Spatial quality of renovated open space in Tokyo via the experiences of users with urban gardening

Abstract

Since last century, megacities have been seeking measures to enhance the living condition of its urban dwellers by green infrastructures like parks or rooftop greening. Their social and environmental benefits offer considerable solutions for sustainable urban design, which is a critical concern in the era of climate change. Additionally, other concern of compacts cities is to improve the quality of their neglected open space and accommodate the city lifestyle. These concerns mentioned above lead to a noticeable trend of designing renovated open space (OS) using urban gardening (UG) in recent years, intending to raise awareness of natural resource in the urban area. In Japan particularly, research proves that gardening for leisure is improving the well-being of urban citizen, especially in Tokyo metropolitan. However, the past research focus was on the impact of UG on people, the management or the technic employed but not on the spatial quality itself, like the one in the author's previous study. In the author's recent work, open space with urban gardening (OSUG) was examined firstly through the user's eyes to reveal their experience in space. Then seven scenarios were identified to determine the quality of urban space in OSUG, as characterized by the variation of three factors: Usage, Space Affordance, and Image of Identity. In this study, space itself will be analysed in connection with the design concept to understand the user's experience linked to Space Affordance (SA). The finding will reveal the impact of SA in the relation of design concept and the user's experience. Based on that a method for the future design of urban green space for compacts cities can be defined.