Investigating the role of semi-open spaces on the sociability of public libraries using space syntax (Case Studies: Sunrise Mountain and Desert Broom Libraries, Arizona, USA)

Nowadays, in spite of the positive efforts made in recent years, active public libraries are still faced with challenges in attracting and retaining their users through the provision of up-to-date services to meet their scientific, cultural and recreational requirements. Accordingly, the need to create spaces with the approach of sociability in public libraries seems to be necessary. In this way, the Space Syntax method, as a predictor of the social aspects of architectural spaces, has been used in order to evaluate the role of semi-open spaces on the sociability of public libraries in the existing and hypothetical models using Depthmap. Finally, the findings of the two simulated models were examined and compared with each other using SPSS and the independent sample t-test. The findings from the Sunrise Mountain Library analysis indicated that in the existing model, the integration level was 20.49. However, after eliminating the semi-open spaces, the level of integration decreased to 15.48. Also, the findings obtained from the Desert Broom Library indicated that in the existing model, the integration level was 10.10. However, in the hypothetical model, its degree of integration changed to 8.15. Results show that semi-open spaces have a positive effect on the sociability of public libraries. (C) 2019 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V. on behalf of Faculty of Engineering, Ain Shams University. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).