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Human-Centric Space Design: Occupant Comfort, Wellbeing, and Post-occupancy Evaluation of Multi-Scale Built Environment

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A special issue of Buildings (ISSN 2075-5309). This special issue belongs to the section "Architectural Design, Urban Science, and Real Estate".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 30 August 2024 | Viewed by 11887

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Special Issue Editors

Prof. Dr. Leiqing Xu

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Guest Editor

Department of Architecture, College of Architecture and Urban Planning, Tongji University, Shanghai 200092, China
Interests: environmental behavior; environmental psychology; spatial analysis; community building and urban renewal

Prof. Dr. Xin Li

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Guest Editor

Department of Architecture and Planning, College of Civil Engineering and Architecture, Guangxi University, Nanning 530004, China
Interests: environmental psychology and behavior; place-making; livable community; urban design
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

With the advancement of environmental behavior and environmental psychology, the study of the relationship between material space and users’ behavior has made profound impact on the development of architectural research. Empirical quantitative methods provide an effective basis for the rational arrangement of spatial behavior. More and more designers have realized that users must participate in the process of environmental evolution, which is based on an overall, systematic, and practical evaluation of the actual operation of built environment and users' feedback. Users’ opinions play an important role in measuring a space’s quality for improvement. In this sense, various analytical methods for environmental evaluation and Post-Occupancy Evaluation (POE) have been proposed, such as the Delphi method, semantic differential, analytic hierarchy process, etc. Particularly after the COVID-19 pandemic, this re-shaped people’s daily life, causing physiological and psychological changes. For instance, the demand for leisure activities in nearby parks has correspondingly increased, calling for safer and healthier public spaces with natural characteristics and appropriate spatial scales. Maintaining social distancing is highly valued and has become a new behavior pattern, which has changed basic public and indoor space designs. Moreover, resisting the impact of public events in high-density urban environments has become a major factor. On the neighborhood scale, the concept of the 15-minute life circle and affordability have been emphasized to enhance community resilience. More attention has been paid to the older groups and adolescent groups, aiming to ensure a more supportive infrastructure and built environment for them. The elderly oriented renewal and remodeling of residential communities that can cope with health emergencies has also proposed.

Therefore, this Special Issue aims to focus on the broad evaluation and optimization of urban built environments to make human-centric spaces beyond the scopes of building performance, energy conservation, and green strategies. It offers a platform to share the latest research findings on the study of human–place interactions at many scales using new theories, data, models, sites, and implications. This Special Issue incorporates empirical methodologies and informatics technologies. This Special Issue not only expects literature contributions to architecture and urban designs, but also interdisciplinary benefits.

Potential topics include, but are not limited to:

Multi-dimensional senses towards urban built environment.
Indoor/outdoor quality and wellbeing.
Living willingness.
Imageable urban morphology.
Urban vitality.
Urban space and social network.
Healing environment.
Natural exposure and preference.

Prof. Dr. Leiqing Xu
Prof. Dr. Xin Li
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Buildings is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2600 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

space quality
public space
place making
multi-scale
urban analytics

Published Papers (13 papers)

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25 pages, 3228 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Comprehensive Study of Residential Environment Preferences and Characteristics among Older Adults: Empirical Evidence from China

by Shipeng Xu, Tao Zhang, Hiroatsu Fukuda, Jiahao He and Xin Bao

Buildings 2024, 14(7), 2175; https://doi.org/10.3390/buildings14072175 - 15 Jul 2024

Viewed by 552

Abstract

Aging in a suitable residential environment is essential for the health and well-being of older adults. This study aims to analyze the residential environment preferences (REPs) of older people in China to create a residential environment suitable for their physical and mental health, enhancing their life satisfaction. This study used a sample questionnaire to identify relevant characteristics and analyze preferences, which were validated using non-parametric tests and Pearson’s correlation coefficient tests. The questionnaire consisted of 33 questions on characteristics of the residential environment on a 7-point Likert scale and was administered to 433 older adults aged 60 and over in 28 provinces in China. The results showed that “community safety” was the most important environmental characteristic, with an average importance rating of 5.77 out of 6. Accessible building design (average rating of 4.91), emergency response systems (average rating of 4.49), and indoor thermal comfort (average rating of 4.45) were also key factors in promoting aging in place. There was a positive correlation between the community environment and the indoor environment (e.g., community safety and indoor sound insulation, r = 0.209, p < 0.01), and both were, to some extent, negatively correlated with building features (e.g., public toilets and private courtyards, r = −0.278, p < 0.01; indoor thermal comfort and green building design, r = −0.165, p < 0.01). Age and physical health had a strong influence on preferences, but gender had little influence. This study paves the way for future research and policy development on age-friendly housing to ensure sustainable and supportive residential environments for the aging population. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Human-Centric Space Design: Occupant Comfort, Wellbeing, and Post-occupancy Evaluation of Multi-Scale Built Environment)

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25 pages, 9275 KiB

Open AccessArticle

A Study on Identifying the Spatial Characteristic Factors of Traditional Streets Based on Visitor Perception: Yuanjia Village, Shaanxi Province

by Yixin Liu, Zhimin Li, Yixin Tian, Bo Gao, Simin Wang, Yingtao Qi, Zejing Zou, Xuanlin Li and Ruqin Wang

Buildings 2024, 14(6), 1815; https://doi.org/10.3390/buildings14061815 - 15 Jun 2024

Viewed by 559

Abstract

The street spaces in tourist-oriented traditional villages served both the daily lives of villagers and the leisure activities of tourists. However, due to insufficient understanding of the spatial characteristics and under-exploration of spatial genes, these spaces often suffered from homogenization during tourism development. Thus, identifying the characteristics and connotations of such streets, understanding the relationship between tourists’ perceptions and built environment elements, and developing optimization strategies for these rural street spaces were urgent issues. Many studies have evaluated street space characteristics from tourists’ behavior, but few have focused on rural areas. Especially, research combining new technologies like artificial intelligence to study the psychological perceptions of tourists is still in its infancy. This study used a typical traditional village as a case study and applied the YOLOv5 deep-learning model to build a perception evaluation system based on three dimensions: tourists’ aggregation degree, stay time, and facial expressions. The study conducted a multivariate regression analysis on 21 factors across 4 aspects: street scale morphology, environmental facilities, ground-floor interface, and street business types. Results indicated that the functional business type of the scene had the greatest impact on tourists’ perception of the street space environment, followed by ground-floor features and environmental facilities. The regression coefficient for business in situ values and spatial perception was 0.47, highlighting it as a key factor influencing characteristic perception. Landscape water systems, flat ground-floor façades, and business diversity also positively affected tourists’ perception. This study utilized advanced techniques like the YOLOv5 model, known for its speed and accuracy, to scientifically analyze tourists’ behavior and perceptions, serving as feedback and evaluation for the village’s built environment. Empirical analysis of Yuanjia Village validated the effectiveness of the multidimensional approach and spatial gene theory. Ultimately, this method identified 12 street characteristic factors significantly affecting tourists’ perceptions. The uniqueness of this study lies in its comprehensive approach, combining empirical research, spatial gene theory, and advanced object detection technology, providing new insights for village spatial planning and construction. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Human-Centric Space Design: Occupant Comfort, Wellbeing, and Post-occupancy Evaluation of Multi-Scale Built Environment)

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21 pages, 21955 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Research on Publicness Evaluation and Behavioral Characteristics in Traditional Villages—A Case Study of Chongqing Hewan Village

by Jiang Xiao, Yun Qian, Song Chen, Yuanjing Xu and Baoyong Li

Buildings 2024, 14(6), 1759; https://doi.org/10.3390/buildings14061759 - 11 Jun 2024

Viewed by 477

Abstract

(1) Background: Public space is an important carrier for maintaining the cultural values of a village and the production and living customs of the villagers, but the use rights and boundaries are in an unstable and ambiguous state, and it is not a completely open and inclusive public space. The study aims to deepen the understanding of the publicness of public space in traditional villages from the perspective of subjective and objective combination, which reveals the relationship between the space and villagers’ behavior. (2) Methods: The research established an evaluation framework for assessing the “publicness” of public spaces in traditional villages by integrating space syntax and cognitive surveys. This framework facilitates the analysis of the extent and dimensions of publicness, along with corresponding behavioral patterns, and explores the underlying mechanisms influencing publicness. (3) Results: The study reveals significant variations in the publicness of traditional village spaces. High-publicness areas tend to cluster, whereas low-publicness areas are more scattered, and riverfront regions exhibit greater publicness compared to mountain-adjacent ones. Villagers exhibit notable differences in their evaluations of public spaces, and individuals aged 14–18 and those over 66 rate the highest. The utilization rate of high-publicness spaces is significantly high, catering to a diverse array of activities. In spaces with lower publicness, the duration and variety of activities tend to be more constrained, often limited to rapid exchanges or brief respites, exhibiting a narrower scope of activities. (4) Conclusions: The study underscores the variability and complexity of publicness in traditional village spaces, which manifest not only in spatial layouts and types but also in villagers’ usage patterns and behavioral preferences. This may be influenced by objective factors such as spatial accessibility, social interaction, and richness of cultural activities. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Human-Centric Space Design: Occupant Comfort, Wellbeing, and Post-occupancy Evaluation of Multi-Scale Built Environment)

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29 pages, 4465 KiB

Open AccessArticle

An Inclusive Park Design Based on a Research Process: A Case Study of Thammasat Water Sport Center, Pathum Thani, Thailand

by Pattamon Selanon, Federico Puggioni and Supanut Dejnirattisai

Buildings 2024, 14(6), 1669; https://doi.org/10.3390/buildings14061669 - 5 Jun 2024

Viewed by 1067

Abstract

Public parks are vital for community well-being, yet often fail to cater to the needs of people with disabilities, restricting their safe and independent use. This paper details a pragmatic study aimed at crafting the design for an inclusive park on the outskirts of Bangkok, addressing these limitations. Through a comprehensive mixed-methods approach—encompassing literature reviews, semi-structured interviews, and surveys with stakeholders, including individuals with disabilities—this research gathered diverse perspectives on inclusive design. Participants underscored the importance of social and recreational activities in universally accessible spaces, providing valuable spatial insights. This research aims to employ pragmatic research methods to develop the design of an inclusive park for people with disabilities at the Thammasat University Rangsit Campus Water Sport Center. This study seeks to integrate the perspectives and needs of people with disabilities into the park design, ensuring that the space is accessible and meets a wide range of needs. The research aims to bridge socio-environmental considerations with practical design applications, creating a model that can serve as a template for similar developments in other urban settings. This study’s findings informed the creation of a design that harmoniously integrates green spaces with the specific requirements of disabled users, promoting inclusivity and accessibility within the fast-growing urban areas of Southeast Asia. This research not only offers a template for addressing the gaps in public space provision for people with disabilities but also illustrates how designers can interpret and meet socio-environmental and health-related needs through inclusive planning. It extends the discussion on overcoming WHO-identified inequalities in urban settings and lays the groundwork for interdisciplinary studies aimed at enriching the fabric of urban life through research processes and scientific inquiry. This paper asserts the pivotal role of inclusive design in enhancing urban livability, advocating for a design methodology that responds to the nuanced demands of inclusivity, thereby contributing to the broader discourse on equality, accessibility, and the right to the city for people with disabilities. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Human-Centric Space Design: Occupant Comfort, Wellbeing, and Post-occupancy Evaluation of Multi-Scale Built Environment)

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20 pages, 6816 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Assessing Utilization and Comfort in a Village Scenic Park: Implications for Rural Revitalization

by Wenying Yao, Tao Zhang, Hiroatsu Fukuda, Mengying Wang and Jinli Yang

Buildings 2024, 14(6), 1538; https://doi.org/10.3390/buildings14061538 - 25 May 2024

Viewed by 538

Abstract

Scenic parks in rural areas occupy crucial positions, serving as vital hubs for the daily lives of villagers and important leisure destinations for tourists. This research is dedicated to assessing the significance of the scenic park in Wawuzhuang Village from the perspectives of both villagers and tourists. Employing a comprehensive research approach, this study examines the current state of the scenic park and its ability to meet the requirements of villagers and tourists. Villagers, mainly elderly individuals with low levels of education, rely heavily on green spaces for leisure and social interaction. In contrast, younger tourists and villagers require spaces that offer more comfort and aesthetic appeal. This study highlights the possibility of designing rural scenic parks to meet the basic needs of both tourists and villagers. In addition, mixed-use designs and public participation designs are suggested to promote the use of rural parks, potentially creating an attractive community environment that attracts new villagers and more tourists. Although this study is limited to a single case, it lays the groundwork for further research in other rural areas. This research contributes to the sustainable development of rural revitalization. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Human-Centric Space Design: Occupant Comfort, Wellbeing, and Post-occupancy Evaluation of Multi-Scale Built Environment)

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23 pages, 13383 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Exploring Heritage: An In-Depth Performance Evaluation of Kenadsa’s Office Building through User Perceptions and Behaviors

by Fatima Zohra Hamlili, Azzedine Dakhia and Ratiba Wided Biara

Buildings 2024, 14(5), 1391; https://doi.org/10.3390/buildings14051391 - 13 May 2024

Viewed by 575

Abstract

This research focuses on the evaluation of a heritage office building in the town of Kenadsa in the Southwest of Algeria (a famous oasis in the arid regions of the country). Emphasizing user’s perception as a metric key for performance assessment, this study aims to investigate the users’ perception and behaviors of a heritage office building on an oasis settlement. The research was conducted in 2023, and employing a multidimensional approach, both quantitative and qualitative methodologies, along with agent-based modeling, were integrated. One qualitative methodology is based on a series of field surveys and the other quantitative methodology relies on in situ measurements of the physical dimensions of the environment. The quantitative aspect involves an agent-based modeling framework, simulating user interactions by incorporating physical dimensions, spatial layout, historical context, and user behavior. The main findings of this study, examining perceptions and behaviors under varying luminous and thermal environments, show that this integrated approach provides insights into user satisfaction, spatial utilization, and the identification of user behaviors and productivity in each office. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Human-Centric Space Design: Occupant Comfort, Wellbeing, and Post-occupancy Evaluation of Multi-Scale Built Environment)

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18 pages, 910 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Assessing Accessible Travel Satisfaction in Old Communities: A SEM Study

by Liya Fan, Yingqing Xiong and Yizhan Peng

Buildings 2024, 14(5), 1273; https://doi.org/10.3390/buildings14051273 - 1 May 2024

Cited by 1 | Viewed by 676

Abstract

China faces a significant population of individuals with disabilities, and the aging demographic exacerbates this challenge. There is an urgent need for accessible environments for vulnerable groups such as persons with disabilities, the elderly, and pregnant women. Consequently, this study aimed to explore the factors influencing satisfaction with accessible travel in old communities in Nanchang City. Adopting a perspective encompassing vulnerabilities across all age groups, we employed interviews, on-site surveys, questionnaires, and literature reviews to construct a model of satisfaction with accessible travel. This model comprises five evaluation dimensions: pedestrian pathways, public spaces, signage guidance, social support, and software provision, encompassing twenty-seven influencing factors. Structural equation modeling (SEM) was utilized to validate the model. The research findings indicated that social support (0.697), pedestrian pathways (0.480), and public spaces (0.291) exerted a significant overall effect on satisfaction within the model, whereas the influence of software provision (0.225) and signage guidance (0.249) was comparatively smaller. Vulnerable groups within the community prioritized operational maintenance (0.818) and cultural advocacy (0.791) within social support. They also emphasized aspects of pedestrian pathways such as elevation treatment (0.809) and pavement design (0.803), as well as rest facilities (0.804) and service facilities (0.790) within public spaces. Finally, based on the weighted ranking of factors among latent variables, we propose corresponding optimization strategies and development proposals. This paper contributes to providing theoretical, practical, and technical support for the design of community accessibility that caters to socially vulnerable groups across “universal and all-ages” groups. It plays a proactive role in enhancing the quality of life for these vulnerable groups and promoting the improvement of accessibility environments in old communities. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Human-Centric Space Design: Occupant Comfort, Wellbeing, and Post-occupancy Evaluation of Multi-Scale Built Environment)

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22 pages, 1296 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Regional Architecture Building Identity: The Mediating Role of Authentic Pride

by Zihao Cao, Muhizam Mustafa and Mohd Hafizal Mohd Isa

Buildings 2024, 14(4), 1059; https://doi.org/10.3390/buildings14041059 - 10 Apr 2024

Cited by 1 | Viewed by 1034

Abstract

The impact of regional architecture on residents’ identities varies, involving complex emotional aspects. We conducted an in-depth study of the deep connection between regional architecture and identity in China’s Huizhou and Minnan regions, highlighting its key role in stimulating authentic pride. Initially, we carried out a survey among 433 residents from both regions using questionnaires to obtain quantitative data, revealing the mediating role of authentic pride. Subsequently, we conducted in-depth interviews with 20 residents from 4 villages of the 2 regions, and the coding results explained the multidimensional reasons behind the quantitative analysis outcomes. This research not only deepened the understanding of how regional architecture impacts identity recognition but also highlighted the urgency of preserving regional culture under the pressures of globalization and modernization. Moreover, this study provided strong reasons for the preservation of architectural heritage, emphasizing its importance as a cornerstone of identity and a means to enhance community cohesion. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Human-Centric Space Design: Occupant Comfort, Wellbeing, and Post-occupancy Evaluation of Multi-Scale Built Environment)

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18 pages, 5187 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Strategic Design Approaches for Eliciting the Perception of ‘Prestige’ in Housing Consumers

by Antoni Montañana, María Luisa Nolé and Carmen Llinares

Buildings 2024, 14(3), 853; https://doi.org/10.3390/buildings14030853 - 21 Mar 2024

Cited by 1 | Viewed by 756

Abstract

In the current real estate landscape, there is a growing trend to focus on adding value to products to address the customer’s affective/emotional perspective, his/her perceptions of the ‘Prestige’ of properties being crucial for his/her final assessments of the products. This study delves into the design elements that shape perceptions of ‘Prestige’ using Kansei engineering in 235 participants who evaluated various real estate promotions through: (1) a set of 60 adjectives and (2) reason for purchase (residence or investment). A first factor analysis of the set of adjectives yielded 15 independent axes. A subsequent linear regression indicated that the ‘Prestige’ axis was among the four most important factors in/drivers of property purchase decisions. In the second phase, 62 design elements (and their respective categories) of real estate promotions were identified to establish 16 groups. A linear regression determined that Information presentation and Building were the groups of elements with the greatest impact on subjects’ perceptions of ‘Prestige’. A subsequent Univariate General Linear Model analysis identified the design elements significant for each group, such as Development type and Building shape, respectively. Finally, a Bonferroni post hoc test identified the important categories in each identified design element as Facing blocks and Stepped. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Human-Centric Space Design: Occupant Comfort, Wellbeing, and Post-occupancy Evaluation of Multi-Scale Built Environment)

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19 pages, 9109 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Developing a Holistic Approach for Constructing Rural Living Circles in the Loess Plateau—Taking Yongning Village as an Example

by Mengying Wang, Mingzhi Zhang, Yingtao Qi, Dingqing Zhang, Chenguang Wang, Wenying Yao and Dian Zhou

Buildings 2024, 14(2), 514; https://doi.org/10.3390/buildings14020514 - 13 Feb 2024

Cited by 1 | Viewed by 784

Abstract

Insufficient public service facilities in rural areas, which leads to failures in meeting the needs of villagers, has become a significant barrier to the high-quality development of rural regions. This issue is particularly acute in the Loess Plateau area, where the complex topography leads to scattered and independent village layouts, making it challenging to allocate service facilities based simply on distance and population. Aiming to arrange public service facilities efficiently and intensively from a “bottom-up” approach, this study, from the perspective of living circles, attempts to summarize the current usage and needs of villagers at the “village–town–county” levels, as well as to seek strategies for facility allocation in villages. This provides a scientific basis for optimizing the configuration of service facilities in the Loess Plateau area. Through field surveys based on questionnaires and interviews with over 60 households and more than 100 villagers, this study authentically reproduces a picture of their daily lives and summarizes their needs for well-configured services and facilities. The findings of this study include the following: (1) The village domain serves as a space of daily production and living for villagers, necessitating facilities for everyday purchases, activities, and elderly care; the town domain supplements the daily production and living needs of villagers, with a higher demand for production materials; the county domain, integrating urban and rural spaces, provides higher-level medical, educational, and other service facilities. (2) Within the village domain, villagers’ demands for facilities lean towards miniaturization and integration. With the increasingly aging population, the demand for elderly care and health facilities is becoming more urgent. Facilities such as activity rooms, fitness equipment, and stores with a wide range of products at reasonable prices can effectively improve levels of convenience and happiness in villagers’ lives. This study summarizes, from a “bottom-up” approach, the villagers’ facility layout needs within the rural living circle, providing a scientific basis for establishing a human-centered rural living circle and enhancing the quality of rural living environments. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Human-Centric Space Design: Occupant Comfort, Wellbeing, and Post-occupancy Evaluation of Multi-Scale Built Environment)

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29 pages, 31979 KiB

Open AccessArticle

A Study on the Perception of Local Characteristics in Cultural Street Vending Spaces, Taking Xi’an Baxian Temple as an Example

by Yingtao Qi, Liping Yue, Tie Guo, Dian Zhou, Yulin Ren, Mengying Wang, Yujia Liu and Yujun Yang

Buildings 2024, 14(1), 192; https://doi.org/10.3390/buildings14010192 - 11 Jan 2024

Viewed by 1212

Abstract

The mode of urban renewal in China has changed from incremental expansion to a value-added stage, and the development of cities has increasingly focused on the human experience and quality improvement. However, Cultural Street Vending and the unique street spaces in the historic districts that bear important connotations to the city have shown a trend of rapid decline and even disappearance. Therefore, how to identify the characteristics and connotations of such street vending spaces, grasp the relationship between perception of locality and built environment elements in different states and formulate targeted protection and renewal strategies is presently an urgent problem to be solved. Many studies have now discussed in detail the identification of elements, street perception and preservation strategies for historic districts. However, the Cultural Street Vending space, which carries special urban memory connotations, has been neglected, especially the characterisation of this type of space in different time dimensions. This paper takes the Cultural Street Vending space as a research object and focuses on the perceptual differences between its market day and non-market day, aiming at grasping the perceptual characteristics and constituent elements of this type of street space in different time states, as well as the patterns of changes they undergo. This paper took the Baxian Temple, a typical Cultural Street Vending space in a historic district of Xi’an, as the research object and took 30 architecture students as the evaluators to score 33 pairs of adjectives and recall the elements of nine streets. This paper compared and analysed the differences in the structure of people’s psychological perception of the street in the state of market day and non-market day by SD method. It was found that the activities of the vendors obviously promoted people’s positive emotions, and three commonality factors including impression, vitality and morphosis were extracted through the factor analysis. Moreover, through the element recall method to understand the change in element perception on the market day, we found that the range of people’s perception was smaller on the market day and summarised the element map of the space and the element components of high, medium and low characteristics. The correlation analysis between psychological quantities and environmental elements revealed that people’s positive psychology has a positive correlation with vendors, goods and street components and a negative correlation with greening, colour and texture. This study can provide an important research basis for the development of conservation and renewal strategies for this type of Cultural Street Vending space. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Human-Centric Space Design: Occupant Comfort, Wellbeing, and Post-occupancy Evaluation of Multi-Scale Built Environment)

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31 pages, 8198 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Research on Leased Space of Urban Villages in Large Cities Based on Fuzzy Kano Model Evaluation and Building Performance Simulation: A Case Study of Laojuntang Village, Chaoyang District, Beijing

by Liuchao Wei, Wei Duan and Siqiao Dong

Buildings 2024, 14(1), 120; https://doi.org/10.3390/buildings14010120 - 2 Jan 2024

Cited by 1 | Viewed by 1077

Abstract

China is in the transition period of urbanization, and the imbalance of land use generated during the original rapid development of megacities still exists, resulting in the preservation of a large number of urban villages in the peripheral areas of cities. Unlike formal housing, these villages are heavily influenced by the confrontation and interweaving between top-down policies of local governments and bottom-up spontaneous construction by local villagers, resulting in a diverse and complex status quo. At the same time, self-built housing in urban villages has become a gathering place for a large number of low-income migrants due to its relatively low rental prices. In terms of the research of urban villages on the current situation of housing, the real needs of users and housing performance are mostly subjective judgments and conclusions. Therefore, the entry point of this paper is the leased space and the leasers, taking Laojuntang Village in Chaoyang District of Beijing as the research object and analyzing its current problems and the real needs of users. This paper adopts an integrated approach of fuzzy Kano model evaluation and building performance simulation. After analyzing the data and discussing the influencing factors, this paper identifies the specific problems and user needs that exist in leased spaces in Laojuntang Village: (1) The architectural performance of leased space is a Must-be Quality, which is the bottom-line requirement and must be improved. (2) The quality of the basic facilities and equipment of the leased space is mostly a One-dimensional Quality, Attractive Quality, and the degree of importance is lower than that of the building performance. (3) The external activity facilities of the leased space are mostly undifferentiated needs, for which the local users are not particularly prominent. (4) The scale and plot ratio of local housing is relatively high, and users are dissatisfied and complaining, which falls under the category of Reverse Quality. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Human-Centric Space Design: Occupant Comfort, Wellbeing, and Post-occupancy Evaluation of Multi-Scale Built Environment)

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24 pages, 6340 KiB

Open AccessSystematic Review

Research Contents, Methods and Prospects of Emotional Architecture Based on a Systematic Literature Review

by Hongguo Ren, Minqi Shi and Jing Zhang

Buildings 2024, 14(4), 997; https://doi.org/10.3390/buildings14040997 - 4 Apr 2024

Viewed by 1148

Abstract

In recent years, research on building perception has increasingly become a hot topic. More and more scholars have explored the user perceptions of the built environment and guided the design through the perception results. The technical method of emotional engineering can quantify people’s emotions and facilitate the exploration of users’ perceptions in the built environment. However, most of the existing research is empirical, and there is no article to review the interdisciplinary direction of architecture and emotional engineering. This review uses the PRISMA method to conduct a systematic literature review of 147 studies on building environment assessment using emotional engineering methods, and discusses the relationship between the building environment and humans, especially in terms of emotions, cognition, behavior, and physiology. Through a systematic literature review, the theoretical basis of emotional architecture is put forward. It constructs the interactive mode and theoretical framework of emotional architecture and reveals that the combination of artificial intelligence, big data and machine learning may be the new direction of emotional architecture research in the future. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Human-Centric Space Design: Occupant Comfort, Wellbeing, and Post-occupancy Evaluation of Multi-Scale Built Environment)

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