Karmele Herranz

Comfort Urban Place (CUP): a methodology (with App) to pick up
the environmental experience of users in the urban open places

Web: https://www.tecnalia.com/

Tecnalia. Bilbao

Titulo: Comfort Urban Place (CUP)
A methodology (with App) to evaluate the comfort of the environment of public, urban open spaces

Based on the model of Experiencia Ambiental de Herranz et al. (2010), a methodology is presented to evaluate the comfort of the environment of public, urban open spaces. This methodology revolves around a redefinition of the concept of comfort that is trying to overcome Reductionism.

For this, comfort is translated to public, open spaces, and is integrated in many different environmental-sensory dimensions, with objective and subjective criteria. Definitively, it is considered that comfort is more the absence of discomfort. 

This methodology has been implemented in a mobile App- ComfortUP!- with the objective of becoming a communication tool between citizens and their government (citizen observation). The second part of the presentation will move to a nearby public space to demonstrate how to evaluate comfort in such a place. For now in the App, there are two environmental dimensions: the acoustic and thermal, for which one collects objective and subjective information (from the perception of the person). At the end of the experience, participants will receive on their cell phones a summary of the urban comfort experience.