Urban public spaces: Realization of social interactions in historical Texture

Ignoring the cultural-historical values of old fabric of cities triggers restoration activities which are simply physical and do not consider social aspects. In urban planning، urban public spaces are considered as the context of social relations between citizens. Thus، this research seeks revitalization of historical fabrics with an emphasis on social aspects of urban public spaces. The goal of this paper is to assess social interactions in public spaces of old town of Lar to recognize and classify their strengths and weaknesses and present more appropriate and effective strategies for their improvement. The nature of survey is applied، the method is analytic–descriptive and data is gathered via documentary studies، standard questionnaire of PPS and observations. In the process of analysis and assessment، descriptive and inferential statistics has been used as well. The results of One Sample T-Test show that the sociability of public spaces in old town of Lar is (0. 75) and this rate is lower than normal rate. For more precise survey، the 34 public spaces of Lar are divided into 7 functional groups and their scale of sociability component and sub-components are surveyed. The results show that the spaces with public street function have the highest and community spaces have the lowest rate in sociability. Also، four sub-components such as in-group activity، being public، being participatory and being viewpoint are recognized as influential components on sociability of public spaces. The results show that in the subcomponent of in-group activity، sporting spaces have the highest and community spaces have the lowest rate، in being public subcomponent، public streets have the highest and religious spaces with micro scale function have the lowest rate، in being viewpoint، sporting spaces have the highest and commercial spaces have the lowest rate، and in being participatory، community spaces have the highest and sporting spaces have the lowest rate among other functions. Finally، after surveying and recognizing damaged points of public spaces in old town of Lar، a number of strategies are proposed for improving the quality of spaces according to the quality of subcomponents.