Urban Design Framework for MollāSadrā Avenue in Shiraz (Iran) with an Approach to Social Interactions

MollāSadrā Avenue in Shiraz has a variety of attractions and numerous gravitations which lead people to having a quasi-permanent presence in this important public space. Coming to shopping centers, window shopping, flânerie and the ability to see people and be seen by them, makes MollāSadrā Avenue a vibrant hub full of crowd and enjoyment. But in the other hand the lack of well-designed sidewalks and their limited width, the lack of public places to seat, relax and gather and an obvious shortage of activities throughout the night and holidays accentuated by traffic jam and mediocre physical and architectural conditions, decrease the eventuality of public interactions. This research seeks to reveal the role of effective factors in improvement of public interactions in MollāSadrā Avenue as a vibrant public space. As such, after studying and analyzing the pertinent factors in public interactions an entire field research process has been accomplished. The result of the research is shown as an urban design framework categorized by activities, aesthetics and experiential aspects and environmental issues which demonstrate the direction of the process of urban design to make MollāSadrā Avenue an interactive urban space. This urban design framework could be used as a model to the revival of commercial and leisure streets elsewhere in Iran.