THE ROLE OF URBAN SPACE DESIGN CHARACTERISTICS IN INFLUENCING SOCIAL LIFE OF SWAHILI STREETS: THE CASE OF OLD TOWN MOMBASA

Abstract

This paper is based on a study carried out in Old Town Mombasa, a Swahili city in Kenya, situated along the East African Coast. Its focus is on social life of the town’s street  system  as  a  correlate  of  urban  space  design  characteristics.  Urban  design elements within the streets have been disregarded resulting in spaces that do not adequately support human activities. The city has rich historical, architectural and cultural  attributes  that  make  it  one  of  the  significant  civilizations  of  the  world. Broadly,  this  paper  seeks  to  establish  urban  design  characteristics  that  have  a relation with human activities in the streets. The study embraces both quantitative and  qualitative  research  methods  to  investigate  urban  design  elements  along  the streets. Multiple regression is used in data analysis whereas ANOVA at 99 percent confidence  level  has  been  used  in  testing  the  significance  of  the  relationship between dependent and independent variables. Results of the study indicate that physical  characteristics  of  the  street  space  influence  human  activities  at  different levels.  The  characteristics  are  an  indispensable  consideration  in  the  design  of streets that support a vibrant social life in the city.