Sense of home, sense of place : A morpho-typological comparative study of Florida and Queensland

Abstract

Urban morphology investigates the form, history and evolution of the built environment (Moudon, 1994); phenomenology studies people’s perception and interaction with a space (Cresswell, 2004). This paper presents preliminary research about the relationship between social behaviours and urban form using a theoretical framework based both on typo-morphology and phenomenology. The study focuses on two particular subtropical leisure cities, Gold Coast in Southeast Queensland and Greater Miami in Florida. Both regions have a similar climate, an urban pattern based on grids or canal estates and recurrent main building typologies like single-family mansions or high-rise apartment blocks (Abby at al., 2011; Longhurst et al., 1996). What these two cities also have in common is a composite population with an elevated percentage of historic and recent migrants (ABS, 2012; USC, 2012); both towns heavily depend on tourism, which means a transient population uses the built environment and influences its dynamics. Gold Coast and Greater Miami are generally perceived as unsafe areas with a noticeable presence in the media about their crime rates (QCMC, 2009; Florida State University, 2011). The relationship between built environment and social behaviour has been previously investigated; the innovation proposed by this research is to study perception of place in leisure cities at multiple levels. Locals, migrants and tourists have different understanding of the built environment in the same location (Duff, 2010); this understanding affects the use of space and the desire to visit or avoid some precincts. Gold Coast and Greater Miami, like other cities, undertake new major projects that aim to provide communities not only with facilities, but also catalysts for the local sense of place and identity (Felicity, 2010). The aim of this research is to compare the built forms of the two selected case studies to investigate their influence on the local sense of place; this paper presents two pilot explorations and the main research preliminary findings about people's perception of the built environment in relation to specific urban morphologies and building typologies.