The impact of public open space on the image of small town centres in Slovenia

Volgemut, Mateja (author), Fikfak, Alenka (author), Zavodnik Lamovšek, Alma (author)

Despite all the principles of sustainable urban design, more and more spaces in small town centres are getting dedicated to traffic. Public open spaces (POS) in these towns are mainly reserved for car traffic, and social activities have been in decline. All at the expense of transportation space and built-up areas. As a result, there are fewer and fewer POS, which provide well-being and comfort to people, are accessible to all and are also attractively designed, allowing the development of a wide range of activities, and contributing to a town’s good image. Therefore, the aim of this paper is to determine the state of provision of POS in the centres of selected small towns in Slovenia and to assess the image of these town centres. Using various methods and instruments, we tested the hypothesis of whether there is a relationship between POS and the image of town centres. We used a cartographic method and a questionnaire survey, as well as statistical methods, in order to confirm the hypothesis. The study has revealed that groups of morphologically similar small towns are statistically different from each other in terms of observed relationships between POS and the image of the town centre. Therefore, a morphological analysis approach is very important in terms of evaluating the relationship between POS and the image of town centres. In conclusion, recommendations are given for the design of POS in small town centres.

• Language: English
• Keywords: urban design, open public space, cities, centers, Slovenia
• Work type: Article
• Typology: 1.01 - Original Scientific Article
• Organization: FA - Faculty of Architecture
• Publication status: Published
• Publication date: 01.01.2023
• Year: 2023
• Number of pages: Str. 140-153
• Numbering: Vol. 31, no. 2 (66)
• PID: 20.500.12556/RUL-155488
• UDC: 711.4
• ISSN on article: 1330-0652
• COBISS.SI-ID: 179706371
• Publication date in RUL: 04.04.2024

Record is a part of a journal

• Title: Prostor : znanstveni časopis za arhitekturu i urbanizam
• Shortened title: Prostor
• Publisher: Arhitektonski fakultet Sveučilišta
• ISSN: 1330-0652
• COBISS.SI-ID: 36744960

Licences

• License: CC BY 4.0, Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International
• Link: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
• Description: This is the standard Creative Commons license that gives others maximum freedom to do what they want with the work as long as they credit the author.

Secondary language

• Language: Slovenian
• Keywords: urbanistično oblikovanje, javni odpri prostor, mesta, centri, Slovenija