Regeneration and revival of historical context
Golbarg Ghaemmaghami Farahani; Hooman Ghahremani; Hossein Bahrainy
Abstract
HighlightsEmphasizing phenomenological place quality as a more adaptive and responsive evaluation model compared to current top-down urban regeneration strategies.Advocating a phenomenological approach that reflects the perspectives of residents who experience the place firsthand.Proposing approaches ...
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HighlightsEmphasizing phenomenological place quality as a more adaptive and responsive evaluation model compared to current top-down urban regeneration strategies.Advocating a phenomenological approach that reflects the perspectives of residents who experience the place firsthand.Proposing approaches free from technocratic biases to ensure urban interventions align with the real needs of the community. IntroductionThe Abkooh neighborhood, once a rural village west of Mashhad, now faces critical urban challenges that have prompted various interventions aimed at revitalization. Initially, Abkooh was located seven kilometers from Mashhad, remaining a rural area until its formal inclusion within the city limits in 1972 as part of Mashhad’s comprehensive urban development plan. However, as the neighborhood evolved within the expanding city, it experienced substantial socio-economic, physical, and legal issues, largely due to its incompatibility with surrounding urban areas. Legal disputes involving prominent landowners, Astan Quds and Awqaf, have further exacerbated these challenges, deteriorating Abkooh’s quality of life and diminishing its integration with the city. Despite several development plans aimed at reinvigorating its identity, Abkooh today represents a vulnerable urban fabric, lacking essential qualities that contribute to a livable urban environment.Theoretical FrameworkDeteriorated urban areas like Abkooh often evolve within a complex historical, social, and economic landscape, yet face structural and functional deficits that limit their livability. Unlike other urban spaces, improving place quality in such areas demands a context-sensitive approach with distinct intervention priorities. In this study, “place” is understood as more than a physical environment; it encompasses the lived experiences, cultural meanings, and social interactions that define it. Place quality, in this sense, refers to an amalgamation of characteristics that not only enhance the physical space but also fulfill residents' needs, improving their quality of life and fostering satisfaction.The phenomenology of place quality emphasizes the exploration of lived experience, viewing place as a multidimensional concept shaped by social, emotional, and physical factors. Within deteriorated urban areas, this study examines place quality through five main dimensions: perceptual-semantic, physical, socio-economic, functional, and environmental. The phenomenological perspective allows for a more profound understanding of these qualities by considering the personal and collective experiences of residents.MethodologyThis research begins with an extensive review of theoretical approaches to place quality in deteriorated urban areas. The secondary research phase involved analyzing relevant national and international academic works published since 2000 using MAXQDA2018 software. To ensure validity, survey methods and interviews with urban design experts were conducted. The subsequent phase employs a first-person phenomenological approach, aiming to capture the lived experiences within Abkooh.Over five weeks, researchers conducted site visits twice daily, in the mornings and evenings, each lasting three hours. Observational field notes, semi-structured interviews, audio recordings, and handwritten accounts were used to document resident experiences, drawing upon participant-observation techniques. Qualitative content analysis, supported by MAXQDA2018, enabled the systematic exploration of interview data. Additional data collection methods, including participatory observation, photography, and sketching, were employed to create a comprehensive record of findings.Results and DiscussionThe research findings reveal significant challenges and opportunities within the Abkooh neighborhood regarding place quality. Analyzing these factors through the Abkooh Quality of Urban Life Improvement Plan underscores the limitations of conventional evaluation methods. Specifically, library-based studies or expert-driven priorities alone fail to provide a realistic assessment of place quality in deteriorated urban areas. Phenomenological approaches, which respond to the unique attributes of each location, yield more precise and contextually appropriate insights.The phenomenological evaluation identified six key dimensions that influence place quality in Abkooh: socio-economic, legal-management, physical, perceptual-semantic, environmental, and functional. Notably, the presence of a legal-management dimension is an essential addition due to the legal complexities surrounding land ownership in Abkooh. Furthermore, findings indicated that the prioritization of these dimensions varied throughout the three phases of research, underscoring the importance of flexible and adaptable strategies in urban intervention.ConclusionEffective urban planning in deteriorated neighborhoods like Abkooh must prioritize the relationship between individuals and place, focusing on the unique qualities and challenges of each neighborhood. Understanding place quality necessitates immersing oneself in the essence of the neighborhood without preconceived notions or standardized frameworks. Therefore, each deteriorated urban context must be approached as a unique phenomenon, evaluated through the eyes of its residents rather than solely through expert-driven or theory-based models.Phenomenological methods highlight the distinctive attributes of place quality that may differ from theoretical or authority-led approaches. Simply relying on checklists and criteria derived from theoretical models or global best practices often fails to capture the complex reality of place quality in deteriorated urban contexts. By focusing on the lived experiences of residents, phenomenological approaches yield a deeper understanding of how urban spaces are perceived and experienced, leading to recommendations that more accurately align with community needs.Incorporating this resident-centered perspective in planning processes enables cities to develop more inclusive and livable environments that address the specific needs and desires of inhabitants. By preventing gentrification and fostering a sense of belonging, phenomenological approaches encourage long-term resident retention and community cohesion, allowing neighborhoods to evolve without losing their identity.
Urban Planning
Nikoo Medghalchi; Hossein Bahrainy; Mojtaba Rafieian
Abstract
Highlights
- The development of information and communication technology is an important change that causes paradigm shift in urbanism.
- The COVID pandemic emphasizes the importance of information and communication technology.
- This study seeks to trace urban studies on information and communication ...
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Highlights
- The development of information and communication technology is an important change that causes paradigm shift in urbanism.
- The COVID pandemic emphasizes the importance of information and communication technology.
- This study seeks to trace urban studies on information and communication technology and the COVID pandemic and provide appropriate data and knowledge for urban policy-making and future studies.
Introduction
The advent of the information age in the 20th century due to the great changes in the field of information and communication technology (ICT) has led to the prevailing approach to maximizing the solution of urban problems for advancing urban planners, designers, and policy-makers. The rate of growth and extensive development of urban studies has provided a wide range of interactions between its different sections. Coinciding with its growing trend, the corona virus has been spreading around the world since December 2019, re-examining the role of ICT.
Theoretical Framework
There is a lack of domestic research on ICT and the city. Given the existence of the gap and the importance of considering the area in urban studies, the purpose of this article is to identify, extract, and provide an interactive research space between the development of ICT and the subfields of urban studies in order to introduce and classify topics, approaches, methods, and results.
Methodology
Using the method of systematic review, the content of published foreign scientific research was reviewed and analyzed. This was carried out with a search for valid articles, a study of the abstracts and research results of more than 150 articles and their review, and a final selection of 93 articles after entering them into the Excel software environment.
Results and Discussion
The selected articles have been published in English in the period of 30 years between 1990 and 2020. Monitoring, examining, and extracting the key themes of the articles led us to 8 categories, including 1) urban policy, 2) electronic participation, 3) smart city, 4) city structure and spatial organization, 5) travel behavior, 6) digital gap, 7) public space, 8) and competitiveness, and 30 sub-themes. About 90% of the articles have been published in reputable scientific journals, and the rest appear in books and conference proceedings. An examination of the frequency of articles shows the growing worldwide trend in concern for this field in urban studies in recent years. According to the analysis made in the research, the use of ICT is applicable to planning theories at all levels, including the two levels of access and data processing and communication independent of time and place. These technologies enhance and promote the development of networks, social cohesion, and smart development of the city. The digital gap is intrinsically related to digital and urban inequalities. In network-oriented cities and societies, the issue of communication poverty is as important as traditional poverty. Many discussions have been raised by researchers on the impact of ICT on the structure and spatial organization of the city. Despite the initial premise of using the technology, which was to reduce concentration and increase urban dispersion, two more approaches, the centralization approach and the dual approach, have also been proposed in the field. The development of ICT has profound consequences on urban economic competitiveness. ICT is the basic driver for smartness in cities. A provider of access to the transfer of information and planning tools, granting the opportunity to share modes of transportation and work from a distance, the technology is of considerable importance for transportation systems. The relationship between the urban public space and technological developments and the development of ICT with the spread of the corona virus has been taken into consideration. Recent studies show that the spread of the corona virus has multiplied the use of ICT, which will definitely change the severity of its impact on the city and urban planning and design more rapidly. Therefore, this article is presented in order to explain the various dimensions of this issue.
Conclusion
Given the application of ICT in the field of urban planning, it is comprehensible that the creation of links with urban planning and design has proceeded slowly despite the increasing development of telecommunication technologies. It is necessary to consider the complex relationship between the city and ICT. On the one hand, the relationship has raised the challenge of polarization, inaccessibility, and urban injustice, and on the other hand, it has involved benefits such as increased participation and social networking, urban innovation and creativity, and urban sustainability and intelligence. In fact, it is necessary to fill the gap between ICT and urban planning. The central solution framework of the smart city is based on the city rather than intelligence. One of the most important challenges discussed in the previous studies is the issue of accessibility among different social classes. In spite of the initial hypothesis that the importance of place is reduced as that of distance decreases due to the development of ICT, place still matters. The point to be considered in regard to the relationship between the density and spread of the corona virus is the absence of a direct relationship between its population density and death. In fact, the ever-increasing development of ICT and the persistence of policies of closure and maintenance of social distancing during the pandemic are themselves factors effective in the development of digital facilities and technologies in the city. Urban spaces are changing and transforming due to the development of new technologies. In fact, the urban space paradigm established in 2020 promises the emergence of virtual open spaces. Future studies will be focused especially on an understanding of the shift towards the digital space and the emergence of a combination of the real space and the virtual space in developed countries. Moreover, it is necessary to know the social dimensions of urban spaces according to the conditions imposed by the corona virus in order to understand the type and method of changing the shape of the public space of the city and social interactions. Finally, the study and review of the valuable articles published in the area of the interface between the city and ICT has raised wide, diverse issues that require familiarity, mastery, and theoretical specialization besides their practical applications for policy-makers, planners, and urban designers and managers.
Acknowledgment
The Article has been derived from the Ph.D thesis entitled “The Impact of Information and Communication Technology and the covid Pandemic on Urban Studies: A Systematic Review”, which has been defended by first author under the second author`s supervision and the third author`s advisory at the Qazvin Branch Islamic Azad University.
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, ...
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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.
