An-Najah Staff

In last few decades, open spaces have received little design attention in most of Palestinian contemporary housing. Based on the inhabitants’ experiences, this paper aims to study the significance of these spaces, their usage efficiency, their integration within inhabitants’ lives and to identify their appropriate future characteristics. A questionnaire survey spread over 391 dwellings of different times of construction and housing typologies in three Palestinian cities, helped in achieving these objectives. It explored user’s satisfaction of the characteristics of their open spaces such as area, usage, orientation, privacy, spatial relationship and car parking, etc. The research findings reveal the importance of such spaces in Palestinian housing areas, where a good interconnection between these outdoor spaces and the interior living spaces is highly recommended. Also, it shows that privacy is an important determinant for successfully open space usage. Children’s playgrounds availability would promote the common spaces quality as well as the social interaction between neighbours.