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Metaverse, that is extended reality (XR)-based technologies such as augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR), are increasingly believed to facilitate fundamental human practice in the future. One of the vanguards of this development has been the consumption domain, where the multi-modal and multi-sensory technology-mediated immersion is expected to enrich consumers' experience. However, it remains unclear whether these expectations have been warranted in reality and whether, rather than enhancing the experience, metaverse technologies inhibit the functioning and experience, such as cognitive functioning and experience.

This study utilizes a 2 (VR: yes vs no) × 2 (AR: yes vs no) between-subjects laboratory experiment. A total of 159 student participants are randomly assigned to one condition — a brick-and-mortar store, a VR store, an AR store and an augmented virtuality (AV) store — to complete a typical shopping task. Four spatial attention indicators — visit shift, duration shift, visit variation and duration variation — are compared based on attention allocation data converted from head movements extracted from recorded videos during the experiments.

This study identifies three essential effects of XR technologies on consumers' spatial attention allocation: the inattention effect, acceleration effect and imbalance effect. Specifically, the inattention effect (the attentional visit shift from showcased products to the environmental periphery) appears when VR or AR technology is applied to virtualize the store and disappears when AR and VR are used together. The acceleration effect (the attentional duration shift from showcased products to the environmental periphery) exists in the VR store. Additionally, AR causes an imbalance effect (the attentional duration variation increases horizontally among the showcased products).

This study provides valuable empirical evidence of how VR and AR influence consumers' spatial bias in attention allocation, filling the research gap on cognitive function in the metaverse. This study also provides practical guidelines for retailers and XR designers and developers.

The purpose of this study is to examine whether PV uptake is associated with key housing market determinants and linked to socio-economic profiles. An abundance of extant literature has examined the role of solar photovoltaic (PV) adoption and user costs, with an emerging corpus of literature investigating the role of the determinants of PV uptake, particularly in relation to the built environment and the spatial variation of PV dependency and dissimilarity. Despite this burgeoning literature, there remains limited insights from the UK perspective on housing market characteristics driving PV adoption and in relation spatial differences and heterogeneity that may exist.

Applying micro-based data at the Super Output Area-level geography, this study develops a series of ordinary least squares, spatial econometric models and a logistic regression analysis to examine built environment, housing tenure and deprivation attributes on PV adoption at the regional level in Northern Ireland, UK.

The findings emerging from the research reveal the presence of some spatial clustering and PV diffusion, in line with several existing studies. The findings demonstrate that an urban-rural dichotomy exists seemingly driven by social interaction and peer effects which has a profound impact on the likelihood of PV adoption. Further, the results exhibit tenure composition and “economic status” to be significant and important determinants of PV diffusion and uptake.

Housing market characteristics such as tenure composition across local market structures remain under-researched in relation to renewable energy uptake and adoption. This study examines the role of housing market attributes relative to socio-economic standing for adopting renewable energy.

This study attempts to reveal the contemporary tools of spatial design – policy, planning, urban design and architecture – for social mix (SMX) and social mixing (SMXG) by focusing on the recent undertakings in Denmark, the case in point being Copenhagen.

The study applies a combined research methodology consisting of qualitative strategies. By making use of regulatory document reviews and interviews with key respondents, the study puts together the tools for SMX which are, otherwise, disorganised. Dwelling on reviews of municipal local plans, site visits and semi-structured interviews with municipal agents in charge, it provides a comparative urban morphology analysis of three recently developed neighbourhoods on the basis of SMX and SMXG.

This study presents the untitled “toolbox” of Danish authorities to regulate the SMX policies and spatial efforts within a variety of planning/design scales to facilitate SMXG among the inhabitants of the neighbourhoods. The examination of successive cases manifests that SMX strategies have been integrated with those of SMXG, with a gradual upwards inclination, since mixing different tenures, types, sizes and prices have not been successful in guaranteeing social interaction. In doing so, the “in-between” zones have become the primary realm of control with an observable differentiation in the studied cases.

Studies are scant concerning the spatial design efforts regarding social mix and mixing. The present work contributes to filling this gap by examining a cutting-edge practice in a mature milieu and describing it in a thorough and comparative manner.

A growing body of literature focuses on crime hotspots; however, less is known about the spatial distribution of crime at mass transit systems, and even less is known about trajectory patterns of hotspots in non-English-speaking countries.

The spatiotemporal behaviour of 1,494 crimes reported to the Hong Kong’s Railway Police District across a two-year period was examined in this study. Crime harm weights were then applied to offences to estimate the distribution of crime severity across the transit system. Descriptive statistics are used to understand the temporal and spatial trends, and k-means longitudinal clustering are used to examine the developmental trajectories of crime in train stations over time.

Analyses suggest that 15.2% and 8.8% of stations accounted for 50% of all counted crime and crime harm scores, respectively, indicating the predictability of crime and harm to occur at certain stations but not others. Offending persists consistently, with low, moderate and high counts and harm stations remaining the same over time.

These findings suggest that more localised crime control initiatives are required to target crime effectively.

This is one of the only studies focusing on hotspots and harmspots in the mass transit system.

Traditional Korean buildings do not differ significantly in form or structural style according to era or building type. The authors interpret this from a generative rather than a typological perspective. The generation perspective considers factors forming the buildings and is connected to the prevailing thoughts of the era.

This study analyzes the generation method of seowon facilities in the Joseon Dynasty (1392–1897), focusing on the Dosan Seowon. Based on Koreans' long-term thinking, the authors applied the extracted architectural space generation layers for analysis, and present an integrated method of generation layers when the Dosan Seowon was built.

The immanent, physical and body perceptual layers presented for seowon formation analysis are represented by thought, form and territory. Specific aspects of these layers in the Dosan Seowon are analyzed, including the architectural arrangement that connects the land conditions with neo-Confucian courtesy and order, the collective architectural form considering the energy of yin and yang, and the elements of objects that affect the human body perception. This form of architecture was closely linked with and strongly influenced by monistic philosophy.

After the Korean War, architects judged traditional buildings only by shapes, and quickly accepted Western architecture's forms. Presenting a generative perspective of traditional Korean architecture expands the theoretical research direction of modern succession.

This is the first attempt to examine the generation method based on the Dosan Seowon's generation layers.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the significance impact of air quality as a contributing factor on residential property rents by applying geo-informatics to economic issues. Since air pollution poses a severe health threat, city residents should have a right to know about the (invisible) hazards they are exposed to.

Within spatial-temporal modeling of air pollutants in Berlin, Germany, three interpolation techniques are tested. The most suitable one is selected to create seasonal maps for 2018 and 2021 with pollution concentrations for particulate matter values and nitrogen dioxide for each 1,000 m² cell within the administrative boundaries. Based on the evaluated pollution particulate matter values, which are used as additional variables for semi-parametric regressions the impact of the air quality on rents is estimated.

The findings reveal a compelling association between air quality and the economic aspect of the residential real estate market, with noteworthy implications for both tenants and property investors. The relationship between air pollution variables and rents is statistically significant. However, there is only a “willingness-to- pay” for low particulate matter values, but not for nitrogen dioxide concentrations. With good air quality, residents in Berlin are willing to pay a higher rent (3%).

These results suggest that a “marginal willingness-to-pay” occurs in a German city. The research underscores the multifaceted impact of air quality on the residential rental market in Berlin. The evidence supports the notion that a cleaner environment not only benefits human health and the planet but also contributes significantly to the economic bottom line of property investors.

The paper has a unique data engineering approach. It collects spatiotemporal data from network of state-certified measuring sites to create an index of air pollution. This spatial information is merged with residential listings. Afterward non-linear regression models are estimated.

As numerous research studies have investigated the effect of the built environment on human contentment, building regulations have advanced as a direct impact on indoor environmental quality (IEQ) to include thermal, lighting, air quality and acoustics systems. Yet, while IEQ and residents' satisfaction have been discussed thoroughly in previous research, only a few studies have researched the role of building regulations as motivating factors in the housing context, specifically in Jordan.

A mixed-method approach was adopted to address this issue involving genotype analysis for building morphology and simulation using Design Builder software. This helped to understand the impact of building regulations variables, including building setback, the height of an adjacent building, orientation and building geometry. Meanwhile, an online survey was conducted to include 410 residents spread out in various building categories (A, B, C and D).

The results of this study revealed that building regulation of setbacks, the height of adjacent buildings and orientation are significant parameters that directly affect IEQ and residents' satisfaction. In addition, based on this study, the matter was clear that the highest total satisfaction resulted based on the highest comfort level in terms of temperature and daylight obtained due to larger setback and lower building height. Yet, this finding undermined smart growth principles due to the limited scope of building regulation that focused only on spatial and physical dimensions, so improving to include environmental aspects such as passive design strategies that appreciate natural ventilation and lighting is necessary, which positively impact IEQ.

The concept of IEQ and residents' satisfaction have been discussed thoroughly, but only a few studies have researched the role of building regulations as motivating factors in the housing context specifically in Jordan.

This paper aims to present relevant literature review to build up the case pertaining to the impact of traditional leadership in the demarcation of municipal boundaries in South Africa. Municipal boundary demarcation remains a major contentious issue during the process of establishing municipalities. Little or no attention has been paid to the significance of traditional leadership in resolving issues around boundary demarcation between municipalities, hence this paper.

This paper adopted case study design. Data were collected from secondary sources and the contents were analyzed for this research purpose.

This paper put boundary in municipal context as a result of spatial reconfiguration process. It also discussed the impactful roles of traditional leadership as an institution involved in municipal (re)demarcation processes.

This paper focusses on the contemporary roles that traditional leadership is at vantage position to play in the process of municipal boundary demarcation. Therefore, the paper concludes that traditional leadership could resolve issue of ethnicity as a causal factor mitigating the redemarcation of municipal boundaries.

It contributes to existing knowledge by providing information on the roles of traditional leadership that could complement the resolution of the ethnic complexities arising from municipal (re)demarcation processes.

In this chapter, we theorize about online freelancers’ approaches to work flexibility. Drawing from an ongoing digital ethnography of US-based online freelancers pursuing work on digital platforms, our data question the common conceptualizations around the flexibility of online freelancing. We posit that the flexibility of where to work, not when to work, is the most important attribute of their work arrangement. Our data show (1) the online freelancers in our study prefer the stability and sustainability of full-time work over freelancing when both are offered as remote options; (2) full-time remote employment increases these workers’ freelancing control / flexibility; (3) these workers keep freelance work options open even as they transition to more permanent full-time work arrangements. We discuss how these findings relate to workplace culture shifts and what this means for contemporary working arrangements. Our insights contribute to the discourses on knowledge-based gig work and for what it means to study individuals online.