TY - JOUR
T1 - Behaviors of seniors and impact of spatial form in small-scale public spaces in Chinese old city zones
AU - Sun, Xuyang
AU - Wang, Lijun
AU - Wang, Fei
AU - Soltani, Sahar
N1 - Funding Information:
This research was funded by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 51978442 ); Programme of Introducing Talents of Discipline to Universities (Project No. B13011); China Scholarship Council ; China-Australia Research Center for Environment and Sustainable Urban Development. In addition to this, authors are deeply indebted to Professor Ning Gu for his contribution to this research and the postgraduate students in the School of Architecture, Tianjin University for their direct and indirect help to the collection of the data in this research.
Funding Information:
This research was funded by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 51978442); Programme of Introducing Talents of Discipline to Universities (Project No. B13011); China Scholarship Council; China-Australia Research Center for Environment and Sustainable Urban Development. In addition to this, authors are deeply indebted to Professor Ning Gu for his contribution to this research and the postgraduate students in the School of Architecture, Tianjin University for their direct and indirect help to the collection of the data in this research.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2020 Elsevier Ltd
PY - 2020/12
Y1 - 2020/12
N2 - Small-scale public spaces in old city zones are important places for seniors to participate in city life and can often be neglected. Street-corner small-scale public spaces are fairly typical in this case. This study randomly selected 74 street-corner small-scale public spaces in Tianjin, China as sample spaces, and the daily behaviors of seniors were continuously observed and periodically photographed for data collection. The duration of observation for each sample space was no less than 4 h. Based on the extraction of the collected data, the characteristics of seniors' behaviors in terms of the percentage and frequency of occurrence were quantitatively analyzed. Subsequently, combined with the data of the spatial form indexes, using communication as an example, the impact of spatial form on the frequency of occurrence for seniors' behaviors were explored. It was found that the width of the adjacent street, the average height of surrounding buildings, the number of seats, and the average noise level have statistically significant impacts on the frequency of seniors' communication. This study will provide a significant basis with scientific evidence and quantitative method to urban designers and policy makers for the urban age-friendly regeneration of small-scale public spaces in old city zones.
AB - Small-scale public spaces in old city zones are important places for seniors to participate in city life and can often be neglected. Street-corner small-scale public spaces are fairly typical in this case. This study randomly selected 74 street-corner small-scale public spaces in Tianjin, China as sample spaces, and the daily behaviors of seniors were continuously observed and periodically photographed for data collection. The duration of observation for each sample space was no less than 4 h. Based on the extraction of the collected data, the characteristics of seniors' behaviors in terms of the percentage and frequency of occurrence were quantitatively analyzed. Subsequently, combined with the data of the spatial form indexes, using communication as an example, the impact of spatial form on the frequency of occurrence for seniors' behaviors were explored. It was found that the width of the adjacent street, the average height of surrounding buildings, the number of seats, and the average noise level have statistically significant impacts on the frequency of seniors' communication. This study will provide a significant basis with scientific evidence and quantitative method to urban designers and policy makers for the urban age-friendly regeneration of small-scale public spaces in old city zones.
KW - Behavior
KW - Impact
KW - Old city zone
KW - Senior
KW - Small-scale public space
KW - Spatial form
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85089836096&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1016/j.cities.2020.102894
DO - 10.1016/j.cities.2020.102894
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85089836096
SN - 0264-2751
VL - 107
JO - Cities
JF - Cities
M1 - 102894
ER -