Renate Albrecher - Academia.edu (original) (raw)
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Papers by Renate Albrecher
EPFL Press eBooks, May 23, 2021
Books by Renate Albrecher
Cahier du LaSUR 38A, 2022
La marche comme moyen de transport de la vie quotidienne reste un grand impensé des politiques de... more La marche comme moyen de transport de la vie quotidienne reste un grand impensé des politiques de mobilité. La récente recherche menée au LaSUR sur les logiques d’action qui sous-tendent les pratiques modales en Suisse révèle l’existence d’un désir de report vers les mobilités en transports collectifs et les modes de transports actifs, mais montre également que les changements de comportements de mobilité sont souvent contrariés par un manque d’offre. La marche est souvent perçue comme une activité spontanée et gratuite, alors qu’elle est en réalité facilitée ou au contraire entravée par les politiques urbaines. Dans ce contexte, la présente étude fait l’hypothèse que le banc constitue un ingrédient essentiel dans l’attractivité de la marche. Elle analyse les besoins et attentes de la population en matière d’ergonomie de la marche et examine dans quelle mesure et dans quels cas le banc public constitue un dispositif-clé dans une politique de mobilité durable. Elle analyse la diversité des besoins en matière de matérialité des bancs et de leur emplacement et interroge, dans quelle mesure une politique du banc public peut contribuer aux politiques de cohésion sociale et de santé.
CITIZEN BENCH. Seating needs and preferences. Bürgerbeteiligung zu öffentlichen Sitzgelegenheiten, 2022
"Citizen Bench" aims a better understanding of the variety of urban seating-needs. This report su... more "Citizen Bench" aims a better understanding of the variety of urban seating-needs. This report summarises the results of the citizen engagement project on public benches in the City of Munich. In the framework of this pilot project, a method and a web-application have been developed, allowing citizens to communicate their individual seating needs and priorities, but also restrictions for seating in public space in a low-threshold way.
Conference Presentations by Renate Albrecher
Conference-presentation @ Walk21, Dublin, 2022
Public benches are a key element for active mobility and can be understood as service stations fo... more Public benches are a key element for active mobility and can be understood as service stations for pedestrians. They contribute to fostering and facilitating sustainable mobility, but are often underestimated or not included in urban planning and policies. The bench is often attributed to the activity of “sitting”. However, the bench is not the only public urban infrastructure offering this service, and “sitting” is by far not the only functionality of the public bench. Benches are important places for the active and passive participation in (urban) social life, an invitation to halts, picnics, reading, working, playing, urban sports, etc. The right offer of benches fosters and facilitates not only active mobility, but also strengthens neighbourhoods, increases perceived security and sojourning quality in public space, contributes to the public and individual, social and physiological health. In many cities, the current offer of public benches does not fulfil its function as "service station” for most of the potential users. The existing wide variety of different user groups of public space is characterised by a wide variety of different needs, priorities and obstacles for the use of benches. But usually, decisions on urban seating devices are made in the triangle of city administration, architects (designers) and bench producers. End users are not part of this decision-making process. Sometimes, associations for elderly people are consulted, but their needs are not representing the full variety of seating needs of the population. Our studies aim to identify, understand and describe the different user groups as well as their motivations, needs, preferences and criteria for using or not using them. First results can be presented in form of criteria for the (right) positioning of benches and their micro-infrastructure, the model, form, material and size of benches, but also on the decision-making process for the use or non-use of benches and influence factors on the well-being on a bench. In the actual competition for the allocation of urban public space, the bench seems to be often in losing position. How can a city make sound decisions based on actual, local needs? Funded by EIT Urban Mobility and based on our research on public seating, we developed a new method and online tool: Hogga.me (test.hogga.me) allows cities to better understand local needs and priorities in each district, street and public space. It allows cities to engage with (potential) bench users in an easy and low-threshold way, including them in the co-creation process.
T2M MoHu Conference "Mobilities: Disruptions and Reconnections", 2022-09, Padua, 2022
The analyses of urban environments, norms, micro-census and scientific studies reveal a variety o... more The analyses of urban environments, norms, micro-census and scientific studies reveal a variety of myths about pedestrians. One of them is the dominant representation of the pedestrian: A single person, usually with healthy body and in leisure mode. Pedestrians seem to be considered like cars, with fixed masses, limits and manoeuvrings. After qualitatif observation of more than 9’000 urban pedestrians, we propose more nuanced typologies which better reflect their different realities. A first typology refers to constraints, categorising elements reducing the pedestrian's degrees of freedom and opportunities. We identified three mains types of constraints: individual constraints having their source in the pedestrian’s body of long term (Type 1) and short or medium term (Type 2). The third type is the most common, but also the least considered in studies and urban realities: external and inter-individual constraints (Type 3). The second typology concerns the relation between the physical process of moving on two legs and the spatial and temporal environment, described as “gait” and divided into five classes, from “de-terminated” to “strolling”. A third typology refers to the number of people walking together, creating therefore different and usually invisible rules and codes of walking. Each of the types described has different requirements on public realm. An interdependence of use and exclusion can also be observed. Planning based on a pure measurement of the number of bodies cannot meet these requirements. Studies for the future use and allocation of public space, e.g. with regard to self-driving vehicles, should be based on these typologies, as they allow a better understanding of pedestrians and therefore increase predictability. These typologies enable also the development of indexes, to analyse effects of interventions in public space and to count absent users and usages.
Thesis Chapters by Renate Albrecher
Diplomarbeit, 1999
Raum ist deine der grundlegenden Rahmenbedingungen menschlichen Lebens. Er bildet zusammen mit Ze... more Raum ist deine der grundlegenden Rahmenbedingungen menschlichen Lebens. Er bildet zusammen mit Zeit ein strukturelles Gitter für die Organisation von Gesellschaft. Die Erfahrungs- und Aneignungsformen bestimmen den Spielraum menschlichen Handelns und Lebens. Der Besitz und das Zugestehen von Raum ist eine Frage von Macht und Ressourcen. Diese Arbeit versucht in einem interdisziplinären Zugang von Sozialgeographie, Architektur und Stadt- und Regionalsoziologie (Siedlungssoziologie) bis hin zu räumlich orientierter feministische Wissenschaft die Bedeutung des gebauten Raum zu beleuchten: Inwiefern werden durch ihn Aneignungsmöglichkeiten beeinflusst, für wen erschwert er den Zugang und für wen hält er Hindernisse bereit? Wie erfolgt die Gestaltung und Planung physischen Raumes und welche Auswirkungen hat dies für wen? Versteht man es, den gebauten physischen Raum zu „lesen“, so teilt dieser uns viel über soziale Räume und gesellschaftliche Machtverhältnisse, hierunter auch das Geschlechterverhältnis, mit. Das Ziel dieser Diplomarbeit ist es daher, einerseits grundsätzliche Zusammenhänge zwischen physischem (gebautem) und sozialem Raum darzustellen und andererseits aufzuzeigen, wie und wo es unterschiedliche Aneignungsmöglichkeiten je nach Geschlecht gibt und welche Folgen dies mit sich bringt.
EPFL Press eBooks, May 23, 2021
Cahier du LaSUR 38A, 2022
La marche comme moyen de transport de la vie quotidienne reste un grand impensé des politiques de... more La marche comme moyen de transport de la vie quotidienne reste un grand impensé des politiques de mobilité. La récente recherche menée au LaSUR sur les logiques d’action qui sous-tendent les pratiques modales en Suisse révèle l’existence d’un désir de report vers les mobilités en transports collectifs et les modes de transports actifs, mais montre également que les changements de comportements de mobilité sont souvent contrariés par un manque d’offre. La marche est souvent perçue comme une activité spontanée et gratuite, alors qu’elle est en réalité facilitée ou au contraire entravée par les politiques urbaines. Dans ce contexte, la présente étude fait l’hypothèse que le banc constitue un ingrédient essentiel dans l’attractivité de la marche. Elle analyse les besoins et attentes de la population en matière d’ergonomie de la marche et examine dans quelle mesure et dans quels cas le banc public constitue un dispositif-clé dans une politique de mobilité durable. Elle analyse la diversité des besoins en matière de matérialité des bancs et de leur emplacement et interroge, dans quelle mesure une politique du banc public peut contribuer aux politiques de cohésion sociale et de santé.
CITIZEN BENCH. Seating needs and preferences. Bürgerbeteiligung zu öffentlichen Sitzgelegenheiten, 2022
"Citizen Bench" aims a better understanding of the variety of urban seating-needs. This report su... more "Citizen Bench" aims a better understanding of the variety of urban seating-needs. This report summarises the results of the citizen engagement project on public benches in the City of Munich. In the framework of this pilot project, a method and a web-application have been developed, allowing citizens to communicate their individual seating needs and priorities, but also restrictions for seating in public space in a low-threshold way.
Conference-presentation @ Walk21, Dublin, 2022
Public benches are a key element for active mobility and can be understood as service stations fo... more Public benches are a key element for active mobility and can be understood as service stations for pedestrians. They contribute to fostering and facilitating sustainable mobility, but are often underestimated or not included in urban planning and policies. The bench is often attributed to the activity of “sitting”. However, the bench is not the only public urban infrastructure offering this service, and “sitting” is by far not the only functionality of the public bench. Benches are important places for the active and passive participation in (urban) social life, an invitation to halts, picnics, reading, working, playing, urban sports, etc. The right offer of benches fosters and facilitates not only active mobility, but also strengthens neighbourhoods, increases perceived security and sojourning quality in public space, contributes to the public and individual, social and physiological health. In many cities, the current offer of public benches does not fulfil its function as "service station” for most of the potential users. The existing wide variety of different user groups of public space is characterised by a wide variety of different needs, priorities and obstacles for the use of benches. But usually, decisions on urban seating devices are made in the triangle of city administration, architects (designers) and bench producers. End users are not part of this decision-making process. Sometimes, associations for elderly people are consulted, but their needs are not representing the full variety of seating needs of the population. Our studies aim to identify, understand and describe the different user groups as well as their motivations, needs, preferences and criteria for using or not using them. First results can be presented in form of criteria for the (right) positioning of benches and their micro-infrastructure, the model, form, material and size of benches, but also on the decision-making process for the use or non-use of benches and influence factors on the well-being on a bench. In the actual competition for the allocation of urban public space, the bench seems to be often in losing position. How can a city make sound decisions based on actual, local needs? Funded by EIT Urban Mobility and based on our research on public seating, we developed a new method and online tool: Hogga.me (test.hogga.me) allows cities to better understand local needs and priorities in each district, street and public space. It allows cities to engage with (potential) bench users in an easy and low-threshold way, including them in the co-creation process.
T2M MoHu Conference "Mobilities: Disruptions and Reconnections", 2022-09, Padua, 2022
The analyses of urban environments, norms, micro-census and scientific studies reveal a variety o... more The analyses of urban environments, norms, micro-census and scientific studies reveal a variety of myths about pedestrians. One of them is the dominant representation of the pedestrian: A single person, usually with healthy body and in leisure mode. Pedestrians seem to be considered like cars, with fixed masses, limits and manoeuvrings. After qualitatif observation of more than 9’000 urban pedestrians, we propose more nuanced typologies which better reflect their different realities. A first typology refers to constraints, categorising elements reducing the pedestrian's degrees of freedom and opportunities. We identified three mains types of constraints: individual constraints having their source in the pedestrian’s body of long term (Type 1) and short or medium term (Type 2). The third type is the most common, but also the least considered in studies and urban realities: external and inter-individual constraints (Type 3). The second typology concerns the relation between the physical process of moving on two legs and the spatial and temporal environment, described as “gait” and divided into five classes, from “de-terminated” to “strolling”. A third typology refers to the number of people walking together, creating therefore different and usually invisible rules and codes of walking. Each of the types described has different requirements on public realm. An interdependence of use and exclusion can also be observed. Planning based on a pure measurement of the number of bodies cannot meet these requirements. Studies for the future use and allocation of public space, e.g. with regard to self-driving vehicles, should be based on these typologies, as they allow a better understanding of pedestrians and therefore increase predictability. These typologies enable also the development of indexes, to analyse effects of interventions in public space and to count absent users and usages.
Diplomarbeit, 1999
Raum ist deine der grundlegenden Rahmenbedingungen menschlichen Lebens. Er bildet zusammen mit Ze... more Raum ist deine der grundlegenden Rahmenbedingungen menschlichen Lebens. Er bildet zusammen mit Zeit ein strukturelles Gitter für die Organisation von Gesellschaft. Die Erfahrungs- und Aneignungsformen bestimmen den Spielraum menschlichen Handelns und Lebens. Der Besitz und das Zugestehen von Raum ist eine Frage von Macht und Ressourcen. Diese Arbeit versucht in einem interdisziplinären Zugang von Sozialgeographie, Architektur und Stadt- und Regionalsoziologie (Siedlungssoziologie) bis hin zu räumlich orientierter feministische Wissenschaft die Bedeutung des gebauten Raum zu beleuchten: Inwiefern werden durch ihn Aneignungsmöglichkeiten beeinflusst, für wen erschwert er den Zugang und für wen hält er Hindernisse bereit? Wie erfolgt die Gestaltung und Planung physischen Raumes und welche Auswirkungen hat dies für wen? Versteht man es, den gebauten physischen Raum zu „lesen“, so teilt dieser uns viel über soziale Räume und gesellschaftliche Machtverhältnisse, hierunter auch das Geschlechterverhältnis, mit. Das Ziel dieser Diplomarbeit ist es daher, einerseits grundsätzliche Zusammenhänge zwischen physischem (gebautem) und sozialem Raum darzustellen und andererseits aufzuzeigen, wie und wo es unterschiedliche Aneignungsmöglichkeiten je nach Geschlecht gibt und welche Folgen dies mit sich bringt.