Comparison of effective factors in the success of public spaces (parks & streets) in the minds and behavior of citizens in Ankara and Tehran, emphasizing the role of public space planning in these cities

Pubic space is a mixture of physical milieu of various activities with the purpose of showing social life visible for all. All parts of an urban fabric which are accessible physically and visually for all are considered as public space. They are the most important part of towns and cities in which the greatest amount of contact and interaction among people take place. In public spaces, existence of users is not the only sign of success, a successful public space attracts different levels of activity. Whyte reminds us that: “The best-used places are sociable places, with a higher proportion of couples than you find in less-used places, more people in groups, more people meeting people, or exchanging goodbye. A high proportion of people in groups is an index of selectivity. When people go to a place in two or three or rendezvous there, it is most often because they have decided to. Nor are these sociable places less congenial to the individual. In absolute numbers, they attract more individuals than do less-used spaces”. The best-used places also tend to have a higher than average proportion of women. If a plaza has a markedly lower than average proportion of women, something is wrong. Where there is a higher than average proportion of women, the plaza is probably a good one and has been chosen as such. The condition that various cities, including Iranian cities, are confronted with makes the creation of successful public space a necessity. It is clear that for creating suitable public space, first, we should understand the factors influencing space and simultaneously solve and improve the problems through understanding the environment. Successful urban spaces should be responsible for their clients and be designed and managed to fulfill the needs of their users. Awareness of the needs, preferences of people and the space design by considering these requirements is one of the most important factors in attracting people and the success of public spaces. Studies conducted in different countries, consider the behavior of people in large cities very similar to each other, while based on this claim, the similarity between the people who live in small towns with the same nationality is much lower. In this article, as per the main goal of the research, a comparison of the effective factors in the success of public space in the minds and functional behavior of citizens in Ankara and Tehran with an emphasis on public space planning system is made. The indicators of a successful public space were extracted from the most important theorists’ points of views. Important theorists of successful public space such as White, Montgomery, Jacobs, Gehl, Carr, and Oldenburg, and the experience of famous international institutes are reviewed. Finally, a model for space evaluation based on place game model of PPS institute was presented in four dimensions. The indicators of these four dimensions -access and linkage, activity, comfort and image, and sociability- were estimated for selected statistical communities in Ankara & Tehran. The results of the research validate the assumption of similarity for preferences and needs of people in large cities. In addition, the findings indicate that there is little difference between the mental and functional behavior and spaces that citizens functionally prefer to attend at leisure time also corresponds to their mental preference. In public space planning systems, Ankara has been more successful than Tehran and on the national and local scale the same vision of planning is employed; they have a more coherent approach. Planning on a national scale to attract tourists, proposing Ankara as a Universal city and attempting to put it among European countries are the reasons that have improved public space quality in Ankara even though there is not any independent planning for public places in this city as is the case in Tehran.