The Influence of Surrounding Ground Floor Facilities on the Use of Privately Owned Public Spaces in Seoul

Seoul’s privately owned public space (POPS) initiative has achieved quantitative success since its introduction in the early 1990s. However, POPSs have been frequently criticized for failing to correspond with the urban context in which they are created and are thus often underused. Association between surrounding urban context and the use of POPS is acknowledged, but specific elements of the urban context associated with the use of POPS and the extent of association are unclear. In this study, the relationship between constituent elements of 48 POPSs including the surrounding ground floor facility use and the use of those spaces in Seoul’s central business district was measured by multiple regression analysis. The results present empirical evidence of a substantial relationship between assembly, mercantile, and business facilities on ground floors of surrounding buildings and the use of POPS. As the surrounding ground floor facility use showed an overriding relationship with the use of POPS that possibly overshadowed the influence of secon- dary determinants, the 48 POPSs were divided into two groups: those surrounded by commercial facilities and those surrounded by business facilities. The use of POPSs surrounded by commercial facilities was associated with additional variables including the proximity to transit stations and crosswalks. Models using the sample of POPSs surrounded by business facilities were not statistically significant. Based on these results, this paper emphasizes the importance of creating POPSs in connection with desirable surrounding facilities. This study also suggests that anticipation of the usage patterns of POPSs and establishment of guidelines supporting those patterns may be viable by investigating preexisting urban contexts.