COURTYARDS IN THE CITY: INTEGRATING COURTYARDS IN THE URBAN FABRIC OF DUBAI

Rapid urbanization in cities has resulted in lack of social spaces.Courtyards once served as a necessary multi-purpose architectural feature that aided in providing both privacy and a safe space for socializing.Existing urban fabric emphasizes on maximizing G.F.A, without considering the need for safe and accessible public spaces.This study proposes to modify traditional courtyards and integrate them to modern residential and commercial buildings, to encourage community.A survey was conducted with Dubai residents and their responses to the questionnaire were recorded and analyzed.A chi-square test was performed using SPSS software to test the relationship between feeling of isolation in current residential buildings and perception of courtyards as multi-functional social spaces in Dubai.Results from the Chi-Square test revealed a highly significant association between the two variables.Additionally, the likelihood ratio and the linear-by-linear association support the presence of a strong and consistent directional trend, suggesting that as feelings of isolation increase, perceived value of courtyards also increases.The strength of the relationship measured by Cramer's V indicates a very strong association between feeling of isolation and Shivani Nair https://iaeme.com/Home/journal/IJURPRD 2