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Visual aesthetics are a vital aspect of environmental quality. The objective of this study is to demonstrate the implementation of visibility analysis and visual quality standards on a campus to enhance productivity and effectiveness.

This study has identified the most crucial and valuable metrics for evaluating the visual quality of open spaces through an analysis of theoretical foundations and relevant background information. To achieve research goal, a multi-method approach was employed, incorporating a survey, user satisfaction ratings and ISOVIST simulation techniques. Specifically, this study focused on assessing the quality of open spaces in three open areas located on the campus of the Iran University of Science and Technology.

Based on the study’s findings, the most significant factors that students considered when evaluating the visual quality of open spaces on the Iran University of Science and Technology campus were green areas, gathering spaces and architectural elements such as furniture, color and texture. Among the three open areas examined, “Open Space One” was identified as the most satisfactory location for students. According to the study, “sensory richness,” “complexity” and “mystery” were significant indicators of students' satisfaction in this area. This area also had the widest radius and field of view feasible, which gave it a feeling of openness and spaciousness.

This study explores the influence of students' experiences, behavioral patterns and visual analyses on their use of open spaces on university campuses, with a focus on the Iran University of Science and Technology. By assessing students' satisfaction levels with these spaces, this research provides valuable insights that can guide the initial analysis stage before the design process and facilitate design optimization during the development stages. The results highlight the importance of considering user experiences and visual analysis when planning and creating open spaces on university campuses.

Highlights

1. Conducting an initial analysis before developing a design plan can be very helpful in understanding how users think and behave.

2. The three criteria of visual quality that have the strongest correlation with students' satisfaction with “open space” are “mystery,” “sensory richness” and “complexity.”

3. Two factors, namely the “radius of vision” and the “area” index, significantly influence students' satisfaction with open spaces.

4. Outdoor designers should incorporate “green space” and “gathering spaces” into their designs since the presence of these is effective in attracting and satisfying students.

5. The number of people using an open space has little to do with how satisfied students are with it.

6. Half of the students use open areas between 11:00 and 14:00, so the provision of “canopy” and “shelter” in these spaces is essential.

Conducting an initial analysis before developing a design plan can be very helpful in understanding how users think and behave.

The three criteria of visual quality that have the strongest correlation with students' satisfaction with “open space” are “mystery,” “sensory richness” and “complexity.”

Two factors, namely the “radius of vision” and the “area” index, significantly influence students' satisfaction with open spaces.

Outdoor designers should incorporate “green space” and “gathering spaces” into their designs since the presence of these is effective in attracting and satisfying students.

The number of people using an open space has little to do with how satisfied students are with it.

Half of the students use open areas between 11:00 and 14:00, so the provision of “canopy” and “shelter” in these spaces is essential.

Heritage reuse, in which the aesthetics of heritage play a leading role, often leads to extreme commodification of heritage, place branding, gentrification and the exclusion of many narratives and voices. In order to understand how such processes of erosion and estrangement between heritage and local communities can be countered, while still redeveloping heritage buildings for contemporary urban needs, this paper explores with what kind of practices and heritage approaches these tensions can be mitigated, learning from recent experiences in Praga district.

Based on qualitative semi-structured interviews in a case study of a living lab of ongoing heritage reuse practice in Praga district in the city of Warsaw, Poland, the authors identify practices and approaches that can help to overcome tensions between the ethics and aesthetics of heritage reuse.

In rapidly changing district like Praga, local communities and others are struggling to compete process of change that impact their heritage, and the engagement with it. Although the local community is quite active in addressing various urban challenges and preserving the character of Praga including heritage elements, the conditions under which these community-led heritage reuse practices operate are quite impactful, as it appears that cooperation with local institutions is vital in order to embed community-led heritage reuse practices to overcome the tensions between ethics and aesthetics of heritage reuse.

This paper presents an in-depth analysis of a living lab of community-led heritage reuse. As such, the paper highlights various practices of community organizations and citizen initiatives that address heritage reuse, as well as the conditions under which these initiatives operate.

Post-socialist urban development changed cityscapes and city life profoundly, reusing public space in a different manner and reinterpreting the role of work, heritage, and consumption among others. Focusing on two case studies – the Outer Józsefváros in Budapest and the Praga North district in Warsaw – the paper examines this transformation, following how and to what extent these characteristic neighbourhoods have changed, how local heritage has been reconceptualised and what role work has played in this process.

The comparative analysis combines a literature review with a case study investigation that includes interviews, on-site visits, experiments with locally driven adaptive reuse, and document analysis.

The two case studies put heritage conservation, identity building and value determination processes in the context of architectural design, economic investment and labour market. The paper shows the relation between aesthetics and economic transition, how work, or its loss, has shaped the areas, creating a milieu of transition in a physical and a social sense, offering a reconceptualization of local identity. It also highlights the seminal value of civic initiatives and artists/artisans to increase the engagement of the local community.

The paper provides a rarely done comparison between two former Socialist cities undergoing similar transformations. It focuses on work as intangible heritage, the connected architectural aesthetics and their role in shaping the identity of various groups.

This paper aims to explore the opinions of business owners in an industrial area of Abu Dhabi that could be potentially turned into an art tourism destination.

By mobilizing the concept of “gentrification aesthetics,” the authors use a recall technique to explore support toward art from business owners, regression analyses to understand how the type and content of art predicts gentrification support and chi-square to research the differences between respondents who support the area to become a creative place and those who do not.

A model that explains the connection between gentrification aesthetics and art tourism is presented.

The authors’ proposed model results from testing the possibilities for expanding art tourism specifically and may not apply to other types of tourism. Future research is needed to understand whether and how the model can be applied to other forms of tourist consumption.

The current research presents a case study on how tourism can be strategically expanded into more rural places in a city.

The authors found significant differences between respondents who would like to see Mussafah becoming a creative place in five years and those who believe Mussafah needs to be(come) something else.

While work on tourism gentrification has been conducted, the nexus between gentrification aesthetics and art tourism cannot be found. Their relation can help to expend (art) tourism from busy cultural attractions to industrial areas. The present research fills this gap.

The paper introduces ethical and aesthetical implications emerging from participative forms of adaptive heritage reuse. Its aim is to depict the overall framework to contextualize the investigations explored in the Special Issue titled “Ethics and aesthetics of adaptive heritage reuse in Europe.” Therefore, the article confronts with potentialities and contradictions of “open” heritage processes, introducing key critical elements to recode heritage practices and planning in today’s conjuncture of global change.

The paper drawn on a literature review, which combines different bodies of studies: heritage, urban studies, care studies and recent policy documents. A photographic essay, moreover, serves to “augment” the presented argumentations through a visual apparatus resulting from one of Gaia Ginevra Giorgi’s artwork, which develops in the intersection between performative art, participation and territorial reuse.

The author argues that for adaptive heritage reuse to be really sustainable, ethical and aesthetical heritage codes need to be reassessed and reoriented toward the present socio-ecological priorities, multiplicating the ways cultural heritage is conceived, valued and reused. The paper suggests proceeding along the creative paths of uncertainty, providing the first elements to develop political projects of abundance and enjoyment for current urban settlements.

The presented argumentations can be used as a baseline by heritage managers and policymakers to experiment with participative processes of adaptive heritage reuse and to identify more environmentally and socially just trajectories of urban development.

The paper expands the concept of adaptive heritage reuse, considering the active participation of both human and non-human agents. Treating heritage in a laic way, namely free from absolute and preordered judgments of value, it deals with uncomfortable heritage materiality and contexts, illuminating the quality of unpleasant or odd forms of beauty.

The paper discusses ethical issues related to the adaptive reuse of ruin heritage on the example of the so-called ruin bars in Budapest's District VII. It explores how heritage discourse can contribute to the sustainable development of urban neighborhoods. The authors address the question by focusing on how a processual approach can be instrumental in identifying responsible and socially sustainable ways to reuse dilapidated heritage in a residential area.

The problem is analyzed through a case study based on field observation, participant observation, stakeholder interviews, policy analysis and media and social media content analysis.

The authors argue that ethical reuse of ruin heritage must take into consideration the values and interests of multiple stakeholders and the broadest range of consequences at the level of neighborhood and city. An integrated heritage and planning policy should consider and involve as active participants all the heritage communities concerned. Importantly, these groups, comprising both new and longtime residents, must include the vulnerable and marginalized.

The findings can be used by heritage managers for identifying and addressing ethical issues in their adaptive heritage reuse practices and by policymakers for integrating heritage management in urban development and making cities more inclusive (SDG #11).

The paper explores how ethical it is for business enterprises to build on the ruin esthetics in a residential district and what the ethical implications of this reuse process are for various stakeholders.

Sacred forests are biocultural landscapes deeply rooted in centuries-old traditions of spiritual veneration. These sacred sites, including shrines, temple forests churches and graveyards, have historically been significant reservoirs of traditional resource management practices underpinned by spiritual reverence. However, despite their cultural and ecological importance, the cultural ecosystem services inherent to these sacred forests remain unexplored, particularly in urban settings.

This study focused on six sacred sites within Kanazawa City, Japan, using a meticulous face-to-face survey with 342 participants. We collected data on the extent of forest utilisation, the breadth of activities engaged in by visitors and their holistic appraisal of the rendered cultural ecosystem services. The findings illustrate the multifaceted benefits of urban sacred forests, encompassing participation in religious ceremonies, cultural events and festivals, complemented by educational programming that elucidates the historical and traditional underpinnings of the shrines and their surrounding communities.

It has been observed that urban forests have a crucial role in providing spiritual and communal connectivity, preserving traditional heritage, offering vital aesthetic values as green spaces and making visitors connected with nature while they are in the urban landscape. However, a concerning trend has emerged, as the younger demographic appears to lack interest in participating in the stewardship and cultural activities associated with these biocultural landscapes. Community engagement strategies must be strengthened, conservation measures should be implemented and cultural awareness programs need to be established to ensure the perpetuation and appreciation of these valuable urban sacred forests.

This study provides original perspectives on the measurable cultural ecosystem services and intangible values associated with urban sacred forests using the sacred forests in Kanazawa City, Japan. Our research illuminates the various advantages that visitors derive by examining the intersection of spiritual traditions, resource management practices and cultural significance, which has been relatively unexplored. The present study provides a significant basis for establishing initiatives that seek to promote the cultivation of respect and responsibility towards urban sacred forests.

This chapter examines three Italian cities that have experienced a transition from “Fordism to tourism”: Genoa, Turin, and Milan. After an industrial crisis, they have invested in culture and tourism as alternative ways of development. This transition is examined using the theoretical framework of urban regimes highlighting five development trends: the city as a growth machine, the Fordist city, the creative city, the city as entertainment machine, and the blue-green city. By adopting this theoretical framework, the evidence shows how academic institutions, tour operators, and public authorities may or may not work together for the tourism development of their cities.

Adaptive reuse entails the physical modification of abandoned architectural structures, with the activation of processes and practices leading to the re-incorporation of heritage into the contemporary life of communities. This transformation entails an affective adaptation, a re-modulation of how citizens attune to a built environment that has been returned to urban, shared forms of use. By observing the emotional ties that are established between subjects and the spaces they inhabit, affecting forms of dwelling, attachments and corporeal responses, the author can clarify how adaptation purports this affective modification, where the original ambiance is not necessarily altogether overwritten, but may rather merge with the supervening situation to give life to unique assemblages of spatialized feelings.

Drawing from contemporary phenomenological theories, with their specific focus on the affective and embodied dimension of lived experience, this paper describes and discusses two instances of adaptive reuse, one in Brussels, the second in Rome, highlighting their different processes and spatial outcomes.

The paper implements recent literature on spatial experience to bring to light conditions found in cases of adaptive reuse. By describing the generators of shared emotions – objects, movements, expressions, materialities, textures – it highlights how the layering of the physical world can lead to both the domestication of affects and to discrepancies and discontinuities in the fabric of experienced space.

There is only a limited literature dedicated to the description of adaptive reuse processes from the contemporary phenomenological perspective. This kind of description can clarify the dynamics unfolding between citizens and experienced space in cases of heritage reuse.

The development of higher learning institutions (HLIs) is considered a strategy to trigger urban space development – and it is the economy in most developing countries. HLIs can develop and maintain pace with the experience economy in the current urban economy, particularly in the services sector. This paper seeks to evaluate the influence of HLIs on elements of the experience economy in the urban services sector in Bandar Baru Bangi (BBB), a knowledge-based city.

The research adopted a purposive sampling technique and engaged 382 urban community respondents in BBB, Malaysia. The study used four elements (education, gastronomy, health, and the retail sectors) to assess the experience economy performance.

The results show that the local community is the “active users” of the services, and the active users have enjoyed the existence of the experience economy. Findings reveal a preference for education and health over gastronomy and retail sectors. Of these four sectors, the education sector experience had the most prominent effect, thereby showing that the higher learning institutions around this city served a major role in the sector development of urban services.

The research used a purposive sampling method and engaged 382 respondents in BBB, Malaysia. The restriction of the study area to BBB is a limitation component. Future studies should explore a large-scale investigation to evaluate better and validate the results.

The research has shown that the city's higher education institutions have affected the development of the experience economy in the four sectors.

The study shows that the framework of the experience economy and the establishment of HLIs can stimulate the experience economy within the urban services sector.