Examining three roles of urban “portals” in their relationship with “places” using social media photographs

Qian, Xiao; Heath, Tim

Abstract

Portals are the transition spaces between paths and places in an urban environment such as the entrance to a square from a connecting street. This paper aims to explore different forms of portals by considering their relationship with places. In doing so, a people-generated image analysis was adopted for two case studies conducted in popular Chinese recreational venues: Sanlitun Village, Beijing; and Xintiandi, Shanghai. Through an analysis of nearly 53,000 Instagram photographs, three different roles that a portal can fulfil are identified and defined as the ‘doorway’, the ‘showroom’, and the ‘place’. These typologies are derived from a deeper understanding of urban space through the ‘eyes of the users’, and this knowledge can in turn influence the design process for the public realm and urban spaces.

Citation

Qian, X., & Heath, T. (2019). Examining three roles of urban “portals” in their relationship with “places” using social media photographs. Cities, 90, 207-215. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cities.2019.02.011

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Feb 16, 2019
• Online Publication Date: Feb 27, 2019
• Publication Date: 2019-07
• Deposit Date: Feb 27, 2019
• Publicly Available Date: Feb 27, 2019
• Journal: Cities
• Print ISSN: 0264-2751
• Publisher: Elsevier
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 90
• Pages: 207-215
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cities.2019.02.011
• Keywords: Tourism, Leisure and Hospitality Management; Development; Sociology and Political Science; Urban Studies
• Public URL: https://nottingham-repository.worktribe.com/output/1590417
• Publisher URL: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0264275118303718
• Additional Information: This article is maintained by: Elsevier; Article Title: Examining three roles of urban “portals” in their relationship with “places” using social media photographs; Journal Title: Cities; CrossRef DOI link to publisher maintained version: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cities.2019.02.011; Content Type: article; Copyright: © 2019 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.