Shakila Fijani - student, Department of Architecture, Arsanjan Branch, Islamic Azad University, Arsanjan, Iran
Dariush Gheibi - Lecturer, Department of Architecture, Arsanjan Branch, Islamic Azad University, Arsanjan, Iran
Fatemeh Miraki - student, Department of Architecture, Arsanjan Branch, Islamic Azad University, Arsanjan, Iran

Beside its primary function as an educational institution which promotes social interactions among people, university plays a crucial role in establishing relationships through conversations and meeting. Social interaction involves different aspects of spatial desirability such as privacy, solitude, and crowdedness whose definitions have been discussed in the lith of key concepts presented by different theorists. Using a mixed approach including library techniques and analysis of available documents, this study evaluated the theoretical framework regarding social interactions and university spaces. In addition, using field methods, questionnaire, interviews, and observations on a sample of 444 students with different majors at Islamic Azad University of Shiraz and Arsanjan (Fars Province), the study explored spaces and events that create social interactions. The result of data analysis using Excel indicated that the most and the least frequently used spaces by the respondents at Shiraz and Arsanjan universities in social interactions were bowers (35: and 27:) and bus stops (155: and 255:), respectively. besides, it was noted that events such as amusement games (4155: vs. 3655:) were the most preferred options by the respondents at the two universities. In contrast, lectures (455:) and temporal campus exhibitions (755:) were the least preferred options by the respondents.

Social interactions, university, open spaces, collective memory