Desert environment of Al-Riyadh City, together with Islamic Instructions has contributed in directed social life internally. The concept of internal orientation can be found at residence, neighborhoods, and city scales and it aims to provide privacy and protection from the climatical factors. This type of planing strategy has produced a compact urban fabric as a result of a dense grouping of the buildings, which are usually build adjacent to each other. Also, certain types of public spaces have been developed by pass i.e. narrow streets, haras. front yards and public areas).
The compact urban tissue has been one of the major characteristics of traditional architecture for long time before the advent of the recent building styles and materials that associated the huge development in building technology. As a result of this development, new external spaces have been developed to facilitate the demands of the new life style.
This paper is an analytical study for the different types of public spaces that composed the urban tissue for old Al-Ryiadh, factors that caused the formation of these spaces, and the new public spaces, which have been associated with the development of new Al-Ryadh. The paper summaries some recommendations and guidelines for public spaces design in desert environment.