Exploring the effect of urban design on women's perceptions and patterns of use in public spaces

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Understanding the causal relationships between intention (designer/planner) and perception (user/producer)in urban design to outline new sensorial criteria and design parameters that integrate the gender perspectiveinto the design process for a more inclusive use of public spaces.Abstract: The research project will study the perception of urban ambiances by women in public squaresdesigned in Western European cities in the past fifty years. The main objective will be to provide tools to helppractitioners, architects, planners, policy makers and other actors involved in the construction of public spaceto implement strategies to counter gender inequalities in modern urban developments. It will look at the toolsand parameters used by planners to design these spaces nowadays and at the new technologies available fordesigners to incorporate new sensory criteria into the design process. The objective of the work will be tounderstand the relationship between quantitative design parameters and qualitative outcome (sensoryexperiences) in the urban design process to try outline a new framework promoting a more qualitativeapproach to urban design.Medieval cities grew little by little in accordance with changing needs, in contrast to the rapid tempo ofmodernism's large-scale planning. [...] The solution is not to recreate pre-modern cities, but to developcontemporary tools that can be applied analytically to once again forge an alliance between life and space incities. (Gehl, Svarre, 2013, pp.3)As highlighted by Jan Gehl, public spaces within modern urban development have often been forgotten, overlyrationalised and designed by large-scale thinking, rather than in a local/human way. This research project willlook at this specific type of urban spaces to provide a greater level of understanding of the current methodsused by designers and their impact on ambiances, perceptions and human behaviours in public spaces.Ultimately, the study will aim to outline the potential emergence of new tools, more adapted to contemporaryissues and inequalities such as the question of gender in the urban space.