Impact of social imageability on intensity of passive social interaction along designated paths within urban parks in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
Underutilized parks in Kuala Lumpur showed the fact that the design of these areas could not serve as a responsive social public space. However, Kuala Lumpur seeks to establish itself as one of the top twenty most imageable cities in the world by the year 2020. Therefore, there is an emphasis on...
Saved in:
| Main Author: | |
|---|---|
| Format: | Thesis |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
2018
|
| Online Access: | http://psasir.upm.edu.my/id/eprint/68626/1/FRSB%202018%201%20IR.pdf http://psasir.upm.edu.my/id/eprint/68626/ |
| Tags: |
Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
|
| Summary: | Underutilized parks in Kuala Lumpur showed the fact that the design of these areas
could not serve as a responsive social public space. However, Kuala Lumpur seeks to
establish itself as one of the top twenty most imageable cities in the world by the year
2020. Therefore, there is an emphasis on developing urban design guidelines toward
regenerating existing urban parks and also developing new parks to meet this aim.
The aim of the study is to enhance social interaction through examining the impact of
social imageability attributes comprising legibility, accessibility, sensation of
orientation and sensation of center on the Intensity of Passive Social Interaction (IPSI)
within path structures of Lake Garden Park (LGP) and Titiwangsa Lake Park (TLP)
located in Kuala Lumpur city center. A mixed method research strategy is adapted to
develop a framework to predict the Intensity of Passive Social Interaction (IPSI)
through determining the correlation among social imageability attributes. Accordingly,
experiential landscape maps were produced and interpreted to determine the levels of
legibility of the parks. Then, integration analysis and gate observation were used to
ascertain the levels of accessibility and the Intensity of Passive Social Interaction
(IPSI) respectively. Finally, the study applied 330 photo survey questionnaires from
urban park users to determine, the extent of sensation of orientation and, the extent of
sensation of center. The study hypothesized that there is a significant relationship
among social imageability attributes within path structures of urban parks. Both
quantitative and qualitative data were related to generate the findings of the research.
The correlation value of more than 0.6 for each of two social imageability attributes
verifies that these attributes are highly correlated with each other. This association
highlights the relevance of social imageability in influencing place experience within
public realm. Therefore, it is recommended that the design of the designated paths with landmarks and possible views to be enriched, thus increasing the experience of these
paths via activities. This could be achieved by locating activity nodes at the proximity
of designated paths. It is also important to allocate active and accessible land uses at
direct visual access of park users. It is also suggested that urban designers to empower
activity nodes with sensation of center through offering diversity of activities and
visual attractiveness and providing comfortable places to sit, spend time, meet friends
and interact with strangers. The study proposes to apply proper distance for each
designated path (25 to 100 meter) providing eye contact among people, along with
avoiding using sharp angles. In addition, boundary of urban parks should be made
permeable. A multiple linear regression framework that predicts the Intensity of
Passive Social Interaction (IPSI) indicates that the enhancement of accessibility value,
sensation of center and sensation of orientation will increase the intensity of dynamic
social activities generating passive eye contact among urban park users. The findings
of this study contribute in making urban places more imageable for social interaction to
take place more intensely and frequently. Thus encourage the users to experience the
entire urban park with ease and enjoyment. |
|---|