نشریه دانش شهرسازی
سال چهارم شماره 1 (پیاپی 10، بهار 1399)

Public interest is one of the most basic and significant issues in urban planning discipline.  Action in urban planning would seem futile if the public interest is ignored. The problem shows itself when there are different understandings of the concept of public interest and when there are disagreements on how one can achieve it. In such a diversity of opinions, it would be difficult to identify which urban actions or plans are in the interest of the public and which ones are not.

By reviewing available literature in Iran`s planning journals, we could not find a common definition or a theoretical explanation of public interest in Iran`s planning system. Therefore, it is crucial to have a common understanding of what this concept is all about among the planning professionals. Accordingly, this paper aims to understand the concept of public interest in Iran`s planning by finding planners' common understanding of this concept.

This paper first looks at the importance of public interest in the planning literature as well as the changes in approaches to this concept from the mid-twentieth century.  Next, using content analysis as a qualitative method, we attempt to find a common understanding of public interest in Iran’s urban planning sphere.  In our analysis, three different datasets including 15 interviews and 12 sets of regulations and codes regarding two different projects were used.

The results of our analysis points to a shared understanding of public interest in Iran`s planning system. We have concluded that public interest in Iran`s planning system has an objective character and is similar to the unitary concept of public interest.  It is a substantive as well as a procedural notion that is determined and defined through official institutions of urban planning.

While an official explanation of public interest in Iran`s planning cannot be found directly through planning rules and regulations, a common understanding of this concept can be understood among planners.

The overuse of unstable urban income to develop cities has created a lot of problems for communities. Indeed, continuing this trend has posed a serious challenge to cities and regions.

Investigating the role of knowledge-based areas in urban and regional development based on theoretical foundations and global experiences.

Theoretical and library methods have been used to study the theoretical foundations and experimental records.

Innovation is one of the main pillars of knowledge-based cities that is the focus of interest in recent decades. One of the outcomes of innovation areas is the formation of knowledge-based cities. Hence, city-regions are the center of growth and the center of knowledge. Therefore, the competitive advantage of urban areas will not be based only on natural resources or cheap labor; indeed, the role of knowledge becomes more important. The process of innovation actually addresses what makes knowledge valuable and how it is created through interactive and complex relationships in an institutional setting. In other words, the key elements of this complex are universities, industries, and governments. If they connect optimally, good development will be achieved through knowledge-based cities and regions. The global experiences have represented this fact clearly.

The link between creative individuals, major investors, and urban and regional rulers has provided a conducive environment for the emergence of a new concept in the scientific community. This emerging concept has been called Knowledge-Based City. The two driving forces in the formation of cities and areas of knowledge have changed the spatial structure of planning and divided it into three levels of regional planning, urban planning, and urban design. Given the important role of the relationship between urban and regional planning in a coherent hierarchical system, It is important to focus on the regional innovation system and the coherent relationship between the levels of regional planning, urban planning and urban design in the creation and operation of knowledge-based cities.

The "low carbon" approach emerged as a goal for the economy, society and the city at the beginning of the last century. This approach has been pursued in recent years on micro scales and urban “neighborhoods”. But it seems that the scientific literature of urban planning in our country, especially at the neighborhood scale, has not been sufficiently addressed.

This study seeks to develop a theoretical model of "low carbon neighborhood", with the help of local experts and with an indigenous approach, to prioritize and evaluate its indices for application in urban planning and design strategies.

To this end, while utilizing library studies, more than 30 low-carbon scientific sources, components and indicators of the "low-carbon neighborhood" have been identified and categorized. Then, using a matrix-based questionnaire, 9 of the researchers who studied or researched in this area examined the influence of the components and indicators on the realization of low carbon neighborhood. The survey data were analyzed using the combined "Danp" method and the low-carbon neighborhood model was formulated and analyzed in the form of 6 components and 19 indices. The main components in this model are "form", "access", "user and activity", "natural environment", "facilities and infrastructure", and "local community".

The findings show that the most important components / indicators in the realization of low carbon neighborhoods are "local community" and indicators of "culture-raising and public awareness" and "public participation". In the category of "component" indices, "Contextual Fabric" and "Compactness" were identified as the most effective indices in the realization of low carbon neighborhood. In this analytical model, 'local community' and form were identified as affective factors (cause) and the other four components as affective components.

Considering priorities in achieving a neighborhood with minimal renewable energy consumption and minimal emissions -as followed in this paper- is a goal that should be seriously sought after by the academic community in decision-making.

The plight of empty spaces is heightened by the efforts of upstream forces to occupy space, and answer to this problem requires a creative solution. The study area includes the pedestrian path in the city of Rasht which has long been witnessing the production/reproduction process of commanding space. In return, creative solution is in people’s modes of consumption of space.

Finding out how to Use Rhythmanalysis to better regulate space consumption, in order to Modify the view of professionalism. Rhythmanalysis of daily life in urban spaces helps to understand the creative resistance of people in consumption of space and their practice of self-order relevant to the daily life so that one can use it for better handling of space consumption.

Referring to the conceptual framework of Trialectics of Spatiality, the impact of three components of climate-culture-regulated power on the rhythms of perceived-conceived-lived space was studied, based on the progressive-aggressive method. The research includes two directions, namely studying vertical and horizontal complexity of space. In studying the horizontal complexity of the space, different rhythms were studied at a given time interval, scanning the activities of different groups of users in space. For this purpose, field research (observation by simple and non-interventional method) and descriptive method were used. Thenceforth, using mixed approach and the alignment design, the results of each level of the study were integrated into a general interpretation.

simultaneous and harmonious presence of multiple rhythms is the result of power rituals, climatic and cultural cycles working in harmony in the study area, so that this public space or simply put the representation space, in spite of commanding plans is a space for compromising and coalition that is spontaneously dedicated to people showing their time and the rhythms of their presence.

Climate and culture play an important role on the production of lasting rhythms in space. So, despite power's efforts to unify the space, there are still passionate rhythms in the space of study area.

Statement of the problem: The history of cities as a short story and evidence is full of works and layers that have gradually hidden under new layers or have been exposed to erosion and change due to various factors over time. However, the story of the evolution of cities and their important and significant elements is intertwined in these layers. Meanwhile, neighborhoods in traditional Iranian-Islamic cities have a role beyond just one spatial area; it includes the place of residence and collective activity of citizens and has a defined position in the hierarchy of development and management of urban affairs and its nature in the context.

The present paperintends to formulate the problem of understanding the neighborhood as a concept with a spatial-social burden and to study it in the Islamic period through examining historical texts in the manifestation of its historical layer (Islamic period) and the conflict between Iranian neighborhoods (Heydari – Nemati neighborhoods).

Achieving the appropriate answer in this paper has been done with describing and analyzing the collected documentary and library information and data. In addition to understanding the neighborhood's anti-Semitism in the city of the Islamic period, the mixture of this mental tendency of the city can also be the understanding of the neighborhood's anti-transformationalism in the contemporary Iranian city.

As the extract of the context governing the anti-neighborhood concept is shown in this article, the difference between the anti-neighborhood concept in ancient times and before Islam is deeply enrooted. Religion and ethnicity are important, and with the beginning of modernization and the arrival of capitalism in Iran, the economy and money show the superior power that separates groups from each other and neighborhood disputes.

The conflict in a neighborhood which used to be a function of social and cultural factors such as ethnicity, race, language, sect, religion, etc., has become a function of material and economic factors and causes the authority to produce and consume in some neighborhoods of the city.

Climate change and sustainability have become the biggest challenges of the present era since the 1970s. Among the elements of human construction that are effective in climate change, cities are the first priority. At present, climate change and its effects have accounted for a wide range of urban and urban issues Cities occupy a very small percentage of the planet, but consume an extraordinary share of its resources. The impact of urban development (building and transportation) on climate change in developed countries is up to about 60% and in developing countries is about 80%. This trend shows the importance of cities and the design of cities in the phenomenon of climate change. One of the theories of climate change is the impact of humans on the natural environment. Urbanization is contributing to climate change by changing energy consumption due to increased greenhouse gas emissions. However, the theoretical foundations for sustainable urbanization are very limited, and on the other hand, the issue of increasing the rate of climate change has left this challenge as the world's biggest concern.

The purpose of this paper is to redefine the interactive principles of urban design and the phenomenon of climate change and introduce its indicators in the design structure.

Techniques used in this approach are qualitative content analysis using two-stage Delphi method by semi-structured and closed questionnaires from 25 expert opinions and quantitative evaluation using network analysis.

The result of the present study is to redefine the principles of urban design in urban elements (buildings/natural open spaces, public open spaces, streets and passages as urban space /exchange and transportation space), to introduce design indicators and metrics for each principle. It includes climate comfort, pollution reduction, bed and field coordination, renewable energy use and environmental protection.

This article discusses that climate change and urban design has a two-way interaction, and in order to control climate change, its indicators should be considered in urban design.

Human is a social creature that needs interaction and relationship with others, hence he needs some spaces for presence. The quality of such a presence depends on the meaningfulness of the space and consequently on the place creation. Places find their meanings based on the events taking place there. This is why the place is defined as a part of the space that is specified by the social relationships with their own meanings and values. Place making encourages people to consider the public spaces as the heart of their society and reimagine or rebuild it.

This research attempted to make Rasht public spaces more meaningful through the social activities and events and hence to promote such spaces to places.

It was a qualitative research based on the phenomenological approach. The related phenomenon, i.e. the conducted events at the central pedestrian district of Rasht during the spring 2017 up to the spring 2019 were scrutinized based on the real experience of being and confronting with the places extracted from the in-depth interviews.

The results led to a hierarchical model of meaningfulness of events for place making among the audiences of the events and the urban space management. The “cause of presence” is the minimum setting for the meaningfulness of the place making among the citizens, while the urban space management plays the most important role in paving the way. The higher degree of meaningfulness belongs to the “pleasure of the presence”. Although the role of the urban space management is not so prominent, however, the quality, type and degree of companionship are still the responsibility of the urban space management. The factor of “degree of effective participation in the event” creates a more meaningful and higher degree of place making.

The most meaningful degree of place making for an event is the “degree of advancement of the event space”. At this level, the audiences show their own creativity and ability to the public and hence they gain a deeper self-scrutiny.