h i g h l i g h t sAwareness of smart grids is the highest among respondents aged 20-29 years old. Willingness to use smart technologies and change energy behaviour are interdependent. Potential flexible building users were found to be 11% of the respondents. Building energy flexibility might play a crucial role in demand side management for integrating intermittent renewables into smart grids. The potential of building energy flexibility depends not only on the physical characteristics of a building but also on occupant behaviour in the building. Building users will have to adopt smart technologies and to change their daily energy use behaviours or routines, if energy flexibility is to be achieved. The willingness of users to make changes will determine how much demand flexibility can be achieved in buildings and whether energy flexible buildings can be realized. This will have a considerable impact on the transition to smart grids. This study is thus to assess the perception of smart grids and energy flexible buildings by building users, and their readiness for them on a large scale. We attempted to identify the key characteristics of the ideal user of flexible buildings. A questionnaire was designed and administered as an online survey in the Netherlands. The questionnaire consisted of questions about the sociodemographic characteristics of the current users, house type, household composition, current energy use behaviour, willingness to use smart technologies, and willingness to change energy use behaviour. The survey was completed by 835 respondents, of which 785 (94%) were considered to have provided a genuine response. Our analysis showed that the concept of smart grids is an unfamiliar one, as more than 60% of the respondents had never heard of smart grids. However, unfamiliarity with smart grids increased with age, and half of the respondents aged 20-29 years old were aware of the concept. Monetary incentives were identified as the biggest motivating factor for adoption of smart grid technologies. It was also found that people would be most in favour of acquiring smart dishwashers (65% of the respondents) and refrigerator/freezers (60%). Statistical analysis shows that people who are willing to use smart technologies are also willing to change their behaviour, and can thus be categorised as potentially flexible building users. Given certain assumptions, 11% of the respondents were found to be potentially flexible building users. To encourage people to be prepared for energy flexible buildings, awareness of smart grids will have to be increased, and the adoption of smart technologies may have to be promoted by providing incentives such as financial rewards. a r t i c l e i n f o

Previous research has shown that the urban environment could influence people’s behavior and wellbeing. However, little is still known about how the objective and subjective measures of the momentary experience of urban public spaces could contribute to the satisfaction with the urban environment of cities, which eventually could influence the momentary and long-term subjective wellbeing (SWB) of citizens. Therefore, the aim of this research is to gain insight into how momentary experience and satisfaction with the urban public space could contribute to the SWB of citizens, and thereby control for personal, contextual characteristics. Relationships were simultaneously analyzed using a multi-level path analysis approach based on a sample of 1056 momentary experiences of urban public spaces reported by 161 citizens of the urban area Eindhoven, The Netherlands. The results showed that personality and personal characteristics are highly important for explaining long-term SWB and subsequently long-term SWB positively influences momentary SWB (the degree of feeling secure, comfortable, happy and annoyed) together with the momentary satisfaction of urban public space characteristics. In addition, contextual characteristics, such as time/day and distance to facilities are important for explaining people’s momentary SWB. Policy makers and urban planners can use these results when developing policy and designing a healthy, attractive, livable and safe living environment for citizens.

It is recognized that the urban environment, and specifically better-experienced urban public space, contribute to people’s subjective well-being. However, research on people’s momentary subjective well-being (i.e., emotional state) in relation to the multiple aspects of urban public spaces is still limited. Therefore, the aim of this study was to analyze people’s emotional state and how this is influenced by the momentary satisfaction with urban public spaces, and also controlling for personal and experience characteristics. Data of 1056 momentary experiences of 161 citizens regarding the urban public space in Eindhoven, The Netherlands, were collected by means of an experience sampling method (ESM). These data were analyzed using a mixed multinomial logit (MMNL) model for each dimension of people’s momentary subjective well-being (i.e., sense of security, comfort, happiness, and annoyance). Results of this study showed that people were happier when they were satisfied with the atmosphere of the public space and felt more secure, comfortable, and less annoyed when they were more satisfied with traffic safety. Results could be used by policymakers and urban planners to create inclusive urban public spaces where people have more positive experiences, which eventually could lead to happier, comfortable, more secure and less annoyed citizens.

Urban green areas, such as parks, are becoming increasingly important in densifying cities. Urban parks encourage physical and social activity, recreation and relaxation, and thus eventually promote people’s well-being. The aim of the current study is to examine which urban park attributes influence the preferences of park users, in order to offer recommendations regarding how urban parks of quality can be designed. To elicit the preferences of park visitors we designed an online stated-choice experiment. Seven park attributes, in particular the number and composition of trees and the presence of benches, side paths, a playground, litter, and flowers, were manipulated in a virtual park. In an online stated-choice task, videos of these park alternatives were presented and the preferences of 697 participants were measured. It is found that especially the number of trees and the presence of flowerbeds, particularly with a diversity of flowers, influenced participants’ preferences. The presence of many benches and a playground were valued as well, but to a lesser extent. The presence of litter was found to be less troublesome than expected. Alternatives with all trees placed in one cluster were disliked. Moreover, significant standard deviations were found for the presence of side paths, a playground, and the absence of litter, which indicates that preference heterogeneity for these attributes exist. In a latent class analysis, two groups were identified, namely a Nature-loving group, who mainly valued the trees and the flowers, and an Amenity-appreciating group, who valued almost all attributes. It can be concluded that natural elements and a variety of flower species are important in an urban park, while facilities are evaluated differently by different groups of people. These findings may support park designers and policymakers in decision-making. Moreover, it illustrates the usefulness of creating a virtual park in environmental preference research.

Cities are increasingly exploiting new activities such as large-scale cultural events in public open spaces. Investigating the subjective immediate experiences of visitors is valuable to reflect on these events and their configuration in the city. Therefore the aim of this study is twofold: (i) to demonstrate a data collection methodology to measure subjective immediate experiences of visitors and (ii) to test different types of factors that influence visitors’ subjective immediate experiences at cultural events by means of the new methodology. A quantitative research that is enabled by geotagging, paper surveys and secondary data (location characteristics and weather conditions) is applied at the Dutch Design Week event in Eindhoven, the Netherlands. After data collection, a binary logit model is estimated. It is found that apart from age and intended duration of stay, visitor characteristics do not influence the subjective immediate experiences while temporal, physical environmental and weather conditions do. Specifically, it is found that subjective immediate experiences at outdoor locations are mainly influenced by location characteristics. This study shows that the proposed data collection methodology is useful for gathering insights especially on the influence of physical characteristics on subjective immediate experiences. The paper concludes with recommendations for future research and with suggestions to policy makers and event managers.