Exploring methodologies to capture subjective impressions of city spaces

Abstract

Cities and spaces are often examined with a focus on amenities or attributes that can be quantified or explained through patterns and movements by people. There are even numerous apps and services (Yelp, FourSquare, Google Maps to name a few) that provide platforms for adults to express their subjective feelings and opinions about restaurants, bars, landmarks, and public places, but as researchers have shown', these apps don't quite capture the full picture of meaningful places or spaces for people. Consequently, urban planners and architects designing cities take a specific, commercial viewpoint into perspective, with a bias towards the response of professional adults. As adults are not the only population living in cities, it is important and interesting to understand how people of different ages and socioeconomic classes-children, teenagers, and adults-and with different goals-learning, having fun, working-perceive the city and spaces around them in contrast or similarly to each other. This thesis uses Kendall and Harvard Squares to explore methodologies intended to capture the subjective perspectives and impressions of the city by children and adults alike. Specifically, methodologies that could elicit responses about perception relating to memory, culture, state of mind, and social interactions were explored. Participants were given a series of descriptive words and were asked to record an image in the Square that matched the word. They were also asked to express their impressions of places with their own words and playfulness. The results of the methodologies helped to form potential larger scale studies that would provide a deeper view of how a wider cross-section of the population perceive the city in terms of spaces they find creative, inspirational, and playful. Ultimately, this research seeks to understand the intangible qualitative perception of people in spaces and cities.