Design implications of urban public spaces for female physical activity in Saudi Arabia

Maghrabi, A; Moustaka, A

Abstract

This research investigates the reasons why Saudi Arabian residents, especially women, are reluctant to the use of urban public open spaces, and to propose a new form of urban public open spaces which are more responsive to residents needs taking account of issues such as social, religion, gender, age, urban health, and culture.


Physical inactivity associated with a sedentary behaviour lifestyle, is a cause of growing public health concern, and one strand of this research focuses on alleviating its consequences by addressing the physical environment available for women, such as shortage of open public spaces. Where these spaces are provided, they typically fail to meet resident’s needs particularly because western design principles have been applied similarly to this middle-eastern context.


The methodology of this study adopted case study research strategy, qualitative explotory research design as a methodological choice to provide a complex contextual descriptions of how people use urban public spaces and their experience associated with them. The research strategy is developed through an investigation of spaces as an integration of form and cultural practice. Data has been gathered from 24 female users and 5 designers / professionals, through semi structured interviews and observations in open spaces. Thematic analysis is used to analyse the interviews.The results of this research will provide some factos that can help to improve and develop the existing open spaces to meet the people needs of practicing physical activities in outdoor environments.

Citation

Maghrabi, A., & Moustaka, A. (2018, July). Design implications of urban public spaces for female physical activity in Saudi Arabia. Poster presented at International Conference on Applied Human Factors and Ergonomics, Florida, USA

• Presentation Conference Type: Poster
• Conference Name: International Conference on Applied Human Factors and Ergonomics
• Conference Location: Florida, USA
• Start Date: Jul 21, 2018
• End Date: Jul 25, 2018
• Publication Date: Jul 21, 2018
• Deposit Date: Mar 27, 2019
• Publicly Available Date: Mar 27, 2019
• Related Public URLs: http://www.ahfe2019.org/
• Additional Information: Event Type : Conference