Incidence of urban design elements on women's use of and time spent in Parque Ecuador

Abstract

Gender perspective is a term that has recently begun to be associated with urban design plans. Studies carried out during the last decades show that women and men experience the city according to different perspectives, activities and needs in public spaces; which are only designed from an androcentric perspective, relegating women to be a passing subject, diminishing their spatial appropriation, due to the negligence of urban design. The research addresses the gender perspective in the time of use and permanence of women in public space, having as its main objective to indicate and identify which elements of urban design exert an incidence in the temporalities of use and spatial appropriation of women in public areas of cities. The object of study is Ecuador Park, located in the city of Concepción, Chile; where quantitative methodological strategies were used to verify the relationship of gender with the categories related to the time of use, iden-tification of elements and permanence, thus identifying which of provide a better opportunity for women to make use of public spaces. The research thus gives us a broader view of what urban design includes.