Can resilient urban design support social resilience?

Abstract: This research is a small part of a bigger field of research made before by other authorsregarding the humans in the urban public space. It has a small context compared to otherstudies, but a big impact inside the community. It aims at finding answers to questions thatother researchers asked before, but under different circumstances and they displayed them through different ways such as documentary films (The social life of small urban spaces 1980, How to live in a city 1964).After experiencing the city life of Malmö and some questions have been raised, the concept of resilience intersected with the interest of social public life in a neighbourhood. In order to have the theoretical framework to answer the research question, the thesis follows a literature review, where the concepts of resilience, urban resilience, resilient urban design and social resilience have been explored.Next, after exploring the city of Malmö, some case studies have been chosen and studiedthrough direct observation in different months starting with March and various times of theday. In the methodological approach section the methods are explained as well as a detailed presentation of the biggest tool used for this research: observational drawing. The tools used for the observation are field notes, observational drawings and photographs. The cases are spread throughout the city and are located in neighbourhoods with different urban tissues. The results reveal all the observational drawings made during the field visits and the field notes written. They show how people use the spaces in all three case studies depending on the weather or other external factors.The discussion reveals the complexity of the relation between concepts and the empiricaldata, following the initial aim of the research throughout the discussion. This thesiscontributes with important outcomes to the field of urban studies creating awareness about the urban context and its influence on people. The findings of this study show a diversity and creativity of users in using the public space.