Small Open Spaces Research Articles

Research on the actual user behavior of small open spaces in office districts (Part 2)

Research on the actual user behavior of small open spaces in office districts (Part 2)

Effects of Spatial Type and Scale of Small Urban Open Spaces on Perceived Restoration: An Online Survey-Based Experiment

Small urban open spaces are critical components of high-density urban environments, and could bring multiple health benefits. However, the factors related to the restorative effect of these small urban open spaces are not well studied. This study explored how site type (lawn, water, and plaza) and spatial scales (10 × 10 m, 20 × 20 m, 30 × 30 m, and 40 × 40 m) might be associated with small urban open space’s restorative effects. We created the virtual scene images of the 12 sites and used PRS-11 to measure 1130 participants’ perceived restoration when viewing those images. The results indicated that lawn has the highest restorative effects, and are the most preferred. No significant differences in the restorative effects of sites with different spatial scales were detected, even a 10 × 10 m site has considerable restorative effects. We found high preference contributes to larger differences in the restorative effects of lawns and plazas. Those who prefer the sites may gain more restoration increases when viewing lawn scenes compared to plaza scenes. Moreover, adults over 50 years old have higher perceived restorations, and young adults aged 18–25 have a greater increase in restoration between plaza scenes and natural scenes, indicating young adults could benefit more from the building of small green spaces. These findings have direct implications for design practice. More small urban open spaces of lawn and water should be built to provide more restoration benefits, especially for young people.

The contested value of parklets

ABSTRACT This paper examines the different values that stakeholders associate with parklets: small open spaces temporarily installed onto curbside car-parking spaces. It explores the growing debate in policy, research and the media around parklets’ value for the public and for the hospitality businesses that host most of them. The paper aims to inform policy deliberations around parklets by identifying and analyzing the diverse values that have been associated with them. It locates these values within the key policy concerns that shape the broader practices of temporary and tactical urbanism: urban intensity, community engagement, innovation, resilience and place identity. It evaluates whether parklets can have detectable and achievable impacts on different policy aims associated with them: whether the various specified policy values are strong, weak, wishful or hidden. The findings illuminate the contours of policy debates around parklets and indicate why certain policy objectives have been better served by parklets than others.

БИРОБИДЖАН: ИСТОРИЧЕСКИЕ ПРЕОБРАЗОВАНИЯ ТОРГОВЫХ ПРОСТРАНСТВ ГОРОДА-СПУТНИКА

A number of studies are devoted to the urban development of settlements in the Far East, but they do not consider trade spaces as structureforming spaces, whereas they often form the framework of the city. After studying the cadastral maps of Birobidzhan, topographic survey materials, online maps and other documents, we identified five historical periods of formation of outdoor trade spaces in Birobidzhan and their architectural and planning features. The first stage was 1928-1933: the period of free development of the territory, when the trade environment was an instrument of social adaptation of the developed space. The second was 1932-1937, when professional architects were invited to the planning and development of the city, and the market square received its official status. The third stage was 1937-1990: the period of planned development of the territory, when the planned trade environment was formed. The fourth was in the 1990s: it was the time of post-socialist transformation, the typical feature of which was self-organization of market space, the trade street reflected the crisis phenomena in the urban system. The fifth stage lasts from 2000 to the present and includes reorganization of trade spaces: demolition of old pavilions and stalls in the Central Market area, emergence of seasonal fairs as a new form of open trade in the city, concentration of small open trade spaces near the existing markets at the same time with separate functioning of large shopping centres that close the adjacent territories from street trade. The comprehensive programme for the implementation of the concept "Compact competitive city with jewish colour on the border with China" (master plan of Birobidzhan until 2030) envisages, among other things, the renovation of trade spaces. It should take into account trade as a social phenomenon.

Специфика гармонизации объектов храмовых и приусадебных комплексов (на примере Смоленской и Липецкой областей)

The issues of creating an integral space for the life of an extremely complex, contradictory modern person as a unique personality, with all the complex of his mental and spiritual components, brings to the fore the issue of emotional comfort. Achieving the harmony of the individual and the microcosm of the environment of his daily habitation passes into the plane of artistic and aesthetic searches and solutions. The relevance of the study lies in identifying the principles of designing a modern spiritual, cultural and socio-psychological space, where the formation and development of a new personality takes place. Currently, this issue is of special relevance for design education. The methodological basis of the research consists of general scientific methods (dialectical-materialistic method, induction, deduction, analysis, synthesis) and the method of comparative analysis. The novelty of the work is revealed in a creative approach to the environment. Basing on the analysis of architectural forms and the natural environment, the authors establish compositional techniques for the relationship between artificial and natural elements of temple complexes and estate territories. The paper highlights modern cultural and humanistic functions in the environment of temple and estate complexes as places of concentration of new spiritual and moral values of a person. The conclusions include providing techniques for harmonizing the artificial and natural objects of temples and estate complexes. The cultural and semantic unity of architectural objects, small architectural forms and open spaces shapes the artistic and figurative environment of the complex. The study represents compositional solutions in the form of the relationship of point, linear, planar and volumetric elements of the environment of multifunctional environmental complexes (by the example of the renovation projects of the Aleksino estate (Smolensk region) and the Kosmo-Damianovskiy temple in the village of Kazinka (Lipetsk region)).

Research on the actual user behavior of small open spaces in office districts

Research on the actual user behavior of small open spaces in office districts

Production of gathering spaces in post-disaster recovery scenarios: case studies from the Great East Japan Earthquake and Tsunami-2011

Gathering and public spaces, along with infrastructure and houses, are demolished because of disasters, which weakens the community ties. Different approaches, such as government-led and community-driven, to recovery initiate the recovery of gatherings and public spaces, and the long-term impact of each recovery approach on community recovery may not be overseen. This study attempts to determine incorporation of community participation in different recovery approaches and its corresponding result in the production of gathering spaces, based on two main background theories: Arnstein’s ladder of citizen participation and Henri Lefebvre’s production of space triad. We attempted to determine the results by reviewing case studies with different recovery processes after the Great East Japan Earthquake and Tsunami-2011 and through interviews and questionnaire surveys. The results showed that the production of gathering spaces may be associated with the recovery scenario in each case study. In community-driven cases, the main gathering spaces are small open spaces, evenly superimposed and accessible, and diverse in spatial configuration, provide services for the users at a good level, and are in a sync with other gathering spaces. By contrast, in government-led cases, gathering spaces contain primary and secondary spaces that lack connections with each other. These main gathering spaces are centralized near disaster public housing sites, are highly accessible to disaster public housing residents, provide a high range of leisure-based activities, and provide services to users from inside and outside of the communities. These main gathering spaces are extended by inclusive open space (Hiroba) and this spatial planning is closer to the concept of public spaces compared to others.

A Survey of the Landscape Visibility Analysis Tools and Technical Improvements.

Visual perception of the urban landscape in a city is complex and dynamic, and it is largely influenced by human vision and the dynamic spatial layout of the attractions. In return, landscape visibility not only affects how people interact with the environment but also promotes regional values and urban resilience. The development of visibility has evolved, and the digital landscape visibility analysis method allows urban researchers to redefine visible space and better quantify human perceptions and observations of the landscape space. In this paper, we first reviewed and compared the theoretical results and measurement tools for spatial visual perception and compared the value of the analytical methods and tools for landscape visualization in multiple dimensions on the principal of urban planning (e.g., complex environment, computational scalability, and interactive intervention between computation and built environment). We found that most of the research was examined in a static environment using simple viewpoints, which can hardly explain the actual complexity and dynamic superposition of the landscape perceptual effect in an urban environment. Thus, those methods cannot effectively solve actual urban planning issues. Aiming at this demand, we proposed a workflow optimization and developed a responsive cross-scale and multilandscape object 3D visibility analysis method, forming our analysis model for testing on the study case. By combining the multilandscape batch scanning method with a refined voxel model, it can be adapted for large-scale complex dynamic urban visual problems. As a result, we obtained accurate spatial visibility calculations that can be conducted across scales from the macro to micro, with large external mountain landscapes and small internal open spaces. Our verified approach not only has a good performance in the analysis of complex visibility problems (e.g., we defined the two most influential spatial variables to maintain good street-based landscape visibility) but also the high efficiency of spatial interventions (e.g., where the four recommended interventions were the most valuable), realizing the improvement of intelligent landscape evaluations and interventions for urban spatial quality and resilience.

Ambiguous temporariness: production of time-space territories in Hong Kong’s small urban open spaces

This article integrates temporality into territoriality theories and investigates Hong Kong’s small urban open spaces through a territorial perspective. It conceptualises these compact public open spaces as landscapes of different territorial events, foregrounds the temporal aspects of the territorialising processes, and analyzes the frictions between the various social and environmental processes that define the city’s formative cycles. Focussing specifically on sitting-out areas and rest gardens, the smallest components of the city’s official network of open-spaces that are often created through temporary government land allocations, this study offers a unique local narrative within the larger discussion of creating small-scale, opportunistically-achieved, temporary open spaces around the world. Three detailed case studies examined in this article reveal diverse forms of territorial production specific to Hong Kong’s geographical, socio-economic and cultural context, collectively contributing to a critical understanding of the ‘temporariness’ of the city’s small urban open spaces characterised by ambiguity, volatility and uncertainty.

City parks and slow streets: A utility-based access and equity analysis

During the spring and summer of 2020, cities across the world responded to the global COVID-19 pandemic by converting roadway facilities into open pedestrian spaces. These conversions improved access to public open space, but measuring the variation in that improvement among different populations requires clear definitions of access and methods for measuring it. In this study, we evaluate the change in a utility-based park accessibility measure resulting from street conversions in Alameda County, California. Our utility-based accessibility measure is constructed from a park activity location choice model we estimate using mobile device data – supplied by StreetLight Data, Inc. – representing trips to parks in that county. The estimated model reveals heterogeneity in inferred affinity for park attributes among different sociodemographic groups. We find, for example, that neighborhoods with more lower-income residents and those with more residents of color show a greater preference for park proximty while neighborhods with higher incomes and those with more white residents show a greater preference for park size and amenities. We then apply this model to examine the accessibility benefits resulting from COVID-19 street conversions to create a set of small park-like open spaces; we find that this has been a pro-social policy in that Black, Hispanic, and low-income households receive a disproportionate share of the policy benefits, relative to the population distribution.

A Study on Issues and Intentions of Local Organization for Maintenance and Management in the Promotion Process of Small Open Spaces for Disaster Prevention Project Using Temporary Privately Premises

本研究では神戸市まちなか防災空地を事例とし、民有地を暫定的に利用した防災用空地を管理する団体の事業プロセスと抱える課題並びに事業継続に影響を与える要因を明確にすることを目的とした。本事業により事業化の準備段階から住民合意・防災意識の向上・コミュニティの醸成が図られている。事業化のプロセスにかかる期間は長期に渡るが、ノウハウの蓄積により期間の縮小と労力の軽減が期待できることがわかった。管理団体が抱える主な課題は維持管理上の労務、経費、近隣対策の負担であるが、特に労務負担に関わるものが大きい。現在管理している以上の防災空地を整備することに対し消極的な管理団体が一定数認められ、制度の継続や活性化のためには、労務負担の軽減を行うことが重要であることが示唆された。労務負担の軽減にはノウハウの蓄積・伝達、他の年齢層・フィールドの団体との連携の検討が必要となる。

Urban Squares in Late Bronze Age Ugarit: a Street View on Ancient Near Eastern Governance

Urban Squares in Late Bronze Age Ugarit: a Street View on Ancient Near Eastern Governance

The Effect of Green Characteristics in Reducing the Inventory of Unsold Housing in New Residential Developments—A Case of Gyeonggi Province, in South Korea

This study analyzes the effect of green characteristics on sales of unsold housing stock, using a multilevel growth model, in Gyeonggi Province, South Korea from 2012 to 2018. The green characteristics we estimated are external factors such as the proximity to urban parks and mountain trails located outside the housing complex and internal factors such as whether the area of communal open space within the complex exceeds a certain percentage. The results suggest that potential home-buyers are interested in green space inside rather than outside a housing complex in a suburban setting. Housing complexes with large enough communal open spaces had a 0.094 higher unsold unit ratio than complexes with small communal open spaces, but the surplus decreased more rapidly; the ratio declines by 0.028 per time unit. On the other hand, the results show no statistically significant effects of the distance to external green areas. This might be due to that public urban parks might not be an attraction to residents when forests and/or agricultural fields are in close proximity. The findings of this research will be utilized by construction companies and public institutions holding unsold units in improving their sales performance, not only in South Korea but also in other Asian regions showing a similar housing development pattern.

Open space preservation in an urbanization context

AbstractThe objective of this paper is to address the question of open space preservation in an urbanization context. We study the possibility of preserving two different types of open spaces, namely, large open spaces at cities’ outskirts and small intraurban open spaces. Thus, we contribute to the debate of land sharing versus land sparing in an urban context. We analyze these questions by way of a theoretical microeconomic framework that takes into account both households’ preferences for open space and regulators’ interest in the preservation of natural habitat for biodiversity. We compare land use patterns at private equilibrium and when the social planner maximizes social welfare.

The Hidden Structure of Organic Informal-like Settlements in Jogjakarta City: An Investigation of Socio-Spatial Relationship in an Urban Kampung

Some urban kampungs are registered as informal settlements in Indonesian cities. The existence of a kampung amidst the cities is crucial in providing an affordable access to housing for most of the city’s residents. As an integral part of the city, urban kampungs face many problems such as social segregation, low and deteriorated physical quality, and exclusion from spatial plans which may worsen the residents’ quality of life. Apart from this condition, an urban kampung is believed to have a strong social cohesion and resilient community which are able to persist and survive socially and economically. Towards the sustainability of the city, kampungs as part of the city structure need to be addressed spatially through proper plan and design strategy. In doing so, planners and architects must understand the unique characteristics of urban kampungs to appreciate their positive contribution to the cities. This paper is presented to understand the underlying information on the organic spatial layout of the informal kampung and its impact on social composition within the framework of lively, vibrant, and safe neighborhoods. We utilized Space Syntax (SSX) combined with activity snapshot to understand the socio-spatial relationship and then triangulated the results with a questionnaire on the residents’ perception. Kampung Code, located in the inner city of Yogyakarta, was selected as the case study area as it represents the informal-like settlements. This study revealed that the complex interplays of the organic spatial layout does not significantly affect the frequency of outdoor activities. However, the presence of eight popular spaces (streets, house’s terraces, local shops/taverns, small open spaces, riverbanks, guard posts, community buildings, and small mosques) distributed within Kampung Code does influence it, and it is the driving factor for the residents to engage with others in the form of social interactions. Popular places are able to accommodate residents’ need for various activities from informal business, community interaction, and hobbies. Eventually, the continuous process of interaction and encounter in the same shared public places shapes the strong social connection and conducive living situation, ensuring the kampung to be a lively, vibrant, and safe neighborhood. Reflecting from this study, where organic spatial layout has little effect on social composition and encounters, planners and architects should be aware that proper spatial layout design (e.g., high integration street networks in global and local scale) could generate constant flow of both locals and passersby – enhancing the vibrancy and vitality of the public realm in the kampungs

A Study on Perceptions of "Community <i>Hiroba</i> " in Kyoto city by the Managers and Local Residents

The research program underlying this paper is to inquire forms of community-led management of small open spaces. Small open spaces can be one of the key factors to develop social capitals of the local communities, not only because they provide places for the people to gather and interact, but also because the community’s collective action to create better open spaces can make the community resilient. As a case study, the present paper deals with “Community Hiroba”, small open spaces designed and managed by local communities in Kyoto city. It is aimed to assemble a picture of the usage and the management of the open spaces through, 1) field surveys and interviews to their managers, and 2) questionnaire survey to the local residents regarding the “Community Hiroba” in their neighborhood. The interviews to the managers show that half of them feel difficulty in finding their successors in younger generations. As a result of the analysis of the questionnaire survey, some factors of which improvement may encourage local residents to participate the management of the open spaces are found. The most significant factor among them is found to be the willingness to participate events in the open space, while other factors including social capital of the residents and the degree of recognition about the open space are also found to have positive effects on the local residents’ willingness to take part in the management of the open spaces.

High performance of carbon nanotubes/silver nanowires-PET hybrid flexible transparent conductive films via facile pressing-transfer technique.

To obtain low sheet resistance, high optical transmittance, small open spaces in conductive networks, and enhanced adhesion of flexible transparent conductive films, a carbon nanotube (CNT)/silver nanowire (AgNW)-PET hybrid film was fabricated by mechanical pressing-transfer process at room temperature. The morphology and structure were characterized by scanning electron microscope (SEM) and atomic force microscope (AFM), the optical transmittance and sheet resistance were tested by ultraviolet-visible spectroscopy (UV-vis) spectrophotometer and four-point probe technique, and the adhesion was also measured by 3M sticky tape. The results indicate that in this hybrid nanostructure, AgNWs form the main conductive networks and CNTs as assistant conductive networks are filled in the open spaces of AgNWs networks. The sheet resistance of the hybrid films can reach approximately 20.9 to 53.9 Ω/□ with the optical transmittance of approximately 84% to 91%. The second mechanical pressing step can greatly reduce the surface roughness of the hybrid film and enhance the adhesion force between CNTs, AgNWs, and PET substrate. This process is hopeful for large-scale production of high-end flexible transparent conductive films.

The role of open space in urban neighbourhoods for health-related lifestyle.

The research reported in this paper addresses the relationship between quality of open space and health related lifestyle in urban residential areas. The research was performed in the residential developments in Ljubljana, Slovenia, dating from the time of political and economic changes in the early nineties. Compared to the older neighborhoods, these are typically single-use residential areas, with small open spaces and poor landscape design. The research is concerned with the quality of life in these areas, especially from the perspective of the vulnerable users, like the elderly and children. Both depend on easily accessible green areas in close proximity to their homes. The hypothesis is that the poor open space quality affects their health-related behavior and their perceived health status. The research has three methodological phases: (1) a comparison between urban residential areas by criteria describing their physical characteristics; (2) behavior observation and mapping and (3) a resident opinion survey. The results confirm differences between open spaces of the selected residential areas as well as their relation with outdoor activities: a lack of outdoor programs correlates with poor variety of outdoor activities, limited to transition type, less time spent outdoors and lower satisfaction with their home environment. The survey also disclosed a strong influence of a set of socio-economic variables such as education and economic status on physical activity and self-perceived health status of people. The results therefore confirm the hypothesis especially for less affluent and educated; i.e., vulnerable groups.

The urban matrix and artificial light restricts the nightly ranging behaviour of Gould's long‐eared bat (Nyctophilus gouldi)

AbstractCities are heterogeneous landscapes, with remnant vegetation interspersed amongst areas designed for human use. Native wildlife remaining in urban areas are only likely to thrive and persist if they incorporate human altered areas into what they perceive as habitat. Many sensitive species may be lost if they are restricted to remnant vegetation, and cannot use the urban matrix. In this study, we quantify spatial aspects of the ranging behaviour of Gould's long‐eared bat (Nyctophilus gouldi) using radio‐telemetry and acoustic surveys to determine use of the suburban–bushland interface. This species represents a group prone to extinction due to biological attributes that adapt it to flight within cluttered vegetation, making it more specialized. We radio‐tracked 19 individuals in Cumberland State Forest (CSF), a 40‐ha remnant located in north‐west Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. The nightly range (95% Kernel Density Estimator) was small and localized, and was no greater than 80 ha, where individuals moved on average less than 300 m from roosts each night. All individual N. gouldi tracked used bushland in an almost obligate manner, where up to 100% of used habitat was within local bushland, with little to no use of areas classified as ‘urban’ (residential, commercial and educational land uses). Small open spaces exposed to artificial lighting within the main ranging area of CSF had significantly lower activity (bat passes) of Nyctophilus spp. and significantly higher activity of other species more tolerant of urbanization (P < 0.05). Our results demonstrate that artificial lighting can ‘spill‐over’ into bushland and alter the use of preferred habitat. We conclude that large patches (>40 ha) of protected remnant vegetation must be managed to reduce further degradation, and smaller isolated patches could be restored to provide habitat, particularly in narrow bushland corridors, to assist these species to tolerate urban areas.

POE Analysis on Urban Block Parks Based on Public Behavior Selection — Comparison of Hangzhou Wanxiang Park and Civil Park

As urban block parks are small public open spaces scattered in a city, users’ behavior requirements determine the space utilization. The study, taking Hangzhou Civil Park and Wanxiang Park for example, adopts POE basic study method to investigate and compare the service conditions of parks by means of analyzing behavior selection and space suitability, as well as to put forward space reform and optimizing strategies.