Investigating Adaptive Behaviors in Urban Spaces in Relation to the Dialectical Concepts of Isolation and Congestion

The presence of people in urban spaces and related components is one of the most important issues in the field of behavioral sciences in urban studies. The mechanism of static presence in urban spaces is influenced by factors that generally determine the quality of social life in these spaces. The present study examines the way people are present in urban spaces in relation to each other, and in this context, focuses on the concepts of "isolation" and "congestion" in these spaces. Studying and comparing behavioral patterns in these two thresholds, and studying its changes in the daily life sequence of urban spaces, to a large extent, clarifies the environmental preferences of space users, their behavioral actions and interactions, and the factors influencing their adaptive behaviors at peak times of "isolation" and "congestion" in public spaces. In this regard, the present paper examines this relationship through applied research based on field observations in Nabovat Square in Narmak, Tehran. The results include explaining the relationship between the environmental characteristics of urban space with the patterns of pause and presence in this space on the threshold of isolation and congestion. This study has shown that factors such as the presence of active uses, the availability of comfort facilities, the use of micro-spaces, and the placement of people in the context of creating favorable social interactions have raised the thresholds of "isolation" and "congestion" and delayed the desire to leave public spaces in these thresholds.