Design Criteria for an Urban Sidewalk Landscape Considering Emotional Perception

Abstract

Pedestrians’ emotional satisfaction when using an urban sidewalk landscapes depends on the sidewalk design elements and component ratios. It is therefore important for the design of a sidewalk to reflect pedestrians’ emotional perceptions through affective engineering and design. In this study, sidewalk preference is surveyed based on principles of affective engineering and is modeled in order to understand the relationships between the design elements and the component ratios in a sidewalk landscape. Through comparisons, sidewalk design criteria are presented with the aim of developing a comfortable and pleasant sidewalk landscape. Sidewalk design elements include sidewalk width, shrub width, tree height, and tree width. Also, component area ratios for greenery, sky, roadway, sidewalk, and building are used to define the design criteria. This paper is for a Korean case study that is subject to Korean perceptions on sidewalk landscape. The research shows that it is crucial to consider affective engineering in order to design a comfortable and pleasant sidewalk landscape.