Cross-cultural values in street furniture emotion design

Emotion is a complicated psychological activity. Psychologists hold that emotion is the remnants of animals' origins. In fact, human emotion is not only a kind of sign of animals' origins, but it is also greatly influenced by social and cultural factors. Psychologists have also classified emotion into advanced and lower ranks. Emotion induced by social and cultural factors is considered advanced, and is unique to human beings. In recent years, more cities have tended to demonstrate their cultural values in public environments and facilities, among which street furniture play a crucial role. Researchers and practicing designers have also considered how different emotions relate to the production and reception of street furniture design. Therefore, besides its basic physical function, a considerable number of street furniture is also designed to catch the public's eye and serve to be important windows to illustrate different cultural values. This paper first explores feelings and emotional experiences induced by cultural elements. By using the findings of a survey, this paper compares the effect of different cultures on the emotional experience towards the same street furniture. Taking Hong Kong and Beijing as case studies, several kinds of typical street furniture are analysed and the relevant distinct feelings aroused by street furniture of people from different cultural backgrounds are examined. This paper holds that different cultural factors can arouse users' different emotions such as hate, love, joy, sorrow and so on even when the users use the same street furniture.