Naoji Matsumoto

CHARACTERISTICS OF CITIZEN SPACES BASED ON CASE EXAMPLES INTRODUCED IN ARCHITECTURAL JOURNALS

This paper analyzes how citizen spaces are used and what are the intents and the conditions of the construction of citizen spaces based on articles in architectural journals. The following are the findings of this study.1. Citizen spaces of city halls tend to become larger with the times. However, the ground areas of the city halls do not change, therefore city halls tend to become taller with more levels and the citizen spaces are located near the entrance.2. In the colder areas, citizen spaces of city halls tend to be constructed inside and those in warmer areas tend to be connected to outside areas. The characteristics of city halls vary by region.3.Citizen spaces of city halls are designed to stimulate communication. Bigger city halls need to satisfy more diverse demands regarding the citizen spaces and the citizen spaces are expected to play a major role as a place of communication in the community.4. Citizen spaces of city halls vary with the design requirements: however, creation of easy-to-access and comfortable citizen spaces that serve the needs of the citizens as a place to promote communication is in demand.