Public plazas are open spaces commonly found in city centers that all citizens can access. They can participate in events such as community gatherings, open markets, and concerts, or use these purposely designed areas while creating a sense of place based on their perceptions of the zone and the meanings they assign to it. This study aims to understand visitors’ sense of space in the context of public plazas. To do so, we measured and analyzed visitors’ attitudes including place identity, place attachment, and place dependence, as well as their behavioral patterns, perceptions, familiarity, and satisfaction level. We selected the study sites to represent plazas in Seoul, South Korea’s capital: Gwanghwamun Plaza, Seoul Plaza, and Cheonggye Plaza, which were recently developed as a part of a host of urban renewal projects due to their historical and cultural value. We collected data using survey methods and carried out descriptive analysis, principle component analysis (PCA), the F-test, and t-tests to analyze visitors’ demographic information, behavior, perceptions, satisfaction, familiarity, and the relationships among the measured variables. The findings reveal that sense of place in public plazas might be significantly associated with visitors’ behavioral patterns in, perceptions of, satisfaction, and familiarity with public plazas. The results indicate that landscape planning in urban plazas might need further research that considers visitor views in order to create a sense of place and make such areas meaningful as landmarks.

This study aimed to explore and interpret the sense of place in Insa-dong a traditional street designated as a cultural district in Seoul through the thoughts and opinions of insiders who actually experience it. The study also aimed to identify a plan for the development and preservation of Insa-dong. Insa-dong was found to have the characteristic of an “unconscious sense of place,” which had formed naturally over time. This characteristic applies to most physical, social, cultural, and experiential elements that make up Insa-dong. It developed as a place of tradition and arts culture, and thus Insa-dong has continued to be a representative place of traditional and Korean culture until the present. While a uniform modern consumer culture is emerging as a result of the integrated designs and socioeconomic changes brought about by urban capitalism, these changes arguably fall within such a range that Insa-dong’s unique, unconscious sense of place is not greatly damaged. Accordingly, Insa-dong as a unique, attractive place where the new cultural characteristic of “modernity” blends appropriately with “traditionality” can be understood as a representative place that expresses Korea’s past and present life. This study is significant because it examined Insa-dong’s sense of place by moving away from expert perspectives and focusing on interviews with insiders. Based on the results, the study developed a plan for the preservation and formation of Insa-dong’s sense of place. Though this study’s results can suggest basic directions and processes for interpreting sense of place, they are limited in terms of suggesting specific planning and design elements. Therefore, a limitation exists in terms of drawing practical implications. Follow-up studies using this study’s suggestions for preserving and improving Insa-dong’s sense of place can formulate more concrete strategies.

Sense of place (SOP) has recently been considered an effective strategy through which to pursue sustainable place development. However, many urban spaces have not usually considered the contribution of built-environment factors to SOP and SOP’s contribution to people’s willingness to revisit for sustainable place. Therefore, this research aims to understand the internal structure of SOP at Daehak-ro, one of the most famous cultural district and tourism sites in Seoul, Korea. Through this study, the sociocultural factor was found to make the greatest contribution to Daehak-ro’s SOP, and SOP was itself found to be highly related to willingness to revisit. These results suggest that non-physical factors could be most important to developing an SOP in urban environments. This study will eventually lead to better understanding of developing SOP, and will contribute to Daehak-ro becoming more sustainable than at present.

his Study attempted to comprehend difference between hiker and non-hiker's sense of place value at Namhansanseong Provincial Park. Especially, it was analyzed after visitors, who were divided into local residents & tourists and first time visitors & repeat visitors. Out of 600 visitors, who were over 19 years old, participated in the survey, 587 responses were used for data analysis. Consequently, Sense of place value at Namhansanseong Provincial Park were classified into three factors: Health·Culture, Ecology·Environment, and Connectedness. Hikers feel higher value on promotion of health, relaxation, environment than non-hikers. Among hikers, local residents feel higher value on ecology·environment and connectedness than tourists. Among non-hikers, however, they have no difference between local residents and tourists, only repeat visitors and first time visitors. On this result, possibility of resident participation management on natural environment and trail was considered, and when the program, which is for raising cultural and traditional value, would develop, increasing number of repeat visitor should be considered as a high priority.

Although there are a lot of primary factors to be able to make characters and identities in Pusan South Harbor, Badly Planned development prevented enhancing the sense of place in urban waterfront. The point in the waterfront development is how to secure amenities based on indentity and orientation; node, landmark, edge, path, district. This study aims at developing waterfront area of Pusan South Harbor and attempting to establish an identity through studying characteristics of ‘places’ in Pusan South Harbor. The place consists of two elements; orientation and identity, which can be explained the environmental totality, ‘character’ and ‘space’ respectively. The urban waterfront has strong characteristics which consists of land area, water area, and transit zone combining two areas. The place of Pusan South Harbor is analysed those four elements. We proposed objectives and criteria which can be used in enhancing the sense of this place.