The influence of building-street interface on fostering public activities

Abstract

With the rapid urbanization process in cities today, the interrelationship between the built environment and city life has come into a disequilibrium. It is convinced that the influence of building street interfaces fosters public activities on streets. This research is based on two case studies selected according to the land use pattern in the central zone of Colombo city. Data collection methods include documentation of physical and qualitative characteristics of building street interfaces, observations, and activity mapping on building street interfaces. The study investigates the physical and qualitative characteristics of the building interface which imposes a significant effect on achieving the optimal conditions for staying and moving activities. It further evaluates four types of neutralized activity pattern zones; Dominant staying, Dominant moving, conflictedly active, and rarely active zones. The subjective physical and qualitative characteristics were examined in terms of Physical comfort, Enclosure, Human scale, Complexity, Territoriality, Permeability, and the activity-based characteristics were identified concerning Spatial tranquilness, Intensiveness of activity, specification of participants, affected for certain activity behaviors on different building street interfaces. Conclusively, the study elaborates that the neutralization patterns of public activity patterns in different building street interfaces depends on the secondary activity patterns and the influence of different physical qualitative characteristics of space. Moreover, the study outlines necessary recommendations for delineating the building street interface as a public space in an urban setting.