Investigating sense of place at historic commercial street corridor: Visitor Perception of Social Aspects

Abstract

A strong social relationship between people and place can trigger the emergence of activities which can also streng then the bonding itself. In this study, the studied object which is The Ampel Street Corridor in Surabaya, Indonesia, is an area with strong identity and has bonding relationship with its visitors. The Ampel street corridor is a religious historic area,which is located between commercial retails who sell worship supplies for Moslems. This study aims to reveal the social involvement that is essential for experiencing place and creating sense of place.The nature of this research is qualitative. The data collection techniques are by interviews, focus group discussion, visual observation, and documentation. This study reveals the importance of social factors in developing people-place relationship, among others: feeling of religious, cultural closeness, people’s outfit style, friendliness and crowdedness, history and memory, interaction and activity features.