Perception Aspects in Underground Spaces using ... - TOI - TU Delft

case of emergency. Interestingly, they found fear being associated with the presence of strangers,which was seen as a possible entrapment. About 96% of the respondents experienced thepresence of groups of people as being safe. This is important to mention, since in other research,only “presence of people” has been mentioned, but no specification was made regarding anumber. In this case, presence of one person or very small group can be negatively experienced.On the contrary, presence of more people, but not necessarily in large groups, creates the bestcondition for a generally shared feeling of public safety. This aspect was also addressed inresearch of Opperwal and Timmermans (1999), where they conducted a study on aspects that hadan influence on the pleasantness rating of shopping centers. According to the authors, peopletended to dislike crowded and very un-crowded areas (deserted areas with few people).Moderately un-crowded shopping centers were perceived as most pleasant, while very crowdedcenters were disliked and negatively experienced. Van der Voordt and Van Wegen (1990) statethat the presence of people is important, but that excessively crowded places may have a negativeimpact.Having public safety as a basic assumption for perception of underground station, Laarhoven(1997) considers following aspects:•= a public control of the route to the station•= a degree and a nature of activities in the station’s surrounding•= spatial organization/ layout of the station•= lighting•= presence of people and•= a degree of surveyabilityThe author stresses out the importance of considering the surrounding and its quality as well.This is a natural choice since the station is a part of larger area and any problems that are evidentin the surrounding may as well be reflected in the building as well.The aspect of daylight was found to have an influence on perception of public safety. Naser andJones (1997) found that the routes respondents needed to take during their research wereexperienced as more safe, during the daytime than during the nighttime. Korz (1998) showed thatin the late hours, an individual expects a smaller number of people being present at the stations(both above and underground) and therefore they expect more crime to happen in these hours.The aspects that were considered until now were primarily related to public safety, together withthe way in which they can influence perception of comfort. Later in the text, the determinants ofcomfort will be explained.Comfort – PleasantnessAn aspect that is often dealt with in the literature and related to comfort is the orientation or thewayfinding aspect (Passini 1984, 1992; Arthur 1992; Galen 1999). Passini (1992) defines spatialorientation” as the ability of a person to determine where he is within a physical setting”.Thereafter he adds that this definition needs “to be extended to include an alternative ability thatconsists in determining what to do in order to reach a place” (p. 43). He goes further explainingthat a person may rely on spatial representation of the physical environment as well as on a planof action or a strategy to go somewhere. According to Passini, the sensation of being disorientedwould arise only if a person is deprived of both. In such case the feeling of discomfort and- 27 -