The Effective Factors on Urban Spaces Vitality (Creating a Lively Urban Space with Emphasizing the Concept “Pedestrian Mall”)
Subject Areas : architecture
Maryam Khastoo
1
(M.Sc. in Urban Planning, Islamic Azad University, Qazvin Branch, Iran. (Corresponding Author))
Navid Saeidi rezvani
2
(Assistant Professor, Islamic Azad University, Qazvin Branch, Iran)
Keywords:
Abstract :
As the human needs air to live, the city needs vitality to survive. It is necessary to promote vitality of the city in order to achieve viability. One of vibrant viable and dynamic urban spaces in the world is the “pedestrian mall”; in Iran the concept of such places is not well defined; additionally the large car-dependent thoroughfares and streets in which motor vehicles disturb the citizen’s safety have decreased the city vitality and viability. On the other hand the role of urban public space in which the citizen’s social interactions form and the society culture promotes, in Iran is declining day by day. Furthermore, walking as one of principles of the people’s physical and spiritual health is neglected. This article is based upon a practical research on the urban spaces vitality; the research is done in order to identify the effective factors on the urban spaces vitality and design a lively vibrant urban space regarding the role of buying. In the article, a “lively urban space” is defined as an urban space in which there is a noticeable number of people and diversity of them (ages, sexes, interests and …) in the long period of day time that their activities are generally done in the form of optional or social ones. In this sense, it is supposed to find a effective and acceptable relationship between buying activity and vitality, and safety and vitality regarding to the importance of buying and walking activity in the quality of citizen’s life (in contrast with automobile and motorized movement that impairs the security and safety of people) under the concept namely “Pedestrian Mall”. The research has two hypotheses; the first one is: the shopping centers affect the urban spaces vitality; and the second is: safety and security affect the urban spaces vitality. The case study of the research is Sattarkhan Street of Tehran which is commercially powerful while it doesn’t have enough vitality and viability. After surveying the relative concepts and viewpoints and analyzing the research case study, the research hypotheses will be proved. At the end of the article the analytical model of the research (diagram of the effective factors on urban spaces vitality) is produced. In the model, the concept of effective factors on vitality is divided into macro and micro dimensions. The macro (external) dimension includes factors such as social, economic, cultural and physical indicators; the micro (internal) dimension is divided into physical and nonphysical indicators. These two indicators include some variables such as urban design, land use, activities, interactions, social events etc. Other underlying factors that are not shown in the model are variables such as legibility, sense of place, architectural distinctiveness, the linkages in design terms between different parts of the city, the quality of street lighting and how safe, friendly and psychologically approachable the urban space is. The last part comprises the conclusion and suggestion; in this section physical and nonphysical suggestions are submitted (e.g. activities and spaces) in order to enhance the vitality and viability of the street.
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