Pedestrian Area Design to Promote Social Interaction (Case study: Isfahan Khajoo Neighborhood)

Pedestrian areas are a type of urban public space, nowadays because of the serious consequences of car-dependency and ignoring pedestrian needs, a consensus on the importance of walking and the necessity for planning for pedestrians movement has been formed among urban designers, planners and people. The concerns about human health and movement in city create a new trend in contemporary urbanism, entitled “pedestrianization movement”. So far, walking in the streets has been defined under the influence of cars and they have always been given a priority over pedestrians. As a result, cars gradually conquer urban spaces, retreat pedestrians from their essential rights to use public spaces. If it is accepted that the quality of urban public areas has a considerable influence on citizens’ everyday social activities, this influence can be seen much greater in car free zones than anywhere else in the city. The main attention of the present study is enhancing social interactions in urban spaces, so the main purpose of the study is finding solutions and providing a model and design criteria to promote social interaction of citizens. The research methodology is qualitative which is based on reviewing literature of pedestrian areas and social interactions. The case of study is Khajoo Neighborhood, one of the oldest and historical neighbors of Isfahan1. The result shows that design of pedestrian zones invite people and residents to spend their time in urban space and have social interactions.