Trans-disciplinary perspectives between people and environment: a case study of open public spaces in Rio de Janeiro

Many efforts are made to bring new trans-disciplinary perspectives in urban form. This paper is part of a research project about physical and behavioural approaches to the study of urban form, and it is grounded on hybridisation for a holistic understanding of complex and dynamic interactions between people and place. UNESCO states the importance of public space as crucial for sustainable cities and communities: providing ecosystem services, improving health and wellbeing, ensuring social inclusion and economic exchange, offering an opportunity to enrich the quality of life of all urban dwellers, leaving no one behind. However, it seems that few attempts have been made to achieve correlations between human perceptions and spatial patterns. Can we combine hybrid observational human behaviour framework to analyse trends and flows in open public spaces? This study aims to address this question. Two squares in Rio de Janeiro neighbourhood with distinct morphogenesis. Field survey of these spaces was conducted using a framework of observation of the human behaviour. Preliminary results indicate that quantitative and qualitative elements can be used to improve public spaces. The methodological approach was shown to be replicable in systematic investigation of different public spaces. Depending on future results and analyses, this research may shed light to new interdisciplinary perspectives and methods to study human behaviour in public spaces.