IN-PERSON London. Section B

Abstract

The construction of biophilic urban is a crucial development direction that concerns global sustainable development and residents’ well-being. The biophilic urban can enhance the opportunity for residents to come into contact with nature, but the traditional large area of green space with high maintenance costs does not deliberately consider how to promote the effectiveness of human and nature contact and defaults that the green space itself has this function. At the same time, less consideration is given to natural contact with non-green space. Therefore, small-scale biophilic spaces mixed within existing urban public spaces and buildings have relatively more development vitality and research value. This research explores what small-scale biophilic urban spaces can better promote activities involving contact with nature based on Nicholson’s “loose-parts” theory. It employs case study methodology to analyze in detail six typical streets, parks, and buildings in Nottingham, UK, and Chengdu, China, identifying small-scale biophilic spaces within them through natural contact activity observation (activity frequency and stay time, etc.) and inquiry, observing and analyzing the characteristics of people’s natural contact activities therein.”loose-parts” natural variables are identified using a grounded theory approach used to create a taxonomy of image types. Moreover, they will then be correlated to user characteristics, such as gender, age, and natural contact activities. The anticipated research outcomes are 1.the main characteristics and types of small-scale biophilic spaces, 2.the characteristics of natural contact activities in different small-scale biophilic spaces, 3.”loose-parts” natural variables within biophilic spaces significantly impact natural contact activities. The results of this study are expected to provide empirical support for enhancing the efficacy of natural contact in existing urban spaces and alleviating urban nature deficit disorder.