Urban Scape
nazila rashidpour; Mohsen Habibi; Manouchehr tabibian
Abstract
Highlights
- As a social space and cultural production of modernity and the capitalist economy, the metropolis has been encoded to convey the preferred meanings.
- The metropolis cannot present itself beyond the limitations of any strictly positivistic outlook, and it requires semiotic and phenomenological ...
Read More
Highlights
- As a social space and cultural production of modernity and the capitalist economy, the metropolis has been encoded to convey the preferred meanings.
- The metropolis cannot present itself beyond the limitations of any strictly positivistic outlook, and it requires semiotic and phenomenological models like reading and experiencing.
- For a complete understanding of the city and the basis for its social realities, it is necessary to explain the hieroglyphs (hidden language) of the modern metropolis.
- Concern for spatial images, urban mindscape, and reading what has never been written provides the best way to decipher the hidden language of the modern metropolis.
- Cinema is one of the most important factors in the reconstruction of spatial images and urban mindscape.
Introduction
The metropolis plays an important role in the contemporary society. It features prominently in the public imagination as the very site of modernity and capitalist economy that has been encoded to convey the preferred meanings. Thus, it can be understood as an amalgam of objects of cultural production. To understand the metropolis is–to some extent–to understand our present age. As a patchwork quilt of traces of human existence, the metropolis could not present itself beyond the limitations of any strictly positivistic outlook, and it requires semiotic and phenomenological models like reading and experiencing. Thus, it might be read as a text, with its forms deciphered and its meanings understood. This means that the metropolis itself does not exist, and can only be understood through its various manifestations.
In the reading of a city, or indeed any cultural artifice, it is important to know that meaning is never univocal. A city–any city–is always open to a variety of interpretations, and meaning must always remain plural and contested. Because there is no single way of understanding the metropolis, everything depends on how one views the metropolis and who views it. The reader, the “lover” of cities, must therefore be open to a range of “readings”, which go well beyond straightforward, rational analyses to open up the “poetry” of the city.
Theoretical Framework
Mindscape and spatial images play an important role in the experiencing and understanding of the city, as they result from a combination of different factors such as literature, art, media, myth, and narrative. As a German cultural theorist, Siegfried Kracauer, puts it, where the hieroglyphics of any spatial image are deciphered, the basis for social reality presents itself. Any Marxist-inspired cultural theorist would argue that what we see on the surface is the product of deeper underlying forces, in order to understand which we need to interpret the surface level. The unconscious nature of surface-level expressions reveals the hidden logic behind these phenomena.
Cinema is one of the most important factors involved in the reconstruction of spatial images and urban mindscape. Emphasis on the relationship between cinema and the city denotes emphasis on culture and how the city is represented thereby. Apart from anthropological fieldwork, nothing compares with watching movies made for a community’s domestic market when the community is to be known. Most broadly viewed, cinema represents both the real and the imaginary. Architecture and urban architecture make up the body of the city for the presence of both lives, and cinema is a novel platform for re-reading the relationship between the body and the soul of the modern city.
Methodology
Quantitative and qualitative content analysis methods were used in this research to explain the hieroglyphs of the modern metropolis of Tehran in the representation of the mysterious language of the city. For a concrete study of the city through official narratives, its representation in the selected movies of 2016 was studied, and seventeen movies were selected after the sample size was specified using the purposive qualitative sampling method.
Result and Discussion
According to the findings, we can conclude that the language of the modern metropolis of Tehran is discontinuous and disintegrated under the effect of the modernity paradigm and capitalism. We can claim that it is not possible to experience the metropolis of Tehran through movies although it makes up the location in most Iranian movies. Movies made in Tehran have failed to introduce the physical space of the city in the sense intended by Balzac and even Zola. This makes it more important to analyze this absence. Tehran has created its own specific metropolitan type. Thus, a cold, unfriendly stereotype defines the characteristic of people living in a Tehran. Modernity has been manifested there in a negative sense, and the city has turned into a refuge for the darkest aspects of modernity.
Conclusion
Finally, it is important to know that the city must be read by those who seek to create, shape, and transform it. Their reading of the city crucially conditions their writing of the city text and its buildings, streets, street furniture, etc.
Thus, the task of any theorist intending to analyze the metropolis is to act like a detective, interrogating the traces and revealing the secrets. The metropolis therefore lends itself to research as a textual object. It constitutes a series of spatial image hieroglyphics–which may be deciphered in order to provide access to deeper underlying questions about society.
Acknowledgment
This research has been extracted from the Ph.D. thesis of Nazila Rahidpour, entitled “Explanation the hieroglyphics of Tehran modern metropolis with emphasize on reading, experiencing and memory”, defended in the Department of Urban Planning at the Islamic Azad University of Qazvin, under the supervision of Dr. Seyyed Mohsen Habibi and advisory of Dr. Manouchehr Tabibian.
Urban Ecology
SEPIDEH MOVAHED; Manouchehr Tabibian
Abstract
Man’s most complex products, cities are confronted with great risks due to both the wide range of risks and changes involved in them and their multiple vulnerabilities. These changes include numerous disorders, some of which are known and predictable, while most are unpredictable and beyond expectation. ...
Read More
Man’s most complex products, cities are confronted with great risks due to both the wide range of risks and changes involved in them and their multiple vulnerabilities. These changes include numerous disorders, some of which are known and predictable, while most are unpredictable and beyond expectation. It therefore seems necessary to address the modern approaches to encountering disorders and disasters. The prevailing perspective has shifted from a mere focus on vulnerability and reinforcement to an increase in resilience against disorder. Therefore, the current research was focused on the idea of resilience as a newly-emerging concept in urbanism issues, and sought to enhance the capability of cities of confronting disorders, particularly environmental crises, as dynamic, self-organizing systems by introducing the notion of resilience to the domain of urbanization through formulation of an integrated model. The significance of the present paper lay in the appreciation of urban resilience thinking as a tool for recognition of the capabilities of urban systems of adapting to changes or absorbing disorders by helping to understand the dynamicity, complexity, processes, and patterns in these systems. Through knowledge of this thinking and the factors affecting its different aspects, the capability of socio-ecological systems such as cities could be increased for adaptation to changes and self-organization. The purpose of this paper was to analyze ecological resilience and determine the factors effective on it based on urban ecology thinking, to identify the criteria, and to generate a model for enhancement of the ecological resilience of cities. It was a qualitative study, where the data were collected from multiple sources using various library methods to be validated through triangulation. Thematic analysis and the thematic network tool were used for data analysis. Through identification of around 45 themes, obtained through examination of more than 50 theoretical and applied studies, and analysis of the relationships between them, the thematic network resulting from their clustering was formulated, consisting of basic, organizing, and comprehensive themes. Based on the qualitative analysis, a series of factors most effective on urban resilience were categorized into six major groups that formed the proposed urban ecological resilience scheme, including natural structure, ecosystem functions and processes, socio-economic functions and processes, urban shape, institutions, and knowledge. Each of the above categories affected urban resilience differently, where the first and the second had direct effects, while the other four influenced it indirectly, by affecting natural elements and biological species as urban assets and affecting ecosystem functions and processes through disorder or reinforcement of ecosystem services. The research results demonstrated that the ecological resilience of cities based on knowledge of urban resilience was affected by dynamic interactions between socio-economic and biophysical processes, where the formulated model and the criteria set as subcategories in the proposed model made it possible to enhance urban resilience. The formulated model serves as a general guide for urban planners, designers, and managers for achievement of ecological resilience in socio-ecological systems such as cities. Furthermore, it covers the gap identified as resulting from absence of an integrated framework in the ecological dimension of urban resilience is covered thanks to the integration of the factors affecting resilience.
Urban Sustainability
mojde erfani; Hossein Bahrainy; Manouchehr Tabibian
Abstract
Abstract Lack of attention to the “dynamic” concept of the landscape, the “holistic” approach to it, and the use of conventional methods in the study of urban development projects has shaped an urban landscape that is unable to meet the demands of its inhabitants over time. Therefore, ...
Read More
Abstract Lack of attention to the “dynamic” concept of the landscape, the “holistic” approach to it, and the use of conventional methods in the study of urban development projects has shaped an urban landscape that is unable to meet the demands of its inhabitants over time. Therefore, considering the ineffectiveness and divergence of the study method in the urban development plans of Iran and given the variability of today’s city, it is necessary to adopt an appropriate approach to today’s urban conditions. Landscape Urbanism theory, with a general approach to the concept of landscape and accepting the uncertainty of the evolving city, has raised a new field in the global literature. This theory, with an approach to confronting the complexities of the contemporary city, sees the “landscape” as an active phenomenon over time and emphasizes functional dimensions beyond its purely aesthetic aspects. At present, there are criticisms about putting the theoretical aspects of this approach to practice. Since the highest application of this theory is in the field of landscape architecture, most of its criticisms relate to the field of urbanism knowledge, the application of its theoretical framework to the city scale and the lack of executive instances. In this regard, the correct understanding and analysis of the theoretical issues of urban planning and its adaptation to the concept of sustainability, as a basis for thinking, can reveal its hidden dimensions. It is clear that further research on the application of this theory, along with the formulation of design principles, is an important factor in reducing the gap between theory and practice, solving structural problems and identifying the potential of this new approach to urban planning. The purpose of this research is to describe the theoretical framework of “landscape urbanism” theory as a new approach in urban design that aims at achieving a sustainable landscape. This study tries to emphasize the “procedure” and “substantive” dimensions in the design of sustainable urban landscape while developing the theoretical framework of this approach based on sustainability concepts. In this regard, the present paper seeks to confirm the following statements: - Understanding the dynamic concept of landscape and its “holistic approach” in today’s urban conditions leads to the formation of a landscape that can be “sustained” on a time scale. - The “stability” of the city’s main structure, along with the “flexibility” of open urban areas and urban neighborhoods against the changing conditions and needs of the community, can provide the ground for the formation of a sustainable landscape in the present situation. - The approach of “landscape urbanism”, as an efficient approach in the studies of urban development projects in Iran, in addition to “substantive dimensions”, needs a “infrastructure” for realizing its theoretical framework in the field of action. Based on the results of the research, the concept of sustainability in the theory of landscape urbanism includes the “stability” of the main structure of the city and the “change” of activities and programs proportionate to the changing conditions over time. Thus, the theoretical framework of landscape urbanization, with the features of “uncertainty” and “change”, can be used to design “open spaces” within and around the city as well as “urban neighborhoods” that are more “adaptable” and “flexible”. In this regard, the emphasis is on participatory planning from the bottom up, the design of the process-oriented with an integrated approach from regional to local scale in the urban landscape, and on the local identity.
Urban Planning
Manouchehr Tabibian; negin mozafari
Abstract
Geographical location and seismic records of many Iranian cities, including Tehran, draw attention to the vulnerability to earthquake hazards in various fields and specialties. Due to its nature, urban planning examines this issue in the urban fabrics. In line with this, the present study investigates ...
Read More
Geographical location and seismic records of many Iranian cities, including Tehran, draw attention to the vulnerability to earthquake hazards in various fields and specialties. Due to its nature, urban planning examines this issue in the urban fabrics. In line with this, the present study investigates the texts and documents related to the earthquake and the role of urban planning in reducing its effects in terms of safety issues of settlements as well as crisis management. The residential fabric planning and its dimensions and features (including land use, plotting, texture formation, density, communication network, open space, service centers), as interfaces between the residential fabric and vulnerability, and thus the linkage between crisis management in these contexts and urban planning provides an operational model for earthquake vulnerability assessment of the residential areas in the 6th District of Tehran. This model is based on two important issues related to earthquake: the destruction rate and the number of human casualties, divided accordingly into two categories of factors and sub-factors. Based on this model, indicators were determined to study the vulnerability level. The physical resistance index of the fabric was extracted from the first category of the model sub-factors and the post-crisis fabric accountability index was extracted from the second one. Based on these 15 indicators, the vulnerability of the 6th District of Tehran was investigated separately for the residential neighborhoods. The vulnerability of residential neighborhoods was evaluated based on the values of evaluation factors extracted using the AHP method. Finally, the goals, strategies and policies needed to reduce the vulnerability according to the coefficient of significance were obtained separately for 7 neighborhoods using the same method. Based on the results, the following measures can be effective in promoting the safety of neighborhoods in the 6th district against earthquakes: setting objectives for increasing the physical strength of the fabric in order to reduce the destruction rate and increase the fabric efficiency in post-crisis response and relief efforts to reduce human mortality, and adopting strategies for increasing resistance in residential buildings and to strengthen the role and efficiency of open spaces, creating and strengthening an effective access network appropriate for the population, and controlling and guiding demographic indicators. In general, the proposed solutions are developed in five categories: the general form of residential fabric (segmentation, distribution, neighborhood...), green spaces and public open spaces, access networks, population density, and construction monitoring and supervision. Finally, the spatial priority of the implementation of proposed policies for neighborhoods, as well as the priority of policy implementation in each neighborhood is determined to look at the developed goals and strategies more efficiently.
