Explaining the sense of urban character from the viewpoint of the residents of Chellekhaneh and Golsar neighborhoods in Rasht

Subject Areas :

Ali akbar Salaripour ¹ (Associate professor Urban Planning University of Guilan: Rasht, Gilan, Iran)
Mohammad Nouripour Sedehi ² (PhD student of urban planning, university of guilan, Gilan, Iran)

Received: 2023-05-24 Accepted : 2023-09-06 Published : 2024-09-11

Keywords: Urban character, Local community, Place, qualitative-exploratory method,

Abstract :

Urban character is not yet conceptually known in Iran’s urban literature; and character is considered only as a physical identity. In recent studies, some researchers have given new definitions Which mention the sense of urban character beyond the physical aspects. In new definitions, urban character has a social, physical and spatial nature and distinguishes one place from other places. While in our studies less attention has been paid to the concept of urban character, according to the new theoretical definitions and by adopting a qualitative-exploratory method, this study explains the sense of urban character from the local community’s point of view. For this purpose, Chellekhaneh as an old neighborhood and Golsar as a modern neighborhood in Rasht city have been selected and 30 residents of the two neighborhoods have been interviewed by employing of Semi-structured interview method. The text of the interviews was qualitatively analyzed and coding was used to classify the data. the results showed that in some places, urban character is defined as social identities, local identities, etc. while in some other places, urban character is defined as diversity, mixing, dynamism, etc., And it is possible to be made of the most surface relationships between residents, the living environment, and current activities in the neighborhood. the creation of discourse, interviews and participation of local communities, enhances the planning and design of places. It is suggested that the components of urban character be used as codes beyond physical instructions in urban and neighborhood design and planning, especially plans that are based on the participation of citizens and have a democratic approach. The role of urban planners and designers will be to recognize the character of the place from the residents' point of view and turn them into rules and instructions with specific details of each place for urban plans.

References:


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