Urban Design
Volume 2, Issue 5 , March 2013, , Pages 3-12
Abstract
One of the fundamental problems in the historical areas of Iranian cities is related with their incompatibility with contemporary urban projects and new developments. Owning to inattention to the old city structure in the historical core of the north of Isfahan, the new developments have imposed a ...
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One of the fundamental problems in the historical areas of Iranian cities is related with their incompatibility with contemporary urban projects and new developments. Owning to inattention to the old city structure in the historical core of the north of Isfahan, the new developments have imposed a new one that is in discordance with the old part of the city. This problem has led to progressive deterioration and obliteration of the historical areas including all architectural and urban elements like Atiq Square and Jāmeh mosque. This research aims at identifying the effect of contemporary urban developments- particularly the Haussmanniannet work imposed on the city, that is, on the spatial structure of historical area of the city. To achieve the mentioned goal, the structure of the city has been analyzed over four critical historical periods: the first period, Seljuqs; the second period: Safavids ; the third period: Pahlavi dynasty and fourth period: contemporary development and reconstruction of Atiq Square and surrounding area. In this study the Jāmeh mosque and Atiq square have been considered as integral components of the old city which have important role in the evolution of the city structure. As principal notions of this research, the relationship between “Spatial cohesion” and “integration” constitutes the main body of paper. Being a new approach, this method surveys the urban structure and spatial configuration in the old city. Considering the importance of the variations of “integration value” and its correlation with the concept of “structural cohesion”, this variable (integration value) has been taken into account as the main notion to evaluate the modification of the new development projects with old city structure. The “Space Syntax” technique has been used to measure the “integration value” in different scales. The integration value has also been calculated and compared on five principal axes surrounding Atiq Square including Jamaleh, Bazar, Joubareh, Dardash and Harounieh. Therefore, the concept of “spatial integration” of historical core of Isfahan has been analyzed through the above-mentioned approach in collaboration with Space Syntax. The results showed that contemporary development, recent urban projects and other interventions have not been successfully adapted due to neglecting the historical and socio-spatial contexts of the city. Concerning the “integration value”, the average value of integration on all axes has considerably increased. Moreover, the findings showed that (in the city scale), the recent project of reconstruction of Atiq square has led to a better integration value of surrounding axes in comparison with Pahlavi development projects. In the local scale, the demolition of Atiq square because of haussmannian development of Pahlavi period has significant impact on deterioration of spatial cohesion. In spite of better integration on urban scale, the local integration of historical axes has decreased. The lack of integration has intensified the disintegration of local network and ,thus, the urban area. The immediate consequence was the isolation of main architectural and urban elements such as Jāmeh mosque or Ali mosque which are both, for the time being, close to the rehabilitated Atiq square. Another result of this isolation was the considerable and growing social problems such as insecurity, poverty and social segregation.
Urban Design
Volume 2, Issue 5 , March 2013, , Pages 73-79
Abstract
Concepts such as space, place and nature are important concerns to which poets frequently refer. Sohrab Sepehri, Nima Youshij and Shamlou are cases in point. Among contemporary poets who not only speak of nature and city aversion but also probe into city naturally and ecologically each in their own ...
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Concepts such as space, place and nature are important concerns to which poets frequently refer. Sohrab Sepehri, Nima Youshij and Shamlou are cases in point. Among contemporary poets who not only speak of nature and city aversion but also probe into city naturally and ecologically each in their own ways, Sohrab Sepehri is a prominent figure. His natural and ecological approach to the Iranian cities and villages conveys a different mode of thought. Mainly aiming at investigating Sepehri's perspective on city, this paper sets itself the task of exploring the similarities between his approach with environmental artists and designers. Far from the conflicts and struggles of the first and second decades of the contemporary era, the urban middle class has fully immersed itself in pastoralism, introversion, nostalgia, individualism, naturism, and social aversion to find a calm and relaxed refuge; hence, it looks for a poet that strikes a chord with their internal potentials and, in their longing for such as voice, they inevitably come to Sohrab Sepehri. Sohrab Sepehri's nostalgia for nature and city reminds us of the unknown environmental designers such as Macharg and Spirn in the 20 th century. Their positions on the importance of nature in the city and urban spaces introduce a new paradigm which is poetically and emotionally stated by Sohrab, too. His different attitude towards the urban nostalgia parallels the urban ecology and greenery. Sohrab's attention to the ecosystems and living structures in city and village reveals his different understanding and sentiment of nature. This main object of this paper is to investigate Sepehri's resemblances with contemporary unknown environmental artists and designers such as Macharg, Spirn and Turner regarding city and nature. The method used in this paper draws on content analysis to analyse Sohrab Sepehri’s works and poetry. Afterwards, Sohrab's poetry is, first, investigated and, then, the extracted main concepts and themes are classified into four categories. According to this method and due to his affinity with environmental designers', Sohrab's central standpoint towards the city and nature indicates a naturalist viewpoint. This paper show that Sohrab tries to stand aloof from his identity and the society around him, seeking not only a nostalgic utopia that is the symbol of peace, composure but also returning to nature and becoming intimate with it. Sepehri looks for both a utopia in which the windows are opened to expression and a city that all its elements are in essence acceptable. In addition, Sohrab’s writings are pervaded by hidden natural and ecological values whose basics are immanent principles settled by God in universe and nature. Eventually, Sepehri senses homesickness and regret stemming from city and the country conditions in his society. In his solitude and calmness of terrestrial natural beauties, he esteems identity and ecological values and talks about the connection between mankind and the environment. Moreover, another finding of this paper substantiates the relationship between literary domains and environmental areas as an interdisciplinary researches. Thus, doing researches that properly emphasize this connection can help this area.
Urban Design
Farhang Mozaffar; Ali Asadpour
Volume 1, Issue 3 , August 2012, , Pages 3-12
Abstract
Social patterns in open space organizations have a key role in shaping most of 20th urban theories. This paper identifies the formal and social patterns in planning the residential open spaces in famous theories and projects of urbanization during 20th century and compares them with experiences of Iranian ...
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Social patterns in open space organizations have a key role in shaping most of 20th urban theories. This paper identifies the formal and social patterns in planning the residential open spaces in famous theories and projects of urbanization during 20th century and compares them with experiences of Iranian urban organizations in an analytic manner from the past to present. Historical – interpretative method established in this research was combined with case studies. From the formal viewpoint in the early 20th century theories, 4 categories of open space organizations could be identified: "grid organization", "linear", "central" and "complex" patterns, which have been tended towards complex patterns during the second half of the century. Moreover, try to remove social hierarchy, providing class equality and common ownership of open spaces seen in the first half of the century has been replaced by social stability, social equality and simultaneous attention to both public and private open spaces. However, the modern construction in country is almost the continuation of the early century proven strategies that mainly use the central and grid patterns and lack of certain social patterns in their designs. Hence, considering current world conditions and national experiences and achievements and belief principles, it is suggested to pay attention to the social concepts like social capital social interaction along with suitable patterns of open space organization (for example, complex) while particular separating and dividing public-private fields and measuring public priorities.
Urban Design
Volume 1, Issue 4 , March 2012, , Pages 69-80
Abstract
Collective memory is the common memory of individuals, as members of a group, of the experienced events in a social and spatial framework. Collective memory brings about the place identity by creating meanings in a space. This place identity can end up with promoting personal identity; therefore, disregarding ...
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Collective memory is the common memory of individuals, as members of a group, of the experienced events in a social and spatial framework. Collective memory brings about the place identity by creating meanings in a space. This place identity can end up with promoting personal identity; therefore, disregarding the collective memories of a city leads to huge expenses as identity crises. Thus, this research is carried out to identify the key factors on promoting collective memory in Tehran’s squares. In this regard, the research begins with giving an account of ‘collective memory’ and its relationship to place and square through the study of valid documents with the emphasis on Murice Halbwachs’s theory of the collective memory. Afterwards, the preliminary effective factors, derived from the documents studied were identified in both Tajrish and Baharestan squares by means of observation and documents study. In order to test the proposed model of factors, collective memories of visitors of Tajrish and Baharestan square were asked by semi-structured interview. Then, the key factors affecting the formation and promotion of collective memories of citizens were extracted through the combined content analysis (qualitative and quantitative) of interviews. Finally, the significance of the extracted factors was determined by comparative analysis. Based on the outcomes of the study of documents, these factors were fallen into two main categories: spatial factors and characteristical factors. While the result of the study of documents led to the identification of collectivity, tranquility, singularity, flexibility, insideness and outsideness, integrity, continuity, orientation, identification, and transparency, the consequence of both content and comparative analysis added “escape” to the mentioned factors. These factors affect the collective memory in three different ways. The first group of factors will end up with the formation of collective memory, while the second group influences the image of that memory and the last group brings about the continuity of memory. In addition, content and comparative analysis laid great emphasis on characteristical factors in formation and promotion of collective memory in both Tajrish and Baharestan squares.
Urban Design
Shahab Abbaszadeh; Sevda Tamry
Volume 1, Issue 4 , March 2012, , Pages 95-104
Abstract
With the onset of industry revolution, automobile invention and development of cities, the pedestrian and pedestrian-oriented spaces and urban spaces role priority gradually faded and the quality of urban public spaces, urban open spaces, and the pedestrian walkways decreased. Lack of pedestrian-oriented ...
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With the onset of industry revolution, automobile invention and development of cities, the pedestrian and pedestrian-oriented spaces and urban spaces role priority gradually faded and the quality of urban public spaces, urban open spaces, and the pedestrian walkways decreased. Lack of pedestrian-oriented spaces and current low quality pedestrian spaces affect citizens' social interactions in contemporary metropolitans. Pedestrianism is a part of daily journey and activity of citizens in metropolitans, however, pedestrians' need and security is ignored in current cities. In doing so, majority of current urban spaces in our cities are defined as road way, where the presence of automobile is preferred on designs of high-quality and appropriate pedestrian-oriented spaces. Nevertheless, these spaces play an essential role in increasing contacts and citizens’ social interaction level. In this regard, ignoring human scale and the pedestrians' needs are the problems ahead. Lack of quality in pedestrian-oriented open spaces has led to poor citizens’ presence and social interactions. Hence, identifying factors affecting the quality of mentioned spaces for meeting citizens’ needs and increasing the presence and social interaction level is more important than before. Tabriz metropolitan is not an exception either. Having more roadway spaces compared with pedestrian-oriented way has made the life difficult for the citizens. By conducting rigorous literature review, the study derived influential factors forming theoretical framework of the research (including factors affecting urban pedestrian-oriented spatial quality: vitality, legibility, security, and permeability factors). Research utilized mixed-method approach, where aforementioned influential factors extracted from literature review, formed the qualitative part of the study. In the quantitative part used as the validity of the research, Tarbiat & Valiasr axes in Tabriz metropolitan were studied and evaluated. In other words, the study examined the verification of extracted theoretical framework from literature review, through conducting a survey in quantitative part. In this regard, a questionnaire was used to gather the data about pedestrian-oriented spatial quality and citizens’ satisfaction of the mentioned spaces. G*POWER software and Cochran sampling technique were used to calculate the sample size of the study. Ultimately, using SPSS software the data were analyzed through descriptive and inferential statistical methods. This study indicated that vitality, legibility, and permeability factors, the main factors of urban spaces qualities, play an important role in Tabrizian citizens’ satisfaction of pedestrian-oriented spaces. The finding of this research can be utilized for designing more sociable and friendly atmosphere pedestrian-oriented spaces, where citizens' social interactions are concentrated.
