Religious Public Realm: Visual Evaluation Criteria towards Better Religious Urban Open Spaces Performance in Egypt

Abstract

Public realm is one of the important components within the sustainable urban life nowadays, religious public realm in particular, receive more attention from city inhabitants and activities due to the importance value of religious aspects in Egypt. Notably, in the last two decades, public realm and urban open spaces in general had been absent from urban strategies by the government bodies. This research focused on deriving the basic evaluation criteria for better visual performance of religious public realm such as the British and American urban design bodies, criteria will be derived from international government entities framework of best public realm practices. The research depends on the exploratory factor analysis (EFA) statistical technique as a tool understand visual parameters correlations. The EFA statistical technique is used as the main analysis technique. The research concluded that legibility, identity, determinants, aesthetics consistency, sense of nature, and supplements of religious urban space, have an effective role in enhancing both the visual and physical performance of religious urban spaces.