DETERMINANTS OF STUDENTS' SATISFACTION IN SPATIAL QUALITY OF THIRD PLACES IN THE HIGHER EDUCATION LEARNING ENVIRONMENT OF THE MIDDLE EAST

Third places are places outside of work and home where people meet informally to relax and feel as part of the community. In the context of educational environments these take the form of "hangouts" where students spend most of their out-of-classroom time to interact with their peers in intellectual and social activities. Architectural design of these hangouts or third places are becoming increasingly important particularly with the shift from the teacher-centered to the learner-centered approach in higher education. This paper discusses the characteristics of third places, activities undertaken in them and the critical parameters that contribute to user satisfaction. Survey research methods using self-administered questionnaires have been predominantly used for this research. Personal interviews, behavioral mapping, and visual surveys have been used to obtain deeper insights into the related issues. Results indicate that third places were most intensely used around noon-time. Socializing and studying were the predominant activities undertaken in them. Location, furniture comfort and flexibility in arranging the furniture were found to be the crucial factors contributing to user satisfaction. The parameters of third places affording the greatest satisfaction were the views they presented and the greatest dissatisfaction was the poor visual privacy they offered. One of the reasons for this was that several of the third places in the building were part of the later interior design of the building and not part of its initial architectural design. Presence of good third places encourage students to work collaboratively for longer hours and improve collegiality making them more productive individuals. It is therefore important that new academic buildings be architecturally designed to include appealing and usable third places to support the emerging learning activity models in higher education.