Study on the Relationship between User Emotions and Spatial Physical Characteristics for Pedestrian Space Design Decisions: A Case Study of Kanazawa and Nomi in Japan

This paper explores the effects of urban spatial characteristics on users’ emotional responses. Two research questions are addressed: (1) Is there a correlation between spatial perceptions and the emotional valences of users? (2) What are the features (especially physical) of a pleasing urban space? To explore these two questions, we conducted experiments in five urban spaces (a university campus, residential area, Japanese garden, modern museum, and traditional pedestrian street) in Japan to obtain data on participants’ emotional responses and perception evaluations. The results showed that (1) the factor analysis results showed that the aesthetic characteristics of a space more strongly influence emotional valences than the physical characteristics, and (2) users’ emotional valences and scores for perception evaluations are strongly correlated. Moreover, we considered the main physical indexes of pleasant urban spaces, such as the width of the pavement, width-to-height ratio of the tree boundary, vertical boundary, and multi-level boundary.