Urban Design
Forouzan Rahmani; Hossein Nourmohammadzad
Abstract
A structure is a whole composed of divisions, connectors, joints, and boundaries, which are formed through transformations around regulators in accordance with certain principles. The structure theory, selected as the theoretical framework, comprehensively addresses the structure components, functions ...
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A structure is a whole composed of divisions, connectors, joints, and boundaries, which are formed through transformations around regulators in accordance with certain principles. The structure theory, selected as the theoretical framework, comprehensively addresses the structure components, functions that create the structure (transformations), regulators, which serve to regulate the structure, and principles, which form the basis for the structure. Every structure involves a meaning, an idea formed in the reader’s mind of a word, sentence, paragraph, or text. The structure of meaning involves a network of semantic units taking shape through transformations around regulators in adherence to certain principles. Likewise, the physical structure of a city is a whole composed of physical components (form, material, and content) taking shape through transformations around regulators in adherence to certain principles. People react to the surrounding environment according to the meaning taken from it, and their responses to the environment are based on what it means to them. It is therefore important to study the meaning of the environment. The necessity of addressing urban design by focusing on meaning is clear as long as the main audience of meaning is man, and the most important purpose of urban design is to establish a relationship between man and his perceived environment. Research on semantic structure in the context of urban studies can be conducted from its different aspects. Since the physical aspect is the most tangible, stable, objective aspect of the city, such research is performed within its physical structure. The historic area of the city of Yazd, Iran is one of the most valuable areas that could be examined as a text in the city viewed as a book. As a text, the area involves words, sentences, and paragraphs that are semantically rich. Each piece of the area assumes a role as a word. A set of pieces forms a sentence, a set of sentences make a paragraph, and the set of paragraphs creates the text. The text can be read as a whole with no interference with the validity of the paragraphs, sentences, or words, and each word, sentence, or paragraph can be recited with no reference to the whole text to obtain the meaning. In recent years, the physical structure of the historic area of Yazd has lost part of its meaning due to factors such as isolation, destruction, and distress, and other parts have been left with inadequate meanings. This has caused problems with the interpretation of the text, preventing the reader’s mind from developing a clear image thereof. Moreover, some of the interventions made in the area have caused the relevant meanings to be lost. It seems necessary, therefore, to conduct research on provision of agreement between the semantic and physical structures. The notions of structure, meaning, and physique were first reviewed in this research, and their theoretical models were developed and presented. Then, the semantic and physical structures of the historic area under investigation were studied with a descriptive survey using the above models, and the relationship between the two structures was examined with a comparative method. The achievements of the research included the provision of macro-, mid-, and micro-level agreement and correspondence between the physical and semantic structures and the intersection of the principles and their components. Use of the presented models in similar cases is recommended.
