Urban Design
Abstract
Urban design involves the arrangement and design of buildings, public spaces, transport systems, services, and amenities. It is the process of giving form, shape, and character to groups of buildings, neighborhoods, and the city in whole. Urban design is about making connections between people and ...
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Urban design involves the arrangement and design of buildings, public spaces, transport systems, services, and amenities. It is the process of giving form, shape, and character to groups of buildings, neighborhoods, and the city in whole. Urban design is about making connections between people and places, movement and urban form, nature and the built fabric. It draws together the many strands of place-making, environmental stewardship, social equity and economic viability to create places with distinct beauty and identity. On the other hand, implementation tools offer different mechanisms for the delivery of quality urban design outcomes, and are used by a range of professionals to manage, motivate and organize urban design projects. While being disparate, these tools focus on the means of building quality urban design projects. Implementation can therefore be considered throughout all stages of an urban design project. A number of these tools focus on discussing and resolving design issues before the execution of a project. They can help clear roadblocks in the design process, provide collaborative management structures, and develop creative design solutions. Also, project implementation (or project execution) is the phase where visions and plans become reality. This is the logical conclusion after evaluating, deciding, visioning, planning, applying for funds and finding the financial resources of a project. After careful planning of the project, one will be ready to start the project implementation phase, the third phase in the project management life cycle. The implementation phase involves putting the project plan into action. It is here that the project manager will coordinate and direct project resources to meet the objectives of the project plan. As the project unfolds, it is the project manager’s job to direct and manage each activity, every step of the way. That is what happens in the implementation phase of the project life cycle: you follow the plan you have put together and handle any problems that comes up. The implementation phase is where you and your project team actually do the project work to produce the deliverables. The word “deliverable” means anything your project delivers. The deliverables for your project include all the products or services that you and your team are producing/performing for the client, customer, or sponsor, including all the project management documents that you put together. Along with the rapid growth of urbanization and the formation of urban development plans, urban design experts try to improve the quality of the environment. However, the field of urban design is a young and emerging field in the world, especially in Iran where it is considered as a fledgling discipline. The findings show that, in the current situation of Iran, the power-related criteria (political, administrative, economic and knowledge) attract the highest attention and the criteria related to dialogue, participation and interaction (public participation, legal interaction) are with the lowest levels of attention. An interactive model based on a reasonable balance between top-down and bottom-up approaches, drawing from Foucault’s theory of power and Habermas’s theory of communicative action, is suggested to better realize urban design projects in Iran.
