Improvement Strategies for Enhancing User Satisfaction with Spatial Publicness in Privately Owned Public Open Space in Post COVID-19: A Case from Italy
In the past five decades, privately owned public open spaces (POPOS) have become increasingly prevalent and significant in urban areas. However, the COVID-19 pandemic has led to significant changes in the performance and utilization of these spaces as the internal functions of adjacent buildings wer...
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Format: | Article |
Language: | English |
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MDPI AG
2023-07-01
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Series: | Buildings |
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Online Access: | https://www.mdpi.com/2075-5309/13/7/1773 |
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author | Jingwen Shan Gangwei Cai Alin Lin Binyan Xu |
author_facet | Jingwen Shan Gangwei Cai Alin Lin Binyan Xu |
author_sort | Jingwen Shan |
collection | DOAJ |
description | In the past five decades, privately owned public open spaces (POPOS) have become increasingly prevalent and significant in urban areas. However, the COVID-19 pandemic has led to significant changes in the performance and utilization of these spaces as the internal functions of adjacent buildings were shut down. This offers an opportunity to address the research gap in the theory of publicness—one of the most crucial attributes in these places due to their ownership and management—by assessing user satisfaction with spatial publicness in POPOS independently of adjacent commercial and corporate functions. This study aims to identify key environmental factors that significantly affect user satisfaction during a pandemic and develop adaptive strategies to enhance user satisfaction and resilience in such contexts. Based on a comprehensive literature review of previous assessment criteria for spatial publicness, the study proposes 30 vital indicators. Importance-performance analysis (IPA) is employed to analyze changes in user satisfaction regarding these vital indicators. Data from 386 users of Plaza Gae Aulenti in Milan, Italy were collected via an online questionnaire. The findings reveal that optimizing physical facilities and visual permeability are crucial environmental factors for promoting a higher degree of publicness during pandemics, as evidenced by a comparison of pre-COVID-19 and post-COVID-19 feedback. This study addresses the research gap by assessing the spatial publicness of POPOS independently of adjacent commercial and corporate functions. These findings have practical implications for the design and regulation of future projects in the post-COVID-19 era. |
first_indexed | 2024-03-11T01:13:42Z |
format | Article |
id | doaj.art-7e35fb116b55486daa70907995b6f192 |
institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
issn | 2075-5309 |
language | English |
last_indexed | 2024-03-11T01:13:42Z |
publishDate | 2023-07-01 |
publisher | MDPI AG |
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series | Buildings |
spelling | doaj.art-7e35fb116b55486daa70907995b6f1922023-11-18T18:38:42ZengMDPI AGBuildings2075-53092023-07-01137177310.3390/buildings13071773Improvement Strategies for Enhancing User Satisfaction with Spatial Publicness in Privately Owned Public Open Space in Post COVID-19: A Case from ItalyJingwen Shan0Gangwei Cai1Alin Lin2Binyan Xu3School of Architecture and Engineering, Zhejiang Sci-Tech University, Hangzhou 310018, ChinaDepartment of Urban Planning, College of Architecture and Urban Planning, Tongji University, Shanghai 200092, ChinaSchool of Architecture and Engineering, Zhejiang Sci-Tech University, Hangzhou 310018, ChinaSchool of Civil Engineering and Architecture, Zhejiang University of Science and Technology, Hangzhou 310023, ChinaIn the past five decades, privately owned public open spaces (POPOS) have become increasingly prevalent and significant in urban areas. However, the COVID-19 pandemic has led to significant changes in the performance and utilization of these spaces as the internal functions of adjacent buildings were shut down. This offers an opportunity to address the research gap in the theory of publicness—one of the most crucial attributes in these places due to their ownership and management—by assessing user satisfaction with spatial publicness in POPOS independently of adjacent commercial and corporate functions. This study aims to identify key environmental factors that significantly affect user satisfaction during a pandemic and develop adaptive strategies to enhance user satisfaction and resilience in such contexts. Based on a comprehensive literature review of previous assessment criteria for spatial publicness, the study proposes 30 vital indicators. Importance-performance analysis (IPA) is employed to analyze changes in user satisfaction regarding these vital indicators. Data from 386 users of Plaza Gae Aulenti in Milan, Italy were collected via an online questionnaire. The findings reveal that optimizing physical facilities and visual permeability are crucial environmental factors for promoting a higher degree of publicness during pandemics, as evidenced by a comparison of pre-COVID-19 and post-COVID-19 feedback. This study addresses the research gap by assessing the spatial publicness of POPOS independently of adjacent commercial and corporate functions. These findings have practical implications for the design and regulation of future projects in the post-COVID-19 era.https://www.mdpi.com/2075-5309/13/7/1773publicnesspublic/private spaceuser satisfactionassessmentCOVID-19 |
spellingShingle | Jingwen Shan Gangwei Cai Alin Lin Binyan Xu Improvement Strategies for Enhancing User Satisfaction with Spatial Publicness in Privately Owned Public Open Space in Post COVID-19: A Case from Italy Buildings publicness public/private space user satisfaction assessment COVID-19 |
title | Improvement Strategies for Enhancing User Satisfaction with Spatial Publicness in Privately Owned Public Open Space in Post COVID-19: A Case from Italy |
title_full | Improvement Strategies for Enhancing User Satisfaction with Spatial Publicness in Privately Owned Public Open Space in Post COVID-19: A Case from Italy |
title_fullStr | Improvement Strategies for Enhancing User Satisfaction with Spatial Publicness in Privately Owned Public Open Space in Post COVID-19: A Case from Italy |
title_full_unstemmed | Improvement Strategies for Enhancing User Satisfaction with Spatial Publicness in Privately Owned Public Open Space in Post COVID-19: A Case from Italy |
title_short | Improvement Strategies for Enhancing User Satisfaction with Spatial Publicness in Privately Owned Public Open Space in Post COVID-19: A Case from Italy |
title_sort | improvement strategies for enhancing user satisfaction with spatial publicness in privately owned public open space in post covid 19 a case from italy |
topic | publicness public/private space user satisfaction assessment COVID-19 |
url | https://www.mdpi.com/2075-5309/13/7/1773 |
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