Global Seminar | How Urban Design can Influence Walkability : A Virtual Reality Experiment

Global Seminars
Ideas, discussion and thinking on sustainable cities and settlement systems at the
intersection of science, design, place and time
How Urban Design can
Influence Walkability:
A Virtual Reality Experiment
doi.org/10.117...
Walkability has become an important theme in urban research and urban design
practice due to potential environmental, public health and social benefits. Evidence
suggests that environmental attractiveness can have a significant impact on the
amount of walking activities that take place, but relatively little research exists on which
environmental features linked to attractiveness increase walkability. This talk describes
a virtual reality experiment on environmental features that influence walkability in the
context of Singapore, focusing on three key features identified by the classic urban
design theorist Jan Gehl: liveliness, high-quality façades, and low buildings. The talk
will provide an overview of the current knowledge on urban design and walkability,
describe the virtual reality experiment and its results, and discuss implications for urban
planning and urban analytics.

Presenter
: Heidi Silvennoinen
, Researcher at the Cities Knowledge Graph team, FCL Global, Singapore-ETH Centre
License: CC-BY-NC-SA
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