STREET AFFORDANCES: HUMAN-ENVIRONMENT INTERACTION IN THE DESIGN PROCESS OF URBAN SPACE

Abstract

Incentives to walking as a transport mode are an integral part of the Brazilian National Policy on Urban Mobility, Federal Law 12.587/2012. Nonetheless, design approaches to streets are currently based on motorized transportation, which does not represent the necessary support to walking or to social, cultural, and leisure activities. During their evolution, streets reflected historical, economic, political, and social contexts influencing and being influenced by urban life. However, the advent of new technologies in traffic engineering, civil construction, and communication changed this scenario, and traffic systems started to lead the street design. Research on walking as a transport mode has shown the influence of street space on people’s decisions to walk. Environment and Behavior Studies bring substantive knowledge of the human-environment interaction to the theory of Architecture and Urbanism. This knowledge is essential in the transition from designs based on normative theories to contemporary street designs. The Affordance Theory provides understanding of the transactional interaction of the person with the environment. To achieve the integral design of the street, we adapted the Affordance Based Design methodology. This procedural theory was seen as experimentally adequate both in the design process and in the evaluation for further adjustments in existing streets.

Keywords

• Street Design
• Affordances