الفهرس 
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Abstract
In recent decades, urban renewal policies and continuous economic demand have caused the urban fabric of cities to become disorganized and detached, thus creating socially and economically inefficient spaces. These spaces are represented in military sites, vacant plots, industrial sites, deteriorated waterfronts, leftover space, oversized streets, and socially inefficient public spaces. All of these aforementioned spaces are called ”Neglected Urban Open Spaces” (NUOS). On the other hand, NUOS are generally defined as unrecognizable and meaningless urban spaces, which have broken the continuity of the urban fabric. They weaken the public realm and are the result of modern urbanism policies. Additionally, urban planners considered NUOS as wasted spaces, which decrease the sense of attachment and pride of citizens within their communities. Another important viewpoint describes NUOS as spaces without function or activity, which makes them abandoned and unsafe for citizens. According to this variety of viewpoints, these spaces lack specific classifications and a clear definition, which makes it difficult to form a framework to develop them. For these reasons, any city’s developers become powerless towards this problem, leading to a great number of unoccupied and purposeless spaces. Therefore, the research’s significance lies in reconnecting these spaces to the urban fabric, to enhance their potentials and values. So, NUOS could be considered as a catalyst for revitalizing and enhancing the public realm within communities. Furthermore, the research also emphasizes using place-making as an approach of Urban Revitalization, giving these spaces a second chance to become vital public places to promote social aspects and people’s experiences. More importantly, this study investigates the success of Place-making as an urban design approach in revitalizing NUOS, connecting them to the Cognitive, Environmental, Socio-cultural, and Formational dimensions of urban design. Therefore, place-making contributes to enhancing the significance of open public spaces within the urban fabric, by increasing the percentage of green spaces, refreshing existing urban open spaces, and creating new creative social spaces, which can enrich users’ experience. Also, place-making emphasizes the uniqueness of the space, through adding or restoring its identity and functioning. Furthermore, it can promote urban design, by creating patterns of use, depending on community-based participation by paying particular attention to the physical, cultural, and social characteristics of communities. This makes the place in constant growth and use. Therefore, the resultant places express people’s inspirations and imaginations towards their public realm, which leads to an increase in their sense of attachment and belonging to their communities. For that reason, place-making depends mainly on place-theory, which relies on enhancing the physical and emotional attributes of a space Hence, the outcome of place-making results from its different varieties: strategic, standard, creative, and tactical place-making, which lead to creating high-quality public spaces contributing to promoting people’s health, happiness, and well-being. Besides, these new spaces can reinforce the connection between people and places, by maximizing shared principles and increasing economic benefits for communities. To achieve this purpose, the research establishes a framework for revitalizing NUOS, using the place-making approach, through the deductive methodology of analyzing some relevant examples and a case study in Cairo, Egypt. The case study concerns the type of NUOS related to transportation, such as leftover spaces beneath flyovers. The objective of the study of this case is to revitalize this neglected space and to re-establish its urban continuity, which has been broken as a result of a gap in the relationship between the infrastructure and the built environment. As for the empirical study of the leftover space of Rod El Farag flyover in Shoubra, Cairo, the study used a survey to get community members to participate in the process of revitalizing this neglected space. More importantly, this participation is a key aspect of the place-making approach, to define and express users’ needs and vision in developing this type of space. This flyover is one of the waterfront flyovers in Cairo, along the banks of the Nile River. This leftover space is neglected, pointedly in terms of physical quality and the environmental condition of the Nile. So, it can be said that through investigating the case, it is important to highlight that such revitalization shall be accomplished through the integration of more than one form of place-making to achieve intertwined multiple social, economic, and environmental outcomes. In conclusion, the thesis presents the findings of the theoretical, analytical, and empirical studies as a framework for achieving the urban revitalization of Neglected Urban Open Space, using the place-making approach. This framework is based on a study of two matrices. The first matrix is three-dimensional; it links the relation between urban design dimensions and place-making forms with the qualities of successful public spaces; Access &Linkage, Uses Activities, Image & Comfort, and Sociability, which are used as criteria for place-making. The other is a two-dimensional matrix, correlating between the used forms of place-making: strategic, standard, creative, and tactical place-making, and the outcomes of revitalizing NUOS, which vary between social, economic, environmental, and cultural heritage benefits. Based on the findings of this framework, NUOS can be redefined as an effective urban component and a tool to revisit public spaces, by creating a variety of them, based on the type of NUOS. Each type of NUOS requires the integration between specific forms of place-making, according to the key objectives of revitalizing this neglected space. The empirical study is used to prove the applicability of this framework, to assist city leaders in balancing between the essential need of constructing flyovers for mobility and develop this neglected public space in modern cities.