Human Well-being and Open Spaces in and around Terraced Housing

While the impact of the public open spaces on the well-being of urban dwellers has been considerably studied and precise, research on the significance of the private and shared open spaces in the residential environment to the well-being of the residents are limited and unclear. This limitation may be connected with the heterogeneity nature of the residential environment. This study examines the contributions of private and shared open spaces to the well-being of residents in terraced housing in Sheffield, UK, a typical high-density housing, from the perspective of these residents using a combination of mapping and survey approaches. The study collects and analyses both qualitative and quantitative data from 200 households living in terraced housing in Walkley neighbourhood, Sheffield, who were selected through a systematic random sampling strategy. The questionnaire and the sitemap designed for the study gathered information from the study population about the typologies, features, and usage of open spaces and how these open spaces impact their well-being. The resulting qualitative and quantitative data were analysed using thematic, descriptive and inferential statistical analysis. The results of the research suggest that residents of the terraced housing perceive that both private and shared open spaces in and around their houses contribute to the multi-dimension of well-being, physical, social, emotional and economical, in their households. The emotional and social well-being constitute the greater level of well-being expressed. However, neighbour’s behaviour, privacy, and open space design are significant predictors to the usage of private and shared open spaces, and proportionately impact the perceived sense of well-being of the residents. Moreover, results indicate a significant association and positive correlation between greenery of the private and shared open spaces and perceived well-being of the residents. Besides, both the private or shared open spaces and the neighbourhood open spaces were indicated to be complementary or supplementary as results showed a significant association and positive correlation between them and 80% of the respondents use both. However, 74% of these respondents preferred the private open spaces abutting their houses to the shared and neighbourhood open spaces in their residential environment. The study concludes that private and shared open spaces in the residential environment contribute to the positive well-being of residents, especially in terraced housing, and therefore, should be designed to enhance residents’ well-being.