Public Space - Science topic

My research plan: First, via literature review and on-site investigation, summarize public space elements. Then, learn from literature that place attachment theory has two factors: place dependence (shallow-level, emphasizing visual and functional use) and place identity (deep-level, emphasizing related historical, cultural, and personal experiences). Hypothesize that through questionnaire to collect data and statistical analysis, a positive correlation can be found between public space elements and place dependence, and that public space elements' perception can indirectly impact place identity via place dependence, affecting place attachment level. Third, aim to study the correlation; encode and quantify public space elements as can't directly research on quantitative data (affected by many factors). Fourth, conduct correlation analysis between public space elements' quantitative data and people's perception data to analyze the relationship, and by optimizing the design, enhance people's place attachment level.

I'm looking for illustrations of public space, public interaction, and public life in films. Which are the most interesting to look at? Thank you!

Cities compete with each other in a globalised environment. How does this affect the design of urban space and the community?

Does anyone know about literature concerning this questions or wants to share thoughts?

Hello fellow researchers and innovators

At the moment I am working for a small / medium Norwegian municipality. There we want to develop a method, which enables us to make climate positive decisions when planning, building and maintaining urban public spaces w/ and w/o greenery.

This municipality is suffering rural migration, which means, the economics isn't the best. So we need to find / work out our own solutions instead of buying.

In addition to that, most of the software and calculators I have come across are developed for "buildings", hard materials for housing constructions, but in urban public places w/ greenery vegetation can account for CO2-sinks.

I feel the benefits of plants are far too often forgotten.

Do any of you have possible "links" to interesting webpages, or perhaps and even better, do any of you have an Excel-sheet which one could use to calculate this?

You know, perhaps someone has already done this job and worked out how to give factors and benefits and measurements into a calculation matrix, which then could work out a weighing up of a variety of design-elements...?

Your name would of course be mentioned and the research / product would be given your credits / copyright...

Cheers,

Berit

Good morning, if you are living in Cairo,Egypt can you take part in this questionnaire by answering it , it is for my master thesis topic “ sociability challenges in public spaces in the era of industry 4.0”

You can answer in arabic or english format

Dear Colleagues,

We are glad to inform you that I am currently serving as the guest editor for the Special Issue

"Public Spaces: Socioeconomic Challenges"

We would like to invite you to submit a paper to our special issue: https://www.mdpi.com/journal/land/special_issues/QUY7LS4BII

Please contact the Section Managing Editor kristie.shen@mdpi.com if you have any questions. An article processing charge (APC) of CHF 2200 currently applies to all accepted papers. The submission deadline is 3 July 2023. But if you need more time, you can feel free to contact us.

You may find the instructions for the manuscript preparation at https://www.mdpi.com/journal/land/instructions

The manuscripts can be uploaded at

http://susy.mdpi.com/user/manuscripts/upload?journal=land

For us to plan this last phase of this project, we kindly ask you to let us know of your possible interest in participating within the next two weeks. Thank you for your interest and we look forward to hear from you,

Teresa de Noronha

Dear Academics and Researchers,

My friend and I are working on a research paper regarding 'walkability and environmental characteristics in historic sites' through the case study of Naqsh-e Jahan Square in Isfahan.

The city has been facing inactivity due to interruption in the historical site's identity and unforeseen inconvenience resulting from changing street use, something that authorities were unaware of. In this context, we would like to conduct a survey to illustrate how the elements of public spaces could contribute to walkability development and social inclusion.

We have divided the questionnaire into three parts. Feel free to complete whichever you would think is more related to your area of research: Quality-of-place and Accessibility in Historic Sites: https://lnkd.in/eruS8sDW Equity, Affordability and Comfortability in Walkability: https://lnkd.in/eZ9x54-F Architectural and Built Environment Details' impacts on Walkability: https://lnkd.in/efxseu7G Each questionnaire should take you about 15 minutes. We would sincerely appreciate it if you could take the time to complete this survey kindly. Thank you very much for your time and efforts in advance.

As tourism grows and tourists come to dominate public spaces, the value/use of those spaces to native-born populations is shifting. This is a rather new topic for me, but looking for resources that will address the changes and how the status of localities shifts as they are rendered public for tourists but of limited use/access by native born. Thanks!

Our scape is currently overwhelmed with physical structures that act as obstructive forces towards humanity-oriented progress. The globalised format of our cities has dominated its roots on other aspects of architecture, including education. Hence, in some schools, architectural education follows this emerging imagery of the market, and not the other way around. This has led to a critical phenomenon of poor development of architectural pedagogy, i.e. lack of individual and collective creativity.

Do you think that architectural schools should shift its methodology towards not building anymore? Should they focus more on creating open spaces and flexible structures?

When I embarked on this journey of exploring more on exploring the condition and status of gender equity and equality in architecture, or public spaces, or urban design, I found very little literature is available. Would be great to discuss on this topic. I have started to get an impression perhaps this topic is irrelevant or not trending at all. But I have strong feeling that has an importance, but very little research has been done on this. Would be great if you know of some documents or share some light on this.

How does activities and agè affect the people who visit the green public spaces

We study safety and satisfaction within public spaces in relation to light within different day intervals and within different environment sets.

We decided to split the questionnaire into six small ones, each consisting of 10 questions maximum, and this is the second one.

This survey aims to understand the correlation between lighting at different times of the day, activities in public space, and users' sense of safety within an environment rich with green color in the form of Shrubs.

We will be grateful if you fill this one, it will take around 5 mins only.

I will be grateful if you fill this Questionnaire, it will take around 5 mins only.

'Sound level' perceptions in Neighborhoods & public spaces. Requesting to fill in the Survey google form & contribute your inputs. Greatly appreciate!

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSdNq61O2rSEatqPW5AJs3lq0-YlnZNKndsTNpSk5OjMxhIuHg/viewform

Hi, I'm looking for documentation concerning how public spaces have changed since the pandemic. I'm interested in repositories, databases, review articles, media sources etc. Thank you very much!

Dear researchers we are trying to explore the urban designers’ understanding(s) of gender-sensitive urban design.

What do designers focus on when they develop public open space design/planning?

some examples are: participatory processes engaging women and gender minorities, meeting the needs of women in the design, involving women and underrepresented groups in key decisions.

What do you think is the most relevant literature on the topic?

photo source (http://www.wpsprague.com/research-1/2017/1/6/more-girls-to-parks-case-study-of-einsiedler-park-viennamilota-sidorova)

Greetings and Best Regards;

The present questionnaire aims to assess the effect of the Covid-19 virus on the public realm of residential neighborhoods from the evaluation point of view of experts (Architecture, Landscape Architecture, Urban Design and Urban Planning) according to the components of social capital; Therefore, you, dear researcher, are requested to help us in advancing the correct goals of this research by answering the questions that have been raised in this regard, in addition to applying your professional and valuable opinions. This project is being implemented with the support of the Research Deputy of Apadana Institute of Higher Education In Shiraz, Iran.

Please follow the link to answer the questions (https://survey.porsline.ir/s/MPHz138)

My research field involves environment-person relations and I am looking for examples from around the world of public spaces that were designed to meet the containment measures of COVID-19, more specifically the social distance. I look for projects that have already been effectively implemented. If you know any, please contact me. Thanks in advance

Hi everyone,

I want to ask a (not so) quick question about ecosystem services economics, urban planning, sustainable water drainage and cost-benefit analysis.

Whenever comparing different scenarii of urban greening or urban planning, in a cost-benefit anaysis (CBA), opportunity costs have to be integrated to represent the whole array of costs associated with a plan. The definition by Buchanan (1992) is good enough here : "Opportunity cost is the evaluation placed on the most highly valued of the rejected alternatives or opportunities", which is to say, it is the value that is sacrificed in any choice in a decision making situation. This cost is usually valued as the highest benefits that could have been produced by a choice, but that was forgone by the actual choice.

Now, when the subjects of a CBA, that is, the scenarii, are firm or private indivdual investments, the notion of opportunity cost is pretty thorough : it is the net revenue from the best forgone investment. And that's it.

However when dealing with urban planning, as with many other real world economics, it becomes trickier. The opportunity cost of using urban space is almost exclusively represented in the literature with land or real estate prices. The underlying hypothesis there is that construction would always be the next best profitable option for urban land, and that land prices are its best reflection. Fair enough, although it may debatable, as not all the alternatives of land use for a given land have a clear net benefit flow, far from it. Who knows, perhaps, at times, the next most profitable option for public welfare would be represented by the net flow of ecosystem services generated by a natural conservation option ?..

Anyhow, what if we are valuating water drainage systems scenarios ? Small urban green bioswales alongside the roads, designed for managing sustainably rainwater and stormwater ? It does not really eats up property lands, but rather public space, streets and sidewalks. What about linear street parking spaces, if those are to be converted for creating urban parks and whatnot. Real estate prices would not be a fitting approximation for the lost foregone best benefit in these situations, it seems to me.

I have not found any alternatives in the literature for taking into account the opportunity costs of open or public space. Do you have any insights on this matter ? Any literature on geographic economics or urban economics modelling that deals differently with this ?

Many thanks for any contribution

I'm looking for research and studies using Goffman's theory to approach contemporary urban life (including issues of new technologies, AI, urban safety, extremism, epidemics etc…). Obliged to anyone who can point me to relevant materials. Thank you.

As a rule, actions focused on making an urbanized area smarter are at the same time actions to improve the quality of life (comfort) of the inhabitants of such an area. This statement also includes - in my opinion - the problem of creating the most appropriate acoustic climate in a smart city, or rather in its components. I am intentionally not talking about noise reduction: being in absolute silence is one of the more sophisticated tortures. The comfortable living space is "acoustically varied": we expect a rather quiet space for rest (sleep) at night, but accept a more noisy dining and entertainment space, of course with restrictions on the night time, ie usually between 10.00 PM and 6.00 AM. However, in publications on acoustic phenomena in public space, I did not find too many studies on Smart City acoustics. Do you know such studies or studies?

Hi Kind helpers,

For my industrial design thesis, I'm working on a concentrated solar energy (>CPV) construction, to be integrated in urban areas/buildings (glass roofs, with integrated Fresnel lens).

The construction would be applied in large public spaces (shopping malls, trainstations etc.). In the case of this CPV construction, the PV/solar panel, is hung inside, and is never exposed to exterior dirt/soil/bird droppings. While there's some literature on exterior soiling of PV and optics, I'm having a hard time estimating how much of an impact dust can have on the efficiency of PV in larger interior spaces.

Is there a specific 'estimation method' that I can use, to estimate how much dust will fall per surface area (& height?), based on the volume of a place and maybe how many people pass through per x amount of time? Would love to hear if there's a good way to do this, without actually experimenting. Related literature is also very welcome of course.

Thanks in advance.

My research field focuses on environment-user relations and I look for studies that compare the user's perception of prohibition and guidance signs. I mean, in COVID-19 times, I would like to understand if the environment that uses prohibition signs becomes more hostile in some way. Thank you very much in advance!

Hello! Currently I am working on a research about different methodologies of urban public spaces evaluation/their impact assessment. The only comprehensive projects with explicit measurement instructions I could find were established in the US.

Do you know any documents/brochures of this type formulated by state agencies/private agencies in other countries? (there is an example attached below)

Hi All,

I want to raise the following issue related to the innovation performance of the business, especially the problem with reporting research and innovation activities to national statistical offices and public incentives to increasing the level of data gathered in this field.

We call this phenomenon “Hidden innovation” – the good examples exist. Still, there is no official information about them in public space and official statistics, which is a problem in at least the following directions: 1) lack of awareness about “good practices” and missing opportunities for their dissemination; and 2) underestimated positions of the national economy within the framework of different international classifications and indices; 3) lack of evidence-based policies in the field of research and innovation and stemming from this inefficient public investment and unaddressed market and system failers.

It will be exciting and fruitful if you can share national practices in this area and what is most important – workable decisions for making innovative business more responsible in reporting data concerning their research and innovation activities.

A research group is conducting a study across several cultures to investigate insights about issues in the environment of school-age children (6-12). The purpose is to explore practitioners' feedback and insights into how urban form in children environment is configured and assembled to fit their daily life in public spaces. Your answers to the following survey are much appreciated to the entire questions that might take less than 5 minutes.

A research group is conducting a study across several cultures to investigate insights about issues in the environment of school-age children (6-12). The purpose is to explore practitioners' feedback and insights into how urban form in children environment is configured and assembled to fit their daily life in public spaces. Your answers to the following survey are much appreciated to the entire questions that might take less than 5 minutes.

Thank you

Public exposure to mobile phones is enhanced by microwave reflection in enclosed spaces. such as elevators, and perhaps public transportation and cars, as well. What then is the risk to the brain of “passive exposure” to mobile phone microwaves?

In crowded public spaces there is a high risk of droplet transmission. Seeing the scarcity of the masks what should we do. In media lot of messages going on for it and against it. What to follow?

I am an urban design specialist with an emerging interest in "Smart Cities" concept and use of ICTs in the related fields (e.g. public spaces, urban planning, urban management, ...).

I wanted to know if there are some specific applications and Computer Software which can be helpful in learning and acting in this area (e.g. built environments, modeling, traffic analyse, ... ).

I would be grateful for any upcoming help and suggestion.

Social exclusion is a process by which certain groups are systematically disadvantaged because they are discriminated against on the basis of their ethnicity, race, religion, sexual orientation, caste, descent, gender, age, disability, HIV status, migrant status or where they live.

For developing the model of my PhD thesis about "urban happiness in public spaces", I would like to recognize the best system dynamic methods. I sincerely looking for the recommendation.

One of the European Union's integration goals is to create a common European public space. Today, the most effective public sphere is national public sphere. In the context of the European Union, have we moved from national public spaces to European public spaces? Can such a European public sphere be moved? Is this a realistic target?

I m trying to simulate an open space in EP for evaluating the effect of different shades for cooling public spaces. One such option is putting radiant cooling on the floor. But can we simulate these and come up with a solution?

Looking for getting some information about revitalizing public spaces in Sadr City and adjacent urban areas.

I'm doing a research on public spaces which I'm trying to understand the way of life in cities in past days, their presence in public spaces, their uses of public spaces and different spaces they used and I'm wondering if there is a method to study this?

Can any one help me on how to make a questionnaire to determining the effect of physical and social factors to place attachment?

#place_attachment

#public_space

#physical_factors

#social_factors

Defining street vending as a art, and making it perform at public space gives essence of identity and belonging. Also, it leaves sense of adjustments in sustaining their art of living.

I'm starting a new research on the opens spaces in the contemporary city and their sustainability. Public spaces thought as a single element and in a network.

Urban codes have a profound influence on urban form, affecting the design and placement of buildings, streets and public spaces. Historically, their use has helped create some of our best-loved urban environments, while recent advances in coding have been a growing focus of attention, particularly in Britain and North America. However, the full potential for the role of codes has yet to be realized.

In Stephen Marshall's book - Urban Coding and Planning - the nature and scope of coding are investigated; its purposes; the types of environments it creates; and, perhaps more importantly, its relation to urban planning.

The purpose of this question is to bring this discussion of how zoning codes affect the urban form. Can you help with something?

Is the place’s distinctive character reflected in the way it is laid out and landscaped?

In most Mexican cities, public administrations use street furniture as propaganda, painting with the color of their political party every change of government. In terms of urban landscape, these behaviors do not create conditions of quality of public space, identity and attachment to the place by the inhabitants

Hello,

in 2008 after my epidemiological thesis in biology/ethnomedicine I started the development of the FCMapper. About 2010 I started studying fine arts and worked in the field of Art&Science since then. 2018 I got a one year stipend from the state of Carinthia for developing FCM as an artistc method.

In which kind of fields do you plan to work with FCM in this project? Which kind of scientists and experts will be involved into this project?

It would be great to contribute to a bigger project to bring FCM out of academia - into museums and also public space.

Kind regards, Michael

I am carrying on a research related to Latin America Public Space. I would like to kindly ask if you could help me with any updated references/authors that discuss about:

- changes on local scale of public spaces (IN LATIN AMERICA CITIES), taking into account the physical (how the materiality has changed), social (how the subjects have using it), and political (how the subjects have claims over them and from them) dimensions.

Thank you all in advance

I started to do a new work about gender justice in Iranian urban public spaces. I like to cooperate with another researcher in other countries to compare Iranian cities results and the other countries cities results. Please contact me, if you are interested.

Cataloging frogs calls are a robust method of collecting data for bullfrog immigration, but they don't work year round, are subjective and need dedicated volunteers. eDNA needs specialists and resources. The early methods of airguns for sample collecting are unlikely to be approved for urban public spaces.

Fyke nets have promise, but permission to deploy them is not a given, plus costs, maintenance and perceived impact on ecosystem are problems.

Is there any method that is virtually free, quick and easy? Wondering if there is any experience of identification of species via photographs of individuals like they do for whales?

I am looking for real or evacuation drill data set for validation purpose. If anyone can help or share data.

Public space is a gathering place for various activities and each user can change at any time. Meanwhile, the comfort of space and place is one of the important things, not only about visual comfort but also thermal comfort.

How do you meet thermal comfort in a public space? whereas, thermal comfort is very subjective. Can we ignore that subjectivity?

Thank you for participating in our survey of playable city, gamifiying Urban Public Spaces. By gamfiying the city and public urban places, we mean to create a joyful and playable city for all generations not only children or young people.

The survey is voluntary – you do not need to do it. However, by carefully and accurately completing this

survey you will help others provide the platform for developing cities livable place for everyone. So,If you prefer, you can complete. Please fill this quick survey and let us know your thoughts (your answers will be anonymous).

I am Ian Daniel Garife, a 5th - year BS Architecture student from the Philippines. I am currently researching a study on the feasibility of A Proposed Agri-Urban Food Park. The study delves into Recreating Public Realms as Multi-Use Destinations through Placemaking.

It is widely argued that the contemporary city is becoming an increasingly hostile environment for homeless people. As basic street survival strategies are criminalised and public space ‘purified’ of those whose spoiled identities threaten to taint fellow members of the public, city authorities seem to have turned from a position of neglect to more

obviously punitive measures designed to contain and control homeless people. Less widely acknowledged but equally prevalent, however, is a parallel rise in the care system; evident in the growing number of shelters rooms, kitchens and many other services for homeless people. These spaces of care springing up in theinterstices of a revanchist city, act as important sources of material

resource and refuge for a highly stigmatised group. However, what for one person may operate as a space of care might, for another, be experienced as a space of fear, shame and further stigmatization. Do these spaces help people to get out of the homelessness ?

Public space is essential in the daily life of the homeless. Waldron (1991) underlines that the traditional complementarity between the use of private space and the use of public space, which works correctly for the domiciled, fails completely in the case of homeless people. In other words, homeless people do not only live public space like the rest of the “normal” people, rather they live in public space, having, by definition, no private space (homes) and no alternative but to be and live their lives in public. Hence, public space becomes a home, a place where homeless people tend to settle, more or less temporarily. It is a place where everyday life can be managed and a place where survival resources can be found. Private and public life cannot be separated: both are located in the public space. Walking through the streets of the city it is quite common to see marginalized people sitting or resting under the arcades, begging or wandering in general. In particular, in the course of my research into the use of the city spaces I have discovered a whole world belonging to homeless people with its own spaces, rhythms, times, relationships and survival strategies. Living on the streets forces the homeless to make choices continuously, as anyone would do in their daily life. However, it is not something done in a casual way; we can discern a strong rationality in the process, and such rationality is based on the reality of the individual’s situation. The reality of living on the street defines the choices of the homeless person and affects every moment of his day and his entire life. Could we say that urban public space forces the homeless to adopt particular behaviours? And so that a the urban space is not only the place where they spend most of their day, but it is also a mechanism which contributes towards shaping an homeless identity?

I am trying to understand if and how planners can help empower migrants by intervening on the built form. I am familiar with works by, for example, Jeffrey Hou and Fran Tonkiss. I wonder if someone wrote more specifically about how immigrants use a city's public spaces and what interventions might be done to facilitate self-empowerment. Thank you!

How could space and its individual and social representations questions the problem of sustainable human development ? In a context of permanently mutating space, how can we state the ability to make society ? Could social appropriation of environment quality and sustainable co-management of living spaces be analytically modelled ? Is it possible to interrogate the socio-environmental strategies of daily territories appropriation ? How can user values of public spaces constitute a transfiguration of reality in the field of landscape experience ?

What in your opinion are the key reasons why so many locations are hard to navigate? Why does wayfinding design so often fail to work effectively?

This is an open ended question as I am keen on any and all opinions.

If you are in an airport why did you get lost and how could it have been solved? In a urban area, on a bay trail, in a sports stadium/ What wayfinding problems did you experience?

Pillars are the vertical or near vertical supports of a car's window area or greenhous.

Bikesharing is currently rather hot in China because of the emergence of a new form bikesharing program, namely non-docking bikesharing. It is called Mobike of Ofo, two of most wide-accepted bikesharing program. More and more people tend to ride the bikesharing for commuting, shopping, entertainment, exercise, et al. There is no docking station, which is different from the tradional bikesharing before. As they are avaiable around us easily, commuters can ride it to their workplace directly or regard it as a transfer mode. Based on this assumption, will this new form of bikesharing mitigate the urban traffic congestion in the future? I hold a positive attitude.

I am designing a crowd sourced, regional air pollution profile study, where I want to obtain personal exposures for about 300 participants. Looking for a device similar to AirBeam but under $100. 

I am investigating the relationship between old and new (modern, functional, luminous) university campuses and the way they shape thought, especially for students.

Community usually has a perception of crime, dangerous, fear of contaminated soil or horrible feel towards abandoned brownfield site. How uses of technology can improve the community perception and encourage uses of the abandoned space?

Phenomenology malls

Foundations of development stimuli

Are there cities that have applied something similar?

This beach front space is in the city area, and the building of such a hotel will offer many job opportunities to many locals. At present unemployment is very high in the country. This 15-story hotel would be the highest in the country and by extension in the city, but its height will not block the vision of any other building in the city.

They are some hotels a distant away also on the beach that are less than 7-stories, but this venture will bring much foreign exchange to the country. It will as well bring a greater level of aesthetics to the area as many buildings in the said world heritage site are become derelict. The city really needs a face lift at this moment.

Through my research in Middle-East, in multiple occasions I have encountered the confusion around the ownership of the 'public' space and the way it is perceived! The language clearly differentiates between social space and public space as the former mostly refers to social relations and social production of space and latter embraces the public space as the space of political and body politics (Arendt / Habermas). Now I am wondering how the notion of public space can be divorced from public-private dichotomy and what would be its implication?

I'm interested in the relationship between the development of sports complexes which occupy the space.

We will continue talking for a long time about the Crisis, many have forgotten its origins and seems that they haven’t learned about its consequences. As an architect I must say that one of its main causes has been a bad management of the city. This amnesia, that seems it has been incrusted in the brains of the ones in charge of giving solutions, has provoked, as a slab falling over the polis, that the “supposed anti-crisis” policies that have been and are being adopted are merely economical with devastating and dramatic consequences for the citizens, without understanding that the wound of this hemorrhage will not heal if one of its causes is not investigated, analyzed and cauterized, I’m referring to the notion of City and to the condition of public space as an exemplary result of the aggrupation of citizens, politicians, in the Aristotelian sense of politics.

I am researching about public space size, access, localization and distribution, and I need to know how are these critery in other countrys. Or someone can help me with suggestions papers with these informations? Thanks

Pace of urbanization and thus forming really wide public spaces is very different from historic as well as geographical point of view. In any case this process means that a number of people whose cognitive and communicative habits are adopted to the close milieus where one is personally acquainted with everyone (or with the majority of those people) one has to deal with - have to accommodate oneselves to the milieus where lots of "the others" are to be looked at as abstracted agents. The pace of this accommodation - in both personal and generational perspectives - supposes different strategies both on the side of those passing through this process as well as those already urbanized ones who have to deal with the newcomers. Thus the question.

I am looking at inclusive collective spaces as strategic projects acting as catalysts against the spatial segregation of the city. But I not sure that my concept of public space is conceived in the same way in South Africa.

My case study is Cape Town, but I think that I need to undestand better the public space meaning in the South African context.

Available for any additional information.

I'm currently researching materials to read for my thesis, the idea is to find a connection between socialisation of migrants and locals in public spaces' contexts to foster their integration. 

I am pulling together a research proposal on the topic above and would like to know what you think are the key ideas and examples regarding children and open space in cities, in relation to environmental, societal and economic concerns? It's a very wide subject I know, but the final piece will be reflecting that.

Thanks!

There are too many studies about how to improve the public space, but what happens when there are too many governmental actors working without coordination, plans or goals? Thanks for your help!

Can anyone help me on how to put together an effective questionnaire for gathering information on determining the level of place attachment in urban public spaces of Isfahan?

In investigating what works best in making public spaces for people living in high urban spaces in the asian developing world (thailand, vietnam, indonesia),there needs to be indication that users of different backgrounds have positive experiences with the space and other users different to their own social backgrounds. Methods of gathering opinion from an individual(in an interview) is a challenge as more likely in this South East Asian culture, people often refer to themselves to be part of a group/community themselves than as individual, or reluctant to share as one. Conducting focus groups however, poses a different challenge as one voice may influence the rest-this could influence the outcome of a study itself.

I am looking for studies on the built environment and public spaces using observation as a primary method.

My research is focused on the public space in the intravilan of the countryside. Its topic is the phenomenon of rurality, the rural character as a value associated with the form of environment of rural settlements.

The objective is to find, evaluate and describe the basic attributes and relations in space which co-create rurality, and to do it in such a way so that these findings could eventually be used in practice - e. g. in the intravilan's public space design in order to strengthen the rural features of the environment.

I have done a study of a group of women to see how they are related to their environment (in the city) through their everyday lives in the city and its public spaces. I am wondering if there is any specific categorization of everyday life which can be analysed in terms of people's interaction with place in the city.

Generally, I am searching for the new realms that Social networks add to contemporary Public spaces.

I am currently preparing for a dissertation about the relationship between open space design and urban tourism, and how open space stimulates tourism industry.

Are there any recommended journals or books for literature review and references? Can anybody help?

Around the Government Hill of Hong Kong, there are plenty of landscaped areas being designed for public access, while citizen used to use these spaces for morning exercise.