Public Space And Urban Vibrancy

Public space defines the urban structure and sets the framework for the majority or the urban dynamics,being therefore a major factor in the definition of urban vibrancy and quality of life.Vibrancy is a matter to the social sustainability of cities.Particularly,vibrancy not only promotes human activity but also improves people’s feelings of urban spaces.In many sense,urban public space plays an important role in sustaining the public realm.Along with modernization and globalization,urban public space,which is a traditional connotation in urban planning,now faces an inevitable transition in the new era.Urban public spaces indeed have acquired a renewed visibility in urban planning discourse as an essential ingredient of urban sustainability.In order to explore the generality and peculiarity of urban vibrancy and urban public space,this thesis gradually develops in the following two parts:The first part extends the knowledge on the new perspective of urban public space.Firstly,Oldenburg’s "third place" concept is deployed as a framework to explore the role of the bookstore-cafe in Hangzhou,China,based on a study conducted at three popular bookstore-cafes in central Hangzhou,to clarify its involvement in urban life.As part of the study,this part uses the observational method to help determine consumers’ visual behavior and an on-site survey questionnaire to collect data for measuring the qualities of the bookstore-cafe.The research findings show that the bookstore-cafe is not only a place for socializing but also a place for studying and working as well as reading(information)for people from different walks of life.The research contributes profound knowledge of the consumer experience at the bookstore-cafe,evidencing the fact that sometimes it is important for consumers to spend time and browse through the bookshelves rather than simply purchase books.Furthermore,this research also supports the functional side of sidewalks in Vietnam.By direct observation,this part examines the mixed-use type of sidewalk in the context of Vietnam to justify appropriacy.A segment of Nguyen Tri Phuong Street,a large and bustling street in Ho Chi Minh City,is investigated as an empirical evidence.It is revealed that small businesses connected with the street sides are unimpeachable,and all authorities can do is to keep them in order and promote their sociability by managing from a new perspective.In line with this,a concept of "sociable sidewalks" is rethought and integrated with the existing mixed-up sidewalks to catch up with modern urban street practiceThe second part this study,ultimately,is to offer a methodological framework for the assessment of the levels of the urban vibrancy related to urban public spaces in the cities.In line with the wide application of big data,the research characterizes the dynamic urban vibrancy related to urban public spaces on urban area of Ho Chi Minh City in Vietnam and Hangzhou in China using the proposed model and the spatial Technique for Order Preference by Similarity to Ideal Solution.This model decomposes urban vibrancy into density,livability,accessibility and diversity and assess the consequence of urban public spaces on urban vibrancy using the ordinary least square(OLS)method.Moreover,Pearson’s correlation(Pearson’s R)is used as a statistical measurement that helped to evaluate the effect of urban street centrality on different types of urban public space.The following is revealed:(1)Two cities have a different focus on the living facilities and have the least density for POIs in Open Public Spaces,which reflects the needs and lifestyles of Asian citizens.In term of spatial distribution,all kind of spaces are highly clustered in Ho Chi Minh city,whereas livability is significantly densely distributed in Hangzhou.(2)A monocentric spatial pattern of urban vibrancy can be observed in two cities.Significant spatial variations and deviations are revealed in population and road density in both cities.In conclusion,Hangzhou has dense concentrations of vibrant community neighborhoods with private-public spaces,open spaces within walking distance to transportation.Meanwhile,since local infrastructure has yet to fully developed and comprehensively operated,most of the vibrant wards in HCMC are observed to focus on the user selecting spaces which are convenient to shopping malls and park.(3)Positive relationships of private ’public’ spaces and civic spaces with street centrality can be observed in HCMC.On the other hand,public space in Hangzhou shows a contrasting trend in which private’public’ spaces and public open space possessed high values of the correlation.These findings theoretically and empirically contribute profound knowledge to the new perspective of public space.And taking advantage of the newly emerging source of social network data to seek more insight into urban vibrancy in relation to diverse functional spaces.Consequently,an inevitable direction for further studies will be to bridge the existing knowledge about the influence of the environment on the attractiveness of urban space.This research is desirable because by understanding the link between activities and land uses,governments and related organizations can predict future trend patterns of citizens’ activity as well as new urban sustainable developments.