comfort
Comfortability is a sense of being at psychological ease, often characterized as a state that lacks hardships, but comfort can also describe the sense of being a physical ease as well. Comfort can facilitate a sense of belongingness (refer to point 4) for people, and therefore when surrounded with things that provide psychological comfort, they may discover a “comfort zone” of sorts. The comfort zone is a behavioural state within which a person operates in an anxiety-neutral condition, using a limited set of behaviours to deliver a steady level of performance, usually without a sense of risk (White 2009) This feeling of safety is promoted by structures that protect one from weather (e.g. awnings), clearly signage marking a public/private separation, and by spontaneous protection with the eyes of both pedestrians and those watching the continual flow of pedestrians from buildings. To make this protection effective at enhancing safety, there should be “an unconscious assumption of general street support” when necessary, or an element of “trust”. (Jane Jacobs) As the main contact venue, these places contribute to building trust among neighbors over time. However, because of the personal nature of positive associations, psychological comfort is highly subjective. (Kolcaba, 2003)