People and Open Spaces: Psychological Contentment and Landscape Narratives

Studies of parks, plazas, promenades and open spaces in general have shown that fulfilling people?s needs is a prerequisite for successful public spaces. Studies around this area are argumentative, and need more interpretation. Yet, too many spaces still suffer from lack of attention to user needs. Many open spaces work well, but others are abandoned, unsafe, or dysfunctional. Therefore, this work aims at understanding how people?s psychological contentment can be fulfilled in relation to landscape narratives. This main aim has been demonstrated in four parts: Part One is a literature review that explains the essence of the psycho-physical phenomenon and pertinent theories. Part Two is a proposal for an interpretation schema that has been applied on the actual contexts in order to understand the phenomenon according to its dichotomy: story-telling and reality in the suggested locations. Part Three is the description of the lived experience in specific locales at the Nile waterfront which is terminated by findings and discussions. Finally, Part four is general results and recommendations for creating workable and compatible restorative open spaces at the Nile waterfront.