Evaluation of Flexibility Components of Urban Spaces in Mashhad City

Abstract Rapid and widespread changes in social and economic dimensions have pressured urban life and made it more fluid than in the past. Therefore, today designers and managers have been considering the flexibility to increase the responsiveness of urban spaces. Mashhad, meanwhile, has a large number of tourists and pilgrims every year. This brings about changes in the needs and expectations of urban spaces, so urban spaces need to be flexible. Failure to identify and analyze the impact of each component of urban space on the realization of this quality has led to ineffective solutions in designing urban spaces. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the flexibility of urban spaces in Mashhad and identify the contribution of each of the factors of urban space to the realization of flexibility. The research method is descriptive-analytical and based on this, flexibility indicates were first identified and their operational definition was accomplished. Then, sample urban areas were selected and the required information was collected through a survey method. In the next step, prioritizing the selected urban spaces by using the method of Factor Score and calculating the factor weight. According to the results of the first phase, Imamat Street is rated as "the most flexible urban space," and Shirazi Street is "poorly" in terms of flexibility. Supplementary results show that in terms of flexibility quality, the physical factor with 6.8 score has the most influence. The functional and accessibility factors with 3.5 and 0.98 score are in the next ranks.