Urban Scape
hajar Asadpour; Mahmoud Ghalehnoee; Armin Bahramian
Abstract
HighlightsThe characteristics of the urban landscape, both objective and subjective, encompass perceptual and cognitive components.The historic urban landscape, as an objective–subjective phenomenon, reflects the meaningful connection between historical imagery and user perception. Given the large-scale ...
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HighlightsThe characteristics of the urban landscape, both objective and subjective, encompass perceptual and cognitive components.The historic urban landscape, as an objective–subjective phenomenon, reflects the meaningful connection between historical imagery and user perception. Given the large-scale nature of visual management in urban landscapes, coordination with local-level policies is essential.The current condition of Shiraz’s historic fabric reveals three key categories of issues: design and planning challenges, management challenges, and challenges in contextual understanding.Within the visual management process, the stages of “formulating visual protection goals” and “organizing the landscape” are currently at the weakest levels and should be prioritized for intervention. IntroductionThe crisis of distorted and illegible urban landscapes in contemporary cities stems from rapid urban development coupled with neglect of perceptual dimensions in urban planning. This challenge is particularly evident in many Iranian cities, where historic urban areas have undergone extensive demolition and reconstruction, often lacking sensitivity to their visual identity (Mahmoudzadeh & Saheli, 2019; Roustaei & Nazeri, 2019). In this context, the implementation of a visual management model is essential. Such a model can improve the conditions of historic urban landscapes by evaluating and guiding restoration plans before execution, reducing the likelihood of visual degradation.Given its historical significance and its role in forming urban identity and supporting the local economy, Shiraz requires special attention. Through the application of visual management strategies, it is possible to address perceptual deficiencies, allowing users to develop deeper visual and emotional connections with historical spaces. The research aims to address the following questions:What are the components and steps of the visual management process for historic urban landscapes in Shiraz?Which stages should be prioritized when managing Shiraz’s historic landscape?From the perspective of experts, which aspects of environmental affordances (with emphasis on framing) are most critical in the Zandiyeh District? Theoretical FrameworkAccording to Bell (2008, 2019), landscape is a process occurring between physical and non-physical realms, forming an objective–subjective phenomenon. Landscape emerges from the interaction between humans and their environment, shaped by a meaningful relationship between the observer and the place (Mansouri et al., 2021). Within this framework, visual management focuses on organizing urban landscapes and offers structured criteria for evaluating their visual conditions.This model serves to monitor visual coherence, strengthen visual identity, and enhance the relationship between symbolic elements, visual attractions, and public spaces (Pourjafar et al., 2009). A major obstacle in achieving effective visual management is the limited understanding of human-scale needs and environmental affordances by designers. These affordances can be categorized as “perceptual” and “cognitive,” or “overt” and “hidden,” depending on the level of user awareness and engagement. MethodologyThis study employs an applied and analytical research approach using a combination of qualitative and quantitative methods. The Delphi technique was used to identify and prioritize the stages of visual management with input from experts in urban design, planning, and landscape architecture. The relative importance of each stage in the context of Shiraz was evaluated using the Friedman test.The case study focuses on the Zandiyeh District of Shiraz, analyzed using the “Photo Grid” technique to examine visual framing and affordances. A visual questionnaire was distributed to 40 experts through snowball sampling, capturing expert assessments of environmental and perceptual affordances within different spatial networks of the area. Results and DiscussionThe visual management process for historic urban landscapes includes seven stages:Assessing the current situationIdentifying the needs of the landscapeSetting a visual frameworkFormulating visual conservation goalsPlanning the landscapeOrganizing the landscapeAnalysis and evaluationExperts rated the first two stages—“assessing the current situation” and “identifying needs”—at an average of 2.65, indicating a moderate condition. However, the later stages were evaluated as weak or very weak: “setting a framework” (2.45), “planning” (2.35), “analysis and evaluation” (2.28), “formulating goals” (2.25), and “organizing the landscape” (2.23). These findings indicate systemic weaknesses across the visual management process.Three primary areas of challenge were identified:Design and Planning Issues: fragmented spatial structure, lack of visual hierarchyManagement Issues: limited coordination among institutions, absence of visual strategiesContextual Understanding: insufficient recognition of historical continuity and symbolic meaning ConclusionFor successful visual management of historic urban landscapes, the use of techniques like “Photo Grid” during the framing phase enables a more precise understanding of visual and environmental affordances. This research moves from general analysis to detailed contextual evaluation, offering practical insights for future interventions.The results show that Zones 1 and 5 (especially near the Vakil Mosque and Bath) achieved the highest scores in environmental friendliness and imaginability. In contrast, Zone 2 (Divankhaneh area) received the lowest rating due to neglect, visual isolation, and poor readability. Zone 3 also requires attention, as it ranked second in terms of needed improvement. These findings can guide urban policymakers and designers in prioritizing areas for visual rehabilitation, particularly within historically sensitive contexts like Shiraz.
Urban Scape
Hajar Assadpour; Mahmoud Ghalehnoee; Armin Bahramian
Abstract
Highlights- The six layers of the research onion include research philosophy, approach to theory development, methodological choice, strategy, time horizons, and techniques and procedures including data collection and analysis.- The researchers developed the research onion for the concept of urban landscape, ...
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Highlights- The six layers of the research onion include research philosophy, approach to theory development, methodological choice, strategy, time horizons, and techniques and procedures including data collection and analysis.- The researchers developed the research onion for the concept of urban landscape, visual evaluation of landscape, and visual management of landscape through a systematic review. - The urban landscape research onion model was presented in seven layers along with researcher guidelines using the idea of word clouds.- The researcher must choose among the three categories of objectivist, structuralist, and subjectivist, as mentioned in the philosophy layer.- Techniques and procedures were proposed in the central core of the urban landscape research onion and divided into the direct (by asking people) and indirect (through specialist analysis) categories. IntroductionThe urban landscape is part of the understandable objectivity of the reality of the existing space around people in the city. As a phenomenon, urban landscape cannot be assumed to have only subjective or objective dimensions. The connection between different methodological components in different fields of landscape research is always necessary. The research aims to strengthen the necessary foundations of research in urban landscape with a holistic, comprehensive viewpoint by examining the components and layers that the onion model of urban landscape research includes. Therefore, a systematic review was applied of the articles conducted in the field of urban landscape. The identification and analysis of the cases used in the majority of the research onions presented by Saunders et al. led to the urban landscape research onion through changes applied to this model. Researchers can choose their lines of research more accurately and faster using the research onion.Theoretical FrameworkSpecifically in the field of research methodology, a book entitled Research in Landscape Architecture: Methods and Methodology was published in 2017 by Routledge Publications. This book deals with the conflict between objectivists and subjectivists. It states that pragmatism is the only solution to this duality (Hashemizadegan, 2019: 55). In addition, many studies have been conducted with an emphasis on urban landscape and its relationship with other urban concepts. However, there has not been a comprehensive viewpoint on their methods and processes. The research onion (moving from the outer layers to the core) was developed by Saunders, Lewis, and Thornhill (2016) for business studies. It is widely used in social sciences to construct a theoretical framework for research. In various studies, the layers proposed in the research onion model have been modified and changed according to the field of study. The research onion consists of six main layers: research philosophy, approach to theory development, methodological choice, strategy, time horizons, and techniques and procedures including data collection and analysis (Melnikovas, 2018: 33; Sahay, 2016: 1).MethodologyAfter a search of article titles and keywords for the concept of urban landscape, more than 110 with more citations were selected. After a study of the article abstracts and other preliminary studies, 71 articles were selected, analyzed, and categorized using the qualitative method and content analysis. Finally, the research onion for each of the areas (the concept of urban landscape, visual evaluation of landscape, and visual management of landscape) was drawn and explained. Then Comprehensive research onion could use in landscape study and research compiled.Results and DiscussionThe research conducted in Iran in the field of visual management of landscape has generally been carried out at the macro scale (city), medium scale (watercourses and parks), and micro scale (streets). The survey research method and the descriptive-analytical approach have been adopted to investigate and analyze the current situation with the questionnaire tool. Many articles in the field of visual management have evaluated the visual aspects of landscape. Visual evaluation of the landscape is proposed as an independent concept in the field of landscape. In the field of evaluation, it is possible to become closer to people’s experience; therefore, quantitative methods, an experimental approach, a variety of techniques and analytical tools, such as visual protection levels, and Philip Thiel’s technique were used.The concept of urban landscape was addressed further with a view of the landscape as a whole. Aesthetic, critical, and semiotic theories were proposed as the theoretical support for the studies. The research process pursued in most of them is qualitative and analytical, and comparative, inductive, interpretive, and descriptive methods have been used therein. After choosing the desired method, the authors have used the Delphi technique, aerial photos, cluster analysis, systematic review, in-depth interview, review of narratives, photography, and collaborative mapping as data mining and data analysis tools. The model presented in this article involves an extra layer with respect to Saunders’s research onion model. The outer layer, which includes the ontology of the research, corresponds to the stage that specifies the researcher’s beliefs in the research process. The researcher must select their position from among the three categories of objectivist, structuralist, and subjectivist, as considered by Deming and Sowfield.A) The descriptive approach is added to the analogical inductive one proposed in Saunders’ research onion.B) In the strategy layer, experimental simulation and descriptive, correlational, hermeneutic, and analogical-adaptive analysis are added.C) In terms of time horizon, all studies are placed in one of the two categories of longitudinal and transverse research, and most of them are conducted with a longitudinal time horizon.D) Techniques and procedures are proposed in the central core of the urban landscape research onion. Research techniques are divided into two general categories with an emphasis on the opinions provided by experts: direct (by asking people) and indirect (through specialist analysis) (Karimi Moshaver, 2013; Tveit et al., 2006; Briggs & France, 1980).ConclusionThe urban landscape research onion model is composed of seven layers. It can be of different types according to the research problem, questions and objectives, choice of ontology, methodology, approach, strategy, and appropriate tool for analysis of the collected data. Given that most of the conducted studies applied various techniques, it is necessary to consider other layers of the research onion. This model attempted to provide a comprehensive overview of urban landscape research and introduce an integrated framework of the diverse, scattered types thereof. The model can help determine the paths of the research and avoid confusion and incorrect choices of analytical tools. The onion of urban landscape research can open the doors to researchers in the field. In future research, emphasis can be made on the specific concepts of landscape such as cultural landscape and vernacular landscape. On the other hand, similar research onion models in the field of urban landscape can be investigated with an emphasis on landscape scale (micro, medium, or macro).AcknowledgmentThis article is extracted from the first author's PhD thesis in titled "Explaining a semantic model of the urban landscape; a case study of the urban landscape of Shiraz". It is in progress at the Art University of Isfahan under the guidance of Dr. Mahmoud Ghalehnoee (the first guide) and Dr. Armin Behramian (The second guide).
