Green Landscape Networks;The role of articulation in the integrity of green space in landscapes of contemporary cities of Iran

Following the environmental, social and identity problems in cities generated by urban expansion and invasion of built spaces to natural spaces, the green spaces are recognized not only as green fragments that are in contrast with urban masses, but also as effective factors in enhancing the citizens’ lives. Currently, natural infrastructures and green networks are considered as the main urban structures that take into account all the qualitative and quantitative aspects of the city. Recently, multiple measures have been carried out to develop green spaces in t cities of Iran; however, they have not been effective in achieving the expected quality. Studies reveal that the main reason for qualitative deficiencies is the partial and one-dimensional view to this category in the macro-scale – i.e. ignoring a proper relation with other structures and social, economic, and environmental urban functions - and the existence of incoherent green network components in the micro-scale. This paper aims at finding the appropriate approaches and strategies for resolving the qualitative deficiencies of green networks in contemporary cities of Iran and to scrutinize the necessity for existence of an integrated and coherent green networks in city structures through the historical and content analysis of the past and present cities of Iran. Moreover, it tries to seek the criteria for the formation of green coherent networks in terms of physical and semantic aspects. The research studies indicate that green infrastructures should be connected to other infrastructures, and different environmental, economic and social features of the city in multidimensional aspects in order to solve the inadequacy problems of green spaces. Additionally, this connection should be established between the components of the green network in order to preserve its formal, semantic, and functional cohesion and integrity. This paper proposes the articulation strategy as a landscape approach to realize the internal and external cohesion of the green city network. In other words, articulation, with emphasis on the physic, function and role of identity in the urban green structure, formulates a basis for the organization of green spaces in relation to other urban structures and can be regarded as a factor for enhancing quality. Moreover, articulation created by an integrated network of green spaces would lead the citizens to better understand and perceive the landscape and natural environment, and eventaully enables legibility and identity in the city.