Principles of university open spaces design based on vitality model and promotion of training

Today, the issue of teaching and learning patterns and group activities is one of the issues of interest in areas related to education in universities. How to achieve teaching-learning patterns has gained a special place among experts. In recent years, due to the increasing growth and scope of changes in educational methods, adapting the learning environment to all aspects of learner needs, has been the focus of education professionals. Because the physical environment, due to its structure, can strengthen or weaken the interactions and subsequent learning process, it is believed that new approaches are required for movement, teamwork and student dynamism. Therefore, defining the needs and how to organize the context in which such learning can emerge is of particular importance. Considering the effect that academic spaces can have on the audience and users of these spaces, the present study aims to provide guidelines for designing open university spaces based on increasing the vitality and social interactions among users and improving the level of education among them. The present research tries to identify the factors affecting the promotion of vitality and social interactions from the users' perspective, drawing the correlation between these factors in an analytical model. In the current study, both quantitative and qualitative research methods have been used.

Method and Materials:

 After formulating the contents of the content table and the questionnaire, the sample size based on Klein's views reached 341 according to the number of questionnaires. Therefore, students from architecture, landscape architecture, urban planning and civil engineering at Iranian universities were randomly selected by cluster sampling. The data were analyzed by SPSS version 22 using R factor analysis. The model was developed by Amos.

The results of this research indicated that social, physical, designing and psychological dimensions of the environment are influential.

According to the results of previous studies and the present study, the existence of social, physical, design and environmental traits in the collective spaces of the university, can facilitate the necessary conditions to increase vitality, sociability and group activities. In this way, the existence of a spatial trait in open university public spaces, by increasing the possibility of vitality, facilitates the process of creativity and innovation for researchers and leads to socialization. Also, increasing the desire to do group and group activities and the possibility of solving problems in groups leads to improving the level of education among users. A review of this research reveals the fact that human behavior, collisions, and the use of space can be influenced by space and spatial communication, and ultimately lead to social vitality in collective centers.