rasool haghbayan

The theory of public life developed by Jan Gehl is one of the theories in the field of urban space planning and design that has been successfully implemented in Western countries. As a result, it has been evaluated in various countries, including Iran, and his outstanding works have been translated and published. Implementing Jan Gehl’s theory of public life can have positive effects on the quality of urban life, such as enhancing vitality, security, health, and sustainability; however, due to the economic, political, social, cultural, and ideological differences between Western countries and Iran, its applicability and localization appear to be extremely important. This study therefore aims to critique this theory by emphasizing the cultural dimension and using Islamic concepts. This is accomplished with a focus on the ideas of Allameh Tabatabai, who is one of the most prominent contemporary Islamic philosophers and has a valuable theory of credit perception. According to Allameh Tabatabai’s theory of credit perceptions, the concepts of the social world are creditable and malleable. This theory formed the basis for the development of the research method. Therefore, in order to analyze the validity, the ontology and anthropology that form these concepts must be identified and analyzed to elucidate the reasons for their emergence and efficacy. The findings of the study indicate that the core beliefs of Gehl’s theory of common life are incompatible with Islamic thought. However, by considering the modified credits based on Islamic thought in order to modify the existing theory, it is possible to eliminate its negative cultural effects and utilize this theory to meet the material and spiritual requirements of the citizens.

Urban spaces have an important role in in order to meet the material and spiritual needs of citizens as the main pillar of social sustainability. But given that human needs vary in different times and places, and each space has complexity and influential factors, it is complicated and difficult to adapt urban space to these needs. Therefore, a basic step in understanding the needs and removing barriers and problems in space is to realize social sustainability, the ethos of users in urban space. In this regard, the present study is aimed at studying the behavior of citizens in the business axis of the city of Rasht, which is descended from the commercial-historical axis in terms of the life quality of the community. This research was carried out with a qualitative approach and the use of behavioral mapping techniques during one week with photographing, counting and daily notes of events in different hours of the day. Findings of the research show that social sustainability has been affected by the domination of creeping motion and burnout, and the space has not responded to the needs of contemporary users, despite the availability of social and physical capital. Therefore, priority management policies, such as functional-based regeneration, focusing on valuable historical and attracting elements of the population, organizing unorganized hangouts and behavioral stations, reducing the moving and fixed obstacles in space And increase the safe and comfortable space for pedestrians to improve the quality of behavior and public activity.

Urban plans, especially in the central and old textures of cities, have a considerable complexity and expansive scope of interests of groups and stakeholders. For this reason, there is a need for a balance between sometimes conflicting objectives and interests of stakeholders in urban projects. In the event of disagreement, mediation between the beneficiary groups can, in turn, alter the attitudes of the parties to the disputed issues that have arisen, and so they will be able to find common ground and solutions. One of the important urban projects which has been performed in Tehran in the recent decade is turning the 17-Shahrivar Street into a pedestrian way. This street is one of the central axes of Tehran, which has relatively important traffic and functional role. Execution of this project led to lots of debates among pros and cons; particularly, there were three major groups involved with this project: urban managers who want to make a cultural axis to hold religious ceremonies in especial days per year, shop owners around the street (mainly car exhibitions) and households (residents). These three groups had different concerns and interests. The conflict in the project began from the beginning of the project in 2012, when the residents believed that the project was poorly informed, they were not consulted or received a proposal. On the other hand, at the managerial level, some officials of urban organizations and members of the city council disagreed with the project, because of the weakness of the previous studies, lack of coordination, lack of transparency and disapproval by the city council. City council members, with information about the area, took a decision to provide the municipality with a two-month period in March 2015 to provide the solution, which did not lead to a conclusion. Until the end of the year, the City Council, reopened a major part of the route, but even yet, there are still cases of dissatisfaction among the beneficiaries. The current research, which forms part of the pre-mediation stage, uses a descriptive-analytical method based on the content-based analysis and database theory approach. In this paper, after identifying the disputes and the main beneficiary groups of the 17-Shahrivar Street of Tehran, forty-five interviews were carried out, and information was encoded based on the content analysis method. The findings of the research show that there are more challenges and barriers to the existing facilities for resolving the disputes in the 17-Shahrivar route. Although the parties agree on issues of prioritization and ambition for the mediation process. However, there are challenges such as lack of proper relationships and trust among the parties to the dispute, the severity of high dissatisfaction especially by the business community and the problems of the Tehran city administration system, such as lack of proper accountability, lack of coordinated management, top to bottom command-line management, and insufficient funding has made the process difficult to resolve.

 In Iran, being inspired by advanced countries and old patterns of Iranian city pedestrian spaces, the creation of pedestrian zones in the metropolises of the country has become popular to shift from car-oriented to walkability. The creation of the pedestrian zones in Tehran city after a number of relatively successful experiments, such as the 15th Khordad pedestrian zone and Sepahsalar pedestrian zone was followed by the creation of the 17th Shahrivar pedestrian zone. But, the 17th Shahrivar pedestrian zone based on the evidences such as the findings of scholars, criticisms of authorities and the discontent of the local people, is a rather unsuccessful experience.

This research with an analytical and profound look tries to methodically explain the main failure components of the 17th Shahrivar pedestrian zone in Tehran.

For this purpose, the qualitative approach and the basic tools for collecting information including documents, semi-structured interviews and field observations have been used. The textual data collected mainly by coding, counting and creating the thematic network and the place data mainly by counting, photographing and mapping organized and conceptualized. In this stage, authors have inferred the main causes of project failure with scrutinizing all findings, examining the relationship between the main themes with each other, considering the theoretical foundations of the research and relying on rational and logical arguments.

The findings of the article show that the main issues of the project failure are the three main problems: “The lack of proper need assessment, feasibility study and providing infrastructure for the project”, “Marginalizing local people in the process of planning and implementation” and “Macro economic, political and managerial issues”. Meanwhile, the main factor behind the defects and problems of the project seems to be political, managerial, and economic conditions and objectives. The experience of the 17th Shahrivar pedestrian zone indicates that the potential positive impacts of pedestrian zone creation on improving the quality of the environment are only possible if they are correctly located and have a sustainable and grassroots planning and management approach.

The advent of technology has reduced the need of citizens to buy, work and do even social interactions in urban space. This condition has increased the power of individuals to choose between attend or absent from the public space and consequently has highlighted the importance of public space quality. The purpose of the public life study is to focus on the daily life of urban space to identify factors affecting public life and provide a favorable urban environment for the presence of various social strata. In this regard, the 17th Shahrivar project in Tehran was selected, which, despite the planning for pedestrians, has not been able to provide the invited and desired space for citizens. The present research, with an emphasis on the ideas of Jan Gehl, uses Gehl's study tools of public life, including counting, mapping, looking for traces, keeping a diary and test walks in the area. The findings of the research show that the study area has not had a proper public life condition except in the evenings. The main factor was lack of transparent, attractive, dynamic and diverse activities in the axis. For this reason, abandoned spaces have been created with little social monitoring which cause unwanted and unplanned functions, such as becoming a vehicle park or the emergence of social unpredictable activities that is related to the background and potential context of space. By changing the social context of users toward abnormal, alien and specific people, has reduced the quality of the environment, especially in terms of psychological security, and has decreased the presence of normal people, specifically women and children.