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Shuyu Zhang

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4 records found

Evidence From TikTok Hotspots

Journal article (2026) - Shuyu Zhang, C. Forgaci, L. Qu, M. van Ham
Social media platforms increasingly shape how urban places gain visibility and attention in the digital age. In this article, we examine patterns of “place visibility” on TikTok in Amsterdam. We propose and operationalise a TikTok Place Visibility Score, defined as a composite indicator based on user engagement metrics, to measure the relative visibility of places on the platform. We then explore how TikTok mediates and redistributes visibility within existing urban hierarchies. Drawing on 3,767 TikTok posts associated with #amsterdam and hotspot‐related keywords, we apply geo‐parsing, spatial mapping, visualisation, and network analysis to analyse how visibility is distributed across the city. Our results show that several neighbourhoods just outside the historic urban core—rather than only central locations—exhibit high digital visibility on TikTok. These areas function as digitally prominent activity spaces despite their non‐central position in the urban hierarchy, while central neighbourhoods maintain a strong online presence. The findings suggest that social media algorithms and user interactions affect digital visibility and may reconfigure how attention is redistributed across urban space. We argue that digital visibility patterns shape how places are circulated and prioritised in the digital public sphere, with implications for how people use and engage with urban space. More broadly, the article highlights the importance of attending to platform mechanisms and visibility dynamics when studying urban space in the digital transition era. ...
Basisbegrippen architectuur, landschapsarchitectuur, stedenbouw biedt een introductie op zestien fundamentele begrippen voor de (toekomstige) ruimtelijk ontwerper. Basisbegrippen zijn de sleutel tot het verwoorden en verbeelden van ideeën en denkbeelden binnen de bouwkunde. Een goede beheersing van de veelgebruikte begrippen binnen de vakgebieden architectuur, landschapsarchitectuur en stedenbouw maakt het mogelijk om in een ontwerpproces te communiceren met vakgenoten, opdrachtgevers, (toekomstige) gebruikers en het grote publiek.

Basisbegrippen architectuur, landschapsarchitectuur, stedenbouw is samengesteld door het team ‘Grondslagen’ verbonden aan de faculteit Bouwkunde van de TU Delft. Het handboek bevat bijdragen van Klaske Havik, Willemijn Wilms Floet, Saskia de Wit, Gregory Bracken, Chris Woltjes, Robin Ringel. ...
Journal article (2025) - Shuyu Zhang, Gong Zhang
Purpose
This paper explores how platforms shape the representation of iconic architecture across visual social media platforms, particularly how their unique features and affordances impact these representations.

Design/methodology/approach
This paper develops an integrated framework connecting iconic architecture representation, platform affordance and triadic spatial theory. Taking Rotterdam’s Markthal as a case study and collecting multimodal data from TikTok, Instagram and Google Maps, the paper uses a mixed-methods approach that integrates content analysis with qualitative coding and quantitative image/video label detection and image clustering.

Findings
TikTok is more associated with enriching lived space by enabling users to share vibrant, personal experiences and activities. Instagram influences perceived space more by shaping how users view and experience the physical environment through curated visual content. Meanwhile, Google Maps effectively shapes conceived and perceived space by users’ feedback of place ratings and reviews.

Research limitations/implications
Understanding how platform affordances influence the representation of iconic architecture helps designers and researchers generate design strategies and guides marketers in strategically selecting effective social media platforms for architecture promotion.

Originality/value
This research addresses the gap in understanding the impact of platform affordances on social media representations, especially through comparisons across multiple visual social media platforms. Its novel contribution is introducing the concept of affordance from media studies to architecture and urban studies while enhancing traditional text analysis with computational methods for analysing videos and images. ...

Investigating Place Identity of Grant-Tang Mall Through Online Reviews

Conference paper (2023) - Shuyu Zhang
In the new media era, media architecture often serves as attractive urban spectacles and is widely represented and promoted on social media. Meanwhile, images and videos on social media also have an impact on the place identity and media architecture in the urban experience. This study argues that social media expands the conceptual scope of media architecture, aims to explain the mechanism of the impact of social media on online/ offline media architecture, and designs a methodological framework for analyzing the mechanism. Taking Grant-Tang Mall, a pedestrian street popularized by media architecture on social media, as a case study, the study analyzes the impact of social media on place branding, cultural space reproduction, and placemaking through media architecture. The findings show that social media promotes the online representation and dissemination of media architecture. Social media also combines cultural offline activities to promote citizen participation, shape collective identity, and transform offline media architecture for placemaking. ...