مجتبی انصاری

This paper reviews the experience of Persian designers and planners for creating the most livable and greenery capital city in the hole region of Middle East throughout the 17th Century. New concepts of urban green development emerged in that time. Some of these ideas where extremely creative and vanguard from there era and still some of them are the main theoretical basics of urban green planning in the modern world. This paper focuses on Isfahan’s greenway planning ideas and discusses how the city transformed to a sustainable city in Safavid period. The discussion is based on the combination of the organic and planned forms of greenway design, which was unique by that time and made the garden city of Isfahan. The Maddies1, which are the branches of water derived from the river and flowed inside the urban context, are studied as the bases of organic greenway and the Charbagh2 and Naghshe-Jahan Square are investigated as the planned green developments.

The importance of aesthetics in perceiving urban landscape seems to be essential. Usually, the subject of aesthetics holds a position in ideas and viewpoints of philosophers. In Islamic perspective all the creatures are beautiful due to their connection to the creator of all the beauties. In this research, the subjects such as landscape perception, landscape aesthetics, perception in viewpoints of Iranian Islamic philosophers, and aesthetics in both Holly Quran and ideas of Iranian Islamic philosophers are surveyed and analyzed. The purpose of this paper is to obtain some answers for these two questions: what are aesthetics indicators in Islamic view? How is landscape perception explained by these indicators? This is descriptive-analytic research. The findings are that Islamic philosophers consider absolute beauty, God, as origin of all the beauties. On the other hand, Islamic philosophers are believed to be holistic, using atomistic approaches. In addition, consideration to both subjective and objective axes in landscape aesthetics is thought to be necessary. Finally, indicators and components of Islamic aesthetics are introduced and landscape perception is provided based on these indicators in two fields of sensory-visual and social perceptions according to three perceptual fields of sensory, imaginary, and rational. How is landscape perception explained by these indicators? This is descriptive-analytic research. The findings are that Islamic philosophers consider absolute beauty, God, as origin of all the beauties. On the other hand, Islamic philosophers are believed to be holistic, using atomistic approaches. In addition, consideration to both subjective and objective axes in landscape aesthetics is thought to be necessary. Finally, indicators and components of Islamic aesthetics are introduced and landscape perception is provided based on these indicators in two fields of sensory-visual and social perceptions according to three perceptual fields of sensory, imaginary, and rational.