Understanding Social Spaces in Tourist Villages through Space Syntax Analysis: Cases of Villages in Huizhou, China

The development of tourism in historical villages has a certain impact on the native environment, which leads to visitors occupying community public spaces relatively frequently. The design of rural public spaces, especially in relation to the street network’s spatial configuration, significantly affects how villagers interact with one another. This research investigated the influence of street network space on the regional social interaction preferences of rural community populations by applying space syntax theory. Three typical villages in southern Anhui, China, were the subject of an observation analysis of social behaviors and pedestrian volumes on street networks. Using a segment model, it was possible to determine seven spatial configuration attributes of streets, including depth to the village entrance (DtoE), connectivity, curvature, the normalized angle choice (NACH) and integration (NAIN) with two radii. A considerable joint effect of street spatial type and spatial layout attributes on the regional social interaction preferences of rural community populations was found by MANOVA and stepwise regression analysis. The sampled community tends to engage in social activities in branch streets, and the pedestrian volume contained 67.1% of all the observed people in the street networks. Streets’ spatial attributes with lower NACH or NAIN levels (less usability or accessibility) and higher DtoE or curvature levels (more privacy or deformation) have greater influences on community pedestrian volumes. Regarding street type, the in-between space was found to have the most significant effect on the pedestrian volume of the branch streets, which are the preferred zones of community populations in the context of social activities.