Assessment of user happiness in campus open spaces
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Published:
May 31, 2019
Keywords:
happiness subjective well-being educational environment open spaces cognitive map university campus space setting
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Abstract
There is a considerable amount of interest among scholars and urban designers in assessing and fulfilling a shared desire for happiness that is expressed by users of open spaces. The scope of this paper is limited to user experience in a university campus, and considerations around the impact of the setting and design of existing open spaces on stimulating positive feelings and happiness in students, and enhancing the all-round educational experience. The study is limited to young female students at the Effat University campus, in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, Jeddah City. This paper aims to assess the students’ level of happiness on a university campus by examining the impact of the open spaces design and setting on the students. A cognitive map analysis is used to investigate the students’ emotional experience of the open spaces on campus. Also, a questionnaire is used to investigate the students’ preferable open spaces and the reasons for their preferences, which validate the results. The results showed that due to social and environmental conditions some decisions need to be made in response to outdoor temperatures and the spaces’ settings in order to improve their design and make a significant positive impact on students’ happiness. In addition, this could potentially result in a happier, healthier, and more efficient educational environment overall.
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How to Cite
Farag, A. A., Badawi, S. R. and Doheim, R. M. (2019) “Assessment of user happiness in campus open spaces”, The Journal of Public Space, 4(1), pp. 45–64. doi: 10.32891/jps.v4i1.566.
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Section
Society
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References
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Augustin, S., & Coleman, C. (2012). The designer's guide to doing research: Applying knowledge to inform design. John Wiley & Sons.
Babincak, P. (2018). Subjective Happiness in Slovakia: Reliability and Validity of Measuring Happiness through the Subjective Happiness Scale. European Journal of Mental Health, 13(2), 111-132.
Bechtel, R. B., & Churchman, A. (2002). Handbook of Environmental Psychology John Wiley & Sons. Inc.: Hoboken, NJ, USA.
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Bratman, G. N., Hamilton, J. P., & Daily, G. C. (2012). The impacts of nature experience on human cognitive function and mental health. Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences, 1249(1), 118-136.
Bravo, L. (2012). Public spaces and urban beauty. The pursuit of happiness in the contemporary European city. In Pinto da Silva, M. (ed.), EURAU12 Porto | Espaço Público e Cidade Contemporânea: Actas do 6° European symposium on Research in Architecture and Urban design, Porto, Faculdade de Arquitectura da Universidade do Porto (FAUP).
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Cloutier, S., & Pfeiffer, D. (2015). Sustainability through happiness: A framework for sustainable development. Sustainable Development, 23(5), 317-327.
Cloutier, S., Larson, L., & Jambeck, J. (2014). Are sustainable cities “happy” cities? Associations between sustainable development and human well-being in urban areas of the United States. Environment, development and sustainability, 16(3), 633-647.
Cohen, S., Evans, G. W., Stokols, D., & Krantz, D. S. (2013). Behavior, health, and environmental stress. Springer Science & Business Media.
Dadvand, P., Nieuwenhuijsen, M. J., Esnaola, M., Forns, J., Basagaña, X., Alvarez-Pedrerol, M. & Jerrett, M. (2015). Green spaces and cognitive development in primary schoolchildren. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 112(26), 7937-7942.
De Botton, A. (2008). The architecture of happiness. Vintage.
Diener, E., Lucas, R. E., & Oishi, S. (2018). Advances and open questions in the science of subjective well-being. Collabra. Psychology, 4(1).
Farag, A. A., Doheim, R. M., & Badawi, S. (2019). Evaluating Heat Island Effect at University Campus with Reference to LEED v4. Resourceedings, 2(1), 1-13.
Farag, A. (2016). A user definition of near home open space. In conference of EDRA48 Madison - Voices of Place: Empower, Engage, Energize, Madison, USA. (pp. 139-147).
Ganji, S. K., Potula, I., Ambati, V. N. P., Rao, B., Ganji, S. K., & Ganji, S. K. (2006). Image representation, scaling and cognitive model of object perception. Cognitive Processing, 7(1), 37-39.
Gehl, J. (2011). Life between buildings: using public space. Island press.
Griffith, J. C. (1994). Open space preservation: An imperative for quality campus environments. The Journal of Higher Education, 65(6), 645-669.
Hall, E. (1982). The Hidden Dimension. Anchor Books Edition.
Hartley, M., & Morphew, C. C. (2008). What's being sold and to what end? A content analysis of college viewbooks. The Journal of Higher Education, 79(6), 671-691.
Helliwell, J. F., Shiplett, H., & Barrington-Leigh, C. P. (2019). How happy are your neighbours? Variation in life satisfaction among 1200 Canadian neighbourhoods and communities. PloS one, 14(1), e0210091.
Hillier, B., & Hanson, J. (1989). The social logic of space. Cambridge University Press.
Hillier, B., & Hanson, J. (1984). The Social Logic of Space, Cambridge University Press.
Hossenfelder, S. (2013). On the problem of measuring happiness. Interdisciplinary Description of Complex Systems: INDECS, 11(3), 289-301.
Imani, F., & Tabaeian, M. (2012). Recreating mental image with the aid of cognitive maps and its role in environmental perception. Procedia-Social and Behavioral Sciences, 32, 53-62.
Jacobs, J. (1961). The death and life of great american cities, Random House, New York.
Kadriye, T., Topcu, M. (2012). Visual presentation of mental images in urban design education: cognitive maps. Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences 51, 573 – 582.
Klassen, M. L. (2001). Lots of fun, not much work, and no hassles: Marketing images of higher education. Journal of Marketing for Higher Education, 10(2), 11-26.
Larson, L. R., Jennings, V., & Cloutier, S. A. (2016). Public parks and wellbeing in urban areas of the United States. PLoS One, 11(4), e0153211.
Laszlo, E., Artigiani, R., Combs, A., & Csányi, V. (1996). Changing visions: Human cognitive maps: Past, present, and future. Praeger Publishers/Greenwood Publishing Group.
Lau, S. S. Y., Gou, Z., & Liu, Y. (2014). Healthy campus by open space design: Approaches and guidelines. Frontiers of Architectural Research, 3(4), 452-467.
Leyden, K. M., Goldberg, A., & Michelbach, P. (2011). Understanding the pursuit of happiness in ten major cities. Urban affairs review, 47(6), 861-888.
Lloyd, K. M., & Auld, C. J. (2002). The role of leisure in determining quality of life: Issues of content and measurement. Social indicators research, 57(1), 43-71.
Lynch, K. (1960). The image of the city (Vol. 11). MIT press.
MacKerron, G., & Mourato, S. (2013). Happiness is greater in natural environments. Global environmental
change, 23(5), 992-1000.
McFarland, A. L., Waliczek, T. M., & Zajicek, J. M. (2008). The relationship between student use of campus green spaces and perceptions of quality of life. HortTechnology, 18(2), 232-238.
Montgomery, C. (2013). Happy city: Transforming our lives through urban design. Macmillan.
Montgomery, C. (2014). Building Happiness. In BT Group, Connected Worlds (pp. 69-71). British Telecom.
Nasar, J. L. (1990). The evaluative image of the city. Journal of the American Planning Association, 56(1), 41-53.
Nor-Azzatunnisak, M., Roseliza-Murni, A., Manap, J., & Hoesni, S. M. (2017). Selecting Appropriate Happiness Measures and Malleability: A Review. International Journal of Academic Research in Business and Social Sciences, 7(11), 1082-1099.
Okulicz-Kozaryn, A., & Valente, R. R. (2018). Livability and Subjective Well-Being Across European Cities. Applied Research in Quality of Life, 1-24.
Pfeiffer, D., & Cloutier, S. (2016). Planning for happy neighborhoods. Journal of the American planning association, 82(3), 267-279.
Rapoport, A. (1990). The meaning of the built environment: A nonverbal communication approach. University of Arizona Press.
Scholl, K. G., & Gulwadi, G. B. (2015). Recognizing Campus Landscapes as Learning Spaces. Journal of Learning Spaces, 4(1), 53-60.
Sihombing, A. (2014). Drawing Kampung through cognitive maps case study: Jakarta. APCBEE procedia, 9, 347-353.
UNESCO. (2016). Happy Schools! A framework for learner wellbeing in the Asia Pacific. Paris, France: UNESCO the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural.
Vega, J. D. J. G. (2016). Happiness and Quality of Life in Mexico: Conceptual and Geographical Considerations. In Handbook of Happiness Research in Latin America (pp. 463-475). Springer, Dordrecht.
Wu, C. D., McNeely, E., Cedeño-Laurent, J. G., Pan, W. C., Adamkiewicz, G., Dominici, F. & Spengler, J. D. (2014). Linking student performance in Massachusetts elementary schools with the “greenness” of school surroundings using remote sensing. PloS one, 9(10), e108548.
Ahmadi Afusi, Z., Zarghami, Z., & Mahdinejad, J. (2014). A Study on Designing Open Space School and its Relation. with Improving Happiness among Students. Indian Journal of Fundamental and Applied Life Sciences, 4(S3), 924-31.
Augustin, S., & Coleman, C. (2012). The designer's guide to doing research: Applying knowledge to inform design. John Wiley & Sons.
Babincak, P. (2018). Subjective Happiness in Slovakia: Reliability and Validity of Measuring Happiness through the Subjective Happiness Scale. European Journal of Mental Health, 13(2), 111-132.
Bechtel, R. B., & Churchman, A. (2002). Handbook of Environmental Psychology John Wiley & Sons. Inc.: Hoboken, NJ, USA.
Boyer, E. L. (1987). College: The undergraduate experience. The Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching. New York: Harper Collins. Find this author on.
Bratman, G. N., Hamilton, J. P., & Daily, G. C. (2012). The impacts of nature experience on human cognitive function and mental health. Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences, 1249(1), 118-136.
Bravo, L. (2012). Public spaces and urban beauty. The pursuit of happiness in the contemporary European city. In Pinto da Silva, M. (ed.), EURAU12 Porto | Espaço Público e Cidade Contemporânea: Actas do 6° European symposium on Research in Architecture and Urban design, Porto, Faculdade de Arquitectura da Universidade do Porto (FAUP).
Busby, E., (2018). Fewer university students say they are happy and believe lives to be worthwhile, survey finds. Independent, News, Education, Education News, 7 June.
Chan, G., Miller, P. W., & Tcha, M. (2005). Happiness in university education. International Review of Economics Education, 4(1), 20-45.
Cloutier, S., & Pfeiffer, D. (2015). Sustainability through happiness: A framework for sustainable development. Sustainable Development, 23(5), 317-327.
Cloutier, S., Larson, L., & Jambeck, J. (2014). Are sustainable cities “happy” cities? Associations between sustainable development and human well-being in urban areas of the United States. Environment, development and sustainability, 16(3), 633-647.
Cohen, S., Evans, G. W., Stokols, D., & Krantz, D. S. (2013). Behavior, health, and environmental stress. Springer Science & Business Media.
Dadvand, P., Nieuwenhuijsen, M. J., Esnaola, M., Forns, J., Basagaña, X., Alvarez-Pedrerol, M. & Jerrett, M. (2015). Green spaces and cognitive development in primary schoolchildren. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 112(26), 7937-7942.
De Botton, A. (2008). The architecture of happiness. Vintage.
Diener, E., Lucas, R. E., & Oishi, S. (2018). Advances and open questions in the science of subjective well-being. Collabra. Psychology, 4(1).
Farag, A. A., Doheim, R. M., & Badawi, S. (2019). Evaluating Heat Island Effect at University Campus with Reference to LEED v4. Resourceedings, 2(1), 1-13.
Farag, A. (2016). A user definition of near home open space. In conference of EDRA48 Madison - Voices of Place: Empower, Engage, Energize, Madison, USA. (pp. 139-147).
Ganji, S. K., Potula, I., Ambati, V. N. P., Rao, B., Ganji, S. K., & Ganji, S. K. (2006). Image representation, scaling and cognitive model of object perception. Cognitive Processing, 7(1), 37-39.
Gehl, J. (2011). Life between buildings: using public space. Island press.
Griffith, J. C. (1994). Open space preservation: An imperative for quality campus environments. The Journal of Higher Education, 65(6), 645-669.
Hall, E. (1982). The Hidden Dimension. Anchor Books Edition.
Hartley, M., & Morphew, C. C. (2008). What's being sold and to what end? A content analysis of college viewbooks. The Journal of Higher Education, 79(6), 671-691.
Helliwell, J. F., Shiplett, H., & Barrington-Leigh, C. P. (2019). How happy are your neighbours? Variation in life satisfaction among 1200 Canadian neighbourhoods and communities. PloS one, 14(1), e0210091.
Hillier, B., & Hanson, J. (1989). The social logic of space. Cambridge University Press.
Hillier, B., & Hanson, J. (1984). The Social Logic of Space, Cambridge University Press.
Hossenfelder, S. (2013). On the problem of measuring happiness. Interdisciplinary Description of Complex Systems: INDECS, 11(3), 289-301.
Imani, F., & Tabaeian, M. (2012). Recreating mental image with the aid of cognitive maps and its role in environmental perception. Procedia-Social and Behavioral Sciences, 32, 53-62.
Jacobs, J. (1961). The death and life of great american cities, Random House, New York.
Kadriye, T., Topcu, M. (2012). Visual presentation of mental images in urban design education: cognitive maps. Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences 51, 573 – 582.
Klassen, M. L. (2001). Lots of fun, not much work, and no hassles: Marketing images of higher education. Journal of Marketing for Higher Education, 10(2), 11-26.
Larson, L. R., Jennings, V., & Cloutier, S. A. (2016). Public parks and wellbeing in urban areas of the United States. PLoS One, 11(4), e0153211.
Laszlo, E., Artigiani, R., Combs, A., & Csányi, V. (1996). Changing visions: Human cognitive maps: Past, present, and future. Praeger Publishers/Greenwood Publishing Group.
Lau, S. S. Y., Gou, Z., & Liu, Y. (2014). Healthy campus by open space design: Approaches and guidelines. Frontiers of Architectural Research, 3(4), 452-467.
Leyden, K. M., Goldberg, A., & Michelbach, P. (2011). Understanding the pursuit of happiness in ten major cities. Urban affairs review, 47(6), 861-888.
Lloyd, K. M., & Auld, C. J. (2002). The role of leisure in determining quality of life: Issues of content and measurement. Social indicators research, 57(1), 43-71.
Lynch, K. (1960). The image of the city (Vol. 11). MIT press.
MacKerron, G., & Mourato, S. (2013). Happiness is greater in natural environments. Global environmental
change, 23(5), 992-1000.
McFarland, A. L., Waliczek, T. M., & Zajicek, J. M. (2008). The relationship between student use of campus green spaces and perceptions of quality of life. HortTechnology, 18(2), 232-238.
Montgomery, C. (2013). Happy city: Transforming our lives through urban design. Macmillan.
Montgomery, C. (2014). Building Happiness. In BT Group, Connected Worlds (pp. 69-71). British Telecom.
Nasar, J. L. (1990). The evaluative image of the city. Journal of the American Planning Association, 56(1), 41-53.
Nor-Azzatunnisak, M., Roseliza-Murni, A., Manap, J., & Hoesni, S. M. (2017). Selecting Appropriate Happiness Measures and Malleability: A Review. International Journal of Academic Research in Business and Social Sciences, 7(11), 1082-1099.
Okulicz-Kozaryn, A., & Valente, R. R. (2018). Livability and Subjective Well-Being Across European Cities. Applied Research in Quality of Life, 1-24.
Pfeiffer, D., & Cloutier, S. (2016). Planning for happy neighborhoods. Journal of the American planning association, 82(3), 267-279.
Rapoport, A. (1990). The meaning of the built environment: A nonverbal communication approach. University of Arizona Press.
Scholl, K. G., & Gulwadi, G. B. (2015). Recognizing Campus Landscapes as Learning Spaces. Journal of Learning Spaces, 4(1), 53-60.
Sihombing, A. (2014). Drawing Kampung through cognitive maps case study: Jakarta. APCBEE procedia, 9, 347-353.
UNESCO. (2016). Happy Schools! A framework for learner wellbeing in the Asia Pacific. Paris, France: UNESCO the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural.
Vega, J. D. J. G. (2016). Happiness and Quality of Life in Mexico: Conceptual and Geographical Considerations. In Handbook of Happiness Research in Latin America (pp. 463-475). Springer, Dordrecht.
Wu, C. D., McNeely, E., Cedeño-Laurent, J. G., Pan, W. C., Adamkiewicz, G., Dominici, F. & Spengler, J. D. (2014). Linking student performance in Massachusetts elementary schools with the “greenness” of school surroundings using remote sensing. PloS one, 9(10), e108548.