Assessment of Factors Affecting the Sense of Place in Urban Neighborhood Centers Case Study: Sheikhdad Neighborhood and Shahrak Daneshgah Neighborhood, City of Yazd

“Place” is defined in urban research as “any space which people have made it meaningful”. There are different ways in which citizens ‘make places’, for example, by naming them, or modifying some elements in the urban environment to supply their needs. Sense of place, is a distinctive collection of urban qualities and characteristics – mental, visual, cultural, social, and environmental – that provide meaning to a location. Sense of place is what makes one place different from another, but sense of place is also something makes our physical surroundings worth caring about. Sense of Place has been known as an important variable in creating and developing urban public spaces. It is a phrase used to describe a building or space of special significance or meaning. It is obvious that as a quality, sense of place contains various aspects of interaction between human and place and the impact that urban spaces have on citizens. In Urban areas, sense of place is an important aspect of public life. Having a sense of place improves participation and encourages involvement within the community and helps citizens create better cities. In fact, it persuades them to be involved, to enjoy, and interact more with their surroundings. Some urban spaces, however, have been given stronger meanings, names or definitions by society than others. Places said to have a strong “sense of place” ,have a known identity and character that is deeply felt by local citizens. Nowadays, lack of attention to sense of place in the new development of cities, has led to reducing the various urban qualities such as identity, vitality and sense of belonging. As our cities and their communities grow, the less and less social interaction and social capital we may actually have. For many people, the feeling of belong to a society, is becoming a thing of the past. Places that lack a sense of place are sometimes referred to as place-less or inauthentic. Some of today’s most emergent environmental problems, such as low social interaction, the lack of a sense of belonging, public spaces destruction and social problems are rooted in ignoring sense of places. The need to resolve these problems has led to new approaches that consider the sense of place. This paper defines the concepts of sense of place and describes the factors that affect it in urban residential districts in both historical and new districts of city of Yazd. The research method here, was survey type and it is a kind of applied study in which techniques such as, library documents and references as well as Kolmogorov-Smirnov test , multiple regression and Pearson’s Correlation Test, were used. Findings of the research indicate that components such as the identity in historical districts and spatial qualities in new districts, directly increase the sense of place in neighborhood centers.