Creating Dynamic Public Space for Human
Development: Public Art Option
Nafiseh SARIRAFRAZ1, Kayode OLORUNTOBA2, Mohd Hisyam RASIDI3 and Hasanuddin LAMIT 4

Abstract— Lack of dynamic public spaces is primary among
other problems that causes empty spaces, increase opportunity for
crime as a result of social exclusion. Thus, the demand for public
space in urban centers has been reinstated by several landscape
architects, environmental researchers and urban designers. But, the
application of public art to achieve a dynamic place for human
development has not been given similar research efforts. This study
is engendered to investigate the relationship between public art and
public space development. Secondly, is to determine the relationship
between public space and human development. In this study, a
research survey was conducted in a notable public space that is
enriched in public art ―Water and Fire Park‖ located in Tehran the
capital city of Iran. This study uses both survey questions and
interview among the users and residents around the study area. The
result findings posits that, public art stand as an important factor
that attract visitors to the park while public space was reported of
having tangible influence on both human and urban development.
Keywords— Public Space, Public Art, Landscape, Relationship,
Development.
I. INTRODUCTION
P ublic art is a visual aspect in the urban centers which
affects the city image and creates a self motivated
environment. Nowadays, designer‘s concerns are more into
how to improve environmental quality and public places
satisfaction. In the cause of providing a dynamic place of
good quality, the urban public space has to be taken into
consideration as it acts as a semi-natural means of connection
in urban settings. People interact and come together
continuously and deliberately for discussion in the hope of
achieving a collective satisfaction, for instance, it was
suggested that, the higher the residential social interactions
the higher the residential or neighborhood satisfaction [19],
[21], [25].
The introduction of public art in urban public space
should be put into a developmental process that will
encourage community participation. Most of urban
Sarirafraz Nafiseh, Masters Student, Department of Landscape Architecture,
Faculty of Built Environment, Universiti Teknologi Malaysia
(+60107059808, e-mail:sarirafrazn@yahoo.com).
Oloruntoba Kayode, Doctoral Candidate, Department of Landscape
Architecture, Faculty of Built Environment, Universiti Teknologi Malaysia
(+60163021561, e- mail:kayodetoba@yahoo.com).
Mohd Hisyam RASIDI, Senior Lecturer Department of Landscape
Architecture, Faculty of Built Environment, Universiti Teknologi Malaysia
Hasanuddin LAMIT, Assoc. Prof. Department of Landscape Architecture,
Faculty of Built Environment, Universiti Teknologi Malaysia.
environments have no physical stimulating factor that can
boost human development.
Suitable ground for public spaces in some urban cities has
been encroached and miss used as a result of human neglect
and community ignorance of public space signifants. Public
spaces can be treated to become a self motivated area in built
environment. It is a place that is open to all. Public space is a
place where people of different gender, race, age, manner and
economic position can visit without restrictions [24].
Attractive and environmentally Pleasants public spaces
create cohesive community [20]. Access to the public space
can improve the quality of life in the community and upgrade
the quality of place. Public spaces encourage recreational
activities, good living quality and increases housing value
[18]. One of the important characteristics in urban
environments is image of the city and identity of a place.
Public art has the tendency of shaping city image. Thus, art
language is a global language that does not need translation.
It sends messages to viewer as applicable. Hence, attention
should be paid to public art and its availability for the
improvement of public space quality. Increasing the quality
of urban public environment can be reached through the
enhancement of user satisfaction in the available public
spaces [2]. Likewise, one of the factors that aid the user‘s
satisfaction in urban public space is the aesthetics quality of
public art that facilitates human attraction.
There is possible interaction between public place quality
and public place activities [2]. A place that people judge as a
pleasant space have more users and people that will always
prefer to visit and walk in such place rather than unpleasant
places [11].
Thus, introduction of public art in urban public space
needed to be taken into consideration as a working physical
element that will contributed immensely to public space
effectiveness. To build a favorable environment, the quality of
public space within the built environment should be
imperative. The global concern for both human and
environmental improvement requires that public space should
be considered primary in city development as an adjustable
point and breathing vacuum in urban centers. In recent time,
the term ―public art‖ and ―public space‖ have become very
notable among environmental and urban researches but little
has been done toward relating the potentials of public art in
providing a self motivating place for human development. In
achieving a dynamic place for human development using
public art parameter, this, study proposed two hypotheses to
investigate the interrelationship and potential of public space
.
and public art in the context of human and urban of antiquity dated back in the year 1795.
development. A notable public park that is enriched in public Http/www.irantour.org/iran/city/Tehran.html
art ―Water and Fire Park‖ in Tehran the capital city of Iran
was taking as a study areas to invalidates the following Water and Fire Park
hypotheses; H1 Public art has no significant relationship with Water and Fire Park is located near Moddares highway.
public space development? H2- Public space has no The park‘s construction was launched in 2006 and was
significant relationship with human development? opened in 2008.The entire park has been designed for
different kinds of entertainments and enriched in assorted
Public Art public art as reflected in figure 1 and figure 2. It has a unique
Generally, Public art is a piece of art located in the public public space characteristic of providing free access to all.
spaces. Public art is a visual language [15]. It is an artistic Thus, this factor predominantly determined its selection as a
appearance that engages audience in outdoor places with study area being a typical extended public space that enjoyed
assorted fabric [8], [3], [6], [12]. Quality of life can be higher human patronages.
achieved by increasing the value of our built environment and
in this concept, public art can be considered as one of the
precursor to activate the quality of urban public space [13].
Community art can gives space identity [13]. It makes people
to built good meaning to their immediate surroundings.
Public art is not only about aesthetical but equally create the
identity and historical thinking.
Public art describes art work that is commissioned in open
spaces having public access. Considerable art work that is
found in museums does not have any connection with place Fig. 1 Different views of Water and Fire Park
that surrounded it but public art cannot be divided from
public place and they have a chain relationship [1]. It is a
physical element that has effective role in improving the
visual quality of the urban environment [9]. There are broad
features and benefits of Public Art. Public art should be
attractive, appropriate, and not offensive, it should give
pleasure to make public places more pleasant, relaxing,
exciting and meaningful. Places with good quality art may
give good audience.
Communities that are enriched with public art feel safer and
more welcoming than communities without [5]. Therefore, Fig. 2 Different views of Water and Fire Park
residents that contribute in social art projects may be more
associated with their communities and have fewer problems The major factor in this park is the musical floor fountain
of interacting with the environment. Public art is seen as an with fire dance. It contains four towers with 6 to 8 meters of
‗aura‘ of quality, emphasizing individuality and lending length where fire flame comes out. These towers surrounded
distinction to developments [18]. It promotes beautification of by several floor fountains that pump the water above 10
cites, encourages civic satisfaction and can bring history to meters in the air as illustrated in figure 3. The designer
life [4]. It has been proved to increase financial stability of applied water in order to reflect a symbol of Iranian
communities [18] traditional art into a modern design.
In engendered new forms of artistic expressions, the search Http/www.irantour.org/iran/city/Tehran.html
for places of appreciable values and good geographical
processes of globalization create new landscape of culture and
uniqueness that depended on public art [12], [26].

Study Area
Tehran the capital city of Iran is an independent city that
began in the 18th century. With a difference in elevation of
more than 500 meters and estimated population of about
6620,461 according to 1992 Iran population census result.
The city was located on the northern fringe of the southern
slope of the impressive mountain chain of Alborz. Tehran
became an established highlight on the foreign tourist Fig. 3 Fountains and fire towers
itinerary and tourism as a result of its good quality collections
 II. METHODOLOGY
In this study, we conducted one hundred and fifty research
questions which were randomly distributed and administered
among the users and residents within 1000meters radius to
the park. A pilot survey comprises of forty public art and
public space attributes/ human benefits was first conducted
among eighty respondents in the study area to ascertain a
common reliable attributes that best associated with public art
and public space in relation to human development. Hence,
attributes rated five percent and above were used along with
other working variables towards achieving the research
objectives of this study. Personal interview were also
conducted among forty respondent users of the Park on their
degree of assessing the maintenance of the park, crime rate
within the park and the park staff / visitor relationship in the
Park. The survey spans for seven days continuously (a week)
to achieve a diverse response from the respondents,
importantly, the users. The research data were further
analyzed using SPSS for discussion.
III. FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION
Table I shown the rating collated in the pilot survey for
both public art and public space attributes translated into the
degree of the respondents in the study area. Thus, the selected
attributes rated five percent (5%) above are restructured and
used as tested variables to invalidate the research hypothesis.
TABLE I
Showing the rating preference of the public Art and public space attributes
A correlation test on the selected variables in table I shown
that, attractiveness, identity, historical and emotional value
are the only attributes that have coefficient significant of p<
0.05 in relation to public art while social cohesion,
community brandy, place attachment and standard of living
equally shown appreciable correlation significant in relation
to public space at p<0.05.
Hence, to investigate whether there was a statically
significant association between public art and the park
potential of creating social cohesion among users. Public art
was skewed. Spearman rho statistic was calculated r s (148)
=0.32, p=0.005 as reflected in table II.
TABLE II
ASSOCIATION BETWEEN PUBLIC ART AND PARK POTENTIALS OF
PROVIDING SOCIAL COHESION.
The direction of correlation was positive which means that,
Park (public space) that is enriched in public art will have
higher potential of creating social cohesion among users.
Using Cohen‘s (1988) guidelines, the effects size is medium
for studies in this area, the r 2 indicates that approximately
10% of the variance in public space social contributing
factors (social cohesion) can be predicted from the quality and
enrichment of its public art.
Table III
INTERCORRELATIONS, MEANS AND STANDARD DEVIATIONS FOR
FOUR VARIABLES OF PUBLIC ART
*p< .05, **p< .01
 Each of the four contributing variables was normally
distributed and the assumption of linearity was not markedly
violated, Pearson correlations were computed to examine the
intercorrelations of the variables. Table III indicates that the
contributing variables were significantly correlated. The
strongest positive correlation which can be considered having
the highest effects size was between the attachment factor and
the historical value of public art, r(148)=150, p<.001.this
implies that public art with good historical value will
facilitates strong attachment to a place and provides a
dynamic environment. Based on Cohen‘s (1988), this has
reasonably proved that public art share strong common
interrelationship among the four contributing attributes
tested.
TABLE IV
INTERCORRELATIONS, MEANS AND STANDARD DEVIATIONS FOR
FOUR VARIABLES OF WATER AND FIRE PARK
Table IV shown that, the variables is significantly inter-
correlated with one another. The correlation between them
will go simultaneously in such that an increase in any of the
variables will have an effect on other variables. Therefore, the
variables tested are strongly correlated.
In the interview conducted among forty users of Water and
Fire Park on the bases of the maintenance standard of the
park, the possible occurrence of crime rates in the park and
the park staff / visitors relationship. On the maintenance
standard, 84% of the respondents rated that the park is
enjoying good maintenance, while 16% observed that the
park is not well maintained. On the crime rate, 97% express
good safety of visitors‘ properties and belongings in the park,
this implies that the park is a free crime area. On the staff/
visitor relationship, 62% agreed that the staff has good
human relationship with their tourist, but 38% argued that
the staff relationship is not cordial as expected for effective
tourist development.
However, from this findings and discussion, it can be
established that, public art has significant relationship with
public space development. Thus, table III shown that public
art has high tendency of creating human attraction to a place
and reflects the identity of a place. It can provide both
historical and emotional sense of value to the users. The
aforementioned factors are primary for an effective public
space [1], [4], [6],[9], [13]. Enriching public space with
public art will activate the patronage frequency in public
space and create a dynamic place. Human development
encompasses a progressive improvement of cultural,
economic and social political benefits [22]. The potential of
public space to create social cohesion, place attachment,
community
Brandy and the improvement of human standard of living
were supported in table IV. In this context, it posits that,
public space has significant relationship with human
development. The introduction of public art in public space
will provide a dynamic place that welcome human activities.
In the same order, human activities results into social
interaction and social interaction encourages social cohesion
and facilitates human development as illustrated in figure 4
and 5.
Fig.4 Schematic flow of public art in relation to human development
Fig.5 Schematic flow of public art in relation to human development
IV. RECOMMENDATIONS
The use of public art should be given high consideration in
the process of designing and planning public space as a way
of creating historical sense of place.
Art works of the past and present should be preserved and
protected for public places to provide free access to the users
while staff in the public space should be oriented on visitor/
staff human relationship as to guarantee effective outdoor
services for human development.
The studies and importance of public art to human
economic, social-cultural and sustainable community
development should be included in the curriculum of all level
of education for its effectiveness.
Government at various levels should propagate law to
protect the existing public art works as to prevent
displacement and damages by the users while quality
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