Promoting Social Interaction Through Jeddah’s Neighborhood Parks Design

Abstract

This research examines the design attributes with potential impact on social interactions in neighborhood parks. This includes accessibility, plants, maintenance, shading devices, lighting, walking paths, active and passive activities, seating, as well as water elements. It develops a theoretical framework of the neighborhood park design that promotes social interaction for assessing neighborhood park design and the level of social interaction in this park within the context of Jeddah city, KSA. It adopts the case study approach to investigate one study site in Jeddah city. It uses an array of qualitative strategies for data collection to test the validity of the theoretical framework in actual context including self-directed/closed-ended questionnaires, direct observation, and physical documentation. In addition to this, a non-participative, structured observation method will be used to record basic data about the level of social interaction in the selected case study. The main findings of this research contribute to generating design guidelines for neighborhood parks within the urban context of Jeddah City in Saudi Arabia to promote social interaction.