Alfred Y. Zhang Selected work / Design research Contact
Paris visualization combining spatial speed and social pace around the Arc de Triomphe.

Paris / Design research

Urban pace · Spatial analysis · Sentiment

The Pacing Pattern

Connecting spatial speed and lived experience to explore how urban design can support different rhythms of life.

My role
Team Lead · Concept Design
Data Analysis
Team
Alfred Zhang
Minghui Peng · Hanyu Xue
Instructor
Han Tu
Site / Time
Paris, France
Summer 2025

The brief

How can urban form support the rhythms of everyday life?

The Pacing Pattern bridges quantitative and qualitative inquiry through tempo, translating spatial form and descriptions of behavior into comparable, mappable representations of urban pace.

Sentiment adds an experiential reading of where a pace is supported or resisted. Together, these patterns inform tactical design proposals that adjust the conditions for movement, rest, and interaction.

01 / Spatial speed

Reading pace through urban form.

Street-view imagery provides the basis for a computational description of spatial speed. DPT segmentation and YOLOv5 object detection identify road and sidewalk areas, parking spaces, and open platforms, which are combined with representative movement speeds.

The spatial-speed workflow combines image segmentation, object detection, and area-weighted movement assumptions.
Fig. 01The spatial-speed workflow combines image segmentation, object detection, and area-weighted movement assumptions.

02 / Spatial patterns

From street features to a comparable measure.

The extracted features are translated into a spatial-speed estimate and mapped across the study area. Comparing lower and higher values makes the distribution of movement-oriented and pause-oriented conditions visible.

Street features are converted into spatial-speed estimates and mapped from slower to faster conditions.
Fig. 02Street features are converted into spatial-speed estimates and mapped from slower to faster conditions.

03 / Social pace

Listening to how places are experienced.

The social-pace model draws on 2,300 English and French reviews. Natural language processing identifies fast and slow cues, while waiting time, sentiment, behavioral traces, and place type contribute contextual information about the experience described.

Review language, place types, and experiential cues are combined to construct a social-pace score.
Fig. 03Review language, place types, and experiential cues are combined to construct a social-pace score.

04 / Lived experience

Turning descriptions into spatial signals.

The computation traces how individual descriptions contribute to a comparable representation of social pace. Sentiment acts as an experiential reinforcement signal, helping distinguish whether a given rhythm is supported or resisted in the accounts of a place.

Worked review examples connect language and contextual weights to slower and faster social-pace maps.
Fig. 04Worked review examples connect language and contextual weights to slower and faster social-pace maps.

05 / Comparative mapping

Two readings of the same city.

Spatial speed and social pace are placed side by side to examine their relationship with urban infrastructure. Green spaces, walking areas, transport networks, and activity settings provide context for reading where the two measures align or diverge.

Paired maps compare spatial speed and social pace alongside landscape and transport layers.
Fig. 05Paired maps compare spatial speed and social pace alongside landscape and transport layers.

06 / Data visualization

Making overlapping rhythms visible.

A three-dimensional visualization developed with Grasshopper and QGIS brings the two pace measures into a shared urban frame. The layered representation makes local contrasts visible while retaining their position within the wider study area.

An integrated visualization overlays spatial-speed markers and social-pace areas across Paris.
Fig. 06An integrated visualization overlays spatial-speed markers and social-pace areas across Paris.

07 / Area analysis

Reading the conditions behind the pattern.

A selected area is examined through layers of buildings, railways, green space, review language, and sentiment. This moves the investigation from an overall pace map toward the local conditions that could inform a design response.

The selected-area analysis separates physical context, review-language groups, and sentiment into spatial layers.
Fig. 07The selected-area analysis separates physical context, review-language groups, and sentiment into spatial layers.

08 / Representative cases

Alignment is only part of the story.

Twelve cases compare spatial and social speed alongside positive or negative sentiment. The resulting four combinations distinguish whether pace measures match from whether the reported experience is positive, creating a more specific basis for intervention.

Twelve cases combine speed alignment and sentiment to identify four distinct experiential conditions.
Fig. 08Twelve cases combine speed alignment and sentiment to identify four distinct experiential conditions.

09 / Design strategies

Respond to the rhythm of each place.

The design catalogue translates those four conditions into possible interventions, including active frontages, landmarks, seating, crossings, planted buffers, and separated routes. The aim is to adjust spatial conditions so different rhythms can coexist, rather than prescribe a single pace of behavior.

A catalogue pairs pace alignment and sentiment with targeted urban design interventions.
Fig. 09A catalogue pairs pace alignment and sentiment with targeted urban design interventions.

10 / Urban proposal

Space to move. Space to stay.

The final street study brings six interventions together: an art installation, clearer crossings, stronger bus connections, improved waiting points, a planted boundary, and seating. Each addresses a different relationship between movement, waiting, comfort, and choice.

The street proposal combines six interventions that support efficient movement and opportunities to pause.
Fig. 10The street proposal combines six interventions that support efficient movement and opportunities to pause.

11 / Research perspective

Design the conditions for different rhythms.

The project uses the relationship between spatial form, social pace, and sentiment to make design responses more specific to place. Its contribution is a framework for moving from computational analysis to situated urban proposals.

The speed values are constructed analytical measures, and the interventions are design proposals rather than measured post-implementation outcomes.