MAPS

Ingólfstorg, Reykjavík

MAPS is a Multidisciplinary Assessment of a Public Space, created by a historian, architect and a social psychologist. The methodology studies public space and helps authorities and practitioners to promote public life in such spaces.

The first part of MAPS involves a morphological study of an urban landscape in its historical and contemporary dimension. The concepts of historical urban landscape and streetscape are used. They are the representation of the street/square and its immediate surroundings from the point of view of the user. We use existing cartographic material and pictures from public and private collections, Geographic Information System (GIS) resources, photographic information from Google Maps and Google street view, and scientific literature relating to the chosen public space.

The second part of MAPS involves both observations and a questionnaire, to focus on the user perspective.

Using this systematic approach, our findings and assumptions provide numerous soft and hard recommendations, in addition to checklists and frameworks that are effective tools for policy makers to utilize and support their actions in future asset management of the public space.