Exploring the Conceptual Model for Evaluating the Coherence of Urban Physical Form and Structure and Explaining Its Principles

Problem statement: Coherence as a necessary quality in the physical, social, and economic life of cities has been less attended by urban planners in modern times, to the extent that the scattering and deterioration of the urban fabrics, and in particular the existing metropolises, can be attributed to the lack of attention to this quality in the planning and design of modern cities. One of the main reasons for this is the lack of attention to the existence of different approaches to studying the form, the structure and the absence of an integrated approach and criteria and principles that can be used to assess the degree of coherent form and structure.
Research aim and question:Therefore, this research seeks to elaborate the principles for evaluating the coherence of the physical form and developing a conceptual model. In this regard, this research aims to answer the question of what are the common principles between different approaches and theories about the physical form, and how do these approaches define the coherent relationship between the elements of the form? Research method: In this regard, this research has used a qualitative content analysis method to draw out the concepts of separated text data (by study approaches that relate to the coherence of form and structure), and Finally, this study achieved a theoretical model or framework by extracting the texts abstract levels which reflects the passive and repetitive patterns in the content. The results show that the three main elements of the form, including street, land use and building, play an important role in creating coherence, and the street is the most important element in the connection and linking of the other two elements. Also, the mix and diversity criteria in the land-use and the size criterion in the building are considered to be important criteria for measuring the coherence of the urban form. On the other hand, linking and integrating as the most important criterion for creating coherence, must be formed on the basis of two fundamental principles of scale and hierarchy, so that the elements of the form in different structural parts (center, main axis, and zone) are connected together in a coherent way