The Effect of the Physical Environment on Social Interaction: The Case of Educational Campuses

Negm, Hisham and Taha, Dina and Saadallah, Mohamed (2020) The Effect of the Physical Environment on Social Interaction: The Case of Educational Campuses. SHAPING URBAN CHANGE – Livable City Regions for the 21st Century. Proceedings of REAL CORP 2020, 25th International Conference on Urban Development, Regional Planning and Information Society. pp. 847-857. ISSN 2521-3938

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Abstract

Social interaction is an essential component of the collegiate experience. Studies presume that the provision of appropriate space for interaction enhances its possibility. This study aims to reveal the effect of physical urban design elements on the quantity of social interaction between students on their university campuses. It takes place on the Faculty of Engineering campus in Alexandria University. Student questionnaires investigate students’ sense of ownership, their satisfaction with their current campus and the features that would make them spend more time on campus. Furthermore, they reveal common movement patterns around campus throughout a standard day, and highlight the common gathering spaces. The on-site observation investigates the urban design components of these spaces. Based on the space syntax theory, which proposes that movement can be a good predictor for social encounters, the results are compared with integration and choice analyses maps along with the physical setting for each gathering space. From this analysis, thephysical elements with the highest influence on social interaction are determined and modifications are recommended to the current campus setting. Students were found to be walking the routes that showed high integration values in the space syntax analysis and that these routes were also used for their gatherings. The result will help design better campuses in the future or alter current designs to enhance social interaction. Further research seeks to validate the results by applying the study on more campuses in Egyptian universities.

Item Type:	Article
Uncontrolled Keywords:	University Campus, Design Elements, Social Interaction, College, Urban Design
Subjects:	G Geography. Anthropology. Recreation > GE Environmental Sciences H Social Sciences > HJ Public Finance H Social Sciences > HN Social history and conditions. Social problems. Social reform L Education > L Education (General)
Depositing User:	REAL CORP Administrator
Date Deposited:	01 Feb 2021 10:29
Last Modified:	01 Feb 2021 10:29
URI:	http://repository.corp.at/id/eprint/631

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