Evaluation of criteria of successful urban public space environment, according to young people and professionals from built environment

Abstract

Public places in modern urban areas play an undeniable role in enhancing the quality of life within cities. Like any other urban space, public places need to be carefully planned and designed to perform their task as a venue for social interactions in cities. Consequently, for a space to present itself in a unique manner, it needs special setting and feature. Therefore, Questions are raised as for the criteria of successful public space’s environment. This study examines the features, which creates the environment of a space and influence human behavior within it, through categorizing the features into physical feature such as edge, size, landscape, and non-physical such as sound, smell and illumination. The categories are structured to form a three level hierarchical model, which comprised of features, criteria, and sub-criteria. The model is an outcome of literature review and current guidelines analysis. Furthermore, to identify the values of these criteria and their sub-criteria, a ranking questionnaire was developed and distributed over two groups of respondent – professionals and young people. The respondents are assumed to share the same aim of having functional public space within their urban environment. The result of the responses showed that professionals and young people have evaluated the criteria in different manner; although there was similarity in their thoughts. Nevertheless, the study found that, some of the important criteria according to the respondents were not addressed in the current guideline. Hence, this study recommends some additional guidelines regarding the non-physical criteria of spaces, such as sound, smell and illumination in public place, for the current documents to include.