Análisis del Espectro de Respuesta

This research has mixed approaches to obtain better understanding of open spaces and social life by users of public open spaces in the city of Jeddah, which investigates open spaces as an integration of fabric, form and cultural practice, and adopts storytelling methods to elicit complexity of open spaces and social life. These methods were then adapted to use case study open spaces to develop a typology that was appropriate for this city and the cultural, religious and social backgrounds of the people, which included observations, on-site interviews and practitioner interviews.

These methods supported the objectives of this research by identifying typologies of public spaces in residential area used usually by neighbors, and recorded activities and use that encourage social interaction across demographic factors on different days and different times of the year at case study open spaces. The ways that users adapted to the open space, share meaning and develop responses to specific places were investigated, and identified differences between Saudi and immigrants. Professional practice relating to management, planning and design was also recorded and analyzed, which focused on social requirements, and implications for urban designer professionals were formulated.

Different open spaces in Jeddah were visited during an initial explorative survey to gain sufficient personal knowledge and experience. This process was essential to form a detailed understanding and to clarify the direction of the study. During the survey, photographs were taken in order to establish the overall state of the environment, as well as the contemporary public spaces. The initial

survey included walks, observations, and short dialogues with the users of the selected public open spaces. "When you observe behavior, you soon become aware of repetitive activities in identifiable places. Place-specific activities within such a pattern are more closely related to one another than to patterns of activities in other places. In different socio-cultural and physical settings the same behavior can have different design implications" (Zeisel, 1981, p114).

A pilot study was made during the initial stage that lasted from 2nd December 2014 to 5th January 2015 and from 5th March to 24th April 2015. The aim of the pilot study was to set up the availability of data, the feasibility of selected public spaces, further exploration of the study question, as well as to define the most appropriate method to complete the research. A diversity of data sources was required for the pilot study, including base maps, aerial images of the city dating from different periods, and maps of Jeddah produced in different scales. In addition, the pilot study has considered of Jeddah’s population and demographic characteristics.

In order to achieve the aims of this research, there are two phases within the fieldwork (Table 4-1). Both of these phases require different strategies and activities necessary to take account of their respective similarities and differences. In order to maintain a record of the process of the study, in addition to recording the time available, two phases were devised. This process would enable public spaces to be analyzed according to the seasons. In addition to different methods used for gathering data were arranged.

Table 4-1 Pilot study, fieldwork and data analysis

In the fieldwork a minimum of 85 interviews were conducted, which will be explained later in this chapter. The researcher used the on-site interviews to obtain more knowledge from the user’s usage pattern of open spaces. The observation also helped to record user’s activities and behavior, which related to spatial and temporal aspects. These approaches will contribute to the gap in knowledge when open spaces and social life is studied in the North Africa and Middle East areas that differ from the findings of Western literature that reflect different societies and cultures.

Table 14-2 introduces the objectives and aims that are addressed by the use of each data collection method. The following sections will present and give more details about each method that was used to collect data.

Aim Objective Method

1) To explore how and why people use designed public open spaces in the Jeddah city urban context.

a) Identify typologies of the urban open spaces that are popularly used by people.

b) observe activities and use across demographic factors at different times, and on different days of the year in selected case study sites.

- Identify typology - Observation - On-site Interview - Photographs 2) To explore what is the role of modern public spaces

compared to traditional public spaces of Jeddah city in the formation of a platform for social interaction.

c) Investigate the ways that people develop their interactions and

relationships with each other, and define the activities and uses that are attractive and generator of social relations in modern public spaces and traditional public spaces. - Observation - On-site Interview - Photographs 3) To determine some of the implications for improved planning and design of public open spaces In line with government plans and actors in decision- making to meet the requirements of users within the Jeddah city context, thus contribute to bring back the social life to those spaces.

d) Critique current situation of professional practice relating to the planning, design and government administration of public open spaces in Saudi Arabia, especially in Jeddah, with specific focus on social requirements. e) Clarify implications for the urban design profession, working on the planning, design and government administration of open spaces in Saudi Arabia. - Observation - Practitioners Interview - Photographs - Studying the role of government in the planning, design and management of open public spaces.

The following sections explain each method used for this research, which is followed by an explanation of the process of how the data collection was integrated into the research findings.