Visual Evaluation of Installation Methods of Urban Furniture by Kansei Engineering Method, Case Studies: Benches in Historical-cultural Area of Tabriz

Inappropriate development and rapid growth of metropolitan cities, regardless of infrastructure, have many negative consequences on different parts of a city, including the organization of public utilities and its urban environments. Urban furniture is one of the sustainable building design suggestions that aims to improve the quality of the urban environment and meet different human needs. One of these human needs in urban spaces is to create a beautiful, orderly, attractive and diverse environment for citizens. The cities and metropolis of our cities are filled with uneven and rarely elegant furniture, which, in terms of form and variety, have little difference in different cities. Despite this, it is often seen that furniture with a proper look and feel, inappropriately and without careful tilt, they are installed in their own place, or after a short time after installation, their installation site changes in their original form and lose their appropriate visual appeal; which has an adverse effect on the furniture and the beauty of the surroundings. Urban furniture is referred to as a large collection of devices, objects, devices, symbols, sub-territories, spaces, and elements that are commonly used in the city, in the street and in the entire open space, and are commonly used. According to the principles of urbanization, urban furniture should be designed and installed taking into account the social and cultural behaviors of the city. Furnishing and street equipment help in identifying a place by creating or modifying urban spaces.
Urban furniture is more than any other group of products with a mass of people and is one of the main components of the city’s image. So, designing, constructing, installing, locating and repairing them requires deep and accurate studies. In other words, the bench is one of the most widely used urban furniture in Iran. The purpose and location of urban furniture in space is not intended, but the issues related to the installation of a sofa that affect other things such as design, production and layout is the subject of discussion. When designing a city furniture, the designer should consider the criteria for installation and layout. A good idea of the furniture without thinking about the installation in place of use can not bring the desired result.
a beautiful and regular city is a citizen’s right. One of the most influential components in the beautiful of city is the elements in it that urban furniture is one of these elements. A beautiful urban furniture, if not installed properly and the technical and visual basic principles are not respected, the beauty and attractiveness of furniture will be reduced. So pay attention to the problem of installation of urban furniture has its own importance. In these study, the visual effects of methods of installation of urban furniture are considered. Case study is a kind of urban furniture that is widely used and available that called bench. Current methods of installation of urban furniture is not satisfactory in the area under study. Although actions has been done to buy and install updated furniture with suitable design, at some point especially Tarbiat pedestrian street. But still in the installation of this beautiful and popular furniture can be seen carelessness and negligence. The general method for the evaluation of urban beauty, is a combination of two approaches: expert-centered and people-centered that with using Kansei engineering methods, was obtained the concepts of beauty in relation to installation of urban benches. Kansei Engineering can “measure” the feelings and shows the correlation to certain product properties. In accordance, the survey was done with Citizens and Tourists, they were asked express the beautiful of installation of urban furniture (according to the images displayed) in a few concept words, these concepts were highest: Pleasant, Cleanliness, Attraction, Grandeur, Organized, Flatness, Trusty, Harmonious, Balance, Powerful, Simplicity. In fact, these words are instances of the beauty of this special case. Then agents that could cause the concepts which were against of these words, were evaluated and prioritized until effective factors on the visual evaluation of installation methods of urban furniture to obtain. Common installation techniques was investigated to fixate the furniture in its position. Evaluation of the methods of Installation, were done on effective factors in beauty and it was determined that independent Installation has the best visual effects.
Finally, suggestions were presented for more beautiful visibility and beautiful remaining of the location and method of installation of an urban furniture. These suggestions are divided to three section: suggestions for designers, suggestions for producers, suggestions for urban responsible. The conclusions and recommendations can be done to generalize other elements of urban furniture which has a similar style installation.