision support tool to assist neighbourhood groups in completing a user-customizable vacant and underutilized land inventory at a neighbourhood, community or city-wide planning scale. The purpose of this research is to create an inventory that captures the relevant neighbourhood and site attributes in a way that can be conveyed to the user as a ‘site suitability index’ (or score). This information can then be used to make more informed decisions with respect to which parcels of vacant land are most suitable for temporary reuse strategies. Developed in Microsoft Excel®, the prototype tool allows the user to evaluate up to 15 community-based reuse strategies across three broad categories – parks, urban food production and stormwater/ecosystems management – using a hybrid binary scoring methodology. The prototype tool was applied to 25 sites across the City of Hamilton, Ontario, Canada, to determine the validity of the method presented. The inventoried attributes of (i) neighbourhood quality, (ii) developability potential, (iii) visual quality, (iv) compatibility, (v) transportation and (vi) vulnerable populations were used to calculate a set of site suitability indices. The indices calculated appeared appropriate for most uses, which validated the hypothesis that the majority of the inventoried sites would have strong indices based on the fact that they currently function as public amenity spaces.

Building spatial layout that supports healthier behavior of office workers: a new performance mandate for sustainable buildings.

The pursuit of efficiency and the permeation of communication technologies in modern workplace have increased prolonged sitting and physical inactivity among the white-collar workforce. Physical inactivity is a major risk factor for developing various chronic diseases and obesity. This study intends to understand the impact of physical environment on both voluntary and imperative physical activity levels in an office building, and to collect evidence for design suggestions to encourage office workers' activity level on a daily basis. This study examined how proximity from individual workstations to various shared service and amenity spaces in the workplace (e.g., meeting spaces, copy areas, kitchens, restrooms, elevators, and stairs) is associated with office workers' physical activity level (e.g., sedentary and non-sedentary behavior) and their environmental and job satisfaction. To objectively measure physical activity, twenty-six office workers, in a three-story office building, wore accelerometers for three consecutive days at work. Environmental and job satisfaction of office workers was measured by a questionnaire. Proximity variables were measured using the floor plans of the subject building. Participants on average were sedentary for 80% of the time during the study. Proximity to several service and amenity areas was positively associated with step counts and job satisfaction.

Optimal layout of exhibits for congestion reduction in open-plan exhibition

The congestion in an exhibition space might make us uncomfortable and cause an accident. In this paper, we design an amenity space with safety and comfort by optimizing the layout of exhibits. A human flow in an open-plan exhibition space is modeled by a vector field that is calculated by a coordinates transformation and projection of a virtual vector field. Based on the model, the layout of the exhibits is optimized. The simulation results show that the proposed method reduces the congestion, and the visitors view the exhibits in a short time with large satisfaction. The experimental results using swarm of mobile robots controlled autonomously or by human, shows the validity of the human model and the effectiveness of the proposed method.