Attributes of physical environment greatly influence people?s community and place attachment (Vaughan, 2007). People?s behavior is formed by the semantics they ascribe to the space (Rapoport, 1977).This project develops a methodology that identifies thekey relations between the attributes of the environment and the community satisfaction. In the case study the environment is characterized in terms of geographic, cognitive and behavioral spaces (Hillier, 2007).Geographic space is described by physical objects and their relations. Cognitive space is an image of geographic space individually created by people reflecting their attachment to the place and community. Social relations include involvement of inhabitants in the community life, participation inlocal sport or cultural activities, etc. Behavioral space represents peoples understanding of the space in terms of their behavior (Witten et al 2001).Our objective is to identify the key characteristics of physical space that have strong impact (positive or negative) on the relations between people and space and within the community.
The project objectives are to identify the impact of semantics and spatial characteristics of the city on people’s attitudes and behaviour. The research will be demonstrated on a case study of Holesovice – a quarter of Prague, Czech Republic. The townscape semantics will be analysed on two groups of respondents: residents and people who have not been in Holesovice in the last 9 months. First, localities with similar 2D data will be analysed using Space Syntax. Then, 3D data will be included, to describe building heights and landscape. Finally, the localities will be selected to differ in additional features such as the building surface, material, expression or architectural design, while their 2D and 3D characteristics are similar. For these data sets people’s perception of space will be evaluated.