Introducing the cities, the city entrance spaces offer the first mental image of the city to the observers. The city entrance spaces are of special importance due to their different potentials inducing various activities. Therefore, finding the most important influential components affecting the users’ behavioral patterns and devising a proper solution for finding the criteria affecting the city entrance space design is a prominent issue which urban designers study today.
The research question of this study endeavor to contemplate the formation of behavioral patterns based on the relationship between different perceptual, physical, social and etc. aspects of city entrance spaces. In this regard, Quran Gate of Shiraz, as a leading example having different spatial and perceptual components and as an urban space with high level of various activities, is selected and its behavioral patterns are comprehensively analyzed. This study adopts a combination of quantitative and qualitative research methods with a purpose of evaluating the physical, cultural, identifying and perceptual characteristics. In this study the qualitative observation and analysis are conducted using behavioral mapping techniques, questionnaires, interviews and photo analysis.
The most significant environmental components affecting the users’ behavior at the city entrance spaces, according to theorists such as Lang, Barker and Canter, are categorized into three groups: the physical factors, the cultural, social, identity factors, and finally psychological and perceptual factors. The results show that the components of identity and desirable visual quality have the greatest impact on attracting users to the city entrance spaces. Moreover, the visual quality of landscapes and the surrounding views is directly related to space presence and space. The influence of this component is greater than the effect of other components such as privacy and spatial layout.