Research on Publicness Evaluation and Behavioral Characteristics in Traditional Villages—A Case Study of Chongqing Hewan Village

Abstract

(1) Background: Public space is an important carrier for maintaining the cultural values of a village and the production and living customs of the villagers, but the use rights and boundaries are in an unstable and ambiguous state, and it is not a completely open and inclusive public space. The study aims to deepen the understanding of the publicness of public space in traditional villages from the perspective of subjective and objective combination, which reveals the relationship between the space and villagers’ behavior. (2) Methods: The research established an evaluation framework for assessing the “publicness” of public spaces in traditional villages by integrating space syntax and cognitive surveys. This framework facilitates the analysis of the extent and dimensions of publicness, along with corresponding behavioral patterns, and explores the underlying mechanisms influencing publicness. (3) Results: The study reveals significant variations in the publicness of traditional village spaces. High-publicness areas tend to cluster, whereas low-publicness areas are more scattered, and riverfront regions exhibit greater publicness compared to mountain-adjacent ones. Villagers exhibit notable differences in their evaluations of public spaces, and individuals aged 14–18 and those over 66 rate the highest. The utilization rate of high-publicness spaces is significantly high, catering to a diverse array of activities. In spaces with lower publicness, the duration and variety of activities tend to be more constrained, often limited to rapid exchanges or brief respites, exhibiting a narrower scope of activities. (4) Conclusions: The study underscores the variability and complexity of publicness in traditional village spaces, which manifest not only in spatial layouts and types but also in villagers’ usage patterns and behavioral preferences. This may be influenced by objective factors such as spatial accessibility, social interaction, and richness of cultural activities.