Impact of Urban Skeleton and Landscape in Enhancing the Social Interactions (Case Studies: Edinburgh, London and Geneva)

Life is a continuous current of experiences. Past experiences can assist us in planning for the present time; and perhaps architecture and urban development experiences are one of the best examples for this claim. Concepts, meanings and basic principles of architecture and urban development can be used or sometimes be completed or refined to form our modern urban environments as best as possible. Urban space is an organized, decent and disciplined structure which is based on a set of certain and evident rules. To get a better understanding of this, one just needs to take a precise look at the experience of spatial architecture across the whole history. Apart from form-based features of each historical epoch, the great architecture and urban development projects are common in one feature: spatial quality. Spatial quality is very effective in spatial understanding of an environment and may bring about a pleasant feeling in visitors who used to stay in that space. The human and his activities would be meaningful only in urban public spaces where are belonged to the society as a whole and they facilitate social interactions. A disciplined urban structure along with consisting principles of urban skeleton and landscape can enhance considerably such interactions. Regarding the importance of identification of experiences of valuable urban environments in other countries for formation of modern urban spaces, which have a mutual relation with social relations and interactions of residents living in that environment, this study tries to analyze a number of architecture and urban development models and spaces across urban spaces in Edinburgh, London and Geneva. It also examines their stance in the urban landscape in terms of practical and aesthetical considerations and their impact on social interactions in order to take advantage of this understanding and its principles and sometimes to upgrade them for developing modern spaces with good quality, which are necessary for the social interactions. As mentioned before, spatial quality and social interactions interplay. The study is based on the author's personal observations and studies in these three cities. A qualitative method has been used for analysis and library, documentary and comparative research methods were used to collect data.

Keywords:

Social Interactions , Urban Space , Environment Skeleton , Spatial Quality , Urban Landscape