Speaker
Description
In high-density urban centers with rail transit stations, private developers frequently adopt sunken plazas as transitional spaces connecting station halls and main buildings within their development parcels. This spatial strategy aims to enhance pedestrian experience and guide consumer flow through specific spatial configurations. These sunken plazas with public-private interface characteristics demonstrate typical public space attributes. On one hand, their innovative spatial forms effectively improve both the quantity and quality of urban public space provision. On the other hand, driven by profit-seeking motives, their spatial production logic tends to create exclusionary spaces with gentrification features through commercialized settings and access control mechanisms, potentially leading to social inequity issues.
This study systematically analyzes the representation mechanisms and influencing factors of spatial justice in urban privately-owned public spaces, grounded in theoretical frameworks of spatial justice. Spatial justice is operationalized through three dimensions: accessibility, diversity, and commonality. Accessibility manifests in spatial reachability and usage freedom， diversity emphasizes functional mix and user heterogeneity, while commonality refers to spatial identity and collective maintenance consciousness. Quantitative analysis demonstrates that physical environment factors (e.g., three-dimensional pedestrian network integration) positively affect accessibility through spatial interface permeability (β=0.47). Management factors (including cleaning frequency and facility renewal cycles) influence commonality via environmental responsiveness (β=0.32), while usage patterns (particularly non-consumptive stay behaviors) enhance diversity through spatial occupation heterogeneity (β=0.29). These three elements through three significant pathways (p<0.01) in the structural equation model empirically validate the operational mechanism whereby material carriers as value embodiments dynamically interact with institutional practices in capital-driven spatial production.
Morphologically, sunken plazas in rail transit areas revitalize traditional urban square characteristics through defined spatial boundaries, demonstrating potential for creating high-quality public spaces. Their impacts exhibit a dual nature: they can serve as inclusive public spaces, fostering social interaction and cultural exchange, while also being instrumentalized by capital to enhance development profits. The social impacts are amplified by high passenger volumes at transit hubs.This research provides theoretical foundations for governing urban privately-owned public spaces, uncovering spatial manifestation patterns of the interplay between capital logic and public values.
| Keywords | Privately-owned Public Space; Spatial Justice; Sunken Plazas; TOD; Publicness |
|---|---|
| Best Congress Paper Award | Yes |
