Human Experience In Landscape Design

The typical view of designed landscapes has often been tied to their visual qualities. Landscape design in this context is viewed as a tool for adding aesthetic values to different open spaces. This view produces spaces with typical features that can meet a prior image of how a designed landscape should look like without any consideration of other equally important aspects [1]–[3]. In addition, the dominance of aesthetics as a goal for designed landscapes decreases the functionality of its elements. With the pressure of urbanization, a view of a landscape that is not aware of its full potential may prioritize other economic and services land uses at the expense of open spaces. Investments will accordingly be directed to purposes that have direct

Literature review is used for the investigation of three main topics, absolute fundamental human needs, approaches to human experience in landscape and sustainable landscape development. First of all, significant contributions to the definition of fundamental human needs are compared to achieve a cohesive list of human needs consistent with the research purpose. Secondly, approaches to human experience in landscape present the study of specific human needs in relation to their interaction with landscapes, and this is through two main concepts, landscape preference and the concept of place. Comparative analysis is used again to establish a list of qualities of successful public places. Finally, landscape functions and services they offer for humans are studied as well. As a final conclusion, a classification scheme is used to establish an analytical framework with a clear distinguishing organization of the relation between human needs and potentials of public designed

Further characteristics related to places is widely discussed in literature under the term, ‘sense of place’. It is a term originates from the Latin term ‘genius loci’ [18]. Genius loci “refers to the unique spiritual force inherent in a place [19]” . It is about experiencing something more than just the physical qualities of an environment [14], [18]. Sense of place now is used to refer to a place ‘spirit’, ‘personality’, ‘atmosphere’ and ‘quality’ [16], [18]. The importance of a sense of place is that it can make people more consistent with their surroundings. This consistency allows for better usage and behaviour in a space, increases the feeling of safety and consequently, affects satisfaction [20]. Contacting with public landscapes can affect people’s well-being. It can allow for activities that support people’s mental and psychological health and facilitate social life [21], [22]. Environments that provide opportunities of the extension of human’s experience to include all five senses can affect people’s sense of place [16]. Stephan Carr et al., Mark Francis, Jan Gehl, John Montgomery, and Project for Public Spaces discussed further characteristics of successful public places [21],