User Perception on the Physical Quality of Sakarya Park in Famagusta

Public open spaces have a considerable role cities and people’s daily life. They provide such platforms that give social opportunities for getting distance from the daily city’s conflicts. Designing public open space play significant role in rising the quality of life. There is a lack of well-designed parks in Famagusta, at the same time there are many problems in the existing parks. This research is concerned with evaluating and investigating on parks as public open spaces in Famagusta. Directing to construct public open space according to physical, functional and social aspects and stepping forward toward the other aspect that is the perception. This research utilize a case study and use a variety of different qualitative and quantitative techniques. These techniques included: theoretical framework, map analyzing, observation, site survey, interviews, and questionnaire. The theoretical framework assists to achieve the aim of this study by defined the main definition and the physical, functional, social, perceptual characteristics and the successful public open space based on the characteristics. The research evaluates all the public park in Famagusta by measuring the number five minute walk according to check list after that all the previous mention characteristics are studied in Sakarya Park. The findings of the evaluation illustrate that Famagusta should provide enough number of good quality public open space (park) which meet residents’ needs of the parks in the city, moreover recommendation on physical, social, functional, and perception characteristics of Sakarya park. Key words: Public open space, park, Sakarya Park, Famagusta.