Research On City Plaza Design-Based On Public's Preference For Outdoor Activities And Stays

With the increasing demand for public events in the city plaza, the requirements for exchanging ideas and holding activities are enhanced. However, the lack of humanistic concern in the design of some Chinese town squares leads to the reluctance and inconvenience of people's outdoor stays in the city plaza. The low utilization rate of the town squares fails to meet the needs of public activities. Therefore, the way to attract people for outdoor stays in the city plaza has a pressing need for research.Firstly, the origin and development of city plazas in and out of abroad was analyzed. The humanistic concern and the impact on public activities during all stages of the process was carried out. Secondly, based on the study of Behavioral Psychology and Ergonomic, the impact of the town square's elements on people's preference for outdoor activities and stays was illustrated in two parts, which is people's physiological comfort and psychological satisfaction. Thirdly, through the field researches of city plazas in and out of abroad, the elements which could attract more people to stay longer was carried out. And then, based on the questionnaires and interviews, the importance of all the elements was analyzed and the impact factors were put forward. Furthermore, the evaluation methodology for the city plaza design which based on public activities and people's stay preference was carried out. And then, based on the field research of Weghuberpark, MQ, Karlsplatz, Xi'anmen Square, Hanzhongmen Square and Gulou Square, the definition and formula of 'vitality' and 'staylity' was put forward and the scores of each square was calculated. Furthermore, the functional relation between score and vitality, score and staylity were built by SPSS, thus the scientificalness of the evaluation method was verified. At last, the methods of improvement were explained through several examples.The results of this study has to some extent make up for the lack of concerns on human behavior in the city plaza design, at the same time provide a relatively complete evaluation of the city plaza design and reference for it.