Building / Street Interface : Impact on A Pedestrian Activity

Abstract

Streets in urban areas are commonly defined by building façades, which more or less contribute to the character and vitality of City Streets. This research examines the building interface with street space and its impact on pedestrian activity. Building interface with streets affect pedestrian activity and opportunities for public social interaction. Large-scale buildings that occupy entire city blocks with few openings and/or access points reduce street level activity and diminish the economic/social role of streets. Rich building interfaces that incorporate mix of uses, openings and interactive functional relationship with the street enhance urban vitality and walkability in cities. The research adopts the case study as the primary method for understanding, examining and collecting meaningful data, which enriches our current understanding of the impact of building interface with city streets. The study also examines representative case study from the city of Jeddah : Palestine street to identify the building interface design elements that generate rich pedestrian activity on the street level. The research conclude with examines two segments of Palestine street and identify the poor and rich building interface with scoring table for each segment .