Woonerf; Study of Urban Landscape Components on the Street for Life

In the field of pedestrian-orientation, the notion of shared space has been proposed as a human-centered approach to the designing of contemporary urban streets with the aim of integration of vehicles and people. The woonerf phenomenon, which can literally be translated as ‘living yard’, is equivalent to traffic-calming or home zones aimed at realizing shared space on the scale of residential neighborhoods. Aiming to create safe and vital neighborhoods and set a speed limit for passing vehicles in the region, woonerf increases the symbiotic potential of personal vehicles and pedestrians; it gives pedestrians the right of way, allows for their free movement, especially in the case of the elderly and those with physical disabilities, and provides a safe playing area for children in the neighborhood. As part of the urban landscape on the neighborhood scale, woonerf consists of physical-functional, aesthetic and semantic- spatial aspects of landscape. It is achieved through the combination of natural and human made environments based on human activities and it can provide delightful emotional, perceptual and cognitive experiences for local residents by adjusting the ergonomic, personal, social and cultural needs of people in a special neighborhood by recourse to “form, function and meaning” simultaneously. The sum total of perceptual, formal and symbolic levels in an aesthetic experience centered on humans and pedestrians leads to aesthetic pleasure. Finally, the woonerf urban landscape as an objective-subjective phenomenon will metaphorically remind inhabitants of the living street by enhancing vitality, increasing social interaction and inducing a sense of place in integrated spaces for pedestrians, bicycles and motor vehicles as pedestrian-oriented shared space for a democratic and livable neighborhood.