Ran Goldblatt

The implications of inter-visibility between landmarks on wayfinding performance: An investigation using a virtual urban environment

We investigated the effect of inter-visibility conditions between landmark elements in a simulated 3D urban environment on wayfinding performance (the acquisition of spatial knowledge through direct experience within the simulated environment and navigation throughout this environment). Our experiment was conducted by means of a 3D virtual environment to test the effect of two properties of visibility conditions: the overlapping between the visual fields of two landmarks and the topological depth (length of visual chain) between these visual fields. The results show that a high degree of overlapping between the visual fields of an origin and a target landmark helps people perform wayfinding tasks, particularly in cases where the length of the visual chain is short (one-step topological depth).

Urban spatial configuration and socio-economic residential differentiation: The case of Tel Aviv

Abstract This paper compares the effect of two aspects of a city’s spatial configuration – spatial separation between areas and dissimilarity in spatial integration between areas – on socio-economic residential differentiation in the city of Tel Aviv, Israel. The integration analysis is based on the space syntax methodological–conceptual framework and focuses on Tel Aviv’s core, where the main socio-economic differentiations were identified. Obtained results indicate that socio-economic differentiation between areas correspond mainly with the level of spatial separation or segmentation between areas but much less with the level of dissimilarity characterizing their spatial integration. The empirical findings can be considered innovative in light of the fact that space syntax studies dealing with social differentiation in cities usually focus solely on spatial integration patterns. The research findings nonetheless support the theoretical understanding that the urban environment’s spatial configuration provides a fundamental condition for the creation and preservation of urban social residential differentiation.

Spatial patterns of retail activity and street network structure in new and traditional Israeli cities

The association between spatial patterns of retail activity and the spatial configuration of street networks was examined by means of the space syntax methodology in eight Israeli cities that represent two city types, characterized by different planning approaches and urban growth: (i) new towns, which were established according to a comprehensive city plan and modern planning concepts of “tree-like” hierarchical street networks and “neighborhood units”; (ii) older cities, where street networks and the spatial patterns of retail activity were formed incrementally during their growth. Unlike in older cities, retail activity in new towns concentrates in relatively less-accessible and intermediate locations. This is indicated by a weak correlation between retail activity and the street network’s Integration and Choice centrality measures. The comparison between Israeli cities illustrates the influence of urban growth and planning approaches on the formation of retail activity and its interaction with the structure of the street network.

Enhancing the Legibility of Virtual Cities by Means of Residents’ Urban Image: a Wayfinding Support System

In this paper we present an operative Wayfinding Support System (WSS) for a virtual city using the virtual model of Tel Aviv for targeted and exploration wayfinding tasks. The WSS was developed under the assumption that a design of a virtual city should allow a transfer of spatial knowledge from a real city to its virtual representation. Accordingly, the information for this system was obtained from an empirical study on Tel Aviv residents’ urban image by using their city sketch maps. The WSS uses the topological structure between the urban elements in these sketch maps to decide which elements would be highlighted to the virtual city user, according to the observed urban environment and to the user’s real time log navigation parameters (scale and perspective).

GEOGRAPHICAL SCALE OF TOLERANCE IN THE URBAN AREA

ABSTRACT: The paper examines attitudes of mutual tolerance as expressed by the Jewish majority and the Arab minority in Jaffa, a mixed residential area in the city of Tel Aviv. More specifically, it focuses on the willingness of members of each group to share residential locations at different geographical scales (such as: the same housing unit, street, neighborhood, or the city as a whole). The survey’s findings indicate, as expected, that Arabs and Jews alike tend to be more tolerant in this respect as the geographical scale increases and when actually residing in mixed neighborhoods, in comparison to those living in ethnically homogeneous residential areas. At the same time, it became evident that residents expressing intolerance are more sensitive to geographical scale when compared to residents expressing greater tolerance. Furthermore, sensitivity to scale was found to be more intense among the Jewish majority population, particularly among residents of homogeneous neighborhoods. We interpret those patterns of tolerance across geographical scale as expressing people’s desire to control their daily encounters with the Other through practices of avoidance while simultaneously tending to preserve intergroup contacts for their functional benefits and social rewards.

Analysis and Comparison of Feature-Based Patterns in Urban Street Networks

Analysis of street networks is a challenging task, needed in urban planning applications such as urban design or transportation network analysis. Typically, different network features of interest are used for within- and between comparisons across street networks. We introduce StreetExplorer, a visual-interactive system for analysis and comparison of global and local patterns in urban street networks. The system uses appropriate similarity functions to search for patterns, taking into account topological and geometric features of a street network. We enhance the visual comparison of street network patterns by a suitable color-mapping and boosting scheme to visualize the similarity between street network portions and the distribution of network features. Together with experts from the urban morphology domain, we apply our approach to analyze and compare two urban street networks, identifying patterns of historic development and modern planning approaches, demonstrating the usefulness of StreetExplorer.

Complex artificial environments - ESLab's experience

The Environmental Simulation Laboratory (ESLab) is one of several laboratories, research centers and planning and design organizations that have emerged in the last two decades with a configuration that focuses on complex artificial environments in general, and on cities and their dynamics, in particular. The specific experience gained at ESLab is employed in this paper to discuss the various theoretical, methodological, social and ethical issues associated with the above emerging bodies.