Rereading the Components of the Desirable City for the Elderly; A Case Study of the Historical City of Masouleh

Considering the increase in the elderly population and the phenomenon of aging in the world population, understanding the quality solutions to improve the elderly lives seems to be essential. The proper design of architectural and urban spaces are among the most important components that can play an important role in improving the quality and quantity of comfort for the elderly in the society. For this reason, architects and urban designers need a fundamental revision of their principles of architecture and urban planning. With an age of more than 1000 years, the historical city of Masouleh is one of the limited living spaces in Iran, which has been able to provide a suitable platform for its elderly people, who constitute more than half of the population of this city. This research aims to review the components of the city that is desirable for the elderly with a case study of the historical city of Masouleh was conducted.

The present study implemented a qualitative approach to study the samples. The historical city of Masouleh has 564 buildings, out of which the statistical population of 151 buildings was investigated in the research by dividing to five neighborhoods of Khanebar, Masjedbar, Keshesar, Asadmahleh, Reihanehbar and Bazar. In order to analyze the spatial elements of Masouleh architecture, based on field studies, 151 building maps were taken and drawn by AutoCAD 2023 software. Sound Meter Pro 2.6.7 software was used to analyze the amount of noise pollution in Masouleh neighborhoods at different hours of the day and night. Also, in order to analyze the amount of light received in the interior spaces of the Masouleh buildings, 3D models of the Masouleh residential buildings were first drawn by 3D Max 2023 software. Afterwards, based on the 30–year climate data of the historical city of Masouleh, which was obtained from the Meteorological Organization of Guilan Province, the amount of light received was simulated by Vilox Dilat Visualizer 3 software. In the last step, the components of the desirable city for the elderly were introduced in the historical city of Masouleh.

Findings showed that the effective factors in creating a desirable city for the elderly from the perspective of the historical city of Masouleh were identified in the form of the following: creating a city with an urban garden model, eliminating noise pollution, increasing social interactions and vitality, increasing economic participation and welfare stability, urban image stability; peace stability, proper access to the buildings and flexible spatial layout, creation of interactive spaces, light passages and increased protection.

Based on the findings of this research, the effective components in creating a desirable city for the elderly from the perspective of the historical city of Masuleh are explained in increasing green environments per capita, the increase of social and economic interactions, flexible architecture, protection of the urban image, and historical and identity dimensions.