Motaleate Shahri

Urban Design

Comparing the Aesthetic Parameters of Urban Space from the Viewpoint of Children and Adults: the case study of Isfahan

Mina Kashani Hamedani

Volume 4, Issue 14 , May 2015, , Pages 19-30

Abstract

Urban space is the context in which the activities and different perception of users take place; but various users such as different age groups have dissimilar perceptions of environment. It seems that the built environment and particularly urban space as the product of work of urban planners, urban ... Read More Urban space is the context in which the activities and different perception of users take place; but various users such as different age groups have dissimilar perceptions of environment. It seems that the built environment and particularly urban space as the product of work of urban planners, urban designers and architects, does not necessarily consider the real variety of users and through this fact, aesthetic aspect of urban environment does not fulfill their needs fairly. Overlapping of the two domains of environmental psychology and urban aesthetics on the one hand and the diverse psychological characteristics in different age groups on the other hand confirm the necessity of this research. The need for studying urban aesthetics is re-affirmed also from a statistical point of view. In 2010 demographics, out of seven billion of the world’s population, approximately 1.2 billion were children between the ages of 5 and 14. This figure is approximately 17.4 percent of the total world population or one-fifth. The same statistics is shown in Iran where there were roughly 11 million children (5-14 age range) from the total population of 74 million in 2010 which is approximately 15 percent and or one-sixth of the total population. These official statistics are demonstrate the importance children in different fields generally and especially in urban design and urban aesthetic. Studying urban aesthetics from the viewpoint of particular users of urban space like children with different psychological characteristics leads to an introduction to urban aesthetics which is trying to find the answer to the research question. The objective is to identify the aesthetic preferences of children in their surrounding environment, especially in urban spaces. However, there were some limits in this study; the most important limiting factor was the lack of detailed information regarding the social and cultural environment of the statistical sample which could explain differences in children’s points of views. Thus, examining urban spaces from an aesthetic perspective is important because their users have different aesthetic perceptions and urban spaces are not necessarily responsive for all kinds of users. This research answers the following questions: which environmental aesthetic preferences can be recognized in different groups of children and adults, and what are the priorities of related variables in different groups. There are two major approaches to the study of aesthetics, empirical and philosophical. This research is based on the empirical approach according to the importance of visual aspects in urban design. This research has studied the signification of three groups conforming to Santayana’s classification of environmental aesthetics which consists of three categories of emotional, formal and symbolic. The research is applied and descriptive-analytic. Data was collected from library study based on documentary research as well as field observations and children’s drawings. Based on Cochran's C test, 750 effective questionnaires were dispensed in Isfahan city which is the figure for the statistical population. The results were analyzed by Likert-Scale and SPSS software. The findings indicate certain differences exist between the various age groups in their preferences of aesthetic priority and in the importance of formal variables from the viewpoint of children. Of the three mentioned categories of environmental aesthetics, the formal category was most frequently preferred by children.

Urban Planning

The Role of the Built Environment Attributes in Residents’ Walking Behavior, Case Study: Tehran city/ Iran

Volume 2, Issue 5 , March 2013, , Pages 27-34

Abstract

Nowadays, a special attention is given to the role of urban planning and the built environment and their impacts on neighborhood walkability and residents’ walking behavior. A large number of studies have been conducted about this issue in developed countries, but little has been done in this ... Read More Nowadays, a special attention is given to the role of urban planning and the built environment and their impacts on neighborhood walkability and residents’ walking behavior. A large number of studies have been conducted about this issue in developed countries, but little has been done in this regard in the context of a developing country such as Iran. These researches emphasized the strong relation between accessibility to parks, recreational and sport services. They applied two main approaches of objective and subjective. The objective criterion has some advantages like lesser measurement error, standardization and easy quantification and transferability into policy making. Some researchers believe that subjective approaches have more affinities with real perceptions especially in behavioral sciences. Thus, a considerable number of researchers recommend the use of both objective and subjective approaches. Evidence showed that the dimension of physical problems is more sophisticated in larger urban centers. Tehran mega-polis as capital center of Iran experiences a wide range of socio-economic problems due to the rising level of air pollution. According to the official records of heath organizations, obesity and heart diseases are on the increase among the population of large urban centers. Therefore, it seems that physical activity can partly help reduce the pressure of different physical and mental disorders. Obviously, urban planners play a significant role in carrying out the arrangement of urban land use on different scales from city to neighborhood. The present study examined the relationship between neighborhood walkability and adults’ walking behavior in Metropolitan Tehran. Three built environment measures of net residential density, land-use mix, street connectivity, and socio-economic status (SES) were calculated using geographic information systems (GIS) on a census block scale across Metropolitan Tehran. As participants, 657 subjects were recruited from neighboring areas in terms of both neighborhood walkability and SES scores. The amount of weekly walking was obtained using a self-reported method and, then, it was compared with the neighborhood walkability. The data were processed and classified using SPSS and anylsed via different statistical models. The results of this study showed that there was a significant relationship between the neighborhood walkability and residents’ walking behavior. People who lived in high walkable neighborhoods reported more weekly walking than those who lived in low walkable neighborhoods. These results highlighted the role of urban planning and the built environment in enhancing residents’ physical activity which, in turn, leads to the improvement of residents’ physical and mental health. The main conclusion of this research was that the method and measurement of physical activities in urban areas has definite connection with the socio-economic conditions of people. Thus, urban researchers need to employ social and economic indexes to identify the real requirements of urban neighborhoods and facilities to help members of society, especially the older people, to take part in physical activities. This research, however, recommended further studies in this regard to deepen our understanding about the relation between the features of built environment and the tendency of residents towards more physical activity.

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Keywords = Adults

Comparing the Aesthetic Parameters of Urban Space from the Viewpoint of Children and Adults: the case study of Isfahan

Abstract

The Role of the Built Environment Attributes in Residents’ Walking Behavior, Case Study: Tehran city/ Iran

Abstract