Relationships Between Interior and Exterior Spaces as a Factor of Efficient University Buildings Oday Qusay Abdulqader 1* , Joan Atheel Ahmed 2 1 Department of Architectural Engineering, College of Engineering, University of Mosul, Mosul 41002, Iraq 2 Department of Computer Engineering, Collage of Engineering, University of Mosul, Mosul 41002, Iraq Corresponding Author Email: odaychalabi@uomosul.edu.iq https://doi.org/10.18280/ijdne.150518 ABSTRACT Received: 29 July 2020 Accepted: 20 September 2020 Universities are focusing on the students’ needs as a part of interior space elements in the designing processes. However, these needs related to the design of the environmental and formulating systems. Students prefer a comfortable interior space for movement and social activities. Therefore, comfortability should be considered in the design process of the educational building, especially for students’ space. The study observed the negative space in the buildings of the University of Mosul, which students lost the healthy relationship between the open and interior space in Students’ space. The gathering points inside and outside buildings is the focus of the current study. Therefore, the problem statement is “There is a gap in the design processes of the interior space that provides a comfortable students’ space”. Therefore, the main research question is “What are influencing factors of the designing and adaptive reuse processes of the interior space in the university buildings”. The research aim is “to identify the important factors that influence students’ needs in the educational building at the University of Mosul”. A quantitative approach applied by using questioner and measuring instruments to collect data from selected case in the University of Mosul. The triangulation of the data shows the importance of direct connection between the exterior and interior space. Besides, the availability of green area, green elements, and comfortable area in the exterior and interior space are the important factors as results showed. Partially, the majority (81%) of the students preferred a free space that can students adapted to space. Keywords: interior design, university buildings, educational buildings comfortable space, green design, users' needs 1. INTRODUCTION The influencing factors on architecture and interior design processes are the tools for generating efficient spaces, which can be matched with uses needs in educational buildings. The designers should combine interior with open space to reach the efficiency of interior design and achieve students' needs. The integration between interior space and architectural characteristics can propose a place where physiological and psychological needs can be reached. Presently, designing universities buildings considered the student’ area as a part of the design. Therefore, the environmental and formulating system are the factors of creating successful space. The users' behaviour is a reaction to the characteristics of interior design, which related to the physical and psychical factors of interior space. Various factors can influence the behaviour of the users, which architects and interior designers must be considered in the design processes, such as, open spaces feature, safety, aesthetic, and health concerns [1]. Therefore, comfortable and formulate systems are the generator of how users behave in the space. As usual, students prefer a comfortable space that can use for movement, academics, and social activity. Therefore, the availability of comfortable space in the essential point that should be considered in the design process. The current study observed the spaces in the selected building at the University of Mosul. The students’ need a special space within the building to feel like part of the place. ‘belonging to the place’ factor should be activated, which attracts the students to be part of the interior space. The buildings in the University of Mosul- College of Engineering are mostly adapted to be re-used, such as, Architectural Engineering Department building which is originally designed for Electric Engineering Department. Then, Central Library, which the interior space needs for the function are different from function to another. Therefore, the problem statement of the current paper “There is a gap in the design processes of the interior space that provides a comfortable students’ space”. Therefore, the research question “What are influencing factors of the designing and adaptive reuse processes of the interior space in the university buildings”. The study aims to identify the essential factors that influence students’ needs in the interior space. The efficiency of the space depends on the various factors that affected the physical and psychological needs of the students. To reach the aim of the study, the first step is to review the literature that linked the interior design aspects of users’ behaviour. Moreover, environmental studies reviewed to identify the requirements of the comfortable area in the academic buildings to create a theoretical framework of the study. 2. LITERATURE REVIEW Groter [2] mentioned the importance of the relationships between outdoor and indoor, which should include integrational relations. The continuity between the exterior International Journal of Design & Nature and Ecodynamics Vol. 15, No. 5, October, 2020, pp. 757-762 Journal homepage: http://iieta.org/journals/ijdne 757