Determining Degree of Sociability in Urban Neighborhoods by Using Spatial Intimacy Approach,Case Study: JahanAra District, Pasdaran Blvd., Shiraz, Iran

Neighborhood units are the spatio- physical incarnation of human interactions and relations as there is an amalgam of living in a residential area and social needs to communicate with other people. The most deficiency occurred in the neighborhoods is the lack of direct and deep interactions as people have been distanced from their previously valorized social contexts known by the conviviality and warm-heartedness between individuals. Today it has become very important to strengthen the human links between people residing in urban neighborhoods. Among all considerations must be taken in the rearrangement of public spaces, the social content has an utmost importance. It includes some humanistic spatial qualities, namely the “Sociability”. Many different factors have an impact on the emergence and the reinforcement of sociability; “Space conviviality” is one of these factors which itself has a series of indicators. This paper has explored the quality of sociability in the JahanAra District in Shiraz with an emphasis on space conviviality. ‘Jahan Ara’ District could be identified as a contemporary neighborhood unit woven around a local street dominated by residential use in the new urban fabric of Shiraz gradually built during the 1980s. As such the indicators of sociability and space conviviality have been listed out of the literature and afterwards the state of these indicators has been examined by field study and filling questioners. Finally, the gathered data have been analyzed to get the output result. The results of this research show that the quality of space conviviality is quite disappointing in the area and it’s needed to improve the environmental qualities and make a redesign of public spaces to ameliorate the sociability of the neighborhood.