Evolution of the Urban Landscape of Hamedān during First Pahlavi Era; Impacts of Piercing Streets on the City Center

Hamedān city, with its historical pre-Islamic history, used to have a rich traditional landscape until the Pahlavi era. Karl Frisch, a German engineer, made great changes in Hamedān’s urban landscape by constructing piercing streets. The construction of a vast square at the intersection of six piercing streets created a turning point in the landscape of Hamedān. This plan was developed in imitation of 19th Century European architecture and urban development to serve as a symbol of authority and modernity. It was like an industrial gear wheel passing through the historical texture, the center and bazaar of Hamedān. The intervention by Karl Frisch in the landscape was not aligned with what used to be practiced in the past and the amount of construction was so much as though Hamedān’s image was fundamentally transformed. Purpose of the study: This study adopts a systematic approach to urban landscape analysis to examine the impact of piercing streets, an authoritative measure through urban management, on the urban landscape of Hamedān during the first Pahlavi era.

This historical-analytical study relies on the provided data on the spatial features of Hamedān urban landscape.

Extensive changes in the urban landscape during the first Pahlavi era through the construction of streets in major cities such as Tehran, Mashhad, and Rasht reinforce this idea that urban restructuring can lead to the transformation of the urban landscape. However, the results show that such interventions in Hamedān have not changed its urban landscape in spite of the wide transformation in the physical form of the city in terms of the street architecture and the creation of new paths of access. The main reason for no changes is the consistency in identifying the same center in spite of extensive interventions.