Toward A Humanist Urban Open Space System
-Study on the Shin Yi District in Taipei City
Dr. Simon C.F. Shu & Tsung Yen Lung
Department of Architecture, Feng Chia University, Taiwan
Toward A Humanist Urban Open Space System-Study on the Shin Yi District in Taipei City
Toward A Humanist Urban Open Space System-Study on the Shin Yi District in Taipei City
Issues and Questions
In most cities in Taiwan, contemporary design and planning has been
criticized for its inhumanity and for its insufficient amenities to meet
the needs of pedestrians.
Issues and Questions
Toward A Humanist Urban Open Space System-Study on the Shin Yi District in Taipei City
It seems that to satisfy the need of vehicular flows has become the
dominant idea adopted by our planners and designers. Hence, the
main strategic routes turn out to be like wide rivers, so called
"Boulevards", that make ground pedestrian movement either
impossible or the pedestrian environment unfriendly.
Pedestrian needs have become the main focus for today’s urban
redeveloping strategies in Taiwan.
Issues and Questions
Toward A Humanist Urban Open Space System-Study on the Shin Yi District in Taipei City
Very often one finds that newly developed areas and the re-generated
city center are fitted with a disintegrated pedestrian system. As a result,
the newly created isolated urban public spaces, such as urban squares,
pedestrian shopping districts, etc. cannot provide local people with a
real pedestrian-friendly system, due to the lack of an integrated
network for pedestrians’ use.
Issues and Questions
Toward A Humanist Urban Open Space System-Study on the Shin Yi District in Taipei City
This research proposes to employ the "Space Syntax" method to s
tudy the correlation between syntactic properties of urban struct
ures and relative space use patterns. It is hoped that through this
research a rigorous simulating computer model for prediction of
space use patterns, which includes both dynamic pedestrian move
ment and static behavior occurring in open spaces, can be teased
out.
It seems that a simulating computer model for prediction of space
use patterns of pedestrians would be very useful for designers in
their planning process to reach an integrated pedestrian network
system.
This powerful research methodology has been developed
by Professor Bill Hillier and his team at the Space Syntax
Laboratory for over more than twenty years.
http://www.spacesyntax.com
Toward A Humanist Urban Open Space System-Study on the Shin Yi District in Taipei City
Information on the theoretical foundation and applications
of this analysis can be consulted in Hillier’s first book
“ The Social Logic of Space ” as well as in his second book
“ Space Is The Machine ”.
Space Syntax Analysis
The degree of axial accessibility or visual accessibility (i.e. isovist)
of each space within the whole spatial system can be represented
by number and colour, which is assigned by the Space Syntax
Software.Toward A Humanist Urban Open Space System-Study on the Shin Yi District in Taipei City
Space Syntax Analysis
Toward A Humanist Urban Open Space System-Study on the Shin Yi District in Taipei City
Forms of Analysis
Pedestrian Movement Patterns : Axial Analysis by Axman 3.0
First of all, the pedestrian movement patterns observed will be correlated to the degree of axial integration value Rn or Rr or R3 (i.e. the degrees of global accessibility or global- local mid accessibility or local accessibility) of each street segment represented by an axial line within the whole area to see whether the street axial integration value can effectively predict the pedestrian flow in the studied area. Moreover, other variants, such as floor area ratio and degree of completion of each urban block, will also be added to be combined with the axial integration analysis to examine how these factors together influence the dispersion patterns of the pedestrian movement.
Toward A Humanist Urban Open Space System-Study on the Shin Yi District in Taipei City
Forms of Analysis
Static Space Use Patterns :
Isovist Analysis by Depthmap
The static space use patterns observed in the area will firstly
be correlated to the degree of isovist integration value (i.e.
the degree of visual accessibility) of each urban open
space represented by a small grid space unit within the whole
area.
Several variants, such as the degree of shadowiness and the
capacity of sitting facilities provided, etc. will be
combined with the isovist integration value to detect their
influence on the static space use patterns.
Toward A Humanist Urban Open Space System-Study on the Shin Yi District in Taipei City
The Study Area
The selected study area is the Taipei City Shin Yi District, which has been put forward as the first district since 1977 based on the fundamental ideology of the pedestrian priority concept. In spite of its cutting edge concept, there are studies that reveal the need to further study the relationships between the urban public space system and its pedestrian space use patterns [Wu, Show-Ling, 2001, He, Chien Ming, 2003].
Toward A Humanist Urban Open Space System-Study on the Shin Yi District in Taipei City
The Study Area
The studied area is located at th
e east end of Taipei City and has a
grid pattern street layout. Two arte
rial Boulevards cross
intersect at the center part of the ar
ea. There are also two
boundary routes, which are in fact
the major access routes to
the studied area, located at the nort
h and the west of the Shin
Yi District.
Toward A Humanist Urban Open Space System-Study on the Shin Yi District in Taipei City
The Study Area
There are three metro s
tations in this area, namel
y the existing Taipei Muni
cipal metro station situate
d in the north-west corner,
and the proposed yet unfin
ished World Trade Center
metro station and Chung
Chian metro station locate
d at the south-west and the
south-east corners respecti
vely.
Toward A Humanist Urban Open Space System-Study on the Shin Yi District in Taipei City
Analysis of Pedestrian Movement Patterns In the Analysis of the street network system, the whole studied area was fi
rstly decoded and represented through three types of axial maps. The Type-A
axial map exhibits street network patterns without considering the topologica
l changes and the split of sidewalks, whereas the Type-B axial map demonstr
ates the separating axial lines of splitting sidewalks but bearing no attention t
o the topological changes. Finally, the Type-C axial map represents the most
detailed spatial configuration of the pedestrian movement network in terms o
f geographic precision.
Rn Axial Map-Type A Rn Axial Map-Type B Rn Axial Map-Type C
Toward A Humanist Urban Open Space System-Study on the Shin Yi District in Taipei City
Analysis of Pedestrian Movement Patterns
The integration values of Rn, Rr and R3 are classified into eight groups of
range from range group 8, representing the highest accessible axial lines, to r
ange group 1, indicating the least accessible lines within the whole system. M
oreover, the pedestrian flow data collected (80 street segments in total) from t
he studied area are also converted into eight groups of range, as was the case
for axial integration.
Pedestrian flow observationRn Axial Map-Type A Map of pedestrian flow
Toward A Humanist Urban Open Space System-Study on the Shin Yi District in Taipei City
Analysis of Pedestrian Movement Patterns
From the cross examination of the axial integration and the pe
destrian flow, it turns out that there is a relatively weak correlati
on between them. Though a tendency to positive correlation bet
ween the degree of axial integration and the portion of pedestria
n flow can be noticed, only less than 54% of the pedestrian flow
observed in the study area can be precisely predicted through th
e axial integration indicators. This result is true for all three typ
es of axial maps. Clearly, there are other factors that need to be
added to the integration measure for a multivariate analysis.
Toward A Humanist Urban Open Space System-Study on the Shin Yi District in Taipei City
Analysis of Pedestrian Movement Patterns
When looking at two other variants of the density of land use, such
as floor area ratio and degree of completion of each urban block, one f
inds that nearly 66.3 % (53/80) of the pedestrian flow observed in the
study area can be precisely predicted.
Map of floor area ratio Degree of completion of each urban block
Toward A Humanist Urban Open Space System-Study on the Shin Yi District in Taipei City
Analysis of Pedestrian Movement Patterns
When two other variants of the density of land use, such as floor area ratio and degree of completion of each urban block, were combined with the axial integration analysis to examine how these factors together influence the dispersion patterns of the pedestrian movement, it was intriguing to see that through the multivariate analysis of the above elements, the Type-C R9 becomes the best prediction model for the pedestrian movement patterns.
When taking the Type-C R9 measure, the axial integration possesses nearly two thirds of the influencing weighting, whereas the other two variants of the density of land use occupy around one third of the influencing weighting for the pedestrian flow. Using this new developed model, nearly 76% (61/80) of the line segments within the studied area can effectively predict the relative pedestrian flow observed.
Toward A Humanist Urban Open Space System-Study on the Shin Yi District in Taipei City
Analysis of Static Space Use Patterns
Seven urban public spaces clustering around the north-west area of the Shin Yi District are selected for detailed study. Three of the selected urban public spaces are urban squares (urban square A, B & C) and the other four are in fact open spaces (open space D, E, F & G) surrounding public buildings.
A
B
C
E
D
F
G
Toward A Humanist Urban Open Space System-Study on the Shin Yi District in Taipei City
Analysis of Static Space Use Patterns
A
B
C
F
E
D
G
Toward A Humanist Urban Open Space System-Study on the Shin Yi District in Taipei City
Analysis of Static Space Use Patterns
E
D
F
GA
B
C
From on site observation of these urban public spaces, the majority of space use is in fact passing through, and then the second group of static space use pattern turns out to be resting. Other activities include strolling, doing exercise, taking pictures, strolling with a dog, waiting, playing, and watching performances, etc. In the isovist analysis of those urban public spaces, the degree of visual accessibility of each sub open space in these urban public spaces is relativized to the average mean value of visual accessibility detected from the urban square A, in order to reflect the differences of their location within the studied area.
E
D
F
GA
B
C
Toward A Humanist Urban Open Space System-Study on the Shin Yi District in Taipei City
Analysis of Static Space Use Patterns
Scattergram : isovist vs resting
Looking at the correlation between the degree of visual accessibility of each sub open space and the related space use pattern of resting, it is noticed that the result demonstrates a positive correlation (R2=0.49) between these two elements. That is to say that the resting activity is in fact corresponding to the degree of visibility of the venue. Places which exhibit strong visibility links with the surrounding area are the most preferred spaces for resting. There is also a positive correlation between the degree of visibility and the space use of taking pictures (R2=0.39) as well as the space use of waiting (R2=0.37) respectively. However this is not true for activities of doing exercise, playing and strolling with a dog.
Toward A Humanist Urban Open Space System-Study on the Shin Yi District in Taipei City
Analysis of Static Space Use Patterns
GEA
D
FB
C
When further combining the visibility element with the degree of shadow availability and the capacity of sitting facilities provided, etc. to study the multi-variant effects for the distribution of static space use patterns occurring in those urban public spaces, it is noticed that for resting activity in those open spaces with enclosure features (such as urban square A and open space E) the degree of shadow provision and the capacity of sitting facilities turn out to be more important than the visibility factor. However, for those open spaces with disclosure features (such as urban squares B & C, open spaces D & F), the most important factors contributing to the resting activity are firstly the degree of visual accessibility followed by the degree of axial accessibility adjacent to sub open spaces, whereas the degree of shadow provision and the capacity of sitting facilities turn out to be less important.
Toward A Humanist Urban Open Space System-Study on the Shin Yi District in Taipei City
Discussion
From the axial-space-use analysis, a scientific predictio
n model of pedestrian movement patterns can be establish
ed, of which the Type-C R9 measure takes up nearly two t
hirds (65%) of the weighting, whereas the two other varia
nts of density and land use occupy the other one third (35
%) of the weighting with regards to influence on the pedes
trian flow. However, other factors such as the metro statio
ns or bus stops, etc. might have important contributions t
o the dispersion of the pedestrian flow and need to be incl
uded in future analysis.
Toward A Humanist Urban Open Space System-Study on the Shin Yi District in Taipei City
Discussion
For the static space use patterns, it is interesting to detect
that the visual accessibility and the axial accessibility are tw
o important attributes influencing the resting activities occu
rring in those disclosure open spaces. Places which demonstr
ate good visibility and higher accessibility in the disclosure o
pen spaces tend to attract more people for resting activities.
However, when open spaces are designed with enclosure feat
ures, then the degree of shadow provision and the capacity o
f sitting facilities will take over from the previous two eleme
nts and will become the most important factors attracting pe
ople for resting activity.
The End
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