الفهرس 
Cities Expansion and Population GrowthOnly 14 pages are availabe for public view
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Abstract
Public spaces are considered the mirror of people’s daily lives. In each urban context, public spaces perform different functions to satisfy the needs of different users interacting with public spaces. The fulfilment relationship between needs of users and functions of public spaces requires different significant aspects to be existed in order to help public spaces to fulfil those needs. These aspects can be listed under four qualities of public spaces as accessibility, environment and facilities, uses and activities and sociability. On the other hand, several crosscutting problems face public spaces and affect negatively the performance of them specially in developing countries such as Egypt and in congested cities such as Cairo with very high congested mobility and enormous number of population. The congested mobility and disorganized distribution of activities in public spaces minimize the performance of public spaces to the extent of being just mobility node -sometimes unsafe- regardless the other aspects of environment, uses, entertainment, sociability etc…
As a result, the scope of the research focuses on the morphological aspects and qualities of public spaces and highlights some other major aspects as well. That leads to tackle the gaps between the needs of users and the corresponding functions of public spaces projecting the light on the case of Ramses square in downtown Cairo as being the main spatial node in Cairo urban context. The research starts with the literature review about public spaces and what functions they perform to highlight the standard functions of public spaces according to the four mentioned qualities. Then, analysing the case of Ramses square historically to highlight the significance of such public space through periods of time. After that, physical and social surveys are analyzed on Ramses square to highlight both the actual existing state of Ramses square with its’ problems (physical survey) and the needs of different users using the space as well (social survey). Additionally, the governmental interventions on Ramses square are elaborated in the last two decades to show the significance of Ramses square and to highlight the status of it before and after each intervention.
The core methodology of the research is to compare the real situation of Ramses square (physical and social survey) with the standard qualities of public spaces (literature)to highlight the gap between them and to assess the performance of Ramses square according to the observations of urban survey and questionnaires of different users of the space.
At the end, the research highlights some recommendations for urban designers and decision makers regarding the morphological design of Ramses square to reach the aim of having vital public space with performed functions which fulfil the different needs of users of it.