<p>In the scene of the urban transformation processes taking place in the world nowadays, it is crucial to verify the need for sustainable change in public space in Amman. The paper aims at capturing the demands of public space in regards to the socio economic urban life in Amman. It also investigates the role of public space from the perception of the local communities and tries to find the relation between public space and the other vital layers that constitute the urban public life whether social, economic or urban regeneration. Key dimensions and success factors of best practices in Dortmund, Germany are investigated in order to shed the light on potential strategic thinking in dealing with problems in Amman. As a result, defined characters of magnets and anchor nodes in Amman were specified to make the city more readable and accessible.</p>

Amman, the capital city of Jordan, is a rapidly developing city. The roads in Amman are increasingly becoming denser and more shaped into highways. Solutions in Jordan for the witnessed rapid growth are moving towards periphery networks, creating and developing ring roads and highways connecting the cities on the outskirts of Amman. Hence, less peripheral streets, especially arterial streets are facing higher densities and yet receive less attention on the planning level. For the purpose of having a sustainable pedestrian traffic setting for all users concerned, an integrated approach that interlinks all aspects of roads and reflects the needs of all users was adopted. As a result, strategies were produced to regain the traffic space as space for people, create new definition to streets in Jordan and retreat of high traffic lanes into neighborhood streets are recommended concepts that can steer the development of streets in Amman with more public spheres.

Amman city has gone through differentiated patterns and trends of sprawl in the last few decades. It went through disorganized developments due to reasons that vary from political, geopolitical, socio-economic and others. A threat that is existent in this perspective is the sprawl of cities and urban structures and the merging of them with no respect for the cultural and social needs of the community. Development of the city of Amman should take the shape of integrated planning that contributes to sustainable development. Taking into consideration the geographic layout of Amman and the tendencies of sprawl to overrun the green areas, the focus of the paper is directed towards the fringes of Amman and the seemingly available spaces of potential. A strategic approach for an open spaces network that allows for dynamic lifestyles in Amman is suggested. It should encompass a variety of safe and attractive spaces that are well distributed throughout neighbourhoods and accessible to the communities. Success factors of the Revierparks in the Ruhr area of Germany are researched in order to highlight potential strategic thinking in dealing with problems in Amman. Accordingly, defined magnets and anchor nodes in Amman are specified make the city more readable and accessible.

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