الفهرس 
SOCIAL EXPERIENCE OF PLACE AND COMMUNITYOnly 14 pages are availabe for public view
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Abstract
Generating chances for social interaction in its many forms is one of the essential goals for well-designed spaces. The higher the opportunity for social interaction, the more diverse relationships are bound to be established. Social connectedness is then shaped leading to a high sense of community and belonging which are seen to be life motivators and catalysts for happiness and health. While every urban setting has its own identity and characteristics, social interaction is mostly essential to all settings. In educational settings, social interaction can be regarded as a necessity. Expanding the circle of relationships and making more contacts with people is one of the main purposes for most college students. College campuses provide three of the most important catalysts for interaction: similarity, familiarity and physical proximity. One additional condition for the encouragement of comfortable interactions is the availability of adequate spaces for that purpose; hence the interest of this thesis in the campus outdoor spaces as social spaces. This study focuses on the campus landscape as a tool to enhance social interactions between college students in order to achieve a higher sense of belonging. It takes place on three Egyptian public universities’ campuses with the objective of highlighting the essential aspects that control movement and stationary behaviors in such environments. These campuses house the Faculty of Engineering (FoE) of Alexandria University (AU), Ain Shams University (ASU), and Cairo University (CU). The study utilizes survey questionnaires, sketch maps, and observation to formulate a comprehensive view on the students’ experiences on the investigated campuses. On the three examined settings alike, the results indicate a need for improvement of the social and physical environments in order to increase the students’ sense of ownership, and empowerment; henceforth, increase their sense belonging. On a more tangible side, the analysis of the produced behavioral maps reveal that the campuses’ spatial configurations and access points have a noticeable effect on students’ flow and social gatherings’ locations. Furthermore, the physical features lending a space its popularity among students, turning it into a place, are thoroughly discussed. It has been deduced that most of these places accommodate a certain service, are located near a certain path, building, or gate, or provide a certain atmosphere. Finally, it is proposed that the space syntax theory’s integration and betweenness maps can successfully predict an amount of the spatial activity on college campuses. These results will help design better campuses in the future or alter current designs to accommodate students’ needs and improve their well-being.