Perceived Attractiveness and Security of Design Features in Urban Parking Lots Case study: Stationsplein, Enschede, the Netherlands

Urban designers and landscape architects argue that physical characteristics of design elements in parking spaces have a direct influence in the perception of attractiveness and the sense of security of the users. Empirical research in human perception helps creating a solid conclusions and recommendations promoting quality of life. A lot of studies concluded that attractiveness and security were related to a number of the physical features and other scenery variables; still these variable elements and their influence on public perceptions are still vague. Thus, this study aims to empirically investigate the effects of architecturally designed elements on public perceptions of the attractiveness and security of public parking lots. For that end, the study introduced a methodology to asses these two variables on touch-screen decision tables, and how different users and stakeholders are affected by physical settings in the process of recognizing attractiveness and the sense of security in parking lots. A sample of urban planning and management students along with academic professors of urban based courses had been selected randomly to participate. A set of 360 pictures were prepared; they represent an existing parking lot that suffers some attractiveness and security controversial issues. This set of 360’s was manipulated in terms of the designed physical features, other human spotted, and the occupancy rate of the parking lot. The current status of the parking lot and these manipulated images were rated by the participants for both attributes of attractiveness and sense of security. Specific elements were pointed out and graded for both attributes. This study follows a quantitative case study methodology to identify how the abstract environmental qualities such as attractiveness and sense ofenvironmental qualities such as attractiveness and sense of security are being perceived in urban parking lots by their contents and physical settings.