Life between buildings: examining the role of physical features in shaping social interactions within urban public spaces – the case of Honarmandan Park

The lively and enjoyable public spaces are of critical position to planning a great city (Burden, 2014). Public space is widely believed valuable for sustainable urban life due to its provision of physical environment for social interaction and possibly natural diversity. Throughout history, cities as production of human activities provide provision of spaces for public life, such as social communication and commercial activities (Unwin, 2000). Public space is also an important part of what defines the city. At early 1960s, academics in the West criticized that urban planning was abstract and humanly distant (Gehl & Svarre, 2013). Citizen groups fought for urban redevelopment plans in connection with the historical background such as the youth revolution, protests against nuclear power plants or anti-war protests. The activities all took place in public spaces and as now at political dimension public space have it very important position (Gehl & Svarre, 2013).
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\nWithin the context of global competition, nowadays the provision of public spaces is believed as the enhancement of infrastructure asset for city marketing and promoting the population influx which keep the livability of the city (Gehl & Gemzoe, 2000). However, it’s criticized by scholars that public space has been aided with too much commercial interests and thus public sphere would be impoverished (Degen, 2008). Sequently, it is always critical to keep the public life flourishing. In spite of the commodification of contemporary urban public space, its ever-presented nature of public decided it would be always “in the process of being shaped, unshaped and challenged by the spatial practices of various groups and individuals whose identities and actions undermine the homogeneity of contemporary cities” (MacLeod, 2012; McCann, 1999).
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\nAt present, the public open space in Hong Kong cannot secure the interest of public and in that case it is not successful to cater public everyday life. The social interaction is significantly affected by the physical arrangement as well as the way such public spaces cater for the specific characteristic of public life in
\nHong Kong. In this dissertation study, the main focus would be how does the public space of consumption interact with public social life and how could the institutional framework influence the whole process by its power. In context of
\nHong Kong, consumer culture has strongly influenced urban form by multiple scales of commercial developments, and the public life style has also been shaped by the physical setting and shopping habits. The interaction between human and material can be negotiated and guided by institutional power. By considering power, urban planning practitioners have the responsibility to provide recommendations for public space developments.
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\nThe dissertation study will develop the research scope to a more specific scope – public open space of consumption in private development, i.e. shopping centers in Hong Kong. In order to carry out the study of public life, key concepts and issues will be examined through literature review. Institutional background of public open space of consumption in Hong Kong will be reviewed for a better understanding of the research. Both Hong Kong and overseas best practices will be studied to find out problems and reference experience in design and managing public open space of consumption. In the end, possible recommendations for planning public open space will be proposed to achieve quality public life.

In the present research, a factorial ecological approach using factor analysis was employed to evaluate the dimensionality of the urban social structure of the twin city: Ramallah and Al-Bireh, West Bank, the Palestinian Authority. Through factor analysis, the 41 variables were reduced to four factors with an eigenvalue > 1.0. These factors explain 77.07 percent of the total variables used in the study. Factor I contributes 28.419% of the total variance proportion of input variables, labeled as “family, housing, and public spaces factor”. Factor II accounts for 19.57% of the variance proportion, designated as” housing and urban public spaces”. Factor III is strongly correlated with variables referring to the characteristics of the head of the family, and the availability of public spaces, and thus, is designated as “head of the family and public spaces”. It explains 16.68% of the total variance. Finally, factor IV explains 12.406% of variance proportion, and is strongly associated with variables pertaining to a lack of public social spaces. Consequently, factor IV is termed “lack of public spaces”. The spatial distribution of factor scores related to factors I to IV was mapped using Arc GIS in order to analyze the spatial patterns of the recognized four factors. It is worth noting the factor IV, which refers to the lack of urban social space and, urban public space, which persists in the twin city, and will continue to persist in the future. The lack of urban open space and public social spaces is closely connected to migration, emerged housing pattern, and family status dimensions focused on factors I to III, continuous confiscation of the Palestinian lands, and the construction of Israeli settlements. Currently, the twin city is extremely overcrowded with stone/concrete buildings at the expense of public space which has declined continuously over the last three decades. Nevertheless, the analyzed spatial pattern of factor scores indicated the homogeneous character of the urban society of the twin city. Based on the urban eco-logical models which seek to characterize the Western, non-Western, Israeli, and Arab-oil producing (e.g., Kuwait) urban structures, it is difficult to elaborate a specific Palestinian urban ecological model with reference to the models developed elsewhere.

Tehran, Iran(corresponding outer ) ABSTRACT : Urban spaces are places in order happening crime. Considering of them both of quality and quantity aspects is necessary. On the other hand, gender urban design is important due to some urban spaces are unsafely for attendance of women. Planning and designing safe public spaces for women and girls means creating public spaces with features that enhance women's safety and feelings of safety, and detract from features that cause women's insecurity and feelings of insecurity. While planning and designing safe public spaces for women, planners, designers and architects place special focus on lighting, landscaping, visibility, motorized traffic, pedestrian traffic, urban furniture, potential hiding spots, signage, security personnel, proximity to other public spaces, proximity to emergency services, and access to public transportation. Each of these areas is given particular consideration from the perspective of the women and girls who use public spaces. In order to, this research is applied and the research method is descriptive - analytical. The method of data collected is field and questionnaire. Therefore were used 180 questionnaires. Also, was used SPSS method for analyzing data. The finding shows that urban space safeties in studied area have decreased. on the other hand if the time of attendance women increase , urban security will increase . KEY WORD: Urban public space, women security, safe space, Mashhad metropolitan

Urban public spaces are the interface of any city that could tell about the city’s dynamic and status quo. In addition, Urban public spaces play a pivotal role in shaping societies’ dynamics and can significantly affect conflict and peacebuilding initiatives. In a context marked by Conflict’s profound impact, this article aims to contribute to the knowledge base for informed urban interventions that foster positive interactions and reconciliation in post-conflict cities. The article seeks to explore the intricate relationship between urban spaces and their influence on war or to promote sustainable peacebuilding through investigating the various roles of the urban public spaces during the war and peacetimes via residents’ experiences of the diverse spaces’ functions that shaped the city’s status quo. In addition, considering the interplay of social dynamics, conflict history, and the mental spatial map of cities in public urban spaces can influence lasting peace or upcoming conflicts. This article focuses on Aleppo as a case study, understanding the positive and negative experiences from the residents’ perspective before and during the current war in Syria, and even distinguishes between two periods during the recent war, which are the active violence and after the end of the direct active violence, where it could inform the decision-makers and urban planners on the areas of focus while developing post-war urban public spaces to ensure its positive role in fostering peace and be able to deal with the social dynamic and the mental spatial map that developed along with the conflict history. The paper utilised a mixed-methods approach, encompassing a case study review of Aleppo City from an urban perspective and fieldwork involving focus group discussions and semi-structured interviews with Aleppian from different backgrounds and geographic areas that represent the social dynamic of the city, as well as approached Aleppian who are still in living in the city and those who flee out of it to ensure the coverage of different political direction in addition field work engaged with academia and technical from the city who shared their knowledge and experiences working in the city. Participants were prompted to reflect on their pre-war familiarity with public places and share their experiences. These experiences were categorized by enabling a comprehensive understanding of how conflict context influenced these spaces. The article results offer an understanding of the peace-guiding functions of the urban public spaces based on the city residents’ experiences that could inform architects and urban planners in designing spaces conducive to sustainable peacebuilding. The article’s findings underscore the importance of strategically designed urban public spaces in promoting peace and social cohesion.

Urban commercial complex is the product of social and economic development, as well as the inevitable trend of commercial development. The public space design of urban complex project is an important link in its development process, which is the link between the contact and the building, the city and the building, and the external image display of the complex. Therefore, choosing a suitable and excellent public space design scheme is of great significance to show the superiority of the complex project and improve the project satisfaction and the sustainable operation in the later stage. This paper first defines the concept of urban complex public space and focuses on the analysis of the urban complex public space from four aspects of constituent elements, functional classification, design theory, and principle. Then, the Delphi method is used to determine 26 evaluation indicators to evaluate the urban complex public space design scheme, and the relevant index data of 20 urban complex public space design schemes are collected. The grey correlation analysis method is used to analyze the correlation degree between each indicator and the scheme winning bid. The final evaluation system of urban complex public space design scheme is obtained after removing the 8 indicators with low correlation degree. Support vector mechanism was used to build the optimization model of urban complex public space design scheme, and its accuracy was verified, which provides a relatively simple and quantitative method for urban public space design in the future, helps to improve the city’s business structure, improves the business environment of the city, makes the commercial complex more effectively play its own characteristics and advantages, effectively stimulates the vitality of urban space, and creates more perfect architectural space and urban space for people.

Relationship existence recognition-based social group detection in urban public spaces

Carbon sinks in urban public green spaces under carbon neutrality: A bibliometric analysis and systematic literature review

Mapping urban public spaces based on the Nolli map method

In this article, we examine the definition of the Urban Public Open Space for Non-independent Land, and understand the related legal status in China. It attempts to summarize and compare with the mechanism of the Public Open Space in Private Development (POSPD) in Hong Kong and New York, so as to draw some inspiration for the development of domestic in China. It suggests a more effective design control and better management of the public open space for the urban planning regulation system. 1 Background With the rapid development of urbanization and the improvement of people's livelihood, people's need for quality of urban space is growing. However, urban construction and expansion have made the urban area dwindle; while as the vacant city space, especially urban public space faces the problem of shortage. Under the traditional state, urban public space supplied by the government has failed to meet the requirements. Therefore, some governments will attract and encourage private conducts in city construction and public administration in order to promote the city development, making the private enterprises important roles in providing public services. Therefore, the developers attempt of offering open space for rest, which is also maintained and managed by themselves, in the parcels of their private real right voluntarily or according to law for the public use, is included, and this contributes to improving the urban environment and solving the urban public space shortage. This kind of new public space is called POSPD (Public Open Space in Private Development) in Hong Kong and POPS (Privately Owned Public Space) in the US. According to the implement of the socialist public ownership of the land in China, the planning bureau in the city of Shenzhen gave it a new definition: Public Space for Non-independent Land(PSNL). At present, China has carried out such practical revolution in urban public space which is built on land with non-public property right. Firstly, in the recent twenty years, the plot ratio has been widely introduced as a reward in the city planning administration in China. The government encourages the private development projects to provide open space, elevated ground floor, increase of public facilities, application of energy-saving construction and so on, and thus gives them additional area accordingly as awards. Secondly, some cities have given some standards and guidelines on urban planning and design, but they were not written into the laws and regulations of urban planning, resulting in a dead zone in the development and management of the planning. In 2006,the planning bureau in the city of Shenzhen compiled the document of The Public Space System Planning in

Urban public spaces in Colombo play a critical role in shaping social interaction, recreation, and the overall well-being of city dwellers, yet many of these spaces face persistent challenges related to safety and misuse. While landscape research has examined planting and perceived safety in residential areas, little literature addresses this link in urban parks. Beira Lake, a major urban space, is increasingly associated with safety concerns influenced by its vegetation patterns. This study evaluates the influence of planting density on user perceived safety and negative behaviors in Beira Lake (South-West), Colombo. A mixed-method approach was employed, combining site observation, photo-questionnaire survey, and user questionnaires based on a Likert scale, alongside correlation analysis to identify relations between planting density, safety perception, and behavioral outcomes. The results indicate that among the examined factors, visibility exerts the strongest influence on perceived safety within urban public spaces, surpassing the effects of social interaction and physical accessibility. Dense planting often reduces visibility and perceived safety while correlating with higher levels of undesirable behaviors, whereas open planting patterns enhance accessibility, interaction, and security. The findings underscore the importance of vegetation density as a key design factor for balancing ecological, aesthetic, and safety outcomes in Colombo’s public spaces.

The planning and construction of urban transit often pay more attention to the needs of urban traffic, and less to the needs of urban public space, which lead to the contradiction between rail transit and urban public space. The paper develops a theoretical framework for the integrated design of rail transit and public space, based on the analysis of contradictions and problems between them. First, an integrated planning method is put forward in a macro level through analyzing the interaction between rail transit network and public space system. Second, the influence factors are identified by analyzing the relationship between urban transit nodes and public spaces in all types and levels. Thus the integrated solution and pattern of rail transit nodes and public space are developed in a micro level. Third, the conceptual pattern has been applied in Wuhan city as a study case, putting forward the strategies of the integrated design of urban rail and public space of Wuhan city.

This contribution explores concepts, approaches and technologies used to make urban public spaces more playful and artful. Through a variety of compelling narratives involving play and art it assists in the design of new cyberparks, public spaces where digitally mediated interactions are an inherent part. How can play and interactive art be used to strengthen urban public spaces by fostering citizen engagement and participation? We propose to not only utilise interactive media for designing urban (public) spaces, but also for social innovation for the benefit of citizens. in cyberparks. The contribution connects urbanity, play and games, as well as concepts of active and passive interactive digital art as part of trends towards pervasive urban interaction, gameful design and artification. We position this as an important part of developing human-centred smart cities where social capital is central, and where citizens engaging in play and art are prerequisites for sustainable communities. Using art, play and games to foster citizen engagement and collaboration is a means to develop social technologies and support the development of collective intelligence in cyberparks. This is studied in concrete cases, such as the Ice Castle in Luleå, Sweden and the Ars Electronica in Linz, from a multi-disciplinary stance involving interaction design, digital art, landscape design, architecture, and health proficiencies. We will analyse two cases of gameful design and one case of digital interactive art being used to address urban issues. Rezone the game is an interactive multimedia game developed to tackle vacancy in the city of Den Bosch in the Netherlands. The Neighbourhood is a board game developed to involve various stakeholders in making their neighbourhood using water as a collective resource.

Older people have received little attention in policy and planning in relation to health and related in urban space in world and specially in Iran. While the demographic index of Iran shows ageing of the population, policies and plans not supporting health space in urban area for older people. Elderly individuals and their presence in urban public spaces have a mutual effect on each other and are two components that are mainly considered by urban public space planners and designers. Predictions indicate that Iran would face population aging problem in the society and cities during approximately next 40 years. However, urban public spaces are important places for life continuation and social interaction formations. Due to their special physical, psychological and social conditions, elderly individuals need appropriate facilities in line with their needs so that they can be present in urban public spaces and be capable of taking the responsibility of active roles. The main purpose of the current research was recognizing age-friendly city`s indices and investigating these indices` status in region 1 of Shiraz municipality. Due to having the highest age mean among 11 regions of Shiraz municipality, region 1 of Shiraz municipality was selected as the scope of the study. The methodology of this research was quantitative and survey regarding which, the data have been collected using questionnaire. The reliability of the research`s questionnaire was obtained 87.0 through Cronbach Alpha, which was an acceptable amount. The statistical population of this research included elderly individuals of region 1 of Shiraz municipality, among which, 375 individuals were selected as random convenient samples. Data was analyzed using SPSS software. The summary of the findings of the current research indicated that overall, urban public spaces of region 1 of Shiraz municipality couldn`t respond to elderlies` needs and the status of 8 indices of the age-friendly city in public spaces of this region was less than medium and was at the least standard status.

IntroductionContemporary societies are increasingly becoming sites in which it is more difficult for people to respectfully negotiate disagreements about human diversity. This is exemplified by people who must oppose oppressive social conventions that marginalise them because they identify as belonging to one or more minority groups. One of the key factors in this dynamic is how people’s being in particular sites impacts their being as a person. The “fate of the stranger” is shaped by the spaces they inhabit and people are labelled as “insiders or outsiders” (Amin Land 2); for many people this means our societies are sites of dissatisfaction. For example, in some sites asylum seekers and refugees are referred to as “co-habitant and potential citizen,” while in other sites they are referred to as “impure and threats” (Amin Land 2). This process of defining a person’s being is also experienced by people who are “multi-abled, multi-sexed, multi-sexual, or multi-faith” (Garbutt 275). This article provides a reading of the Human Library in relation to contemporary understandings of space from human geographers such as Ash Amin, as a way of rethinking our everyday spaces as sites for protesting the marginalisation of difference. It primarily draws on my researching and organising Human Libraries across Australia.Protest can employ both instrumental and expressive forms of activism. Instrumental activism aims to change law or policy, gain improvements in living conditions, and win important human services. Expressive activism is often understood as a continuum of political acts extending from lawful demonstrations through to violent activities. Recent studies demonstrate that protest has developed beyond such conventional forms (Dalton, Van Sickle, and Weldon). Contemporary protest includes such things as: acts of spontaneity (Snow and Moss); advocating rights via cultural rather than political protest (Bruce); and activating spatial politics by engaging in urban public spaces to highlight long-standing socio-spatial inequalities (Marom).These examples demonstrate the tension that exists within contemporary protest. While some people accuse expressive activism of being “a thing-for-itself that is not aimed at producing results”, others recognise that “both expressive and instrumental activism are necessary and important” (Maddison and Scalmer 69-71). Far from being self-interested, protest that adopts expressive activism offers its practitioners an important tool:Expressive activism is oriented towards the construction, reconstruction and/or transformation of norms, values, identities and ways of living and being. It is not just about ‘who we are’ […] but also about ‘how we are’ in the world, consequently requiring evaluation of ‘what we do’ and ‘how we do it’. (Stammers 164-165)This understanding of expressive activism provides a useful lens for reading the Human Library as a means of rethinking everyday spaces as sites for protesting the marginalisation of difference. This is particularly so because the Human Library, as an activist organisation dedicated to increasing respect for difference, is situated within the contemporary anti-prejudice movement (Stammers; Chesters and Welsh; Watson "'You Shouldn't Have to Suffer'").Introducing the Human LibraryHuman Libraries transform the spaces provided by traditional libraries into spaces that challenge contemporary socio-spatial dynamics. Human Libraries provide people (Readers) with a safe space in which they can choose another person (a volunteer known as a Human Book) and engage in a conversation or ‘reading’ about the way that people perceive and experience difference. Readers choose their Human Books from a catalogue of titles and descriptions which are developed by each Human Book.and express something about how they identify. For example, titles include such things as belonging to sexual minority groups, living with physical or mental impairment, or belonging to different ethnic and cultural backgrounds. Each ‘reading’ is defined by three rules: 1) you may raise any topic or ask any question; 2) a ‘reading’ is a dialogue so Human Books ask their Readers questions too; and 3) each person may decline to answer any question and to end the reading at any time. Using this method, Human Libraries protest the way in which socio-spatial norms marginalise people who are different. They enact a form of expressive activism that reconstructs the way that norms are used in local sites to marginalise different ways of living and being. This reconstruction of the relationship between norms and sites enables people to be “who we are” and “how we are” without having to be inauthentic about “what we do” and “how we do it” (Stammers 164-165).The first Human Library took place at the Roskilde Festival (Denmark) in the summer of 2000 and as an international activist organisation within the anti-prejudice movement, has since become active in over 80 countries and used in a variety of local community sites thus demonstrating its ability to “transcend borders and be adapted to different situations” (Abergel et al. 13). It now operates in such diverse settings as local libraries, universities, schools, music and cultural festivals and workplaces. Participants’ (Organisers, Readers and Human Books) reflections on their experiences of engaging in Human Libraries helps to illustrate how they perceive Human Libraries as sites that challenge socio-spatial norms.Human Libraries enable people to create sites that reverse our usual social interactions. The following phrases, used by participants to describe their contact with the Human Library, illustrate this. An Organiser, whose local government job requires her to develop projects that encourage interactions between in-groups and out-groups, explains that Human Libraries bring people who usually live “on the margins […] into the centre of the page” and that “the powerful people […] who are usually in the centre” are required to listen to different experiences. Likewise, Human Books describe themselves as being “totally open” in order to encourage their Readers to ask about topics that society labels as “taboo”. Readers illustrate how they encounter Human Libraries in ways that the other spaces in their day-to-day lives function. One Reader talks about “stumbling upon” a Human Library within a community event and describes this as “a kind of a stroke of brilliance to catch people at a place like that rather than in a more conventional library setting”. Other Readers emphasise the significance of this type of encounter when they explain that they “probably wouldn’t just go and bother someone in the street” and that participating in a Human Library has provided a type of conversation “that doesn’t happen in any other way”. The outcome of this is highlighted by a Reader who explains that she pushed herself “to go beyond […] just a polite social conversation” because the Human Library “lays it all out there and says, we’re here to talk” (Watson "'You Shouldn't Have to Suffer'" 124-132). These descriptions of people’s experiences of Human Libraries demonstrate how they perceive Human Libraries as spaces that enable them to have conversations with people they would not normally speak to about topics they would usually feel unable to speak about. Their examples are better appreciated when considered along with the scholarship on the interconnectedness of space and intergroup relations.The Interconnectedness of Space and Intergroup RelationsA multiplicity of spaces shape people’s everyday lives. The everyday refers to the “flow of routine” often defined by such mundane habitual practices as going to work, crossing streets and shopping (Dirksmeier and Helbrecht 495). Who a person is, where a person lives, the spaces a person can enter and move about, and how a person is treated in those spaces are intertwined. Belonging is not an abstract concept; as people move in and out of different spaces they demonstrate how belonging is “experienced differentially, and the pleasures and powers it confers are not distributed evenly but [are] linked to relations of inequality and practices of social exclusion” (Noble and Poynting 490). This warns us against romanticizing the urban space of the city and regarding it over-simplistically as neutral and accessible to all, as a space of open flow and untroubled human interaction and as a natural catalyst for proximate reflexivity (Noble and Poynting; Amin and Thrift; Amin Land; Priest et al.).Acknowledging the negative impacts inherent in the interconnectedness of the city and intergroup relations, some scholars have moved their attention from examining integration at the macrospatial level of society to studying the microecology of segregation (Clack, Dixon, and Tredoux; Dixon, Tredoux and Clack; Alexander and Tredoux; Priest et al.; Thomas; Dandy and Pe-Pua; Dixon and Durrheim; Durrheim et al.). This shifts the focus from a primary interest in the city and the neighbourhood to a closer examination of people’s everyday life spaces. This focus examines how members of different groups “share proximity and co-presence” (Clack, Dixon, and Tredoux 2) and engage in informal practices that uphold barriers (Alexander and Tredoux; Dixon and Durrheim). For example, people were observed as they shared spaces such as beaches, school cafeterias and university class rooms and were found to use these spaces in ways that enacted segregation along lines of race, ethnicity, age, and gender. In examples such as these, everyday life spaces are seen to function in ways that (re)instate borders around difference through everyday spatial practices and they act as sites in which “informal segregation practices can be enacted and reproduced” (Priest et al. 32). The shift in scholarly interest to the microecology of segregation serves my interest in how we might use everyday spaces as sites to contest segregation. The following discusse

Historically, Hot cities around India have always relied on urban public spaces for its sociocultural as well as economic activities. They showed a greater capacity to adopt and sustain over time. The reason seems to be lying under its tendency to evolve and accommodate temporality and sustain with its constancy. These urban public spaces were strongly bonded with religions and customs rooted in nature and inbuilt into societal norms, there by emphasizing greater ecological consciousness and protection. But in the last century, globalization brought aesthetic & grand spectacle as deciding criteria for planning and designing of the urban public spaces. The result is, energy consuming, deserted, inaccessible and underutilized public spaces over a longer period as opposed to its short-lived fame. Urbanization has given rise to the new narrative for these urban public spaces which evolved in to hybrid versions conceptualized from global practices. This pose a threat in terms of loss of civic life and decreasing social cultural flows in the city. Cities with the highest temperature seems to be getting the worst of it, essentially due to two main reasons. First are the adopted global models being not responsive to the local context, failing to stay active over longer periods of time and second due to failure to reconceptualize our traditional practices and local knowledge associated with development of cities in to ongoing practices. Previous study of historic Indian public spaces in hot cities, highlights their nature as being symbolic, functionalist, political, performative, and cultural and hence proving to be contextually sensitive. These urban public spaces were designed to be a platform extension of their everyday outdoor life. This everyday outdoor life in hot cities have taken a shape in to various manifestation of forms. And emphasized more on organic development of public spaces. Now, the current system in India that is responsible for generating our urban public spaces are regulated and mandated by state and local guidelines such as, URDPFI guidelines etc. which only mentions about open spaces to be left per area per person or in terms of percentage or buildable area. Little to no consideration has been given to how that open space should be treated. The solution can be found in adaptation and reconceptualizing of these local knowledge and traditional practices suitable to today's spatial context. But a greater consideration needs to be given to the modern-day applicability and checking its suitability. With that consideration, the paper will try to analysis selective samples of urban public spaces before the industrialization in the hot cities depending upon the generic public places i.e., Access and linkage, Purpose and activities, comfort and image, sociability, (Project for public spaces), adaptability, Thermal comfort, User responsiveness. The results then will be tested to check its adaptability in present day context with the help of case study.