Sustainable City

There exist multiple dimensions of Sustainability that can be achieved differently based on its numerous methods. Achieving a sustainable neighborhood has also very complicated dimensions which cannot be described in a summarized paper. Designing and planning sustainable neighborhoods is highly related to special conditions of every neighborhood. Therefore taking these conditions into consideration and evaluating their potentials is the first step toward achieving a sustainable neighborhood. This paper tries to describe and discuss different standards of achieving sustainable neighborhood based on urban design experiences of other countries in traditional patterns, public transit-oriented patterns, lively neighborhood patterns, safe route patterns as well as smart growth principals. All of these patterns are discussed based on their special features and finally some of these strategies which are on top of all priorities in achieving sustainable neighborhoods in Tehran are described in different dimensions such as planning, people participation and controlling proceedings. The researches which are discussed in these paper showed that the most important planning strategies in achieving sustainable neighborhood are reducing private transportation and parking spaces in streets, preserving open spaces in neighborhoods, creating visual and identical signs in neighborhoods, extending pedestrian routes and green networks as well as building spaces and buildings that suits the neighborhood scale. The most significant strategy in public participation is forming a board and supervisory committee composed of neighborhood residents in supervising the planning and implementation of local projects. The most important controlling proceedings are providing check lists to assess and promote building and urban space qualities. Eventually, based on conducted surveys about helpful proceedings, Tehran city was selected as a case study. The common idea in all sustainable neighborhoods that must be taking into consideration for promoting Tehran urban spaces is providing pedestrian spaces in neighborhoods for easier access to service and welfare centers as well as public transportation stations. Moreover, creating green networks in pedestrian routes and reducing or controlling vehicles transportation and parking spaces in neighborhoods can result in great consequences in Tehran city.