Doctor of Philosophy (PHD) Architecture Student: Hossein Safari
Thesis Title: Regular Geometry Towards Effective Visitors Wayfinding: A Case Study Of KlCC Vicinity
Abstract: In developed cities, large office buildings occupy the centre of city destroying the legibility of these areas. This area is confronted by a lack of visibility and difficult cognitive map. As a regular spatial configuration, Squares have had an effect on the characteristics of urban space such as intelligibility, synergy and accessibility. Kuala Lumpur City Centre (KLCC) was chosen as a case study because of its historical and cultural significance and the importance that should be placed on its preservation for future generations of tourists. A model of KLCC has been developed within the square that combines the streets and the KLCC region as proof of the concept for a modal Space Syntax network analysis using axial analysis and observations. Meanwhile, this study investigated the views of visitors including 86 respondents and eight people who participated in a focus group using surveys and interviews. The results show that there is a negative correlation between cognitive map and urban stress. Moreover, quantitative data such as correlation and one way ANOVA and scheme coding qualitative data all suggested that viable cognitive map due to applying regular geometry in urban spaces may strongly decrease urban stress and may strongly improve legibility. The results show that there was a moderate positive correlation between legibility and regular geometry in general, but existing geometry had a negligible effect on legibility. The role of the square suggestion is more immediate in the high integration in the vicinity of KLCC. Moreover, the square can provide context for PETRONAS Twin Tower as landmark and symbolic building. Square as regular geometry is a good way to increase viable cognitive map where wayfinding will more strongly confirm that visitors display sociability and accessibility interaction. An implication for architects, tourism managers and urban designers is that square as a regular geometry associated with landmarks increase legibility and as a result, viable cognitive map by regular geometry is associated with easy wayfinding which decreased stress.
Doctor of Philosophy (PHD) Architecture Student: Iraj Karimi
Thesis Title: Factors Influencing The Urban Form Of Shiraz City Iran
Abstract: The study attempt to examine the effect of population growth on the urban form and physical characteristics of Shiraz City. The city is constrained to grow along the northwestern part because of the surrounding mountains. This has created fundamental problems such as traffic congestion, population, inadequate housing and services among others. Mixed mode research methods of qualitative and quantitative approach for data collection were adopted. Interviews, observation and questionnaires were used to collect basic information on the peoples’ perception on the linear growth of the city. Analyses of findings were done through the use of Spss software and interview coding. Results show that the linear growth of the city towards the northwestern part has created the problem of low residential density and low population density. The disadvantages of the current linear development were found to be more that the advantages. This suggests that, the linear form of the city development is no longer sustainable. Congestion in the Central Business District (CBD) was found to have been responsible for the pollution that the city is presently witnessing especially from automobiles. Compact model type of development, where vertical development is encouraged and recommended. This is became our finding has shown that the linear form of the city development is no longer sustainable for Shiraz. Decentralization of the CBD is also recommended, so that business utilities can spread outward instead of inward. This will solve the problem over dependence on daily automobiles use, reduce travel time and pollution. These recommendations can only be achieved by effective consultation between policy maker and the public.
Doctor of Philosophy (PHD) Architecture Student: Sara Jaberolansar
Thesis Title: Space Syntax Analysis on Sense of Safety of Pedestrian in Mixed Land Use Neighborhood
Abstract: Safety has been highlighted as one of the significant factor due improving the quality of everyday life in urban environment. The space syntax theory argued the streets with higher accessibility tend to have lower crime rate which is the objective dimension of safety. Feeling safety is a psychological and social phenomenon that includes a variety of variables and dimensions. Townscape is the first point of human’s contact with the environment. The human’s senses face the Townscape and receive required information. The goal of this study is to identify the importance of spatial configuration on townscape factors and to discover how they affect on pedestrian sense of safety as the subjective dimension of safety. It leads to improve the definition of safety based on space syntax theory. To this end, the theoretical and empirical approaches were adopted with case study. Literature review was carried out in order to understand the debate on the sense of safety and which townscape factors function in making feeling safety of pedestrian in urban streets. Space syntax analysis was applied to understand how the Johor Bahru’s structure works. The axial map was used to determine the three case study areas with highest accessibility, depending on their integration measures in the global analysis. Gate observations and snapshot were carried out to understand the differences in the frequency of pedestrian activity in three case studies. Then the five likert scale questionnaires were distributed among pedestrians for evaluating their sense of safety based of townscape factors in these streets. The findings show the townscape factors which affect on pedestrian sense of safety include: the sense of place, place identity, memorable, form, legibility and visual pleasure which the last two are the more important factors. Results illustrate the strong positive relationship between space syntax variables (integration value, level of connectivity, and control value) and pedestrian sense of safety within the case studies. Furthermore it is shown that the legibility and visual pleasure are strongly correlated with spatial configuration. In fact, special configuration affects on townscape factors and consequently sense of safety. As a result, not only a street with high accessibility is safe objectively but also it is safe subjectively.
