A Critique on the Urban and Architectural Processes Regarding Mehr Housing Program, in Comparison to the Endemic Architecture and Urban Planning Measures and Values: The Case Study of Khameer Seaport

A rising demand for housing has persuaded governments to provide more housing units, significantly for the less privileged classes of the society, and several methods have been tried. Mehr Housing Program is the latest effort in the recent years for mass housing production in Iran. The immense impacts of implementation of this program has had wide spread effects on the cities of the country. Studying this wide-spread project requires proper mechanism and measures. And without a doubt referring to the endemic architectural and urban planning methods would provide the proper basis, on which one can make valid criticism. Accordingly, the present study is an effort to explain and classify these methods and values, which have been neglected throughout Mehr Housing Program. The research method in this study is based on comparison. In this paper, the authors have first reviewed the publication by the experts in this area to extract these endemic measures, and based on this theoretical framework the endemic and organically grown urban fabric of the seaport of Khameer is studies and compared with the Mehr Housing project implemented in its vicinity. The findings of this research show that the implemented housing project can be criticized by the measures of Locality, urban planning process, the meaningful relationship that it has with the context, economical equilibrium, development competitiveness, urban identity, architectural and urban landscape aspects and the social coherence. For these shortcomings in the project there are certain solution in the endemic urban logic, and the negligence of these solutions have contributed to the current state.