[pre-draft of a chapter written for The Routledge Handbook of Urban Design Research Methods, edited by Hesam Kamalipour, Patricia Aelbrecht, and Nastaran Peimani, forthcoming 2023] Phenomenological Research Methods and Urban Design David Seamon Abstract Most broadly, phenomenology is the study of human experience, particularly its everyday, unnoticed aspects. This chapter considers phenomenological research methods relating to urban places and city placemaking. The chapter begins by reviewing phenomenology and then discusses four phenomenological methods useful for urban-design research: (1) first-person studies of urban places; (2) third-person studies of urban places; (3) careful observation of urban places; and (4) hermeneutic studies of urban places. The chapter concludes by arguing that phenomenology offers an important contribution to urban studies and provides a valuable perspective and set of directives for urban design. Introduction Originally associated with European philosophers Edmund Husserl, Martin Heidegger, and Maurice Merleau-Ponty, phenomenology aims to describe human experiences, meanings, and actions as thoroughly and accurately as possible (Moran 2000), Finlay 2011). For studying phenomenologies of the city and urban experience, two interrelated phenomenological concepts are central—first, lifeworld; second, natural attitude. The lifeworld is a person or group’s everyday world of taken-for-grantedness, usually out of sight and unnoticed. The inner, subjective aspect of lifeworld is the natural attitude, the person or group’s taken-for-granted acceptance of the lifeworld, which normally happens more or less the same way day after day, thus conferring stability, regularity, and continuity to the person or group’s everyday life. An integral aspect of lifeworlds is place, which has become a major research focus in phenomenological studies (Casey 2009; Donohoe 2017; Janz 2017; Malpas 2018; Relph 1976; Seamon 2018). Through giving research attention to lifeworlds, natural attitudes, and places-as-lived, phenomenologists shift to what is called the phenomenological attitude—i.e., focusing their research attention on lifeworlds, natural attitudes, and the significance of places in human life. In practice, phenomenologists draw on a range of research methods for studying lifeworlds, natural attitudes, and places (Finlay 2011; Groat and Wang 2013; Seamon 2017). Here, I present four interrelated phenomenological methods that provide practical means for studying urban experience and city placemaking: (1) first-person studies of place; (2) third-person studies of place; (3) careful observations of place; and (4) hermeneutic studies of place. I describe each method broadly and then illustrate its use in research relating to urban design. At the start, I emphasize that, for several of the studies highlighted here, researchers have not identified their work as explicitly phenomenological. I justify inclusion of these studies because they examine aspects of urban experiences, actions, and meanings qualitatively, through first-person explication, encounters with place users, or careful interpretation of urban places or environments. Whether explicitly phenomenological or not, all the studies reviewed here draw on methodologies that can be used to illustrate phenomenological research. 1. First-Person Studies of Urban Place In first-person phenomenological research, researchers draw from their own firsthand experiences to identify experiential qualities of the phenomenon under study (Finlay 2011, pp. 149-157). One example is the work of urban planner Francis Violich (1983, 1985), who examined the varying qualities of place for several Dalmatian towns with contrasting spatial layouts. Using such research techniques as informal sketching, mapping, and journal descriptions based on his own observations and experiences, Violich immersed himself in each place for several days and worked to “‘read’ each as a whole” (Violich 1985, p. 113). His aim was to react “emotionally to the surroundings” and “to find a way to reveal in specific terms how, for any given place, the physical form and its use contributed to [the place’s unique character and atmosphere]” (Violich 1983, p. 45). Violich concluded that one important design implication brough forward by his Dalmatian study was “human appeal in terms of sociability diversity, communit y . . . and authenticity” (Violich 1983, p. 58). He suggested that the use of first-person explications of contrasting urban places might contribute to “the development of sensitive urban designers devoted to the cause of deepening the human meaning of urban places and their enjoyment in everyday life” (Violich 1983, p. 61). Perhaps the most influential example of first-person phenomenology is urbanist Jane Jacobs’ 1961 Death and Life of Great American Cities, a seminal work that examined the human, environmental, and designable qualities associated with successful urban neighborhoods and districts (Jacobs 1961). Though Jacobs never used the label