Centrality; Vitalizing Element of a Neighborhood

The ‘center’ is among the key concepts of ancient civilizations who believed in a celestial creator and the sky role in creating the universe. In Persian language, this phenomenon is called "core" or “nucleus”, which represents the existence element, similar to what we suppose for a fruit seed that generates a fruitful tree. The experimental sciences mostly focus on the nucleus as the center of creatures in driving the ability of fertility in the form of genes and other compounds, and emphasize the originality of the nucleus in developing the organisms. Considering the natural law governing the whole existence whose ‘being’, ‘survival’, ‘reproduction’ and ‘generation’ mostly depend on a centralized nucleus, there is a similar belief in the existence of the nucleus in the human products as the creator and supporting element. For instance, speaking the city concept, as one of the supreme man-made products, the center as the initial point of establishment and emergence of the city represents the same nucleus function. In the modern world, by presenting the city layers, the former ‘traditional’, ‘unified’ and ‘centralized’ organization, which was highly established based on the growth of the nucleus, generating the city as a whole, replaced by the newfound pattern. A modern city initially upraised from the proximity of the urban functional layers with no reliance on the establishment origin and inconsideration to the existential connections between the city components. While in organic cities, which represents a vital concept, the city emerges from the growth of the nucleus followed by creation of secondary organs under the potential of the nucleus and the new requirements of the urban life. The Iranian civilization, as the ancient living human civilization, in the light of Islamic culture has provided conditions for creating an outstanding model of a city. The Iranian model of city during the Islamic era raised up in condition where limited management abilities were available, compared to the current conditions. Since the development process governing the emergence and growth of the city was mostly based on the "vitalizing" character of the living space and also the organic growth of the nucleus as the indispensable element of the city, conditions were provided for generating the supreme cities. The significant character of the Iranian city during the Islamic era presents the existence of neighborhoods as sub-organization and minor totality in the city. Each of them, is enriched by a nucleus that is productive and at the same time an element for surviving the neighborhood. Perceiving the concept of the integrated unity of the neighborhood as a whole relies on the existence of characteristics that center of the neighborhood is among the significant one. The physical aspect of a neighborhood manifests a pluralistic character which lacks unity: the houses, roads and services dispersed among them. Receiving the sense of integrated unity and oneness out of this multiplicity space is arising from the interpretation and perception of observer. Once an observer be able to perceive unity out of this multiple elements, the neighborhood would be generated, otherwise, it is merely an extended urban area. The most significant feature that facilitates the emergence of the wholeness concept out of the diverse components of the neighborhood is the existence of a core or center. The center of the neighborhood is the common and interactive space of a community whose members are common in perceiving the concept of the neighborhood. The common concept of citizens of the environment relies on the center that generates the unique concept of neighborhood. Thereupon, the role of the ‘Neighborhood Center’ should be considered beyond a simple facility center or a location just for distributing access, as a vitalizing element. The whole entity which is perceived from the neighborhood is its unique existence, not its multiple diverse components. The existence of these components is prerequisite for the realization of the neighborhood. Therefore, the neighborhood should be addressed based on the two essential elements, the physical components and its unique entity. The former is arising from the regional elements and the latter is originating from the spatial organization and the communication state established between those elements. Perceiving the concept of organization and the components relations is a mind action that ends to the manifestation of ‘Landscape’; though a landscape is the mind interpretation of a tangible objectivity. The landscape is a generally perceived “existence". Among the ‘vitalizing’ elements of the neighborhood, the role of the ‘center’ is more significant than the others. Therefore, by devitalizing the center of the neighborhood, the existence of this entity and perceiving its unity by the residents will decline, while by empowering the center, the neighborhood develops stability and vitality.