relation: https://frw.studenttheses.ub.rug.nl/4132/
title: The differences in perceived livability in historical areas and New Urbanist developments in Utrecht, The Netherlands.
creator: Eijssen, H.
description: Literature has suggested that New Urbanism is essentially a renaissance of historic developments, naming it ‘old-villageism’ or ‘new traditionalism’. The development approaches share a large number of design principles, accessible neighbourhoods by designing for walkability, sense of place, mixed land-use and housing diversity. This thesis analyses the residents’ perception of these design principles and compares the outcomes as indicated by residents living in a New Urbanist development and residents living in a historic town center, with the aim to find out what the strengths and shortcomings are of each design, and what the areas can learn from each approach. The two selected sites are both in the municipality of Utrecht. The NU developed neighbourhood being “De Hoven’, and the Binnenstad (city center) as the historic development. To compare the neighbourhoods and the perceptions of residents, a document review was conducted, various municipal documents on policy and zoning ware reviewed as well as a map analysis. Then an identical survey was conduct in both neighbourhoods.  The results from the areas are very similar. The municipal vision and zoning show that De Hoven was to be built with the same characteristics as the Binnenstad. The survey responses are very comparable, indicating that the two forms of developments express their design principles in similar ways, and the quality is perceived comparable, this further strengthens the theory that NU is essentially a renaissance of historic city design.
date: 2023
type: Thesis
type: NonPeerReviewed
format: text
language: en
identifier: https://frw.studenttheses.ub.rug.nl/4132/1/Bachelor%20Thesis%20Hein%20Eijssen%20FINAL.pdf
identifier:   Eijssen, H.  (2023) The differences in perceived livability in historical areas and New Urbanist developments in Utrecht, The Netherlands.  Bachelor thesis.