فصلنامه مطالعات شهری
پیاپی 41 (زمستان 1400)

The change in the attitude of the urban planning discipline from the growth to the sustainability paradigm resulted from the inefficiency of the discipline and profession in response to environmental concerns around the world since the second half of the twentieth century; this shifted the substantial, procedural orientation of the discipline to the latter dominant paradigm. The result of such a change in attitude in the late twentieth century was reflected worldwide in formal and informal educational planning, and different orientations towards sustainability and sustainable development took shape according to the conditions in each country. 

Theoretical Framework

The fundamental question that this article seeks to answer can be raised as follows: given the position of urban planners in plans and programs where they function as specialized managers and coordinators, what is the position of sustainable development with a focus on environmental and social issues in urban planning education, and how can urban development graduates be promoted in the field to improve the quality of professional activities? The purpose of this study is to analyze the pedagogical orientation of the urban planning discipline towards the concept of sustainable development and its position in the academic field, where professionals are trained to work in the profession. 

It is directly affected by the nature of the field how an emerging idea is addressed in any knowledge. Transition from theory to practice requires the idea to go through the scientific process of education. Education that has adopted its input from research and profession conceptualizes it and transmits it to future students and professionals as educational content–involving the knowledge, skills, and value of urban planning curricula. Thus, different feedbacks can be provided to the profession given the type of acceptance and the way education deals with emerging phenomena and ideas in the field of urban planning. At the same time, there is the missing link between education and profession, which is being moved from the channel of education to profession in the transition towards sustainable development. The specific area and research gap elaborated on in this study is the number of orientation patterns of education towards sustainable development, which are specified based on the research method.
The main tool used in this fundamental qualitative descriptive-analytical method is content analysis, enabled through the capabilities of the SPSS software. 

The results of the authors’ surveys at 128 universities in 9 different countries demonstrated that the predominant orientation in the teaching of sustainability is to provide an independent course on sustainability and environmental concepts and to teach sustainability in the procedure and materials of urban planning courses. The results can be observed in the case of Iran, as a developing country that strives to move towards sustainability, contrary to the direction taken in the profession corresponding to the discipline. In Iran, the only independent course on sustainability is that entitled Sustainable Urban Development, which is an optional course presented in two theoretical credits. Among all the universities with doctorate programs in urban planning, however, this course is taught only at two, namely the University of Tehran and Tehran University of Art. For a master’s degree in urban planning, on the other hand, it is included in different sub-disciplines of the curricula. Although courses with environmental content and topics are offered in all sub-disciplines, consideration of the issue of sustainability can be observed formally in urban design and regional planning as one and two optional courses, respectively.

The current trend will practically slow down the process of replacing the growth paradigm with the sustainability paradigm and bring about wide gaps therein. However, the proper orientation adopted in the discipline in recent years in regard to education of sustainability and sustainable development conveys the message that the gap will be reduced greatly in the future. This means that the appropriate orientation of the discipline (in education and research) is also reflected in the profession to help responds to the requirements of the field in the right direction. This is especially important in the training of graduates who will be developing plans and programs in the future. Education of sustainability and sustainable development, one of the criteria examined in the Green Metric ranking system, can be considered as a focus of future applied research and as a step forward in its achievement.

As subway stations are regarded as public spaces in cities, their frontages, involving public artworks, especially murals, are taken into account as part of the urban townscape. The artworks on frontages can provide a medium for interaction, functioning as a visual communication system among the artwork, the artist, and the public. Therefore, it is important to identifying the factors influencing the visual preferences of the audience. The aim of this paper is to investigate the effect of the visual elements of murals on the perceptual-visual desirability of frontages at the Tehran Theater subway station. It seeks to answer the question of how the visual elements of the murals at the station affect the perceptual-visual desirability of the station frontage.

Among the large number of visual components assumed by various theorists, the main common components taken into account is this research include color, shape, texture, line, tonality, and light  (Jansen, 1998: 69). This study investigates element quality, the quality of the relationship between elements, and that for figures and the ground (Pakzad, 2006) to achieve the degree of visual desirability in response to questions about the aesthetic component and the scape quality. The element quality is mural, and the relationship between the murals is considered for appraisal of the quality of the relationship between the elements. Moreover, the relationship between the mural and the wall is considered for appraisal of the quality of the relationship between the figure and the ground. The components related to the quality of the element include intensity, tension, and ingravibility, those pertaining to the quality of the relationship between the elements include balance, symmetry, proportion, dominance, clarity, and density. The components concerning the quality of the relationship between a particular element and others (figure and ground) include contrast, opposition, conformity, advantage, hindrance, emphasis, enclosure, narrowness, openness, sequence, and concentration (ibid.: 121-136).

For achievement of the research aim, a mixed method was adopted based on data collection through archives, observations, interviews, and visual preference techniques. Among different cities, Tehran was selected due to its position, and the Tehran Theater subway station was chosen among different stations because of its location in the proximity of Vali-asr Street, Tehran Theater, and Daneshju Park. Then, nine murals were selected from among those available at the station. Given the nature of the data, the methods of regression analysis and correlation analysis were used along with SPSS techniques for analysis of the collected data.

The results indicated that perceptual-visual desirability existed in all the three groups: untrained observers (citizens), trained supervisors (visual art experts) and creators of artworks (artists). The findings also demonstrated that tonality (degree of darkness/brightness), shape (design), color, line, and texture exhibited the greatest impacts on perceptual-visual desirability, in that order. The elements of shape, color, tonality, line, and texture played the greatest roles, in order of priority, in the perceptual-visual utility of the station frontage for the citizens, the elements of tonality, shape, line, texture, and color for the specialists, and shape and tonality, color, and line and texture for the artists. The most important reasons for these differences follow. The main reason why tonality was selected as the first priority by the three information sources is the community’s need to observe color diversity at different levels of the society. Unfortunately, this field has been neglected for years. However, its negative effects, such as the increase in the number of patients with depression, are evident. The second priority involved the designs and patterns used in the murals, which demonstrated the significance of form and content and of the choice of subject and consideration of the aspects of visual beauty. In the studied cases, the messages and feelings that the artist tried to convey to the audience had a negative impact on citizens’ perception although understood to a large extent by the audience, as the predicted lighting was not considered properly, the mural lights were used only occasionally, and inappropriate accessions led to visual disturbance. ConclusionThe results indicated perceptual-visual desirability in all the three groups of untrained observers (citizens), trained observers (visual art specialists), and creators (artists). Furthermore, the citizens’ and artists’ opinions were close to each other. The citizens appreciated the use of creative designs with rhythms and formal contrasts, being satisfied both with the location of the murals in terms of visibility and view-shed and with their association with the frontages, but not with the lighting of the works. These were identified as the main perceptual-visual desirability factors in the studied samples.

Neighborhood parks play an important role in the relationship between people and the nature. In fact, vegetation and planting are the most important motivations for attendance of and recreations available in parks. For improvement of the quality of green spaces in neighborhood parks and enhancement of public participation, it is necessary to design the park landscape with respect to people’s preferences and their perceptions of the desired landscape, while there are some shortcomings in this regard. Therefore, the purpose of this research was to investigate people’s visual preferences in order to optimally design vegetation in neighborhood parks. A neighborhood park is a small green space (about two hectares large) with a penetration radius of about one kilometer, and it is readily accessible on foot from residential areas. The present research aimed to study these preferences in the field of spatial configuration of vegetation based on a visual scale. The visual scale is an important, effective feature in the creation of confinement and control of visual access. In this study, the underlying factors of age, gender, and socio-economic class differences were considered. Due to the difference in economic level in the northern and southern regions of Tehran, neighborhood parks in these two regions and their users were selected for evaluation. Five neighborhood parks in each region were considered purposefully.

The method adopted in the present research was a combination of the qualitative and quantitative approaches. First, the spatial configuration of vegetation in the creation of different types of visual scale was investigated, and five categories of visual scale were identified. Images were provided of the vegetation compositions of neighborhood parks with high income levels (region 1) and low income levels (region 18). After consultation with the elite, the images were categorized based on a variety of visual scales. The visual questionnaire consisted of two images for each visual scale, where landscape desirability was examined with a Likert scale. Using random sampling, 363 people who visited neighborhood parks in the two areas of Tehran (District 1 and District 18) completed the questionnaire. The data were analyzed using the Bonferroni post hoc test in SPSS. After their collection, the homogeneity of variance was first examined through the Levin variance homogeneity test for comparison of the user preferences in terms of the type of landscape, and the results demonstrated that there was no significant difference between the variances of the variables in the groups (PS ˂ 0.05). Therefore, one-way analysis of variance was used to compare the studied variables between the groups, and the Bonferroni post hoc test was used to control Type I error if there was a significant difference between the opinions.

The results of the present research indicated that there were different visual preferences for the images. Thus, the closed visual scale and open visual scale between all the groups were undesirable, as well as the semi-open visual scale and open visibility under canopy landscape between all the participating groups. Among the studied underlying factors (difference in the income levels in the regions, age, and gender), gender exhibited little effect on the formation of the landscape preferences, and women preferred more enclosed landscapes.

The results of this research demonstrated given the desirability of semi-open images that the spatial configuration of vegetation formed through planting and pruning should not allow for any visual barrier in the foreground layer while planting at the observer’s line of vision is obstructed in the background layer and sporadically in the middle layer. Moreover, it is desirable for plant height to be less than the observer’s line of vision and for tree canopies to be placed at heights greater than the observer’s visibility in the background layer. Due to the desirability of open visibility under canopy images, it is possible to provide favorable climatic conditions through selection of a combination of canopy umbrella trees of two types, fallow and non-fallow, which also allows for wide visual access. Due to the unfavorable landscape of the closed view, it is not appropriate to practice such planting at the observer’s line of vision in the foreground layer of the view. It is also necessary to avoid open visual scale design, where the coating exhibits low density in all the three layers. Regarding the influence of underlying factors, it can be stated that the landscape preferences for optimal visual access were almost the same for the different groups, but the women were more inclined to prefer semi-open visual-scale images due to the need for privacy and security, and images with closed vision were less favorable for them. Thus, the proposed species could be proposed given their heights for all the three layers of foreground, middle ground and background, according to the obtained patterns. The present study took the first steps in landscape planning based on awareness of public preferences, and these findings provide practical solutions for landscape planting design.

This article has been taken from a doctoral dissertation entitled Promoting Cultural Services of Urban Green Spaces Based on the Visual Assessment of Landscape: A Case Study of Urban Parks in Tehran, developed by the first author under the supervision of the second author and the advisory of the third author in the Faculty of Art of Tarbiat Modares University. The dissertation has enjoyed financial and spiritual support from the Tehran Urban Research and Planning Center as a research project.

In addition to performing all its standard functions in other urban areas, an urban space in a historic district should play its role at a higher multifaceted level matching the characteristics of a historic district with established identity. Accordingly, the present work aimed to discover how the components of an urban space, on the one hand, and the constituent elements of the flow of life in a historic district, on the other, are linked and interact so as to enable reasonable management of urban space potentials in a historic district and their proper application to enhance the quality of life for the residents and users.

Theoretical Framework

The model consisted of six components defining the following factors: the environmental component, with life quality in micro‑spaces and environmental sustainability as criteria; the empirical-aesthetic component, with old-new area integration and quality of urban landscape as criteria; the functional component, with variety in environment usage, environmental liveliness and quality, safety and security, and transportation and accessibility as criteria; the socio-cultural component, with social liveliness and cohesion and maintenance of population balance as criteria; the economic component, with economic liveliness and stability and flexibility of development plans as a criterion; and the temporal component, with time management in public spaces and continuity of place as criteria.Generated based on the urban space components, the presented conceptual model offered a new approach to urban planning and management, and was concerned with all the urban regeneration measures adopted in historic districts. Functioning on local, regional, urban, and extramural scales, it can also assume applications in the quality assessment of measures adopted in public arenas within historic districts.

The above strategy will in turn keep indigenous residents in historic contexts, have immigrants to those areas return, and bring about socio-economic and environmental sustainability. Employing logical reasoning, the Delphi method, and expert opinions, this descriptive-analytical study first discussed the urban space components and their qualitative requirements. Next, the dimensions and measures of the quality of urban life were analyzed, and their factors concerning the urban space and environmental quality and topics formed on urban design, planning, and management were identified based on the theoretical views found in the literature. In the next step, the factors extracted based on the characteristic features of historic districts were monitored and reviewed. The 91 factors obtained from the Delphi method were reduced to 64 after views and comments from about forty experts in the field were applied. Finally, the results were presented as a conceptual model describing the role of urban spaces on quality‑of‑life enhancement in historic urban districts.

According to the findings, there are many physical–functional and environmental qualities in public urban spaces that can guarantee the arena’s success in provision of the residents and users of historic districts with satisfaction. However, taking notice of economic activities and social mobility in these districts is fundamental to the effectiveness of a measure adopted for enhancement of the quality of life in public arenas within historic districts. Meanwhile, a rise in the sensitivity of local communities to the values of historic districts and the potentials of public arenas for enhancement of the quality of life therein encourages them to assume an active role in the application of these arenas and the local communities’ socio-economic potentials in enhancement of the quality of public arenas. This can also enable these communities to express problems and propose solutions; in some cases, it can even lead to innovative financing ideas for project implementation. In tandem with urban planning, it ensures the sustainability of public arenas in historic districts, and improves the quality of life for their residents and users. Therefore, the issues of socio-cultural livability and dynamic economy are the cornerstones of the formation of quality spaces within historic districts, and the quality of life will not improve regardless of the triad of the environment, society, and economy.

The presented conceptual model, based on the urban space components, offers a new approach to urban planning and management, and is concerned with all the urban regeneration measures adopted in historic districts. Functioning on local, regional, urban, and extramural scales, the model can also assume applications in the quality assessment of measures implemented in public arenas within historic districts. Here is a brief description of the intervention measures adopted for these districts and their regeneration process based on the proposed model.The socio-cultural component. Contextualizing, contributing to/collaborating with, providing a process orientation for, innovating, and influencing the satisfaction of residents and users in public areas, utilizing the contribution/collaboration from the users of public arenas, delegating authority to non‑governmental organizations for utilization management, allowing for effective, constructive interaction among the organizations involved in the quality enhancement of historic districts and observing the pertinent legal frameworks, clarifying the procedures and promoting the accountability of officials, and respecting the cultural, social, and economic structures of life in the district.The empirical-aesthetic component. Integrating old and new spaces within public arenas while respecting the features of their historic districts and taking notice of the mass and space simultaneously and avoiding shell designs.The environmental component. Reducing environmental pollution and protecting energy resources and the natural heritage.The functional component. Providing a favorable impact on space liveliness and enhancing social inclusion to be able to hold various events.The economic component. Helping businesses flourish and promoting tourism.The temporal component. Taking notice of nightlife, holding seasonal, monthly, and weekly events and recognizing the sense of place and making an effort to preserve it within the environment.

One of the most important components of environmental quality, environmental security plays an important role in the use of urban spaces. In fact, the feeling of fear and lack of security in urban environments, including parks, has turned into a problem in today’s societies. Parks are areas in cities where any citizen can spend their leisure time and enjoy park-based recreational activities. Many factors affecting the security of urban parks can be attributed to their design and physical conditions. Therefore, it is necessary to identify these factors and provide appropriate solutions to improve their conditions. Since an urban park needs a conscious design that provides the users’ satisfaction, it is necessary to consider their characteristics, which can be achieved through their participation.

Theoretical Framework

To explain the theoretical concept of security, two distinct dimensions are mentioned. The first is the objective dimension, which is evaluated using objective environmental and behavioral parameters, and the second is the mental dimension, which is understood based on the security of the community. Both dimensions can have a positive or negative effect on the other. Therefore, it is necessary to consider the two dimensions together in order to improve public security.

Since a comprehensive questionnaire was not found to measure the security of urban parks based on users’ preferences, a researcher-made questionnaire was prepared, and its validity and reliability were verified. The research method was qualitative and qualitative-quantitative. In the first step, the qualitative research method was used based on content analysis, and the questions of the open-ended questionnaire were implemented in textual form based on the contents of the experts’ statements. The components were obtained from content analyses of users’ responses to the semi-structured open-ended questionnaire, and the closed-ended questionnaire was developed on that basis. The final questionnaire was designed as a closed-ended one to quantify the variables faster and be capable of running on a larger scale. The questions had the structure of a four-point Likert scale, with the answers ranging from strong disagreement to strong agreement. The questionnaire was distributed among 250 visitors of Mellat Park, Tehran. Since the differences in the environmental, socio-economic, and physical characteristics of different places can give different senses of security or fear to citizens, a major park in Tehran (Mellat Park) was chosen for a case study. It extends over an area of about 34 hectares in Municipal District 3. The purpose of this study was to construct, normalize, and validate a security scale for urban parks from the users’ perspective.  

Content validity was verified through preliminary implementation, open interviews with users, and expert approval. In the preliminary step, reliability was measured using the internal coordination of the questions with Cronbach’s alpha. The final questionnaire was distributed among 250 park visitors. The results indicated that the questionnaire was valid and standard, and eight explanatory factors were obtained from the users’ preferences as the data obtained in SPSS 22 were analyzed using the exploratory factor analysis technique. These included artificial element design, control and surveillance, plant design, readability, physical accessibility, aesthetics, activity patterns, and space size and extent. From the users’ point of view, artificial element design was the most significant factor, followed by control and surveillance, plant design, readability, and physical accessibility, and aesthetics, activity patterns, and space size and extent were ranked next.

Understanding users’ perceptions of landscape design methods and considering their preferences and desires helps landscape designers with their jobs. It can be considered as a topic for future research how each of the obtained components can induce a feeling of fear or security in urban park users. Examples include specification of the relationship between vegetation or readability and the feeling of fear or the standard for each of the service elements, pieces of furniture, etc. Through presentation of a model, the hidden relationships between factors can be achieved, and a theoretical pattern composed of many different components can be examined both entirely and partially. Of course, it should be noted that none of these factors alone induces fear or security; rather, there are a number of factors that contribute to a complex interaction, such as personal characteristics (age, gender, etc.) and social characteristics (familiarity with the environment, solitary presence, frequency of presence, etc.), which can be investigated in future research.

Acknowledgment

This article was extracted from Soudabeh Gholipouri’s doctoral thesis, entitled Modeling the environmental security in urban parks based on users’ preferences, developed under the supervision of Dr. Jamal-e-Din MahdiNejad and advisory of Dr. Bahram Saleh Sedghpour at Shahid Rajaee Teacher Training University.

A sense of belonging to a place, i.e. place attachment, means to have a perception of the environment and more or less conscious emotions on the surroundings, which brings one into an internal relationship with the surrounding environment. Thus, a person’s perception and emotions are bound by and integrated with the semantic context of the environment. A sense of place gives people comfort in an environment, and also leads individuals towards possession of an identity. Moreover, it can be stated that the sense of belonging to a space is a complex concept of human emotion and attachment to an environment, which is developed as a result of adaptation to the space and man’s application thereof.

Theoretical Framework

A review of the related literature can lead one to the roles of different factors in the formation of this sense, including the physical aspects of the environment, social characteristics of the residents, relationships between individuals and the environment, duration of residence, and, in general, memorability factors. The memorability factors influencing residents’ place attachment to the environment in their neighborhoods are divided into the two broad categories of physical memories and social memories. The measures affecting the probability of development of collective memory in cities include the residents’ familiarity with the neighborhood, neighborhood relations, etc., and the measures concerning the development of physical and spatial memory include the neighborhood center features, signs, introversion, etc.

The process of conducting the research is described as involving seven steps. The first step includes an extraction of the memorable factors which are influential on residents’ sense of attachment. For this purpose, the memory indicators are extracted via the documentary-analytical method. The results from the section on the theoretical framework reveal that the physical and social indicators are the most influential factors on the promotion of the sense of attachment in residents of neighborhoods in the city of Shiraz, Iran. The second step involved the development of the main research questionnaire. The features of physical and social memory are considered as the independent variables, and residents’ sense of attachment is considered as the dependent variable. In the third step, the ANOVA test is used for assessment of the level of homogeneity of the population from the old fabric and that from the new fabric. In the fourth step, the Spearman correlation coefficient is calculated for investigation of the effects of the memory factor on the promotion of the sense of attachment in the old and new fabrics. The fifth step involves the application of Tukey’s integrated test for comparison of the effects of physical and social memory on residents’ levels of  sense of attachment in different neighborhoods. In the sixth step, the paired-samples T test is employed to analyze the effects of physical and social memory on the improvement of residents’ sense of attachment to their neighborhoods and the significance of the differences. Consequently, the Pearson coefficient is used for investigation of the correlation between the different elements comprising the physical and social memory component, which influences residents’ sense of attachment to their neighborhoods. The neighborhoods selected for the case study include three situated in the old fabric, namely Sang Siyah, Eshagh Beig, and Bazare Morgh, examined along with three neighborhoods located in the new fabric, namely Abyari, Eslahe Nezhad, and Havabord. The districts to be examined for the case study are selected separately from the old and new fabrics given the similarities of the cultural components and the shared physical and social features measured in the present study.

It can be stated based on the above that the effect of physical and social memory on the promotion of residents’ sense of attachment in the selected neighborhoods of the same fabric is insignificant, and the selection for the case study has been appropriate in terms of feature similarity and homogeneity at the end of the assessment. The results obtained from the Spearman correlation coefficient reveal that a significant relationship exists between the sense of place attachment and memory in all the neighborhoods from the old and new fabrics. However, it can be stated in general that the Eshagh Beig neighborhood exhibits the greatest effect of physical memory in the old fabric on the improvement of the sense of attachment, and Bazare Morgh shows the least effect. In the new fabric, the Abyari neighborhood exhibits the greatest effect, and Havabord shows the least. 

In terms of the effects of social memory on the promotion of the sense of attachment, the Sang Siyah neighborhood exhibits the greatest effect, and Bazare Morgh shows the least effect in the old fabric, while the Abyari neighborhood exhibits the greatest effect, and Havabord shows the least in the new fabric. Based on this assessment, the mean effect of physical memory on the promotion of the sense of attachment is less than that of social memory in the old fabric. In the new fabric, however, the mean effect of physical memory on the promotion of the sense of attachment is significantly greater than that of social memory, and it can be stated in general that residents’ sense of attachment to neighborhoods in the new fabric is significantly lower than that in the old fabric. Given the results for the old fabric, memory-making elements in the neighborhood, from the physical memory indicator, and individuals’ familiarity, from social memory, exhibit the greatest effects, while the historical monuments factor, from physical memory, and NGOs, from social memory, have the least effects on residents’ sense of attachment to the living spaces. In the new fabric, memory-making elements in the neighborhood, from physical memory, and neighbors’ relations, from social memory, exhibit the greatest effects, and historical monuments, from physical memory, and social class, from social memory, have the lowest effects on the improvement of residents’ sense of attachment to the living spaces.

The physical expansion of cities and the proliferation of motor vehicle use have led to the fact that contemporary public spaces are less primed to people’s daily commute. In such circumstances, cultural events held at the heart of the urban settings turn up essential to the improvement of the socialization potentials of the public realm. Street music is a type of cultural micro-event emerging in the public domain, which affects the public life of urban spaces by boosting the socio-cultural qualities of the public realm. The purpose of this study was to compare the impacts of the different forms of citizen presence in public spaces, including voluntary presence, inactive social presence, and active social presence during the street music performance, and to compare the impacts of environmental and relevant internal factors on audience enthusiasm. Street performance in Iran has not been limited to a specific era, and the contents have mainly included narration of the lives of mythical figures and praise for the kings. Reproducibility can be considered as a major characteristic of these performances, which have been well integrated with urban open spaces from the past to the present, both individually and collectively.  

Theoretical framework

Pioneers of public life studies have pointed out several categorizations of presence in urban public spaces mainly through direct observation. Since most of today’s cities are automobile-oriented, citizens’ mandatory attendance of public spaces is not usually observed. Their voluntary activities, however, could be encouraged through enhancement of the quality of the characteristics of the space. Improvement of the quality of public spaces is aimed at making these spaces more sociable through facilitation of social activities, which are mainly dependent on the contribution of more and more citizens in voluntary activities. Temporary communication among people in public spaces creates a third form of activity, namely social activity, which could be performed either actively or passively. The latter is more important to public life researchers because livable spaces are those where a variety of social activities are held. One of the most important events that occur at music venues is the provision of the opportunity to gain more knowledge of other people’s cultures, which realized through face-to-face interactions with other people at such places. A Music venue can also define the identity of a street or neighborhood or evoke shared memories of a community.    Urban soundscape is affected much more by street music performances than urban landscape. Sounds heard at public spaces are twofold: main sounds and background sounds, which could lead to different perceptions of soundscape at these spaces. Therefore, street music performance plays a significant role in the revitalization of the urban public realm by attracting people in both static and dynamic modes, on the one hand, and encouraging their long-term interaction with each other, on the other.

The present descriptive-analytical study used data obtained through distribution of 250 questionnaires, in the form of a Likert scale, randomly among people present at six sites of street music performance in the city of Shiraz, Iran. Ordinal logistic regression was carried out to obtain the main predictors of presence at the street music venues. The dependent variables included the tendency to perform voluntary activities, the tendency to perform active social activities, and the tendency to perform passive social activities. The independent variables fell into two categories: the environmental factors associated with music performance in urban spaces, including perceived security, sense of pleasure, place identity, and psychological comfort, and the internal factors associated with music performance in urban spaces, including interest in music, performance venue, performers’ mobility, and music sound clarity.

The results of the ordinal logistic regression analysis indicated that passive social presence was affected by street music performance more than the other two components. Moreover, environmental factors relevant to street music had predominant impacts on the citizens’ attendance of these urban spaces as compared to internal factors. Of the significant predictors of voluntary presence, gender, sound clarity, and sense of pleasure were found to be the most important among all the variables, the internal variables, and the environmental variables, respectively. Passive social presence was mainly determined by the sense of pleasure, the most effective factor in both the complete model and the set of environmental features, and by sound clarity, the most effective factor in the set of internal variables. Active social presence was predicted mainly by gender, perceived security, and sound clarity, the most important factors in the sets of all variables, environmental variables, and internal variables, respectively.

Based on the results derived from the case study, a policy was proposed to provide the venues with advanced equipment and adapt the musicians’ technical levels given the importance of each space in order to increase the vibrant attendance of the public realm. Another suggestion was to apply a policy combined with incentives and deterrent initiatives to adjust the environmental quality of the venues.

One of the most important challenges in today’s metropolises is the existence of unhealthy, poor urban neighborhoods in the peripheries. A series of regeneration policies and plans have sought to meet such a challenge over the twentieth century to provide a better quality of life for residents of such impoverished urban spaces. Such measures have hardly been successful, however. This study has assumed that a major reason for such failures has been the lack of concern for scale in urban regeneration plans and schemes. Accordingly, two main questions have been raised here. The first pertains to the reason why the concept of scale should lie at the heart of an urban regeneration plan and to the way in which such a focus can improve plans and upgrade the quality of life in an urban residence. The second question concerns the status of urban regeneration based on the criteria and indicators considered in this study and the effects it can have on project efficiency and target residents’ quality of life.  

Theoretical Framework

The theoretical framework of this study has been set only to extract the indicators and criteria of the survey (questionnaire) and to measure the quality of life in the target samples. Therefore, the intellectual approaches of sustainable urban regeneration, right scale theory, expectation-efficiency model, sustainable place-making, and collision effectiveness theory have been considered in this research simply as theoretical approaches supporting the survey. However, the arguments made in these approaches and the set of controversies that can arise about each along with the relationships between them go far beyond the references cited in this article. After all, the main components of the questionnaire for assessment of the quality of life in the target samples include the theoretical approach of the right scale, providing the required coordination between the elements, the theoretical approach of collision effectiveness, providing effectiveness, the theoretical approach of sustainable place-making, affecting target residents’ quality of life, and the theoretical approach of expectation-efficiency, affecting satisfaction.

The present applied research has been designed as a systematic logical plan seeking to maximize scientific validity in the definitions, criteria, indicators, procedures, and methods of data collection and analysis and in the information and extraction and inference of the findings. Two contextual methodologies have been adopted to analyze the concept of scale, along with a survey-data methodology used to measure the quality of life. The data and information sources include censuses and questionnaires, library documents, programs and designs, and techniques of analysis, including correlation and regression (used to measure the quality of life), and meta-analysis (used to identify the scale). A set of qualitative (subjective) and quantitative (objective) criteria has been extracted in accordance with the theoretical framework of the research. The indicators and variables extracted from theoretical approaches and global and Iranian experiences have finally been used to compile a questionnaire, the descriptive and inferential results of which have been presented in the next step of the research.

The results obtained for the first question of the research demonstrate that the approaches should be implemented as local small-scale regeneration projects operated in regional integration, unlike previous approaches, in which national (government) programs and projects have been implemented as large-scale renovation projects. In addition, the concept of scale is generally used today to refer to the spatial, temporal, quantitative, or analytical dimension. Scale is also a determining factor in pattern recognition, phenomenon explanation, result generation, and program and plan optimization for regeneration and achievement of satisfaction and efficiency.
The results obtained for the second research question indicate the significance of the correlations between the number, initial energy, and locations of urban regeneration projects in all the sample cities and their impacts on target residents’ quality of life. Given the importance of this relationship (correlation) and fulfillment of the requirements for presentation of the prediction model in this field, a multivariate regression model has been proposed. The obtained model indicates that the factors of projects, initial energy and orientation can predict how target urban residents’ quality of life is affected in the present study.

Finally, what distinguishes this research from similar studies in the literature is the distinct practical outputs that it has presented in the field of urban planning as well as the focus beyond the concept of scale in its traditional sense, which has disturbed its meaning. The research findings challenge the current attitudes of urban planners and designers towards sustainable urban regeneration policies, emphasizing the significance of holistic approaches in the definition of urban place-making projects. The need has been defined not only from a physical point of view, as in Makower (2014), in the recognition of the urban scale but also from a multidisciplinary perspective, with an emphasis on socio-economic and physical approaches in the three layers of project relationships, level, and size for improvement of citizens’ quality of life and realization of their satisfaction with life in places. It seems that expansion and enrichment of the findings of this research in the field of urban planning and design requires further research, refining, for example, the concept of scale at the place level and effective socio-cultural relationships on the place formation continuum and identifying the appropriate level and effective economic relationships on the continuum.