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The purposes of this study is to explore and describe the main campus urban design principles, to investigate and examine the degree of Hashemite University’s (HU’s) student satisfaction with the urban design of their campus, to examine the relationships between the degree of HU student satisfaction and age, gender, educational pursuits and academic year, to define and assess student needs through HU’s campus design and to examine and investigate the relationships/interrelationships between all the campus urban design principles.

This research used a variety of methods: A face-to-face questionnaire (n = 1,443), HU students’ community board design for urban spaces, HU master plan analysis and focus group discussions (three researchers and 30 architectural students). This research used the descriptive statistics and the Pearson product-moment correlation coefficient (Pearson r) to analyze the data.

This research found that the majority of HU students were dissatisfied with the design of their outside spaces with regard to the effectiveness of space, availability of services, viability and vitality, public realm design, the density of activities, design character, walkability, diversity of existing services, richness, continuity and enclosure design. In contrast, they were satisfied with the accessibility and connectivity between spaces, availability of safe and welcoming spaces, mental map elements design and urban structure. Statistically, this research found that there were no significant relationships between the students’ satisfaction level and their age, gender, educational pursuits, education specialty and education level. Moreover, the correlation results revealed that the relationships/interrelationships between all the campus urban design principles have strong/very strong positive linear associations and significant relationships (r > 89).

This research recommended that the urban designer and architects should adopt the bottom-up approach when they are designing and planning the campus. They should apply all the above urban design principles to achieve the flexible and dynamic campus urban design and the students’ needs. Well-designed campus creates multi-functional places for students’ activities, encourages them for socialization and enhances their academic performance and experience, increases their feeling of belonging, enhances the sense of well-being and supports outside learning activities and experiences. The objectives for the campus urban design should promote high standards and qualities of open spaces, create a sense of places, serve students’ needs, provide effective design for socialization, provide maximum flexible design to allow for future campus growth and create a safe and healthy environment to express the quality of university’s life. Finally, the students should participate actively in the developing design of their campus activity.

To avoid repeating the mistakes of the past, this research is essential for future HU campus design. In addition to defining and describing all the campus urban design principles, this research provides HU decision-makers with an informed, holistic view of their students’ satisfaction levels, needs and requirements within their urban campus design to develop the HU campus design. Moreover, this research provides a new vision for the future in the form of data and guidelines for a new campus design. The findings are intended to provide useful information to university managers, leaders, policymakers and urban designers who implement strategies to improve the quality of campus urban design. This research opens the door for new research by duplicating the same research contents and methodologies on another campus design within different regions and cultures to fully develop a universal guideline for campus urban design.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the direct and indirect impacts of urban Syrian refugees on the residential urban fabric of Al Mafraq city physically and socially. Physically means regarding architectural style and socially means regarding social cohesion and sense of community. Therefore, the research questions are: What are the main source of tensions between the urban Syrian refugees and Al Mafraq host community that hinders the social cohesion? And what is the impact of the urban Syrian refugees on Al Mafraq city socially and architecturally?

Different research methods were used to explore and provide a rich description of the direct and indirect impacts of urban Syrian refugees on Al Mafraq city architecturally and socially. Desk reviews, focus group discussions and semi-structured individual in-depth interviews were used to explore the social impact of the Syrian refugees on Al Mafraq city. In addition, a qualitative comparative analysis was used to explore their impact on architectural style and urban sprawl.

The results show that changes have occurred on the character of the residential environment resulting in a conversion about the urban fabric of Al Mafraq city both physically, in regard to architectural style, and socially, regarding social cohesion and sense of community. Physically, the city suffers from a decline in the uniformity of the built environment, resulting in a partial loss of its identity as a homogenous place with calm, cohesive residential neighborhoods. On the other hand, the social fabric of the city is losing its homogeneity and solidarity, causing a decline in the sense of community, social cohesion and levels of trust, and a rise in the social tension leading to severe conflicts among community members.

The different stakeholders should express high concern for the different sources of tensions between the urban Syrian refugee and Al Mafraq host community. They should foster formal and informal communication and promote dialogue between the two communities to improve social relations and reduce the tension between them. The consequences of Syrian asylum on hosting countries present an issue that has been vastly studied by several scholars and international agencies. Research, reports and surveys all denote the negative impact of refugees, especially in cases where resources are scarce, as is the case with Jordan. As a part of such consequences, Al Mafraq city is moving in the wrong direction as a result of the increasing flow of refugees.

The current discourse about the influence of urban refugees on social and architectural style among host communities lacks veracity. Therefore, the significance of this research is offering an alternative academic view to enrich current knowledge and encourage further discourse research about urban refugees. In addition, this research is a comprehensive and double focused, not just on social inclusion and tensions but on urban environment and architecture. This research is useful for architects, urban designers and planners, sociologists, policymakers and humanitarian and peace-building practitioners in the urban non-camp complex emergency setting.

This study aims to trace the transformation in the form of apartment building and the connotations it has in understanding the changes that occurred in the Jordanian society’s lifestyle over the past five decades.

A comparative case study analysis has been conducted amongst 170 apartments, covering 70 design attributes related to aspects of appearance, spatial organisation, parking and access to building, outdoor space and finishing. This was followed by experts and households solicitation to help giving more confidence on the validity and reliability of findings regarding the sorts and justifications for the changes that have taken place in the form of apartments over the studied time frame.

The results reveal changes in design attributes indicating particular alterations in people’s lifestyle. New interests act in formulating recent housing design attributes. People seem to turn into a more open social life within public community but more privatised living amongst family members. People are becoming more attached to indoor modernised lifestyle, in homes and public areas where activities take place. This entails pursuing a more comfortable, facilitating and enjoyable life that presents luxury and tranquillity.

Understanding the relationship between transformations in the built form of apartment buildings and the associated social alterations provides useful insights towards improving housing provision to better match the ever-changing demands of people and respond to alterations in their lifestyles.