SSS10 Proceedings of the 10th International Space Syntax Symposium
Exploring children’s perceptions and experiences of
outdoor spaces
Nezire Özgece
PhD Candidate, Cyprus International University
nozgece@ciu.edu.tr, nezireozgece@gmail.com
Erincik Edgü
PhD, Associate Professor, Düzce University
erincikedgu@duzce.edu.tr, erincik@gmail.com
Meray Taluğ
PhD Candidate, Cyprus International University
mtalug@ciu.edu.tr, talug.meray@gmail.com
Abstract
All people employ their senses in order to locate themselves in their environment; however the
perception of space is not common to everyone and differs related to various factors. Considering
these differe es i per eptio a d the fa tors affe ti g it, it should e stated that hildre ’s
perceptions and experiences of spaces are different from adults’. Unless the places are created by
them to play, children perceive and experience environments that are created by adults. Thus, spaces
that hildre e perie e are ge erall ased o adult’s logi of desig o figuratio .
As children are the active participants of their home and school environments, the present study
th
focuses on a pilot study which is conducted at a primary school with the 5 year students. Therefore,
the aim is to discover hildre ’s landmark recognition and preferences of outdoor spaces in terms of
their home- school routes, playing areas and reveal the underlying syntactic structures of the spaces
as well.
Considering the main structure of the research which is ased o the o pariso etwee hildre ’s
responses to a questionnaire and syntactic properties of the significant places, the methodology is
organised as two phases including the individual interviews with students and syntactic analyses of
the spaces identified and preferred by children. The first phase of the methodology is based on the
e a i atio of hildre ’s per eptions and uses of outdoor spaces with the help of a questionnaire
where students answer the questions and draw their route from home to school. In this phase,
students are also asked to comment on the photographs taken from the predetermined city
landmarks. For the second phase, spaces identified by children are analysed due to the syntactic
properties based on various calculations.
The results of the research emphasise that the edges of the city and especially the city walls seem to
affect the spatial perceptions of children. Although children mostly prefer to stay in the close vicinity
to their home-school environment, they can identify significant city landmarks. The outcomes of the
research also indicate that there’s a differe e etwee the fe ale a d ale students considering
the preferences of playing areas.
Keywords
Childre ’s spatial perception, historic city, outdoor space, wayfinding.
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1. Introduction
The environmental features ha e di e t o i di e t effe ts o people s spatial eha iou a d
experience through the process of interpreting the sensory information. As it s e tio ed )u e
and Moore (1989), environments provide information conveyed by patterns of sensory inputs that
are not specific to particular sensory channels. Environmental images gathered through these
sensory inputs form the basis of human activity pattern. It s stated La g that people s
spatial behaviour depends partially on the environmental images they have. The environmental
image, which is accepted as the generalised picture of the exterior physical world, is the key element
fo i di iduals L h, . A o di g to L h, this i age is the p odu t oth i ediate
se satio a d of e o of past e pe ie e, a d it s used to i te p et i fo atio a d guide to
actio L h, 1997; p.4).
Knowledge about spatial perception and cognition is important for exploring spatial experiences of
people from all age groups. Although perception and cognition have sometimes overlapping
definitions, perception can be defined as becoming aware through the senses and getting knowledge
by the mind (Canter, 1977), whereas cognition is the more general term and includes perception as
well as thinking, problem solving and the organisation of information and ideas (Downs & Stea,
1973). Movement through spaces and wayfinding are fundamental aspects of spatial exploration. As
a part of perceiving and experiencing the environment, wayfinding represents spatial decision
making with the aim of reaching a destination. Golledge (1999) defines wayfinding as the process of
determining and following a path or route between a specified origin and a specified destination. As
being a cognitive element, it also includes mental representation, route planning and distance
estimation. As stated by Lynch (1997, p.4 , i the p o ess of a fi di g, the st ategi li k is the
environmental image, the generalised picture of the exterior physical world that is held by an
i di idual . A o di g to Do s & “tea , p. , og iti e appi g is a p o ess o posed of a
series of psychological transformations by which an individual acquires, codes, stores, recalls, and
decodes information about the relative locations and attributes of phenomena in his everyday
spatial environment.
The perception of environments is uni ue fo hu a s as it s elated to the a kg ou d, i ludi g
knowledge and experience, or familiarity within the environment. On the other hand, the hild e s
pe eptio a d e pe ie e of e i o e t is diffe e t o pa i g to adults . The studies o
child e s o eptio of spa e, espe iall the theo ies of Piaget, p o ided a a kg ou d fo the
researches in environmental and spatial cognition fields. Piaget studied the way that children react
to their environment and categorised hild e s og iti e lea ing process as sensorimotor stage
(infancy), pre-operational stage (toddlerhood and early childhood), concrete operational stage
(elementary and early adolescence) and formal operational stage (adolescence and adulthood).
According to Piaget's theory, on concrete operational stage that is also supported by Tuan (1977),
this stage is formed during the later phases of elementary school. Children are expected to build new
experiences on their past ones and their idea of place becomes more specific and geographical.
Therefore, the case study of this research is conducted with the fifth graders aiming to reveal their
outdoor perceptions and preferences in terms of their home- school routes and playing areas.
Children view and experience both the natural and built environments different than adults as they
have a unique and direct way of interacting with their environment. As it s e tio ed White &
Stoecklin (1998), adults typically see nature as background for what they are doing whereas children
experience nature rather as a stimulator and experiential component of their activities. Although the
past e pe ie es fo the asis fo u de sta di g the e La g, , hild s i agi atio is of a
special kind which is tied mostly to the activity (Tuan, 1977). According to Tuan, place can acquire
deep meaning for the adult through the steady accretion of sentiment over the years, however, child
not only has a short past, but her/his e es o e tha the adult s a e o the p ese t a d i ediate
future, therefore a shorter but more condensed time span.
On the other hand, there is also strong evidence that young children respond more positively to
experiences in the outdoors than adults as they have not yet adapted to unnatural, man-made,
indoor environments (White and Stoe kli , . ‘ega di g this, it s k o that hild e ostl
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prefer to spend their time in outdoor environments as they offer unique opportunities inducing
development of independence and autonomy as well. Outdoor environments are important not only
fo hild e s se se of ell-being but also for their cognitive development. According to Moore and
Wong (1996), active learning in outdoor settings stimulates all aspects of child development more
readily than indoor environments. The effects of outdoor environments on children development are
also associated with the cognitive development of children through opportunities for exploration,
experimentation and play (Fisman, 2001). Participating outdoor activities helps to i p o e hild e s
awareness, reasoning and observational skills within the outdoor environment.
Within this context, this paper focuses on the evaluation of hild e s u i ue a of i te a tio ith
their outdoor environment. Therefore, the way that children perceive and experience outdoor
spaces within their home-school environment as well as the spatial characteristics of these spaces
are the main concerns of the paper. As the pape ai s to e eal the easo s u de l i g hild e s
space preferences, syntactic properties are used to evaluate and discuss the spatial characteristics of
significant areas.
2. Case study area as an environmental challenge
Nicosia, the capital of Cyprus, evolved as overlapping layers of cultures as being ruled by many
different conquerors and colonial powers throughout its history. The walled city of Nicosia, which is
the core of the capital of the island, has undergone substantial changes throughout history under the
influences of different cultures. Having a unique star shape and a labrynthlike spatial pattern, the
historical city presents a complicated urban structure where the wayfinding becomes difficult
especially for inexperienced visitors. Following the division of island, where the border (known as
Green Line) is passing through the middle of the Walled city, the integrity of the urban structure and
thus the it s e t alit has ee lost. The dividedness of the city undermines the wayfinding
process as well. Therefore, outdoor experience of children within a city having that kind of unique
spatial characteristics seems to be more interesting to be researched.
The division of the island have had some effects on social and economic conditions in Nicosia, where
the north part of the Walled city has lost its attractiveness for local residents. Especially by mid s,
changes in socio-economic profile have followed a completely different route, which indicated a
state of migrants to the area by different population segments calling for instability of population. As
the local residents abandoned the Walled city and moved to the periphery of Nicosia, the migrants
have become the predominant group in the city. Accordingly, the city has become a region
dominated by a new population that a e u fa ilia to the it s histo i al o te t. Therefore, unlike
the local residents, they are mostly focused on more function related and pragmatic landmarks, in
terms of wayfinding.
Due to the changing population in the north part of the Walled city, the student profile of the
schools in the region is also changed. Against this background; the research was conducted at
Lefkoşa Atatü k İlkokulu (Nicosia Atatürk Primary School), located in the Walled city (Figure 1). As
being one of the oldest of the city, the selection of this primary school is also based on the large
population of the immigrant children being educated in here. As the main aim of the paper is to
reveal the perception and experience of outdoor spaces by children; the historic centre, as a case
study area, presents a strong identity and a cohesive texture with its well-defined and well-used
outdoor spaces.
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Figure 1: Lo atio of Lefkoşa Atatü k İlkokulu Ni osia Atatü k P i a “ hool ithi the o te t of walled city
of Nicosia (map from Google Earth).
3. Methodology of the analysis
In this study, the main structure of the analysis is based on the comparison between hild e s
responses to a questionnaire and space syntax data of the places and landmarks derived from this
questionnaire. Thus, the methodology has two phases including the individual interviews with forty
nine students (female: 27, male: 22) and syntactic analyses of the spaces identified and preferred by
children.
In the first phase; students were interviewed individually with the help of a questionnaire where
they were asked to answer the questions and draw their route from home to school in order to
assess the way in which they perceive their outdoor environment and use outdoor spaces. Thus,
measures of children's awareness of surrounding built environment, their descriptions for special
spaces, activities and behaviours while outdoors were obtained through individual interviews and
pictures drawn by students. As drawings are the reflections of mental image, the drawings of
hild e a e alua le tools fo e plo i g hild e s a of thi ki g. A o di g to Piaget , if
hild e do t ha e a spatial ental image, they are not expected to present accurate drawings
(Yavuzer, 1992). Within this context, mental maps of children were used as a method for revealing
their cognitive understanding of the environment.
Questionnaire survey consists of three parts. In the first part of the questionnaire, students were
interviewed individually where they answered the open ended or multiple choice questions. The
questions of this section mainly focused on the description and use of the spaces on their route from
home to school. In the second part, students were asked to draw their route adding the home and
the school buildings as well. During the drawings students were interviewed informally about their
drawings in order to give children multiple opportunities to express their perceptions and
experiences of the environment in terms of defining landmarks and using outdoor spaces for their
playing activities. As walking through the city plays a fundamental role in terms of environmental
perception, students were expected to specify some significant places that attract and/or orient
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them in their wayfinding process. Thus, references to landmarks, such as a remarkable
place/building for them, were explored through both their environmental/route descriptions and
drawings.
In the last part of the individual interviews, the environmental perceptions of students were
examined by a visual query through maps and photographs. In order to explore their awareness of
the city landmarks, they were asked to identify the predetermined landmarks presented as a series
of photographs.
In the second phase; syntactic properties of the area are analysed through grid analysis by University
of Mi higa s “ ta D soft a e. Analyses of spaces, identified city landmarks and preferred playing
areas by students, are executed due to syntactic properties through various calculations including
integration-n, mean depth, compactness and occlusivity. Although it exceeds the maximum public
distance of interaction, span size is set to be 1000 so that we could represent the semi urban scale of
Walled city. Combining the conversations with their own personal drawings of the spaces and
interpreting the syntactic values of the spaces are expected to highlight their personal responses to
their environment.
4. Results and discussion
In the context of the research, results of the analyses are discussed in two parts. First part presents
the interpretation of individual interviews including drawings of students and visual query through
maps and photographs. The second part consists of the evaluation of syntactic findings in terms of
spatial characteristics of identified landmarks and preferred playing areas by children.
Individual interviews
In the first part of the individual interviews, carried out with forty nine students (female: 27, male:
22), the data regarding their descriptions and uses of spaces on their home-school route is gathered
through open ended or multiple choice questions. Through the interviews; almost all of the students
(96.1%) stated that they are walking to school while only 2 students stated that they are coming by a
car. 50% of the students are walking alone and the others are walking either with their friends or
si li gs. E e though the e al a s usi g the sa e oute, as the stated th ough the informal
i te ie , alki g th ough the it pla s a fu da e tal ole i te s of hild e s e i o e tal
perception and interaction with it.
On the other hand, the students described their home and school environment more with built
environmental elements while few students preferred to use human figures in their drawings.
Additionally, the natural environmental elements such as trees, flowers, etc. appeared with different
frequencies and combinations in some of the drawings (Figure 2). Their use of these elements can
be the result of their perception of built environment together with natural environment, which is
sometimes imaginary.
As it is seen from Figure 1, the walled city of Nicosia has a dense cohesive pattern of row houses,
however majority all of the students (77.6 %) drew a i di idual ho e uildi g a d a i di idual
s hool uildi g to des i e the oute the a e usi g to o e f o ho e to s hool Figu e .
Nevertheless, 22.5 % of the students added few buildings located on the home-school route but
again as detached buildings.
As the students seemed to have difficulty in perceiving the built environment as a whole, the
drawings of individual buildings may be associated with their order of importance within the
perceived environment. O the othe ha d, it s observed that the students were mostly question-
driven; in relation to the question of home-school route, they were focusing on the home and the
school specifically skipping the urban layout altogether.
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In the drawings including the schoolyard it was seen that students have an imaginary boundary in
their mind defining the schoolyard; in fact the area is defined by surrounding row houses in most
parts. Additionally the schoolyard gates were appeared as dominant elements in defining the
s hool a d d a i gs. It s o se ed that the stude ts ha e a te de to e phasise the ho e, s hool
and schoolyard entrances with a possible attempt to express indoor-outdoor space relations.
Although we didn't include the bastions among our predetermined landmarks, it is also observed
during the interview that majority of students are aware of the bastions with the city walls and their
o t i utio to the it s a e % . As li i g i a di ided it , hild e a e also a a e of the
existence of the borders. The city walls together with the Green Line, which represents the border
line of northern and southern parts of the city, define the edges of the city. These physical
restrictions are the important factors that affect the spatial perceptions and experiences of children.
Although the majority of students are aware of the city walls, none of them reflected this knowledge
to their drawings. Nevertheless, some of them put a mountain view to their pictures (Figure 2)
although it does t e ist ithi thei perceivable environment. Mountains drawings may also
present a kind of border as well.
Figure 2: Fou sa ples of stude t d a i gs ep ese ti g i di idual ho e uildi g a d i di idual s hool
uildi g ith the use of g ou d li e, sk li e, human figure and natural environmental elements.
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As landmarks are fundamental elements for enriching the mental representation of the
environment, children get different clues from environments in order to orient themselves. Thus, in
order to identify the environmental perception of students more in detail, they were asked to
describe the landmarks on their home-school route and identify the predetermined city landmarks
through maps and photographs. In this part, children specified some places as landmarks on their
route and the common answers are classified (Table 1) based on their descriptions. The landmarks
that are perceived as remarkable places by them include historical buildings, mosque, houses,
grocery store, school, public park and repair shop. These specified landmarks indicate that children
are generally familiar only to the close surrounding of their home and school environment.
Therefore they perceive the buildings and/or open spaces, located on their home-school route, as
landmarks associating with the institutional uses. Historical buildings, such as courthouse, and
mosque create remarkable images for children with different architectural characteristics; however
houses and grocery store are significant places for children based on their daily activities. In relation
to the socio-economical structure dominating the city and lack of sufficient public transportation, the
historical centre is occupied by small scale manufacture such as car repair shops that find a place in
children's imagery.
landmarks on historical grocery
mosque houses school public park repair shop
children's home buildings store
- school route
f % f % f % f % f % f % f %
female students - - 11 39.3 % 5 17.9 % 10 35.7 % 1 3.6 % 2 7.1 % 4 14.3 %
male students 4 16.7 % 7 29.2 % - - 6 25 % 3 8.3 % 2 8.3 % 1 4.2 %
Table 1: “tude ts la d a k defi itio o thei ho e-school route where shaded cells indicate the most
frequent answers.
As it s p ese ted i Ta le , the os ue is the highl ide tified . % a d o o a s e fo
both female (39.3%) and male (29.2%) students when they are asked about the important places on
their route from home to school. The second most frequent answer is grocery store (30.77%) which
is also the common place that children stop by on their home – school route. The mosque, having a
different architectural characteristic such as structural components of domes and minarets, as well
as dominating scale in terms of size and height, comparing to the surrounding traditional building
types, is evaluated as a landmark by children. On the other hand, the frequent use of the mosque
based on their fa ilies religious practices is also a factor affecting their landmark identification.
Although g o e sto e does t ha e a disti guisha le ha a te isti , compared to the structural
effect of a mosque, it s a secondarily identified landmark in relation to its functional use. Together
with the other environmental elements expressed by children (Table 1), more frequent answers
e eal that hild e s pe eptio is ostl lo al a d ased o thei dail a ti ities. Since the walled
city of Nicosia has a dense building pattern, all kinds of open spaces are distinguishable by children.
Therefore these spaces, without any distinctive architectural or environmental characteristic, can
easily be perceived as landmarks.
O the othe ha d, hild e s a a e ess of the it la d a ks is also e plo ed th ough a isual ue
with maps and photographs (Figure 3) where they were asked to identify the predetermined city
landmarks. Although none of the students were able to find the specified places on the city map,
most of them identified the places through the photographs. In this part of the survey, Great Inn
(Büyük Han) is the mostly recognized building (98%) for all the students, regardless the gender
difference (Table 2).
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Great Inn (Büyük Han) Municipality Market Kyrenia Gate
Selimiye Mosque Atatürk Square İs et İ ö ü “ ua e
Figure 3: Photographs used for landmark identification.
As it s p ese ted i Ta le ; all the la d a ks, e ept İs et İ ö ü “ ua e, e e ide tified ith high
pe e tages. İs et İ ö ü Square is lo ated fa a a to hild e s ho e-school environment and not
a frequently used area by children because of its dense vehicular traffic. On the other hand, some of
the students identified the area through the photograph but named as Kyrenia Gate. Although they
have different spatial characteristics, children perceive these two spaces as a single space because of
their adjacency.
Great Inn Municipality Kyrenia Selimiye Atatürk İs et İnönü
landmark identification
Büyük Han Market Gate Mosque Square Square
through photographs
f % f % f % f % f % f %
female students 27 100 % 26 96.3 % 27 100 % 24 88.9 % 21 77.7 % 5 18.5 %
male students 21 95.5 % 21 95.5 % 20 90.9 % 20 90.9 % 18 81.8 % 9 40.9 %
Table 2: “tude ts la d a k ide tifi atio th ough photog aphs he e shaded ells i di ate the ost f e ue t
answers.
Figure 4: Location of the preferred playing areas and the predetermined landmarks.
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The results indicate that the students are mostly aware of the city landmarks, shown in Figure 4, as
the e a le to e og ise the photog aphs. Ne e theless, the ha e p o le s i o ie ti g
themselves, through their environmental description and map survey, possibly as a result of the
la i th like o ga i patte of the Walled it . Although the ould t fi d the lo atio s of the
la d a ks o the it ap, ost of the stated that the do t get lost hile alki g a ound. The
statement verifies the importance of landmarks in terms of way finding, as they are visually familiar
to the most of the students. Stude ts spatial p efe e es fo pla i g a e o tai ed th ough ope
ended questions. Responses related with the preferred playing areas, which are the most
distinguishing answers representing the gender difference, are classified (Table 3 ased o stude ts
identifications. Locations of these specific places, together with the predetermined city landmarks,
are also shown in Figure 4.
spatial home / homes of
football field study centre neighbourhood public park
preferences home garden relatives
for playing f % f % f % f % f % f %
weekday - - 8 29.6 % 3 11.1 % 11 40.7 % 4 10.8 % - -
female
students
weekend - - 5 18.5 % - - 14 51.9 % 5 18.5 % 1 4.5 %
weekday 11 50 % 5 22.7 % 2 9.1 % 1 4.5 % 2 9.1 % - -
male
students
weekend 13 59.1 % 1 4.5 % 2 9.1 % 1 4.5 % 4 18.2 % 2 7.4 %
Table 3: “tude ts spatial preferences for playing where shaded cells indicate the most frequent answers.
Football Field Astro Pitch
Study Centre Çağla a Pu li Pa k
Figure 5: Public playing areas that are specifically preferred by students.
Results, presented in Table 3, indicate that female students mostly prefer to stay within their
neighbourhood after school time (40.7%) whereas the rest prefers to play at home environment
(29.6%), at Public Park (14.8%) or at Study Centre (11.1%). On the other hand, most of the male
students stated that they prefer a football field for playing activities (50%) while the other majority
group prefers to stay at home during weekdays (22.7%). Being the favourite place of male students,
football field was also specified as the place that is preferred most for playing at the weekends
(59.1%). Additionally, other places that were identified as playing areas through the interview are
Public Park, Study Centre and their own garden/courtyard. Similarly to their weekday preferences,
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female students mostly prefer to play within their neighbourhood environment (51.9%). The public
spaces that are specifically preferred for playing by students are shown in Figure 5.
According to the results, the possible reasons for the spatial preferences of female students are the
tendency to stay in a defined environment due to both security and privacy concerns mainly
imposed by their own families. On the contrary, male students seem to be more outdoor activity
oriented as they mostly stated about playing football without any specific place definition in terms of
distance to home-school route (Table 4).
football field astro pitch
football field
(no any specific (no any specific football field astro pitch - 1 astro pitch - 2 astro pitch - 3
preferences of
definition) definition)
male students
f % f % f % f % f % f %
weekday 4 36.4 % 3 27.3 % 1 9.1 % 1 9.1 % 3 27.3 % 2 18.2 %
weekend 3 27.3 % 4 36.4 % - - 2 18.2 % 1 9.1 % 3 7.3 %
Table 4: Football field preferences of male students where shaded cells indicate the most frequent answers.
Syntactic findings
Syntactic properties of the area are analysed through grid analysis with a span size of 1000 where
integration-n, mean depth, compactness and occlusivity measurements are used for the spatial
analyses of the significant places.
The integration-n analysis of the northern part of the Green Line in the Nicosia walled city, where the
integration levels are graded from red zones (the highest integration levels) to the dark blue zones
(the lowest integration levels) is presented in Figure 6. As mentioned before, although there's a
o e tio to south of Ni osia, th ough Lok a ı Gate, si e the hild e a ot pass the o de
without presence of their parents, we considered only the northern part of the city in our syntactic
and perceptual evaluation. In this case, as the average global integration of northern part is
10
6,49x10 , the highly integrated spaces in the city are mainly located around the Kyrenia Gate
expanding towards north-south and east-west directions denoting a shift from central squares to
wider streets of fringes. As this is the main traffic and pedestrian entrance to the Walled city,
integration levels derived from the syntactic structure of the area verify the responses of children
related to photograph based landmark perception presented in Table 2.
Figure 6: Integration-n analysis of the northern part of the Green Line in the Nicosia walled city.
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Spaces children identify
İs et İ ö ü “ ua e, lo ated o the east di e tio of K e ia Gate, has the ost i teg ated spa es
within the city. The main pedestrian and vehicular street of the city, Kyrenia Avenue, is the most
integrated axis connecting the Kyrenia Gate and Atatürk Square (traditionally, Sarayönü). Two main
pu li s ua es, İs et İ ö ü “ ua e a d Atatü k “ ua e, a e spatiall i portant areas as being the
landmarks of the city which are also recognised by most of the children through visual query with
photographs (Table 2). Although İs et İ ö ü “ ua e has highe i teg atio le els o pa i g Atatü k
Square (Figure 6, Table 5), majority of students recognised the area while the recognition level is
lo e fo İs et İ ö ü “ ua e Ta le 2). This is probably due to the existence of Venetian pillar as a
prominent landmark on its own. O the othe ha d, İsta ul “t eet, o igi ati g f o the İs et İ ö ü
Square and continuing towards the east side, has the second highest integration level. It should be
noted that, this street is one of the main axes passing through the bastions connecting the interior
and exterior of the circular organic pattern of the Walled city.
mean syntactic values
integration-n mean depth compactness occlusivity
northern part of the walled city
6,49E+10 8,83E+06 1,12E+09 0.26E-01
of Nicosia
Study Centre 7,35E+10 7,94E+06 1,35E+09 2,44E-01
spatial preferences of
students for playing
Çağlayan Public
1,10E+11 8,33E+06 2,37E+09 1,40E-01
Park
Football Field 1,02E+11 8,42E+06 2,56E+09 4,10E-02
Astro Pitch 7,49E+10 9,25E+06 1,23E+09 1,18E-01
Great Inn
7,76E+09 1,10E+07 6,26E+08 6,60E-02
(Büyük Han)
Municipality
2,31E+10 1,07E+07 7,37E+08 3,32E-01
Market
landmarks
Kyrenia Gate 2,14E+11 5,95E+06 1,31E+09 1,81E-01
Selimiye Mosque 2,23E+10 1,07E+07 8,01E+08 1,87E-01
Atatürk Square 1,88E+11 6,20E+06 9,81E+08 1,93E-01
İsmet İnönü
2,15E+11 6,13E+06 1,41E+09 2,32E-01
Square
preferred / identified mostly by preferred / identified mostly by most preferred / identified in
females males common
Table 5: Mean syntactic values of the northern part of the walled city of Nicosia in relation to preferred public
playing areas and identified predetermined landmarks.
Although Great Inn is the mostly identified landmark through photographs (Table 2), the integration
value presents a lower degree (Table 5), as it is located closer to the buffer zone which is also the
boundary of the analysed a ea, as it s see i Figu e . It s i po ta t to e phasise that the i e
parts of the city mostly present lower integration levels due to the denser housing structure and the
narrow winding streets. In this regard, Municipality Market and Selimiye Mosque, being the other
mostly recognised landmarks (Table 2 , do t ha e highe i teg atio levels in terms of syntactic
structure. However, it should be mentioned that; within the semi urban scale of the walled city,
which represents the accessible areas for children, Great Inn and Municipality Market seem to be
located at the deeper parts of the city because of the borderline.
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SSS10 Proceedings of the 10th International Space Syntax Symposium
Spaces children play
Çağla a Pu li Pa k, as o e of the ide tified spa es for playing activities, presents a high
11
integration-n level (1,10x10 of the o the side of the it , as it s p ese ted i Ta le 5. This place
has higher global integration value than the mean of the Walled city itself; therefore it is natural for
the students to socialize in this section. Although it s see that the a ea is ostl p efe ed
female students both at weekday and weekend (Table 3), it s also the ost o o p efe ed a ea
for playing activities (Table 5). Being the most integrated area comparing to other preferred playing
areas, Football Field is not stated specifically by male students although most of them stated that
they prefer a football field for playing (Tables 3, 4 and 5, Figure 6). Results of syntactic analysis also
indicate that the Astro Pitch is in moderate degree of integration levels which is preferred by some
male students for outdoor playing for both weekend and weekday (Tables 4 and 5, Figure 6). On the
other hand, Study Centre is another preference for both female and male students for playing
10.
activities where the mean integration n level is 7.35x10 In spite of having a low integration level
comparing to the other outdoor playing areas, Study Centre is preferred probably because of the
fu tio al use. It s also a o o a ti it a ea fo the hild e li i g i the Walled city as it has a
well defined and protected playing area.
Occlusivity analysis is an important spatial characteristic that helps to examine the identified playing
a eas as it p ese ts the su p isi g spa es ithi the it hi h a e a fa to affe ti g the stude t s
space preferences for playing. Benedikt (1979) includes occlusivity definition among his six geometric
measures of isovist fields as the length of occluding boundaries within the isovist. As Kaynar, (2004)
suggests, since these boundaries are the non physical surfaces of the isovist, occlusivity value
provides the degree of perceptual uncertainty within the isovist. Kalff, et al (2010) on the other
hand, emphasized that occluded portions of the isovist are still permeable. When occlusivity value is
high, space encourages people to move along the path to discover the unforeseen views. Therefore
occlusivity value presents the surprise factor within a space.
Through the occlusivity analysis of the preferred playing areas, the results indicate that the Study
Centre presents most surprising spaces within the system which is preferred by both female and
male students for playing activities (Table 5, Figure 7). Having a higher occlusivity level (1, 40E-01)
comparing to the average occlusivity level of the city (0, 26E-01), the Public Park is more attractive
for female students for playing, as it is preferred more frequently than male students both during
weekdays and weekends. Within the overall analysis based on space preferences, results indicate the
spaces with high occlusivity levels are preferred mostly by female students (Tables 3 and 5), probably
as it offers more privacy. Contrarily, majority of male students preferred the area with the lowest
occlusivity, probably in accordance with their activity oriented spatial preferences requiring a wider
range of visual field.
Figure 7: Occlusivity analysis of the northern part of the walled city of Nicosia.
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SSS10 Proceedings of the 10th International Space Syntax Symposium
Compactness analysis is another tool that we use to reveal and discuss the underlying reasons for
space preferences of the students. According to Batty (2001) compactness is a ratio defined as the
average to the farthest distance from each vantage point. Compactness value changes between 0
and 1; where long, narrow, stringy shapes have values closer to 0, while round, compact, circular
shapes have values closer to 1. If the obstacle within a system is linear, rather than compact, L-
shaped or U-shaped, even though they may have the same length, the system tends to be more
deep (Hillier, 2002). Compactness shows similarity with the local integration especially in the outer
edges around the bastions of the selected area.
The syntactic analyses of the playing areas indicate that the Public Park and the Football Field
presents higher compactness values comparing to the other playing areas (Figure 8). The common
feature of these places is to have wide open areas presenting more visual fields for children. The
compactness values of these areas can be an indicator especially for the preferences of male
students as they need spaces with larger visual fields based on their playing activities. Although the
compactness levels of Bastions, serving as public open spaces on the North side of the city, seem to
be higher (Figure 8 , the stude ts did t state a p efe e e fo these spa es.
Figure 8: Compactness analysis of the northern part of the walled city of Nicosia.
5. Conclusion
The results of the research emphasise that the edges of the city and especially the city walls seem to
affect the spatial perceptions and experiences of children. Regardless of these physical restrictions,
children also prefer to stay in their close environment. As they mostly live in the neighbourhoods on
the East side of the it , the do t p efe to go the pla i g a eas lo ated o the “outh side of the
city although there are other open spaces that the spatial integration is high.
It is seen in this research that even though the children are aware of their surrounding environment
and can identify significant landmarks, their playing grounds, i.e. the places where they prefer to
spend time are different. They tend to stay in close proximity to their home and school routes.
Ho e e the e s a diffe e e et ee the fe ale a d ale stude ts o side i g the p efe e e of
game types. As the male students prefer to spend time by playing team sports especially on
weekends, their place selection is more significant compared to female students, whose place
selection is dispersed within closer vicinity. This situation is caused by their game types and
necessitating fewer friends at a time, where the preferred playing area provides opportunities for
group activity and environmental observation. Therefore for male students, place selection for
pla i g ith f ie ds is oth sig ifi a t a d o plies ith the s ta ti data he eas e a t sa the
same for female students.
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SSS10 Proceedings of the 10th International Space Syntax Symposium
In this research it is also seen that selection of spaces along the boundary of the case study area was
more significant than identified landmarks. As being surrounded by a dried ditch, thus being located
on higher grounds, the bastions become memorable especially for the children. Therefore selection
of these places for playing area is not only confirmed by syntactic outcomes but with imagination as
well.
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