Eighth International Conference on The Constructed Environment

Abstract

This research examines the feelings, thoughts, attitudes, and behaviour of female Saudi Arabian residents, who use and value urban open spaces. The study investigates whether new forms of these open spaces can be made more responsive to residents’ needs, whilst taking into account issues such as social, religion, gender, age, urban health, and culture. Physical inactivity associated with a sedentary behaviour lifestyle is a cause of growing public health concern. One strand of this research focuses on alleviating its consequences by addressing the physical environment available for women. With a population of 4.1 million, Jeddah is the second largest city in Saudi Arabia; yet, there is an acute shortage of open public spaces. Where these spaces are provided, they typically fail to meet residents’ needs particularly because western design principles have been applied to this middle-eastern context thereby ignoring Islamic identity and tradition. Within this framework the needs of women have similarly been largely ignored. This research explores the design implication of urban public open spaces for female physical activity in Saudi Arabia. The methods include case studies representing different public open spaces used for physical activity. Data were collected by adopting go-along interviews and observations in different open spaces typology. Research techniques will include interviews with twenty-four female users and five designers/professionals. The results of this research outline design recommendations that can contribute to the improved design of spaces, whilst meeting females’ needs.