Explaining the effective factors in vibrant of public space, case study: Valiasr crossroad of Tehran City

The city is an alive creature, requiring vibrant and freshness. The position of public spaces, in which social interaction of citizens is formed and promote the culture of society, is declining day by day in most of our cities. Moreover, the vibrant is considered differently in various fields and various components and indicators have been mentioned for that in related theoretical principles and vibrancy has been always noticed by urban designers and planners in the process of urban development as one of the macro- or micro-goals of most of programs and plans, regardless of the operational framework of its explaining factors. The attempts of planners in different fields for promoting the vibrant of urban spaces do not lead to desirable results due to lack of coordination, familiarity, and constructive participation with urban planning experts and implicit attention to spatial concepts. In most of studies so far, one or some limited dimensions of vibrant have been investigated and all related variables and dimensions to vibrant have not been studied yet. There is not also an appropriate theoretical support in most of such studies given extensive conceptual scope of vibrant. Due to this, the question of the current study is: what factors affect in vibrant of public space fundamentally, and how is the framework of the operational-conceptual model of making vibrant in public spaces? The main goal of the paper is to propose effective factors on vibrant based on extracted indicators from various resources in an appropriate and efficient framework that not only explains effective variables in this field but also proposes the process of creating and improving the vibrant in public spaces. Reviewing related scientific literature of vibrant of public spaces shows various indicators and components. Using exploratory factor analysis method in the current study, the various and different indicators were explained in some factors. Therefore, this study can be said to be fundamental in terms of goal. To collect and analyze data, questionnaires and interviews have been used and qualitative items have been quantified based on the Likert scale and analyzed using SPSS software. Hence, the methodological approach of the study is based on the mixed method (quantitative-qualitative). The vibrant indicators in public spaces have been extracted from different references and in order to investigate and field survey of data and explore effective factors on vibrant of public spaces, Valiasr crossroad, Tehran (intersection of Enghelab Street with Valiasr Street) has been chosen as the case study. That’s because the area has had proper vibrant in different conditions and so is suitable for investigating the data and explaining the effective factors in the field of study. Hence, sampling method can be said to be purposeful. To determine the study sample volume, given the principles of determining the number of required samples for exploratory factor analysis, 350 questionnaires have been used in this study. At least 3 to 5 samples have to be investigated for each indicator and the higher the number is, the greater the confidence will be in the result of the analysis. On this basis, for each indicator, seven samples have been considered for determining the sample volume which is more than the minimum amount. Exploratory factor analysis of research variables specified five factors of spatial-functional environmental qualities, social norms and necessary fields for sociability, suitable income, and promotion of economic activities, individual mood, interests, and psyche, state of perception and friendly interaction of citizens with each other on the vibrant of public space in the study area. The share of such factors in explaining the variance of whole variables is 70.3% each one of the mentioned factors explains the variance of whole research variables respectively 22.16%, 16.38%, 12.86%, 11.21%, and 7.76%. The findings of the current study showed that the effective factors on vibrant of public space are related to different fields and their explaining power of them is different from each other. Therefore, it can be concluded that if the subject and quality of vibrant is the main issue of studies in planning and designing public spaces process, the mentioned five factors shall be considered in the related policymaking. The nature of spatial-functional environmental qualities and necessary fields for sociability as well as the state of perception and friendly interaction of citizens with each other is noticeable in public space designing projects but the result of third and fourth factors manifested same as other factors in a public space, is less noticed in public space design projects because they are related to the urban and beyond urban macro policy-making fields in most cases. It indicates that to realize the vibrant of public spaces in urban management, not only the first, second, and fifth factors are noticed in the urban development system but also proper income and promotion of economic activities, individual mood, interest, and the psyche shall be also considered. Based on the variance explanation power of each final obtained factor in the current study, the priority of planning and designing effective various indicators on the vibrant of public spaces can be determined based on existing facilities and barriers and for appropriate accountability of vibrant of public spaces, the comprehensiveness of the variables of the mentioned factors shall be considered. Effective fundamental factors on vibrant of public spaces in Valiasr crossroad, Tehran (selected through purposeful approach) were extracted in this study. Analyzing the relations between mentioned factors and investigating the dimensions and factors of spaces, in which there is vibrant inappropriate or the attempts of urban management due to increase vibrant have failed, can be the subject of future studies.