URBAN FURNITURE AND HUMAN INCLUSION IN PUBLIC SPACES

Abstract

The urban landscape is composed of tangible and intangible elements that co-exist to form the public realm. An integral part of this landscape, ‘urban furniture’ consists of all the static things that make urban spaces useful and functional (Akinci & Konakoglu, 2013). A growing focus on inclusive public spaces has necessitated the need to pay special attention to the tangible component of the space i.e. urban furniture. Extending on the works of E.T. Hall (Hall, 1969), William H. Whyte (Whyte, 1980), Jan Gehl (Gehl & Svarre, 2013), Matthew Carmona (Carmona, 2014) and the likewise, this dissertation aims to investigate urban furniture as one of the many elements that help enhance inclusivity of public spaces. An intensive review of literature was conducted in order to develop a comprehensive understanding of urban furniture and human inclusion in public spaces. Case studies of inclusive urban furniture around the world complemented the literature through real life examples. Typologies of public spaces for field studies, in the contexts of India and Germany, were identified. Luisenplatz and Street Zeil in Germany and Sector 17C and Blocks E & F (Connaught Place) were selected for the research. A crucial step in the dissertation was to evolve, from the literature review, a list of criteria for assessing inclusivity of urban furniture in public spaces, the criteria being accessibility, usability, comfort, safety and maintainability. These were later applied to the furniture elements in the field studies under investigation. A list of furniture elements, that inform human inclusion, was generated for each site and the elements were classified under four categories i.e. seating furniture, surfaces, information systems and other services. This was followed by developing frameworks to collect and analyze field data. Observation-based and evidence-based tools (activity mapping, tracing movement patterns, documenting furniture and photographing) were identified as the tools to carry out the research. Field interviews were carried out as a participation-based research tool for understanding issues related to inclusion and urban furniture on each site. The method of random stratified sampling was used to select the respondents on site. The collected data was then analyzed for assessing human inclusion in the field studies. The four categories of furniture were assessed alongside the criteria evolved earlier. The analysis led to the conclusion that inclusive urban furniture is a vital component of inclusive public spaces. The four cases (four distinct typologies), with variations in the degree of inclusivity, bring forth useful insights into the usage of urban furniture, including or excluding certain user groups. By reviewing all the field studies under the criteria to assess inclusion, recommendations were drawn for four categories of inclusive urban furniture. The research was instrumental in bringing new insights into the field of human inclusion in two distinct cultural and climatic contexts