Urban plaza design process using space syntax analysis: El-Houria plaza, Biskra, Algeria

The quality of urban public space in general, and urban plazas in particular, has been a concern and a major challenge for designers in setting rules and principles to its layout and its design; functional and aesthetic. Environmental and behavioural research contributes importantly to the understanding of the interaction between user and space, to well respond to users’ real needs; and to have design grounded in social understanding. In pertinent literature, it is common to argue that the most important measures of the success of an open space is attributed to its location, design, and use. In this matter, space syntax provides theory and method to analyse the correlation between spatial properties and people behaviour; understanding this interaction helps in design, with improved design leading to more functional places. This paper instigates from the assumption that human behaviour in space is highly dependent on visibility generated by the built environment configuration, and it aims to look into the correlation between the use of space and spatial quantitative measures, i.e. the syntactic properties of an urban plaza. It also aims to look into how to integrate space syntax analysis as a tool in the plaza layout design process. This work will be carried out on the analysis and the design proposal of the most frequented public place in Biskra, Algeria, “El-Houria plaza”. The analysis process consists of overlapping space syntax method (Depthmap), behaviour mapping and various qualitative analysis techniques such as questionnaire and mental mapping. The results show that plaza spatial use is highly dependent on visibility and that the accessibility (visual access) and the connectivity to the surrounding are the key parameters to its functioning. The results also indicate that there is a high correlation between the human behaviour and the syntactic properties in selecting places to do definite activities. Furthermore, it is shown how visibility becomes the principal feature in the layout proposal of this plaza

(Section A: Planning Strategies and Design Concepts)

Open spaces provided in mass housing schemes is considered as one of largest issues in public mass housing, and their use by the inhabitants has been a concern and a topic of interest of many fields, where the focus is on inhabitant behavior in space according to either inhabitant/inhabitant or inhabitant/space relation. This open space constitutes a structuring space for the large housing estates, by the ties that connect between the buildings that compose it and the inhabitants who use it. Amongst the various deficiencies that mass housing schemes particular present today is the inability of promoting successful open spaces, which is mainly reflected by patterns of their use, therefore produce an abandoned, deserted, and degraded spaces, this is generally an indication that something is wrong with their layout design, in this regard, this paper revolves around the use of open public space in the 1000 collective housing units in the city of Biskra (Algeria), which provides a variety of open spaces forms, hence; to know how the spatial configuration and the site organization affect the way spaces are used by the inhabitants, based on the hypothesis that the use of open public spaces in mass housing is intimately linked to the visual fields produced by the spatial configuration. The analysis process draws on two methods, an observation in-situ to explore why in the neighbourhood, some parts are more occupied and more preferred by people than others, using the technique of behavioural mapping, i.e. people counting and spatial use mapping, taking into consideration three age groups (children, adults, elderly), further to look for links between visibility and spatial use, a syntactic analysis is carried out to analyze visibility properties using Depthmap software. The results of this study indicate that the visual factor, the buildings arrangements, and the site organization in the mass housing substantially affect the use and the quality of their open spaces

Perception de territorialité et usage des espaces publics ouverts des grands ensembles d’habitat collectif -une investigation syntaxique-: Cas d’étude de la ville de Biskra

Le présent travail cherche à étudier la perception de territorialité et l’usage des espaces publics ouverts des grands ensembles d’habitat collectif, en fonction de leurs caractéristiques physiques et configurationnelles en se basant sur l’approche syntaxique et d’autre méthodes d’investigation, à travers une étude comparative de deux grands ensembles de la ville de Biskra (Algérie) ; cité 1000 logements et cité 520 logements, qui offrent une variété de formes de leurs espaces publics ouverts de manière à en faire ressortir la plus adéquate, et par conséquent de dresser un ensemble de recommandations sur la configuration spatiale qui ont pour but d’optimiser l’usage et de renforcer la relation habitant-espace (la territorialité), et qui peuvent aider les urbanistes, les architectes, et tous les intervenants dans la conception et l’aménagement des espaces publics ouverts des grands ensembles d’habitat collectif. Le thème de notre étude a présenté des particularités car il a exigé à la fois un maximum de connaissances dans différents domaines tels que ; la psychologie environnementale, la géographie urbaine, la théorie de la syntaxe spatiale, l’espace urbain. Toutes ces considérations demandent la mise sur pied d’une démarche méthodologique mixte qui combine les méthodes qualitatives (observation in-situ, questionnaire, et entretien) et quantitatives (carte comportementale, et syntaxe spatiale), d’une façon cohérente et harmonieuse afin d’enrichir les résultats de la recherche, en s’appuyant principalement sur la syntaxe spatiale comme cadre théorique et méthode analytique. Les résultats de cette étude ont montré une forte relation entre la configuration spatiale des espaces ouverts et leur usage d’une part, et entre la configuration spatiale et la perception de la territorialité d’autre part, où les principaux éléments de la configuration qui affectent l’usage et la territorialité sont : la forme de l’espace, la surface, l’enclosure, la visibilité depuis l’espace privé intérieur (surveillance naturelle), l’aménagement extérieur, et la hiérarchisation spatiale, ainsi que l’usage et la définition de la territorialité par les habitants sont intimement liés aux valeurs syntaxiques ; les habitants s’approprient et utilisent l’espace principalement selon leur visibilité, leur perméabilité, et leur accessibilité, et par conséquent la perception de la territorialité et l’usage de l’espace sont deux paramètres III importants qui sont très liés et s’affectent mutuellement, et qui sont façonnés principalement par le cadre physique dans lequel le résident vit