Liveability along four streets in Hanoi, Vietnam is assessed. Hanoi is a rapidly growing metropolis characterised by high levels of personal motorized traffic. Two high traffic volume streets and two low traffic volume streets were studied using a mixed methods approach, combining the collection and analysis of quantitative and qualitative data on traffic volumes and liveability perceptions of its residents. The research methodology for this study revisits part of the well-known Liveable Streets study for San Francisco by Appleyard et al. (1981). A Principal Component Analysis (PCA) shows that residents on both low traffic volume streets experience less traffic hazard and stress, including noise and air pollution, than neighbouring high traffic volume streets. In line with Appleyard, the study shows that low traffic volume streets were rated more liveable than high traffic volume streets. In contrast to Appleyard, however, the study also shows that traffic volumes are not correlated with social interaction, feeling of privacy and sense of home, which is likely caused by the high levels of collectivism typical for Vietnam. Finally, the study indicates a strong residential neighbourhood type dissonance, where a mismatch exists between preferences for living in peaceful and quiet streets and the actual home location of residents.
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Vertical urbanisation is perceived as necessary to accommodate a growing population but is associated with severe risks for human well-being. It requires a profound understanding of how archi-tectural designs can ensure visually readable and liveable environments before it has been built. How-ever, current digital representation techniques fail to address the diverse interests of non-experts. Emerging biometric technologies may deliver the missing user information to involve (future) inhabit-ants at different stages of the planning process. The study aims to gain insight into how non-experts (visually) experience 3D city visualizations of designed urban areas. In two laboratory studies, univer-sity students were randomly assigned to view a set of the same level of detail images from one of two planned urban area developments in the Netherlands. Using eye-tracking technology, the visual behav-iour metrics of fixation count and duration and general eye-movement patterns were recorded for each image, followed by a short survey. The results show how visual behaviour and perception are remark-ably similar across different detail levels, implying that 3D visualizations of planned urban develop-ments can be examined by non-experts much earlier in the design process than previously thought.
DOCUMENT
Large cities in the West respond to an ever-increasing shortage of affordable housing by accelerating the process of urban densification. Amsterdam, for instance, aims to increase its housing stock by 10 percent in the next 15 years as its population is expected to grow by 20 percent. As in other cities, it seems inevitable that high-rise buildings with higher skyscrapers than in the past will be built within the existing urban fabric. Such large-scale (re)development projects shape the conditions for inhabitants’ eye-level experiences, perception of place and overall well-being. The new hybrid field of neuroarchitecture offers promising eye-tracking technology and theories for measuring inhabitants’ visual experiences of the city and rethinking the effectiveness of applied design principles across the globe. In this paper, the ‘classic’ design solutions for creating streetscapes on a human scale in densified areas have been assessed by eye-tracking 31 participants in a laboratory setting, all of whom viewed photographs of 15 existing streetscapes in high-rise environments. The study drew on theories from the field of neuroarchitecture and used input from a panel of (landscape) architects and urban designers to design the research and analyze the eye-tracked patterns. The results indicate that the classic design principles (horizontal–vertical rhythms and variety; active ground floor; tactile materials) play a significant role in people’s appreciation of the streetscape and that their attention is unconsciously captured by the presence of these principles. The absence of the design principles seems to result in a scattered ‘searching’ eye movement pattern. This also suggests that a coherent design of streetscapes in high-rise environments may contribute to a human scale at eye-level.
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