Exploring and Assessing User Perception and Preferences for Open Spaces in a University Campus: A Case Study of Iit Roorkee, India

Public open spaces on an educational campus are one of the most important types of spaces because they play an essential role in developing an active campus environment, having a significant effect on student behavior by affecting their feelings regarding space quality and assessment of the campus environment. This paper investigates the factors that affect students' perception of the quality of the open spaces on campus. An online survey was conducted to document the students’ activities and behavior preferences, who are the most frequent users of these open spaces in the campus. The data have been collected through google form, Chi-square correlation analysis and Descriptive statistics analysis was conducted using SPSS. The Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Roorkee campus was selected as a case study; is the oldest engineering institution in India and the first engineering college in Asia was founded in 1847. The data revealed that the Positive significant associations exist between the variables time spent in university, time spent outdoors, frequency of time spent outdoors, while in outdoors, preferred outdoors and location of outdoors whereas strongly detrimental associations were discovered for shade, thermal enjoyment and crowding. The study emphasis that a correlation between the location, microclimate conditions and the use of outdoor open spaces along with student’s preferences and perceptions. The study has outlined the framework to inculcate the social and contextual factors while planning and designing outdoor open spaces in the university campus to achieve quality of outdoor open space.