Reading the Street in the City

Reading the City may seem an endless task، a too large book. However، we all need a simple vision of the city to provide effectively fulfill our tasks، and for the City to continue to live and develop. So there must be a simple way of perceiving its structure and localization quickly، so as intuitively. In our work we develop the urban structure analysis by considering only the reversal reduced to a skeleton، the wired network of its streets. But the reconstruction of roads، and the measurement of a few simple indicators such as connectivity and accessibility، allows reading a structure and even a history of the city. Tehran Visits show over that the local treatment of buildings and roads is in agreement with the respective values of these indicators. This allows us to think that these indicators are essential، and that the processing corresponding to buildings and local roads allows us to read them intuitively and quickly. As the street is the most stable element in the city، it is therefore hoped that in its spatial geometry، there remains a trace of writing its development over time. This experience and the confrontation of the indicators calculated on maps and history and city، very positively، show that these calculations are carrying a real sense of the city، occupation، use، and history. The question is then how is it possible that automatic calculations on information as reduced as the skeleton of the city streets، may contain much information that seem relevant. The simplest explanation is precisely that the natural development of the city leads to the old ways better connected، and that the piercings and modern ways were able to obtain the same status of effectiveness. And the connectivity and accessibility indicators base a substantial part of the value of a street. As these simple criteria seem the most important، they guide people''s perception، their use، and finally the local treatment of the way. Of course these first observations need to be reinforced by new ones. And especially the variety of local tissues، their uses and their construction according to local traditions (residential areas، commerce، production، not structure the same way at different places and different times) should be deepened. This is already visible in the old bazaar around the habitats compared to recent areas of northern Tehran.