Public Spaces as Knowledgescapes: Understanding the Relationship between the Built Environment and Creative Encounters at Dutch University Campuses and Science Parks

Abstract

The success of university campuses depends on the interrelations between creative encounters and the built environment, conceptualised here as spatial affordances for creativity. Such an interface plays a fundamental role in interactions for knowledge sharing and the exchange of ideas on campus. Due to campus public spaces generally being considered as the leftovers between buildings and classrooms, undermanaged, and overlooked, little is known about the extent to which this built environment enables or inhibits creative encounters in such spaces. The inner-city campuses and science parks (SPs) of Amsterdam and Utrecht, the case-studies of this research, differ in terms of their location relative to the city, their masterplan typologies and the arrangement of buildings. However, they are similar in terms of the aforementioned issues of public spaces. The novelty of this research is the attempt to overcome such issues using an innovative mixed-methods approach that tests the ‘spatial affordances for creativity’ with empirical data collection and analysis. This raises the importance of mapping, quantifying and analysing the spatial distribution of momentary perceptions, experiences, and feelings of people with methods such as volunteered geographic information (VGI). The results show that proximity between multiple urban functions and physical features, such as parks, cafés and urban seating are important when it comes to explaining the high frequency of creative encounters between people. Urban designers of campuses can use the applied method as a tool to plan and design attractive public spaces that provide creativity through the transfer of tacit knowledge, social well-being, positive momentary perceptions, sense of community, and a sense of place.

Editorial for the Special Issue on “Experiencing the City: The Relation between Urban Design and People’s Well-Being”

“…The study by Soares et al [ 22 ] combined location data by means of online maps and questionnaires to collect data on people’s momentary perceptions, specifically creative encounters, with urban public spaces at university campuses, which is called Volunteered Geographic Information (VGI). In addition, secondary objective data of the built-up environment (e.g., Openstreet Map) was used.…”

“…Studies from Resch et al [ 20 ], Pykett et al [ 29 ], Ristea et al [ 21 ] and Soares et al [ 22 ] showed that combining different data sources (sensors and surveys) and linking them to space via geospatial approaches enhanced citizen engagement in field lab settings and offers potentials for evidence-based planning.…”

“…Furthermore, Soares et al [ 22 ] focused on public spaces on Dutch university campuses and showed that proximity to functions (e.g., campus buildings, restaurants, cafés) and environmental features (e.g., greenspace and water vegetation) could lead to more creative encounters. Moreover, Fu et al [ 23 ] investigated the relation between urban vibrancy and man-made environment characteristics via multisource urban spatial information data from an Urumqi case area.…”

“…Another challenge for future research is to successfully integrate different data collection techniques (e.g., sensoring, surveys, geospatial data collection). In addition, there is still a need for novel forms of analysis in studies that aim to combine objective and subjective data [ 22 , 29 ]. In that sense, volunteered geographic data and social media data can be further investigated [ 22 , 23 ].…”

“…In addition, there is still a need for novel forms of analysis in studies that aim to combine objective and subjective data [ 22 , 29 ]. In that sense, volunteered geographic data and social media data can be further investigated [ 22 , 23 ]. Furthermore, including interviews in future research could help improve understanding of the definitional boundaries of emotions, perceptions and experiences related to the urban environment [ 29 ].…”