A Comparative Study of Citizens’ Interpretations of the City (Urban Landscape) and Urban Development PlansA Transition from a Traditional landscape to a Modern one in Shiraz

Since the time of Reza Shah Pahlavi, development and action in the city have been the result of “interaction between the city and laws” bound by “enforcing centralized laws”. They have been formed based on integrated rules and regulations issued in the form of development plans and comprehensive and detailed plans for urban areas. Accordingly, the development of urban spaces and their interventions have been limited to mathematical numbers and quantitative criteria rather than to be treated as a qualitative issue and be based on citizens’ perceptions. Anything related to the quality of urban landscape has been proposed through local and conceptual plans or attached to the master plan and detailed plan.

This study draws upon the conceptual model of the urban landscape to compare development programs with citizens’ interpretation of the city. In doing so, this study attempts to identify the shortcomings of development plans and programs and show how the drawbacks have been the major culprit of the quality decline of the city’s landscape during the transition from a traditional city to a modern city.

The qualitative research methods has been used for this study within the phenomenological paradigm. The study has been conducted in four phases.

Despite the influence of the government in the development of the city until the end of Qajar, people’s actions and the city developments by the government took place in lived spaces, which were based on the experience-perception of citizens. The transition from the traditional city to a modern city in Shiraz started at the time of Reza Shah when there was a strong desire for maximum order and standardization. This led to the transformation of three-dimensional lived spaces based on citizens’ experience-perception into two-dimensional and laboratory abstract spaces. In interpreting the current situation, recognizing objects in the city based on natural sciences and overlooking citizens’ interpretations of the city has led to reductionism in recognizing the city and, thus, urban actions. It seems that the cause of the crisis has been the perception of citizens of the city.