عمیدالاسلام ثقه الاسلامی

 One of the mos t important principles in the formation of Iranian-Islamic cities is the principle of unity. Observing the principle of unity in the physical-social space of his torical neighborhoods has led to the organization and integration of them. A review of s tudies on this issue indicates that the principle of unity in the scale of urban neighborhoods has been less considered. The main ques tion of the s tudy is how and with what factors and criteria was the principle of unity formed in the physical space of Sarshoor neighborhood, Mashhad city? This s tudy is his torical and analytical research. The research process is divided into two main s tages. In the firs t s tage, it is attempted to determine how the spatial s tructure of the Sarshoor neighborhood was before the extensive physical-spatial interventions taken in the contemporary era. In the second s tage, the factors and criteria related to the principle of unity are determined on the maps and photos of the neighborhood in an exploratory way and using the relevant graphical analysis. The results show that in the his torical neighborhood of Sarshoor, a set of factors in a complex and close relationship with each other, have been effective in unifying the physical space of the neighborhood. Factors including "connectivity and continuity", "centrality", "hierarchy", "coordination", "interconnectedness" and "semantic unity" have been effective in realizing the principle of unity in the neighborhood by creating various qualities in different dimensions of physical space of the neighborhood. 

The neighborhood has had a long history in Iranian urbanization. Since urban plans were introduced by the authorities to shape urban development in Iran half a century ago, the concept of Iranian traditional neighborhood has been neglected gradually. The concept of neighborhood has not found the appropriate status in urban design and planning yet. One of the main reasons is that academics, professional urban planners, designers and managers use different definition and no consensus exists on definition of neighborhood. The aim of research is to compare residents’ perception of their neighborhood boundaries with boundaries of administrative-defined Neighborhoods which municipalities consider. The main hypothesis of the research is fundamental difference between these two views: top- down view from experts and urban managers who see the neighborhood as a spatial unit for city organizing and bottom- up view from residents who consider the neighborhood as the place of their social life. The Research methodology has been done base on the survey method and an analytical approach has been applied. The case study is located in Mashhad city in Iran. Four municipality-defined neighborhoods were selected in various urban fabrics of the city. Findings indicate that residents’ definition of their neighborhood was influenced by socio-spatial factors and interaction of these on each other. There is a substantial and fundamental difference between residents’ definition of neighborhood and municipality-defined neighborhood. Finally, this study proposes recommendations for the better definition of administrative neighborhoods in Iran.