Reconciling users and public space-relationship in historic squares: The case of En-Naser square in Nablus city

Abstract

A successful relationship between users and public spaces is built on main five values: satisfaction with the pedestrian zone, encouragement of social interaction and privacy, the quality of public services, the environmental conditions, and the visual quality. This paper aims to examine these values in the current design of one of the prominent public spaces in the historic centre of Nablus City: En-Naser Square, following its recent rehabilitation to propose it as a pilot project for the rehabilitation of public spaces in historic centres of Palestine. Two methods are used: the historic method, through which the authors detailed the architectural development of the square across several historic eras. The second method is an empirical study, which was conducted to examine the compatibility of the current square design with the mentioned five values and verify the paper’s hypothesis. The survey has revealed that the square has a good response to the five values if some issues of public services were solved. This led to conclude that historic squares in Palestine can reflect a successful relationship between users and public space with minimum interventions. Thus there is a need for enhancing pedestrian comfort in historic centres with the reference to En-Naser project.

Keywords

• public space
• historic center
• nablus city
• en-naser square
• successful space