And my particular paper is available here (although they messed with the formatting… gr!):
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1877705811048739

Its a constant battle to ensure that communities are not built only for function, but also to stimulate and excite our senses. Engaging places make more money. Engaging places are created thru paying attention to detail and developers need to be reminded of this. They are learning, but slowly.

It’s always not only interesting to notice the differences, but also understand why the differences occur. Obviously in the UK space is at a premium (the large population on a relatively small island is compounded by a strict planning system that originated to protect the countryside from development. In addition, building codes are quite strict, mandating location of bedrooms, corridors and many, many doors in flats.). I find all this rather interesting, while it often bores all those around me!

While traveling, however, I have seen in India and throughout SE Asia how people view spaces so differently. Streets become living rooms, kitchens, dining rooms, and even bedrooms! Like traditional Japanese design, interior spaces are generic. A shop is a living space and is used at all hours of the day. Surely efficiency probably has a strong relationship to income levels, but how a culture socializes is much more complex. Trying to see a culture and understand these complex workings is fascinating, and leaves me with countless questions (How can a family have a picnic at the rat temple? Where and when might a couple get some privacy at night? At what point does a city begin to create dead streets, sanitised from all the life of the historic city?). And more importantly is raises even more questions for you own culture, and how these ideas can be re-interpreted and introduced!