Architecture

“Residential Complex Design: Redefining Inter-Building Spaces to Foster Social Interaction”

Apartment living can be considered the dominant form of urban housing in the contemporary era. Although residential complexes were originally intended to be placed within green, low-density environments to offer high-quality spaces and enhance residents’ satisfaction, over time they have gradually transformed into high-density apartment blocks. Shared public spaces—where residents participate collectively—serve as places for exchanging ideas and information and form the foundation of social networks. Living in a crowded, high-traffic residential complex can cause irreversible damage to the social relationships among its inhabitants.

A review of books and academic articles helped establish the theoretical framework of this study, based on which field observations and case analyses were conducted to identify the key indicators of open-space quality in residential complexes. The findings show that residents’ presence and use of open spaces between buildings depend on these spaces offering an acceptable level of quality and providing appropriate amenities for their users.

In this research, “quality” refers to the characteristics that distinguish one environment from another. The quality of a residential environment should convey a sense of comfort and satisfaction to its residents through its physical, social, or symbolic attributes. As noted, environmental quality is understood by scholars as the sense of residential satisfaction, while residents’ satisfaction is defined as the experience of enjoyment within a specific place. Three dimensions can be considered in evaluating satisfaction with one’s living environment: spatial, social, and functional aspects—all of which are directly linked to environmental quality.

Based on the reviewed literature, criteria related to the impact of public open spaces on social interaction were identified. These were aligned with the categories associated with residential satisfaction to formulate a set of indicators evaluating the quality of inter-building open spaces, including physical, social/public, and functional criteria. The selected case studies were then analyzed according to these indicators. The results indicate that open spaces between buildings will be well-received by residents when the hierarchy of personal, semi-private, semi-public, and public realms is preserved and clearly defined.