THE CHARACTERISTICS OF PUBLIC SPACE AND URBAN STREETS AND THEIR IMPACT ON PERCEPTION AND FEELINGS OF THE PARTICIPANTS

Without a structured physical layout and a system of street connections insidecities, successful urban development has never been possible. Streets have played animportant role in cities from ancient times, connecting areas, people, and things,promoting business, social interaction, and transportation. Cities' cultural, social,economic, and political functions have been partially defined by streets, plazas, andwell-designed public areas. They were – and still are – the first feature to distinguish aplace's status, from a haphazard and unplanned settlement to a well-established townor metropolis. In many parts of the world, people are reclaiming their streets as publicplaces. Streets are being redesigned to allow communities to use them to their fullpotential and as a form of social engagement. However, despite its great importance, not many studies attempted to explorethe characteristics and roles of streets and public places, especially within theMacedonian context. The purpose of this study is to explore the sense of comfort andsafety of people while being in urban streets and public places. Moreover, in view ofthe main research objective, besides the characteristics of the urban streets, thedemographic variables, such as gender and age were examined as to their relevancefor their perceptions. The research results have indicated that the characteristics of the urban streetshave impact on participant’s perception and feelings, while in terms of demographicvariables, only age has a significant role in the perception of the public space of Skopjefrom every aspect, but not in the sense of comfort and safety while walking in urbanstreets and public spaces.