Eighth International Conference on The Constructed Environment

Abstract

Today, cities in Iran face shortages of public spaces. Physical borders separate parts of the city and restrict the entry to some urban spaces. Exclusion from a social system and its rights, as the result of poverty or minority, is social exclusion. Members of a university make social or educational groups and follow separation from other existing groups to increase their freedom. The goal of this study was to investigate the possibility of increasing the social inclusion in the Tehran University (TU) campus by removing fences. This study created spaces for non-affiliated people to access the cultural and scientific resources within the TU campus. Regarding the qualitative nature of this study, observations and questionnaires were used as data collection methods. This study showed that the student groups are making boundaries within the campus, and destroying the borders or fading out the boundaries may lead to the group isolation. Therefore, this study recommended implementing defined boundaries within the TU campus through various dynamic edges. The other suggestion was to create two types of spaces, one known as public spaces for people participation and the other one as semi-public spaces for student groups and members of the university.