Public Space and Pedestrian Stress Perception: Insights from Germany

Martin Knöll (Technische Universität Darmstadt)

This presentation discusses the role of the built environment on urban stress as perceived by pedestrians in open public spaces (OPS). The author reports on a series of empirical studies carried out with architecture students in which environmental properties for a sample of OPS, including a busy transport hub in the city of Darmstadt, Germany, were constructed using GIS and Space Syntax and paired to users’ ratings. OPS typologies (park, square, courtyard, streets) are the best predictors for perceived urban stress, followed by isovist characteristics, street network characteristics and building density. Specifically, the isovist visibility, vertices number and perimeter, previously related to arousal and complexity in indoor spaces, show significant relation to perceived urban stress in OPS, but with different direction of effects. This overview of influential factors in urban design underlines the need for traffic calming and walkability measures to reduce pedestrian stress levels in urban mobility systems.