Urban Architecture and Citizenship Rights

Assuming the principle that citizens have a right to the architecture of the city, the question arises as to how these rights are implemented and realized. One of the ways by which these rights can be realized is to determine the nature of the responsibility of those tasked with implementing these rights. In order to clarify the nature of responsibility, scholars categorize rights into negative, positive, and group rights. Although this categorization is controversial, examining it in terms of concept, nature and elements can be a good guide in facilitating the realization of these rights. The focus of this article is on clarifying the relationship between citizens' rights and the architecture of the city, and consequently to clarify the responsibility of urban designers and planners with respect to these rights. In this study, the methods of documentary research and qualitative content analysis and logical reasoning have been used. The results suggest that citizens' rights to urban architecture are divided into three main categories, namely: negative rights, positive rights and group rights. The duty and the role of urban planners and designers is not to interfere with the first category, to secure the second category, and to participate in and cooperate for the realization of the third category. Of course, this separation does not mean the supremacy of one group of rights over the others. Rather, it concern how these rights are implemented and realized.