Environment Behavior Studies of Intelligibility of Urban Environment for "Foreign" People

本研究调查了外国人在日常生活环境中的寻路行为，以及在大阪车站地区作为一个大型复杂的终点站，然后讨论了城市空间在形成多元文化环境方面的一些设计改进。研究结果如下：采用速写法对20例外国人日常生活中信息获取的特点和困难进行了描述。在大阪终端区，对标志、地图和信息亭的分布和内容的实地调查也表明，在信息障碍方面存在许多缺点和问题，这些问题不仅是语言问题，而且是这些环境信息辅助装置的安装方式不系统。在大阪终点站，分别对58名外国人和53名日本人的寻路行为进行了跟踪调查。两组在迷路的频率、超过步行距离和步行速度方面存在很大差异。这些现象主要是由于语言问题和社会文化对日本大型航站楼作为一个功能和空间复杂的大厦的空间结构的误解。

This study investigated the wayfinding behavior of foreign people in their daily life surroundings and at the Osaka station area as a large complex terminal, and then discussed some design improvements of urban spaces in regards to forming multicultural environments. The results are as follows;1. The features and/or difficulties of information acquisition during daily lives about twenty cases by foreign people were described by interview with sketch.2. At the Osaka terminal area, the field survey about distributions and contents of signs, maps and information booths as well showed that there were many disadvantages and problems in terms of information barriers which were caused by not only the language issue but also unsystematic way of installation of these environmental information aids.3. At the Osaka terminal area, the wayfinding behavior of 58 cases by foreigners and of 53 by Japanese as the contrast group were individually tracked and interviewed if possible. There were large differences between two groups in terms of frequency of lostness, exceeded walking distances and walking speed. These phenomenon were mainly due to language issue and also socio-cultural misunderstandings of spatial structure at Japanese large terminal area as a functionally and spatially complex edifice.