Current behaviour is something that has its origins in history, and yet design normally places emphasis on innovation rather than learning from what works. Often the design of an urban space fails because reviewing and evaluating designed past design has been forgotten. The same mistakes are repeated without considering similar unsuccessful examples. Over time theoretical and practical research in urban design has attempted to answer the question of what makes a successful public space. Approaches to the study of place have focussed on its different aspects. Theories interested in the meaning of place have focussed on the link between meaning and physical setting while designers mostly look at the link between physical setting and activity. However, studies have rarely linked these two approaches together. This paper describes research that aims to fill the gap between theory and practice by investigating the influence of natural design attributes on behaviour in a small urban space. It does this through two studies within the framework of place theory using facet theory and behavioural mapping as the methods. The suggested model is demonstrated in a study of a small urban park (Glover Park) in central Wellington, New Zealand. This park was the hangout for those sleeping rough, then redesigned in 2006, and is now working well. While results of these two studies confirm each other they show the relevance and need to use both theoretical and practical research when designing place. Theoretical research with reliable predictive power is appropriate for investigating the subjective quality of place, although when it comes to design and detail the results should be tested in practice. Results of practical study, because of their dependence on physical setting and specific context, are inferential and cannot be used for predicting the link between behaviour and meaning and hence they are not generalizable. However designers can incorporate such results when designing in the specific context. This also shows that behaviour setting, which is shaped by the time, is a valuable resource for designer to learn from the past.