Public Places and Spaces and Social Urban Interaction (A Case Study of Johor Bahru, Malaysia)

The different usage of public places and spaces in urban areas is the focus of this study. It concentrates on the use of public places and spaces in Wong Ah Fook located in Johor Bahro city centre. The study is going to examine the way that different people utilize public places and spaces to examine how social interactions vary by age, gender or place. Moreover, this study investigates on the physical qualities of public places and spaces in the case study. The consideration of findings is on their relation of policies due contested and shared places, safety and security, interactional relationships, and the managing of public places and spaces. Regarding the aim of this study, two methods approaches which consist of questionnaire and observation approaches is undertaken. Therefore, nine types of existing public places and spaces that considered representative of the public places and spaces of the case study as whole are carried out. In addition, due data analysis, this study investigates on SPSS software and snapshots about public activities on study area for analyzing the data of questionnaire and observation respectively. As result, most well-known and active public places and spaces from the most to least are identified. Moreover, lack of facilities and elements due decreasing interactional tasks and factors which encourage people visiting each chosen public places and spaces are revealed. In addition, the duration of visiting public places and spaces for users and their favorable times to visit there are investigated.