What Do Local People Really Need from a Place? Defining Local Place Qualities with Assessment of Users' Perceptions

Huiming Liu; Bin Li; Qing Liu; Yifan Li; Jing Zhao; Xuechun Wang; Chaoyi Cui; Shaoting Zeng

doi:10.3390/ijerph20021269

What Do Local People Really Need from a Place? Defining Local Place Qualities with Assessment of Users' Perceptions

Int J Environ Res Public Health. 2023 Jan 10;20(2):1269. doi: 10.3390/ijerph20021269.

Authors

Huiming Liu¹, Bin Li², Qing Liu³, Yifan Li⁴, Jing Zhao⁵, Xuechun Wang⁶, Chaoyi Cui¹, Shaoting Zeng⁵

Affiliations

¹ Faculty of Humanities and Arts, Macau University of Science and Technology, Macau 999078, China.
² Faculty of Innovative Design, City University of Macau, Macau 999078, China.
³ Laboratory for Urban Future, Peking University (Shenzhen), Shenzhen 518055, China.
⁴ Peking University Planning and Design Institute, Beijing 100087, China.
⁵ College of Art and Design, Beijing University of Technology, Beijing 100021, China.
⁶ School of Architecture and Built Environment, Queensland University of Technology, Brisbane, QLD 4001, Australia.

Abstract

China is facing a serious urban regeneration issue in which replicable international-style locations are losing their socio-cultural adaptability, especially in anonymous residential neighbourhoods. This study defines the key location qualities from local literature and then refines these qualities through observation investigations and statistical analysis (n = 180) to establish links between theories and contemporary uses. Based on the results, a correlation analysis of local place qualities was assessed from users' perceptions (n = 180) to identify the interactional influences between each indicator of local place qualities. Finally, local place qualities were scored to address their level of impact on users' perceptions. The results highlighted health, enjoyment, and social dependence as the most concerning factors in site investigations based on local cognitions. They are strongly associated with key local place qualities (naturality, functionality, cosmological cognitions, and interdependent sociability), directly and indirectly resulting in different levels of impact on users' perceptions at different scales.

Keywords: behavioural needs; local cognitions; local place qualities; public space design; users’ perceptions; using experiences.

Publication types

Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

China
Humans
Urban Renewal*

Grants and funding

This research was funded by the National Key R&D Program of China, grant number 2018YFD1100802; Peking University (Shenzhen) Future City Lab Tiehan Research Fund, grant number 201904; and National Natural Science Foundation of China, grant number 41871154.