4.1. The Result of Syntactic Quantification and the Reason for That Result
The external spaces of the four parks were quantitatively evaluated using the convex segmentation, axial segmentation and visual field segmentation of the spatial syntax, and the mean values of each of these variables were selected for comparative analysis in order to further explore the differences between the four parks.
4.1.1. Results and Causes of Convexity Analysis
The results of the convex analysis primarily encompass global integration, mean depth and intelligibility as key parameter variables. The quantitative outcomes for each park were selected for comparative analysis, with a focus on elucidating the underlying reasons for the observed comparative results.
As depicted in
Figure 20, a comparative analysis of the average values of the convex integration degrees for the external spatial nodes of the four parks was conducted. The data reveal relatively minor differences in values among the parks. The C92 Creative Cluster exhibits the highest value, suggesting that its external space nodes possess the greatest overall openness and integrality, thereby making it most conducive to attracting and gathering crowds. The “3526” Creative Factory and the “1946” Creative Industrial Park rank second-lowest in terms of these values, while the Cotton 3 Creative Block has the lowest value, indicating a comparatively weaker capacity of its external space nodes to attract and gather crowds. It is observed that the Cotton 3 Creative District’s limited industry variety, inadequate supporting facilities, and somewhat remote location contribute to its poor openness and integration, resulting in a reduced ability to attract and gather crowds.
The syntactic quantification results for the four parks show that the average value of the convex mean depth is generally low, with only minor differences observed between the parks. The Cotton 3 Creative Block exhibits the highest value, suggesting that its external spatial nodes are relatively diverse but less accessible. The “3526” Creative Factory and the C92 Creative Cluster follow, demonstrating average levels of diversity and accessibility in their external space nodes. Conversely, the “1946” Creative Industrial Park has the lowest value, indicative of relatively simple external space nodes with higher accessibility. Research findings reveal that the mean depth values of each park are significant, and the locations of these nodes are often remote and concealed, necessitating traversal through multiple spatial nodes to reach them. Lower spatial nodes, such as the entrance plaza, central plaza, pedestrian landscape street and internal car park, are situated centrally within the park and are directly connected to more spatial nodes, hence offering greater convenience.
The comparative analysis of the convex intelligibility across the four parks revealed significant differences in their values. Specifically, the “1946” Creative Industrial Park’s value falls within the range that indicates that its external spatial nodes are extremely easy to understand (greater than 0.7). In contrast, the C92 Creative Cluster’s value lies in the range denoting easier understanding (0.5–0.7). The values for both the “3526” Creative Factory and the Cotton 3 Creative Block are categorized in the range indicating that it is more challenging for people to comprehend (less than 0.5), with the Cotton 3 Creative Block registering the lowest value among them. This suggests that the external spatial nodes of the “1946” Creative Industrial Park are very clearly understood by people, who can accurately identify and judge the location of each spatial node while navigating the park. The C92 Creative Cluster ranks second in terms of clarity, with a relatively high level of understanding of its external spatial node distribution. Conversely, the “3526” Creative Factory and the Cotton 3 Creative Block have the lowest values, indicating that their external spatial nodes are not easily identifiable or recognized by people. Further research and analysis revealed that the Cotton 3 Creative Block has a vast external space, divided into numerous spatial nodes. People are able only to clearly identify and judge the location of more significant space nodes within the park, but the overall understanding and cognitive recognition of the park’s external spatial nodes are relatively low.
4.1.2. Results and Causes of Axial Analysis
The axial analysis results primarily encompass key parameters such as global integration, mean depth and intelligibility. The quantitative outcomes for each park were selected for a comparative analysis, with the objective to elucidate the reasons behind the observed comparative results.
As illustrated in
Figure 21, the comparative analysis of the average global integration values of the road system axes in the four zones revealed generally low values across the board, with minimal significant differences. Among these zones, the C92 Creative Cluster exhibits the highest value, suggesting that its road system has the highest level of openness and integration among the four parks. The “3526” Creative Factory and the “1946” Creative Industrial Park follow, both demonstrating relatively average levels. The Cotton 3 Creative Block has the lowest value, implying that its road system is less effective in attracting and gathering crowds. Further research indicates that roads in the Cotton 3 Creative Block with lower axial integration values are relatively remote and concealed within the overall road system. This contributes to the difficulty for people in accessing and congregating in these areas. Additionally, there is a noticeable lack of supporting facilities such as commercial and cultural amenities, and the variety of business types is relatively limited.
The syntactic quantification results for the four parks show only minor variations in the mean value of the mean depth of their axes. Among these, the Cotton 3 Creative Block registers the highest value, suggesting a more complex road system compared to the other three parks, albeit with relatively limited convenience. The “3526” Creative Factory follows closely, with its road system’s level and convenience being moderately rated. The differences between the C92 Creative Cluster and the “1946” Creative Industrial Park are minimal, both displaying lower values. This indicates that their road systems are relatively simpler, and the roads are generally less sophisticated. Subsequent research revealed that roads with a lower degree of axial mean depth typically have fewer types of businesses and landscape structures along them, hindering their ability to attract pedestrian traffic. Additionally, in spaces with highly permeable roads, the clarity of signage systems is inadequate, and there is a notable absence of directional facilities such as signboards and park plans. This deficiency hampers people’s ability to quickly identify directions and destinations while navigating the park. Furthermore, the industry types in these spaces are relatively homogenous, lacking diversity in business, culture and entertainment sectors, thereby failing to provide comprehensive services for people traversing the park.
The comparative analysis of the intelligibility of the axes in the four parks reveals notable differences in their values. The C92 Creative Cluster stands out with the highest value, approaching 1, suggesting an extremely high level of road system intelligibility. This is followed by the “3526” Creative Factory and the “1946” Creative Industrial Park, both of which also register values within the range indicative of a very clear understanding of the park’s road system (greater than 0.7). This implies that the C92 Creative Cluster’s road system is the most intelligible among the four parks, and the road systems of the “3526” Creative Factory and “1946” Creative Industrial Park are also well understood by people. In contrast, the Cotton 3 Creative Block has the lowest value, significantly lower than the other parks, falling within the range indicating that it is relatively easy to understand by people (0.5–0.7). This indicates that the recognition and understanding of its road system by the public are comparatively moderate. Subsequent research indicated that due to the large area and complex road network of the Cotton 3 Creative Block, it is relatively challenging for people to grasp the overall road system of the park, resulting in a less clear understanding.
4.1.3. Results and Causes of Visual Graph Analysis
The visual domain analysis results encompass key parameter variables, including global integration, mean depth and intelligibility. The quantitative data from each park were subjected to a comparative analysis, with a focus on understanding the underlying reasons for the observed differences.
Figure 22 illustrates a comparison and analysis of the average values of visual domain integration, as derived from the syntactic quantification of the external spatial interfaces of the four parks. The results indicate that the values across the parks are relatively high and show minimal variance. Notably, the “1946” Creative Industrial Park exhibits the highest value, indicating that its external space area possesses the strongest visual convergence ability among the four parks. This facilitates an efficient dispersion and guidance of crowds. The C92 Creative Cluster and the Cotton 3 Creative Block follow closely, with little difference between them and an overall average level of visual integration. In contrast, the “3526” Creative Factory registers the lowest value, suggesting a comparatively weaker capability in its external space to converge sightlines, which negatively impacts the direction and distribution of crowds. The research identified that in the “3526” Creative Factory, areas with cold colors have fewer landscape facilities, leading to poor spatial identifiability. This lack of distinct features makes these areas less accessible and results in a lower degree of visual integration.
The syntactic quantification of the average depth of the visual field in the four parks shows an overall lower mean value with relatively minor differences. Among these parks, the “3526” Creative Factory has the highest value, closely followed by the Cotton 3 Creative Block, with an almost negligible difference between them. This suggests that the overall accessibility of the external space areas in these two parks is comparatively limited, characterized by more enclosed areas and intricate spatial levels. The C92 Creative Cluster exhibits a lower value than these parks, indicating more moderate accessibility in its external space area. The “1946” Creative Industrial Park registers the smallest value, signifying the best overall visual accessibility of its external space area among the four parks, allowing people to more conveniently observe each area while moving around. Further research revealed that in the “3526” Creative Factory’s cold-colored area, there is a lack of color harmony in building facades, coupled with a scarcity of landscape facilities, which contributes to a lower mean depth value in this area.
Significant variations were observed in the visual intelligibility values across the four zones. The C92 Creative Cluster exhibited the highest value, approaching 1, which was closely followed by the “1946” Creative Industrial Park. The Cotton 3 Creative Block demonstrated a relatively lower value. However, all three of these values fall within the range indicative of a highly comprehensible external view interface (above 0.7). This suggests that the C92 Creative Cluster’s external view interface is the most intelligible among the four parks. Similarly, the interfaces of the “1946” Creative Industrial Park and the Cotton 3 Creative Block are also clearly understood. In contrast, the “3526” Creative Factory’s value falls within the range denoting difficulty in understanding the external visual interface of the park (below 0.5), markedly lower than those of the other three parks. This indicates a low level of recognition, mastery and understanding of the park’s external visual interface among observers. The study also revealed that the greenery and pavement comfort level in the car park area on the east side of the “3526” Creative Factory are comparatively low. The dark blue area, predominantly encompassing spaces encircled by buildings and smaller-scale street spaces, exhibits limited vision range and reduced visual permeability, contributing to its lower intelligibility value.
4.2. Summary of Problems and Suggestions for Optimization
By quantifying the external point, line and surface spatial morphology of the four parks using the three analytical methods, convex, axis and visual graph, we analyzed the problems of poor openness and integration in some of the parks, relatively poor accessibility to the overall line of sight in the external spatial area and the relatively difficult identification and cognition of the park’s external spatial nodes as a whole, which resulted in a small value of their comprehensibility, and at the same time, combined with the visits to the four parks, we summarize the reasons for the problems in the external space of the four parks (
Figure 23). The main points are as follows:
The intelligibility of some parks is low, such as the axes of the Cotton 3 Creative Block being far less intelligible than those of other parks, and it was found that there is a phenomenon in the park that the ground pavement produces aging and breakage. Moreover, insufficient and unclear signage and guiding facilities in the external space make people’s safety and walking experience worse;
The vegetation types and greening methods in the external space environment of the park are relatively limited, and there are relatively few landscape facilities reflecting the culture of the park, so the overall richness of the spatial environment is relatively low, which is one of the reasons for the low degree of convex integration in some of the parks, such as the Cotton 3 Creative Block;
The low convex mean depth in some parks is due to the lower intensity of the development of the more functionally important spaces in the parks, the spaces’ lack of characteristics, a lower diversity of spaces and the degree of utilization of some unused spaces being low;
A deficiency in public service facilities, such as seating, fitness equipment and public toilets, along with inadequate security and maintenance infrastructure like street lamps, monitoring and guardrails, adversely affects the user experience in the parks’ external spaces. This also contributes to a diminished sense of security, particularly at night, as well as low values such as in convex integration and axial mean depth;
Some parks fail to effectively utilize retained industrial elements and highly open space nodes at the external space interface to promote and display park culture, so the external space nodes have a low attraction and gathering ability, the visual interface fails to make a lasting impression on visitors and the mean depth of the visual field is low;
Some creative industry parks have a low degree of integration and intelligibility of the visual field, such as the “3526” Creative Factory having the lowest values of these two items compared with the other parks. The reason for this is that the external public spaces of some creative industry parks suffer from low openness and visibility. This restricts the external spaces’ receptiveness to user behavioral activities and diminishes the spatial atmosphere’s vibrancy. At the same time, it reduces the inclusiveness and absorption of neighboring residents and foreign tourists.
This study proposes the following:
(1) Enhancement of the Walking and Signage Guidance Systems: The road network in the creative industry park serves a dual purpose, accommodating both vehicle traffic and pedestrian movement. A well-developed pedestrian system directly affects people’s activities in the external space of the park and plays an important role in shaping the vitality of the external space of the creative industry park. It is recommended to set up a pedestrian road that connects different buildings and landscape spaces in the park and adopt different pavement materials for spaces with different functional attributes to improve the comfort of walking (
Figure 24a). The design of the signage and guidance system in the external space of the industrial creative industrial park will directly affect the feelings of park visitors. These designs should be concise, clear and intuitive. As far as possible, the guidelines of the park plan and the locations and functions of buildings should be introduced in detail to improve the sense of fluency when people walk (
Figure 24b). The C92 Creative Cluster, which has the highest degree of integration in the central axis of the text, adopts a dial as an elemental symbol in the design of its signage and guiding facilities, and expresses it in the form of an arrangement of compositions, which perfectly show the history and culture represented by the predecessor of the park, Tianjin Instrumentation Factory, with a great sense of creativity (
Figure 24c).
(2) Enrichment of External Space Environment Diversity: Augmenting vegetation and greenery within the park can regulate its microclimate, beautify external spaces and compensate for the lack of vitality and color in the old industrial park.
Figure 25a shows that the building façade of the Nabhai Yiku Creative Industrial Park adopts vertical greening and is covered by a large wall of ecological green, which makes its appearance more novel and well demonstrates its renovation method with the theme of green architecture. The exterior space of the North Duisburg Landscape Park retains a lot of elevated frames with a strong industrial flavor, and planting several plants with climbing properties near these frames and making them the medium for green plant attachment not only enriches the compositional elements within the space, but also forms an activity space with a shading effect (
Figure 25b). In the external spaces of C92 Creative Cluster external spaces, which have the highest degree of convex integration, some areas utilize repurposed steel frames for three-dimensional greening, although this is implemented on a relatively smaller scale (
Figure 25c).
(3) Enhancing Utilization of the Park’s External Spaces: The parks’ external areas contain underutilized spaces, such as courtyards, corridors and the roofs of factories, which are formed between buildings, so sunshade canopies, leisure chairs, landscape facilities and other facilities should be installed in such spaces to make full use of them and create recreational areas. These improvements will facilitate park users in taking breaks, engaging in social interactions and participating in recreational activities. For instance, the open-air dining area outside the cafe in the Cotton 3 Creative Block, which has the highest convex mean depth compared to the other parks, the central plaza of the same block and the area of the connecting corridor between the two factories attract a large number of tourists and workers who come here for rest, conversation and recreation, and even a variety of creative activities that are held (
Figure 26).
(4) Enhancing Service Facilities in the External Spaces: The addition of user-friendly public service facilities, such as directional signs, bins and charging facilities in the external spaces, which can enhance the overall image and quality of the park, increase the sense of identity and belonging for visitors, and in this way, also increase the spatial abundance and elevate the convex integration degree of the corresponding renovated spaces in the parks. In the processes of renewal and reconstruction, the parks should improve infrastructure in the external spaces and add facilities for visitors to rest, such as steps, planting pools and rest seats (
Figure 27a). Moreover, the consideration of local climatic conditions is essential, necessitating the installation of amenities offering sunshade, windbreaks and rain protection (
Figure 27b). Additionally, the placement of aesthetically pleasing and artistically designed lighting fixtures (
Figure 27c) will provide essential night-time illumination for park pathways, ensuring safety during nocturnal activities and contributing to the park’s visual appeal. At the same time, more public restrooms should be installed to facilitate people’s outdoor activities.
(5) Enhancing the Industrial Cultural Atmosphere of the Park: The park’s historical context often includes numerous abandoned factories, warehouses, railway tracks, pipelines, chimneys and industrial equipment, such as components of production machinery, which are the original codes and symbols of the factory, that offer insights into its historical lineage and embody the industrial culture. During the park’s renewal and reconstruction, these wastes should be preserved and fully utilized as far as possible. One of the ways of doing so is to give these wastes to artists for transformation and processing, so that they can become new landscape elements of the park and further improve the overall industrial cultural atmosphere of the park, so as to improve the mean depth of the visual field. Beijing 798 Art District preserves the original structure, form and skin of the insides of the factory buildings in the processes of renewal and reconstruction, fully refining and displaying the unique style of the old industrial buildings. It is also possible to give new functions to the external space through processing techniques such as addition, demolition and replacement, so that the original factory building can be fully utilized (
Figure 28a). The Chongqing Aile Factory made a staircase addition to the top space of the factory building and retained the industrial heritage equipment, thus displacing the function of the space and making it an interesting place for activities, which attracted many music lovers to visit (
Figure 28b). Shanghai M50 Creative Park often organizes exhibitions and activities in the form of cultural and art festivals, showcasing distinctive cultural activities and cultural works and engaging visitors, thus bringing more vitality to the park (
Figure 28c).
(6) Enhancing the Openness and Visibility of the External Space: The spatial openness and visibility are affected by the spatial enclosure. When surrounded by enclosing solid walls, the user’s line of sight is restricted, and it is difficult to produce visual contact with the outside world, which in turn hinders possible interaction activities from the side and is contrary to the original intention of seeking openness and communication. Therefore, in order to enhance openness and visibility, we should adjust the virtual and real designs of the enclosing interfaces, height differences and plane layouts to make them sight-penetrable. In the “1946” Creative Industrial Park, which has the highest degree of visual integration, partial walls have been removed and replaced with fences to enhance accessibility and openness. This modification in the enclosure style of the entrance area has significantly strengthened the communication atmosphere (
Figure 29a). At the same time, the openness of the space is also directly related to the scale of the space, which affects the psychology and behavior of the users, and a relatively narrow or closed space makes people unwilling to stay for a long time. At the same time, it is also important not to over-pursue the openness of a space and set up a space with too large a height-to-width ratio, which will reduce the sense of security and interest of the space. In addition, roof decks can be used to increase spatial openness; for example, the E warehouse creative industrial park in Shanghai (
Figure 29b) and the PAKT Block in Antwerp, Belgium (
Figure 29c) both use roof decks to enhance spatial openness.