Studying the Effect of Urban Development Plans on Spatial Configuration of Sultan Mir Ahmad Neighborhood in Kashan

In the second half of the past century, urban development programs, including master and comprehensive plans, have led to extensive intervention in ancient cities, while the construction of streets had already led to substantial changes therein. An examination of the interventions indicates their inefficiency in solving urban problems. At the same time, these interventions have led to new issues, including a lack of integrity in the historic urban areas and their fabrics. In this article, the impact of the new streets in the Sultan Mir Ahmad neighborhood in the city of Kashan, Iran was investigated. The process of urban changes in Kashan was organic until the early 20th century, limited to areas around the heart of the city, the historic bazaar, and the governmentcitadel. Subsequently, the pattern of urban development changed, and construction of straight, long streets was prioritized in line with the growing trend of modernization and the expansion of automobile use. The two streets of Fazel Naraqi and Alavi have been constructed with an interval of about two decades near the Sultan Mir Ahmad neighborhood. One is located to the north of the neighborhood, and the other separates a part of the area from its larger part. This article sought to study how the two streets influence the spatial structure of the Sultan Mir Ahmad neighborhood. For a thorough analysis of the changes that have occurred, the space syntax method was used. Therefore, axial maps of Kashan were provided for three periods: the 1920s, 1960s, and 2010s. Then, the area under investigation was analyzed using integration, depth, and choice as indicators. The results demonstrated an enhancement in global integration as a result of the construction of the Fazel Naraqi and Alavi streets. It should be noted, however, that the impacts of the two streets are different. Alavi Street has had a greater influence due to its proximity to the center of the neighborhood and intersection with its main paths. Subsequently, it was found through an investigation of the local integration and choice indicators that the center of the region had lost its original position, and that Alavi Street had come to be known as the most crowded, most accessible route in the region as the new center of the urban area, with the old heart of the neighborhood turned into a sub-center. In fact, two events have occurred along with the emergence of the development plans and construction of straight streets at the heart of the fabric. Firstly, the construction of streets nearthe neighborhood intersecting its major paths has led to an increase in accessibility and integrity and a decrease in the depth of the urban area. At the same time, however, part of the neighborhood that is adjacent to new communication routes has experienced increased permeability and accessibility. This has caused the inner parts of the neighborhood, including the historic center, to lose their positions in the urban spatial structure and turn into sub-centers.