Aspects Affecting the Beauty and Ugliness of the City from the Residents’ Point of view, Case study: District 2 of Tehran

This research aims to answer this question: From the residents’ point of view, what is the beauty and desirability of the form and appearance of urban masses and buildings and their composition? What standards and values are considered for the designers and builders of today’s buildings, which are embodied in the current masses and building forms? Accordingly, this research explores relevant theoretical texts and objective and subjective issues of residents living in District 2 of Tehran. The origin of beauty and aesthetic perception is often defined between the two concepts of objectivism and subjectivism. However, newer philosophical analyzes that adopt an interactive perspective believe that the sense of beauty originates from the patterns that connect people and things. In fact, a reasonable (and usual) solution to the objective-subjective controversy in the evaluation of aesthetic quality acknowledges that aesthetic quality is the joint product of observable characteristics that interact with psychological processes in the human observer. With the flourishing of aesthetic perceptual research and the publication of their results, the differences between the previous evaluations of beauty and these studies became clear. They prompted researchers to look into these differences more.

In the literature review, descriptive and bibliographic methods have been used to progress the research. For the contextual studies, a type of qualitative research method called Grounded Theory Method, which is based on interpretation analysis, has been chosen. Finally, the comparative method (comparison and evaluation between the results of theoretical and contextual studies) has been used to analyze and present the results of the article. The grounded Theory Method applies interpretation in order to discover concepts and relationships between primary data and to organize them in the form of a theoretical explanatory plan. In the present research, the mentioned method has been used to reach the type of view and mental frameworks of the citizens of District 2 of Tehran in relation to urban building and mass aesthetics. 

Based on the findings of the research, in the context of irresponsible urban management, ambiguity in the demands of the residents between the new and the past, and the change of conditions and demands over time has created some issues. These issues are classified as conditional categories: “Speculative urban management”, “Wandering between urban fabric protection or change”, and “Instability of residents’ demands and conditions”. In addition, the residents of District 2 of Tehran, in relation to the visual aesthetics of their living environment, believe in “visual irregularities and deterioration” (related to shape combinations) and “lack of open space and increased density” (related to the combination of masses and spaces) which are classified as interactive categories. The interviews affirm that the interactions and processes experienced by the residents have led to consequential categories such as “forgetting the presence of the living environment” and “disconnecting with the living environment”. Accordingly, sub-categories such as distortion of memories and nostalgia can distort the future image and peace of mind, invigorate a sense of indifference towards the living environment, and lead to the thought of migration. They were the guides for the formation of the two main consequences mentioned in this research. Also, an important point emerging from the comparative evaluation between theoretical and contextual studies is the concepts that have been focused on in these two categories of studies are quite common. The concepts mentioned in both categories almost cover each other. But what happened in District 2 of Tehran is actually the opposite of what was desirable. In other words, while the principles and criteria derived from theoretical studies were considered to achieve a pleasant and beautiful physical-visual combination, the results obtained from contextual studies reveal an absence and lack of attention to aesthetic criteria in the formation of mass and building volumes in District 2 of Tehran. 

According to the conducted investigations and the obtained results, it is possible to determine a physical-visual aesthetic theory with two aspects: content and procedural. The content aspect of this theory is related to the principles and criteria that shape building volumes and masses, which are the same physical-visual components or forces and are compatible with interactive categories obtained from contextual studies. Its procedural aspect is discussed in relation to the conditions and context of the formation of building volumes and masses, which are non-physical components and forces and are consistent with the conditional categories obtained from contextual studies. The absence and lack of attention to physical aesthetic criteria in the formation of building masses and volumes in District 2 of Tehran can be caused by the fact that the designers or constructors not only look at the building differently from the aesthetics experts, but also they have taken an almost opposite path to the theoretical criteria. Based on this, residents and users of the environment have an ugly and undesirable visual perception. The difference in the views of these two groups can be a confirmation of the existence and influence of external forces affecting the formation of building masses. In this context, the land price and its related components are the main factors affecting the appearance of buildings. In addition, the type of choice, approach, and taste of designers, contractors, or builders can be another non-physical component affecting the formation of aesthetic judgments resulting from the analysis and comparison of physical-visual components. The mentioned components, in the lack or shortage of appropriate legal controls and lack of specialized education related to contextual architecture and urban planning, can play a very effective role in the urban visual composition and cause a large gap between the desired and existing situation regarding physical-visual aesthetics in the building masses.