Does restorativeness support liveliness on commercial streets?

ABSTRACT

The role of restorativeness in attracting and retaining people on commercial streets has been under-researched. To examine this topic, this convergent parallel mixed methods study was conducted on four commercial streets in Brazil. It included a quantitative evaluation of correlations between a set of microscale aspects of commercial streets and liveliness, and a qualitative thematic analysis of users’ experiences informed by the Attention Restoration Theory. The results showed restorativeness as one pathway linking microscale aspects of commercial streets to liveliness. The perceived restorative potential of microscale aspects of commercial streets should be considered when adopting fine-grained approaches to enhance their liveliness.

KEYWORDS:

• Lively streets
• mixed methods research
• restorative environment
• attention restoration Theory
• restorativeness

Acknowledgments

We would like to thank the people who participated in the interviews. We are deeply grateful for the research assistance from Carolina Amaral Guimarães de Lima Souza, Thiago Lima e Lima, Maria Clara Santos Rodrigues, and Verônica Flores. We also would like to thank Jack Nasar for useful comments.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

The work was supported by the Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de Minas Gerais [PIBICEM 09/2017]; Pró-Reitoria de Pesquisa, Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais [ADRC 05/2016].