Kansei Engineering Study for Streetscape Zoning using Self Organizing Maps

Abstract

In this study, Kansei engineering was used to analyze people's subjective responses to a streetscape plan for a historic townscape. The Chofu area in Shimonoseki city was chosen for the Kansei analysis, and the appearance of the streetscape was evaluated on the basis of actual photographs by using the traditional semantic differential method. A guideline is often formulated to promote a landscaping plan in such historic towns. Generally, a landscape guideline established for a public purpose recognizes the anticipated loss of the worth to landowners and leaseholders resulting from the agreement, even if the plan is not legally binding or does not include penalties. The regulation, therefore, might be neutral in how it affects concerned residents or businesspersons in the area covered by the guideline. The different positions of people in the region, such as residents, tourist agents, or businesspersons, should be reflected in the views of the entire community. When building the plan, it is necessary to unify the concept and the image of the streetscape in the community. However, an issue sometimes comes up in such areas where the criteria for landscaping are not unified in the community. The principal concept of “Image held in the region and image of the individual place of the street” must be unified in advance. The Kansei engineering study proposed in this study revealed the representative design elements arising from the regional characteristics of the area and its people. The pilot investigation using self-organizing maps (SOMs) demonstrated the development of landscape image maps to consider the streetscape elements from observation points in the area. SOM has been used as an alternative analytical method that replaces factor analysis or PCA in recent Kansei engineering studies. This study employed a general SOM approach to illustrate streetscape zoning.