Re-identification of Spatial-physical Characteristics of Old Texture of City in Iran

Historically, growth of each city was dependent on it`s natural, ecological, economic and political potentials leading to homogeneous spatial-physical structure of the city. The slowness of this growth was another factor which has been harmonizing the interaction between human life and spatial-physical structure of the city.The area which is now referred to as an old texture of city had a perfect and efficient urban life during ancient time. It`s perfection and efficiency were resulted from human and environmental interaction leading to a balance due to speculation and frequent trial and errors of several generations. Not only the old texture of city in Iran pertains an ambiguity in its definition and actual territory in urban structure, but also it implies some negative concepts such as deterioration, inefficiency and reluctance in it.After the industrial revolution, due to impacts of industrialization and globalization, most cities faced tremendous changes in cultural and socio-economic aspects of urban life. The result of these changes has been much more obvious in historic and old district of the city leading to diverse problems and also inefficiencies in urban life. In Iran, transposition of traditional society to modern one, have made many pleasant and unpleasant influences on our life style, behavior as well as cultural patterns and also on spatial and physical structure of cities and buildings. Due to disappearance of traditional urbanization in Iran, spatial-physical structure of cities have been changed and by prevalence of motor vehicles in urban life and their consequent changes in geometry of urban circulation have become more obvious. It seems that since Iranian society has experienced transposition of traditional to modern society without any scientific, cultural, educational and artistic infrastructures, the most of the problems are related to the old texture of city in Iran which has resulted from inadequate recognition and understanding of its character, capabilities as well as cultural, socio-historic and architectural heritage further disabling it to adopt contemporary urban life. Besides, most of the challenges which has been faced in the rehabilitation of old texture in historic cities of Iran, are not unique; however, the magnitude of the issues is compounded by the size of the old area in each city, the excessive rapid growth of the city and the precarious nature of the urban structure. Pragmatic approaches and flexible mechanisms are needed to create opportunities for the growth and capable development of driving the area’s economy, in order to attract new urban life, investment and ensure that the benefits of growth are equitably distributed. As the city continues to grow, the social and economic issues facing planners and city officials will become increasingly complex to negotiate and resolve. The greatest challenge is the elaboration of a comprehensive understanding of development process of the city that will promote local growth objectives in light of its physical, social, political and economic characteristics.It is decided in this paper to depict a clear definition of old texture of the city in Iran is presented and its spatial-physical characteristics are analyzed.... Keywords: City, Old texture, Structure, Spatial-physical.