Paper Title
The Personalities Of Space. Beyond The Physical Characteristics Of Built Environments
Abstract
The notion of personality is natural for humans, conceptualised for brands but unattained to space. Although the
idea that each place, commercial or residential, has its own character is a familiar concept, the theoretical background that
links the qualities of space with personality theories is non-existent. The subject of this research is thus the examination of
this hidden field and the formation of a scale of measurement that can sufficiently and accurately depict the characteristics
that portray personality for various branded environments. The goal is to extract the space personality types elaborated from
reappearing patterns of traits across different places. The overall aim of this research is the creation of a mobile application
that will use the scale to express each visitor’s impression, building this way the character of the place, contributing to its
amelioration and establishing a connection. Fifteen case study brand stores have been selected for evaluation and a space
personality scale has been constructed for this purpose. To measure the dimensions of space personality an idiosyncratic list
of traits for space had to be generated and factor analysis from the collected data of the application’s case study evaluation
had to be executed. The five dimensions and twelve facets of space personality measure the symbolic nature of space that
goes beyond its physical materiality and targets the psychological imprint left on its visitors from the embedded values and
meanings it contains. The space personality scale is presented theoretically as a customer-oriented tool for marketeers and
architects around which they can match their concepts to their visitors’ perspective. Practically it empowers participation and
social responsibility by creating citizen-responsive spaces in the city. The construct of space personality and its mobile
application, along with its shaped typologies are presented and analysed in this study.
Keywords- Space Personality, Brand Personality, Branded Spaces, Spatial Identity, Store atmospherics, Collaborative
Placemaking, Responsive Urbanism, Citizen-Driven Tools, Five-factor Model, Principal Component Analysis