Experience of constituting residential facade in district 17 of Tehran

Today، «city identity» problem (city identity crisis) is one of the fundamental issues in Iranian cities، often in developing countries. Iranian cities are expanded، however، their appearance is unreadable، lacking city identity and generating all kinds of crises. City with no identity loses its power to leading “citizens'' public unconscious«. Facades as one of the components in city landscape and urban landscape include symbols and identifying signs that are affected by factors such as climate، culture، history، economy and etc. In recent years، constitution of facade design''s terms and holding design competitions has been occurred to revive the identity of Islamic- Iranian architecture actions such as modeling in time-worn textures، leading to the acceptance of common shares of public and private areas on facades. However، disproportionate use of these two areas on different facades continues to cause a chaotic perspective view of the city. For instance، during renovation of worn-out textures، under the pretext of facilitating the renovation due to residents’ weak economy، municipality has failed in its duty to defend the public''s right. In spite of enhancement in safety and interior spaces quality in renovation process، vulnerability will occur: “identity-less and place-less“، in the absence of regulations and by Architects’ neglect and overcoming economic aspects. This article studies the pathology of new building facades and reminds the necessity of the presence of professionals and the need to improve the role of public area for leading identity of facades، by using the experience of renovation of worn out textures in district 17 Tehran. NAZAR RESEARCH CENTER CONSULTING ENGINEERS during years 2013 and 2014 has emphasized on the forgotten rights through the renovation policies of the municipality by using observing and study library data collection method. One of the key policies of the renovation organization is to increase public participation. Entrust the renovation to public sector makes it dynamic and sustainable. Nevertheless in the absence of experts، necessary public training and efficient rules، such urban textures will reflect cultural and identity problems of its residence. There is a direct connection between “townscape and city landscape” and “the life style and knowledge of its citizens”. But the cases in which unresponsive appearances of dilemmas and Social vulnerabilities intensify these problems and lead to new crises، the public sector and experts’ contribution is to be intensified. This can be achieved through constituting clear and efficient rules even simple، specialized trainings to designers and public education.