Study of urban space / urban life in the suburb

This abstract outlines a section of the methods, which I use in my PhD study, to investigate urban space and urban life in suburban areas in Denmark. I will touch upon the overall methodological considerations in the project, and then go deeper into a specific section: the architectural analysis of a public suburban space.
I use anthropological fieldwork to explore the space and place of everyday suburban life in a Danish suburb. I combine two disciplines – architecture and anthropology, to find layers that have commonality, and in this abstract, I focus on the projects architectural analysis, in form of a pilot case study.
The pilot case study involves to elements, an architectural analysis and an urban life registration of a suburban urban space in ‘Søndermarken’ in Vejle. The object is to study the physical frames and look at how these frames shape the use and patterns of movement in the selected suburban public space.
In the architectural analysis I register the physical frames and conditions of the space (scale, architecture, functions, boundaries, connections etc.) and through the urban life registrations, inspired by the Danish architect and researcher Jan Gehl, I map the stay, activity and encounters of people. Through these studies I seek a deeper understanding of the physical and social connections in the suburb.