Local identity in the form production process, using as a case study the multifunctional administrative city project (Sejong) in South Korea

This article argues that many of those changes to the built environment brought about through economic and cultural globalization have resulted in a blurring of national identities expressed through city form, worldwide, including South East and Far East Asian countries. As a reaction to this, local identity has emerged as a central concern among both academics and many built environment professionals for setting the twenty-first century urban development agenda. The focus of this article is to explore place-making in relation to the role of different actors within the form-production process, and the implications of globalization for local identity using as a case the new multifunctional administrative city of Sejong in South Korea. Evidence was collected using a testing survey that aimed at gaining a clear insight into the role of local identity from the perspectives of different key actors involved in the Sejong project; the survey focused on building up a comprehensive narrative of their knowledge, experience, and sense of identity and sustainability in relation to place identity in new place construction. This survey and the findings from it illustrate the importance of user participation in the decision-making process, in achieving social sustainability and the incorporation of local cultural resources. The findings summarized in this article reveal the current poor level of understanding and the limitations in delivering inclusive local identity within the urban design policies of Sejong, and how local identity and the needs of local culture could be incorporated, sustained and developed in contemporary new town development in the South East/Far East Asian context

Territories and Landscapes: Place Identity, Quality of Life and Psychological Well-Being in Rural Areas

Various authors in the psychological field deal with the relationship between environment and wellbeing and particularly the impact of the environmental setting on quality of life (Bonnes, Secchiaroli, 1992; Twigger-Ross, Uzzell, 1996) and the importance of living in suitable environments, fitting needs and expectations (Zani, Cicognani, 2004). Geographically speaking, the significance of landscape is evident, as far as personal and territorial identities are concerned (Castiglioni, 2011). Nowadays, in traditionally rural extra-urban areas, where people feel attachment and sense of belonging, (Hidalgo, Hernàndez, 2001; Giuliani, 2004), rural depopulation is associated with processes of environmental changes. Presently, many non places (Augé, 1993) and hyperspace (Jameson, 1989) surround urban areas so that mountain and countryside areas risk to become “new” places of uncertain destiny, if transformation does not respect valuable landscape elements and is not carried out bearing in mind sustainability and social sharing. In these places, people and communities risk not to feel a sense of belonging due to the environmental, historical and cultural setting which becomes less familiar (Mazza, Minozzi, 2011). This multidisciplinary and multiterritorial research aims to highlight the inhabitants’ bonds not only with their historical and geographical territory (Rombai, 2001) but also with territorial elements, which can affect context and quality of life perception: elements of value, decay and environmental menace. The research was carried out in extra-urban rural areas in Tuscany and Lazio: Lunigiana, Media Valle Serchio, Maremma Grossetana, Maremma Viterbese and Crete Senesi. The authors’ contribution concentrated on territory comparisons for some of the examined variables, while different contributions propose specific focuses on single territories: Piana di Lucca, Area Pisana, Crete Senesi and Alta Tuscia. A questionnaire was prepared “Territories, landscapes and quality of life” (cf. Ferrari, Bocci, Bianchi, Cavallero, Mazza and Rombai, 2014) to investigate the following aspects related to the inhabitants’ area: 1 – territorial sense of belonging and motivation; 2 – perception, knowledge and evaluation of value, decay and risk elements; 3 – attachment, interest and residential motivation; 4 – social representation of the territory. The represented sample was made up of 366 subjects, divided in three age groups: young, adult and elderly people. Descriptive and correlational analysis have been carried out, along with comparisons among groups and explorative factorial analysis, as well as text analysis. The results highlight differences in the sense of belonging, knowledge perception, territorial elements evaluation, attachment to the place and future residency intentions and motivations, both as regards areas and age group

Identification of UX dimensions for incident reporting systems with mobile applications in urban contexts: a longitudinal study

International audienceIncident reporting systems enable end-users to report problems that they have experienced in their working activities to authorities. Such applications are sought to sense the quality of the environment, thus enabling authorities to promote safety and well-being among citizens. Many governments are now promoting the use of mobile applications allowing citizens to report incidents in their neighbourhood to the administration. Nonetheless, it is not clear which user experience dimensions affect the adoption of incident reporting systems, and to what extent anticipated use of the system (anticipated UX) is a determinant for predicting the user experience with the final application. In order to understand how citizens perceive incident reporting systems and which factors affect the user experience (UX), we have performed empirical studies including interviews in early phases of the development process and empirical user testing of advanced prototypes. In this paper, we present the results of a longitudinal study on the evolution of the perception of UX dimensions along the development process, from interviews to running prototypes. Hereafter, we describe the method that has been used for coding the findings of these empirical studies according to six UX dimensions (including visual and aesthetic experience, emotions, stimulation, identification, meaning & value and social relatedness/co-experience). Moreover, we describe how the findings have been associated with users' tasks. The findings from interviews and user testing indicate that whilst the perceived importance of some UX dimensions (such as identification and meaning & value) remains similar over time, other dimensions such as stimulation and emotions do evolve. Beyond the practical implications of this study for the design of incident reporting systems, this work presents an approach that allows comparing the results of UX assessments in different phases of the process

Exploring Tangible and Intangible Landscapes of Evocative Places: Case Study of the City of Vitória in Brazil

This paper explores tangible and intangible characteristics of places. It concentrates on gathering characteristics, emotions, memories and stories related to self-selected evocative places in a city. Evocative places are defined as places that evoke images, memories or emotions. There are two goals identified for this article. The first goal is to study which words citizens use to describe the main characteristics of their self-selected evocative places. The second goal is to map emotions associated with the self-selected evocative places. The case study selected in this research is the city of Vitória in Brazil. We collected 192 evocative places and their characteristics with the help of an online mapping platform that links an online questionnaire with an interactive map. This paper summarizes the main results gathered empirically about evocative places in Vitória, their characteristics and the emotions felt at these places. These places are then mapped in a geographic information system (GIS) in order to understand their locations and concentrations. On the basis of this empirical work in Vitória , and the work accomplished in the cities of Hamburg (Germany), Vienna (Austria), Ames and Grinnell (both Iowa, USA), we also designed and expanded the conceptual model of evocative places presented in this paper for the first time. The conceptual model includes four main categories with which an evocative place can be described including its physical characteristics, experiences, senses and values. We conclude the article with a discussion and further research directions.Heritage & Value

Thermal comfort in the humid tropics: Field experiments in air conditioned and naturally ventilated buildings in Singapore

10.1007/BF01041840International Journal of Biometeorology344259-265IJBM