Abstract
Although a well-planned and well-designed neighbourhood might seem essential for the social life and satisfaction of the residents of a neighbourhood, there is a limited amount of research that examines the influence of features of urban design on perceived social attributes. This article, based on comparative on-site assessments and survey research carried out in Angell Town (London) and Greater Leys (Oxford), UK, deliberately selected according to their contrasting types of planning/design, aims to investigate whether the situational, morphological, spatial, and aesthetic features of urban environment impact on neighbourhood attachment, satisfaction, and quality of life. Overall, the evidence from this study shows that perceived social attributes and quality of life are strongly linked to urban design and physical environment characteristics, as well as perceived physical attributes of the neighbourhood. The respondents of Angell Town, a consciously designed development, were found to have a stronger sense of community, more profound sense of the neighbourhood as home, stronger agreement on the friendliness of their neighbourhood, stronger attachment to their neighbourhood, more satisfaction with their neighbourhood, and richer perception of quality of life in their neighbourhood, compared to respondents of Greater Leys, a typical development based on planning that ignores urban design principles.
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The participants of the survey research did not give written consent for their data to be shared publicly, so due to the sensitive nature of the research supporting data is not available.
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11 May 2023
In footnote 1 and 2 the confidential note, which was written for the attention of the editors, was accidentally published and has now been deleted.
Notes
Studies have demonstrated that the acceptable response rate for surveys utilizing drop and collect envelopes may fluctuate, depending on a variety of factors, including the intended audience, survey length and complexity, and timing. For example, in the Community Life Survey conducted by the Department of Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, the combined household response rate was 26.20% (Kantar Public, 2021). In contrast, a study conducted by the Royal Mail on surveys distributed to households in the UK found that the average rate for surveys using drop and collect envelopes was 15%. Meanwhile, experienced researchers from the OISD Cities Unit at Oxford Brookes University have stated that the typical survey response rate in the UK related to the built environment in the UK is 5%.
There appears to be an imbalance in the level of attention given to the two cases, as Greater Leys housing development was developed without an urban design approach, considered ordinary, and has not received much attention in urban design literature.
As Czerwiński and Atroszko advocate, “ultra-short scales are becoming increasingly popular in educational and psychological research due to the convenience of application, often satisfactory psychometric properties and reduction of bias introduced by the excessive burden on participants with long questionnaires. They are often used, for example, in the quality of life research (Cheung and Lucas 2014; Czerwiński and Atroszko 2021).
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Web sites
https://www.oxford.gov.uk/info/20102/community_partnerships/288/the_leys.
Burrell-Foley-Fisher (2012). https://bff-architects.com/angell-town-ud.
Acknowledgements
I acknowledge the valuable insights provided by Dr Carol Dair, Professor Georgia Butina Watson, Professor Ian Bentley and Professor Brian Goodey of Oxford Brookes University during the first stage of this study and thank Professor Robert W Marans of University of Michigan for his comments on the earlier version of this article. I would also like to thank the two anonymous reviewers for their constructive comments.
Funding
This work was supported by the European Community: EC Scholarship Program; EuropeAid/127782/C/ACT/CY 2009–2010.
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A strict process was followed to get the approval of the University Research Ethics Committee (UREC) at Oxford Brookes University (OBU) on the application of the survey.
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This paper is a revised and enlarged version of the author's paper “Effects of Good Urban Design on Social Sustainability: A Survey Study in UK Neighborhoods”, The 50th Annual Conference of Environmental Design and Research Association (EDRA50), Brooklyn, New York, 22–26 May 2019 (Abstract published).
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Oktay, D. Influences of urban design on perceived social attributes and quality of life: a comparative study in two English neighbourhoods. Urban Des Int 28, 304–319 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1057/s41289-023-00218-z
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/s41289-023-00218-z