Relationships Between Interior and Exterior Spaces as a Factor of Efficient University Buildings

Abstract

Universities are focusing on the students’ needs as a part of interior space elements in the designing processes. However, these needs related to the design of the environmental and formulating systems. Students prefer a comfortable interior space for movement and social activities. Therefore, comfortability should be considered in the design process of the educational building, especially for students’ space. The study observed the negative space in the buildings of the University of Mosul, which students lost the healthy relationship between the open and interior space in Students’ space. The gathering points inside and outside buildings is the focus of the current study. Therefore, the problem statement is “There is a gap in the design processes of the interior space that provides a comfortable students’ space”. Therefore, the main research question is “What are influencing factors of the designing and adaptive reuse processes of the interior space in the university buildings”. The research aim is “to identify the important factors that influence students’ needs in the educational building at the University of Mosul”. A quantitative approach applied by using questioner and measuring instruments to collect data from selected case in the University of Mosul. The triangulation of the data shows the importance of direct connection between the exterior and interior space. Besides, the availability of green area, green elements, and comfortable area in the exterior and interior space are the important factors as results showed. Partially, the majority (81%) of the students preferred a free space that can students adapted to space.