درخت حوزه‌های تخصصی

Like other developing countries, Iranian cities are growing and expanding physically at a high speed. For about five decades, the only policy of the urban development plans in the field of urban growth management has been definition of the Urban Growth Boundary (U.G.B.) which is still used without any major modifications. Despite the slight evidences indicating the ineffectiveness of the current policy, there has not been any assured and agreed alternative yet. Today, the waves of new urbanism and other modern paradigms have urged temptations of making fundamental changes in the definition of urban growth boundary. Through an analytic framework, this research investigates the effectiveness of some of the most basic carriers of urban growth in 11 sample cities (each of them introducing one type of Iranian cities). The results of this analysis will illustrate a new vision- a native one - for alternative policies of urban growth management in Iranian cities.

Experiences from urban development plans and assessments of their concrete and tangible results in the past decades indicate lack of adequate success of our urbanization system to responding needs of our citizens. This has resulted in need to find a fundamental solution to transforming the centralized system into decentralized. Recent changes in regard to a change of approach from master plan to strategic planning has resulted in an increased sensitivity with regard to enhancement of urban management in addition to the opinion that strategic planning is not in itself a credible replacement for technocratic master planning (top-down) and is not on its own sufficient for sustainable development. In this article, we employ methods of actualization and content analysis to compare the common features of two issues in Iran and subsequently, with an emphasis on correction of structure of urban management system, the concepts of participation of citizens, government, private sector and civic society and enhancement of “good urban governance” with “strategic planning approach” are discussed as keys to the question of solid development.“Public participation in decision-making, accountability, equity and efficiency”, defines both fundamental principles of good urban governance and characteristics of strategic planning and is essentials of a constant environmental, social and economic development.

Islam is regarded to pay attention to the characteristics of urban life which can be practiced on the urban settings. Not surprisingly, Islam has made a great focus on the form and design of cities and prescribed detailed and elaborate regulations for individual and communal life. Seen from other way round, the penetration of Islam into various regions such as Iran, Europe, and Africa had an undeniable impact on life style, urban design and social interactions. As an ancient civilization with a rich set of knowledge, culture, art and unification beliefs, Iran became the host of Islamic ideology, relying on the propagation of its achievements while keeping its principle and value criteria independent of time and place. Architecture has two dimensions; material and spiritual and its body consists of structure, construction and different materials while its spirit and meaning of architecture is derived from history, memory and long lasting national and native values of a homeland which ascribes a specific meaning to architecture and produces a mental image in the minds. In this paper, we are seeking for criterion to assess Islamic architecture and evaluate it. Architecture is of different dimensions, each has its own value criteria but determining the Islamic architecture and Islamic city of architecture let alone stating whether architecture in this period is Islamic or not demands a great effort while it is worth mentioning that Islam is not limited to a specific age and place and can meet the needs of human being in different period.