The Spatial Dynamics of Cafés as Everyday Urban Spaces: Exploring Socialscapes through Streetscapes

Abstract

Cafés have emerged as vital cultural and social anchors in contemporary cities, increasingly located in alleyways and residential neighbourhoods rather than traditional commercial centres. Focusing on Seoul’s Hongdae district, this study uses semantic segmentation and deep learning applied to Street View Images to examine how streetscape attributes—both visual (e.g. enclosure, openness) and perceptual (e.g. liveliness, beauty)—influence café location patterns. Results reveal a shift away from conventional accessibility-based location towards environments that offer sensory richness and walkable appeal. These findings underscore the evolving role of cafés as everyday cultural spaces shaped by experiential consumption and image-based sharing. Accordingly, urban planners should consider streetscapes as active elements of lived heritage and place identity, rather than passive infrastructure.