A Post-Occupancy Evaluation Model Based on Spatio-Temporal Mapping Method for University Outdoor Spaces

Abstract

Not only do university campuses consist of a variety of social and educational buildings, they also create an integrated system with their outdoor spaces and furniture, recreation and landscape areas. Outdoors have the potential to create social interaction, rest and relaxation, recreation, exchange of ideas and a strong sense of ownership and belonging. Creating a common identity for social life by enabling people to communicate and socialize with each other is the most important function of outdoor spaces. However, although the rationality of external spaces is designed, it is possible to use other than what is expected in practice. The relationship between the external spaces and the building groups, the adequacy, the duration of use, the accessibility and the interaction of the physical environment should be examined with a holistic approach to understand the difference between expectations and reality. In order to identify user needs in outdoor spaces as a way to assess if human use and design intentions are in fact successful, post occupancy evaluation (POE) is recommended as the most significant advanced method. Unfortunately, although studies on the evaluation of indoor spaces have been increasing day by day, there is no comprehensive study of POE that can be applied to the outdoor spaces, especially in university campuses. In this study, a POE method which discusses the variables that affect the use of outdoor space and the interaction between these variables is introduced. The proposed method was applied in a suburban university campus and the results were evaluated in terms of outdoor use.