Safavid era

In the Safavid era, cities played a decisive role in the activities of urban social life, especially with regard to commodity, distribution and exchanging system between urban and rural society as well as defining the role of organizations in the commercial process. This paper is based on historical analyzing method where the authors could utilize primary sources to study social and economic states of urban life in Persian cities during Safavid. Farah Abad, Isfahan and Bandar Abbas in North, Center and South of Iran have been examined. These cities were selected considering their functional nature as producer, industrial (processor) and exporter centers. The outcome of the study shows that the cities founded and developed during Safavid, specially on Silk Road, during the reign of Shah Abbas I (996-1038 AH), played the role of producer, distributer and exporter in north, center and south of Iran. Based on their functional capacities, cities of that era are divided into three types: producer of raw materials, intermediary and processing, and finally exporter (port) cities. The analysis of economic relations of those cities indicates that the king had despotic monopolization of all aspects of the cities where the urban economy deeply on agricultural economy of countryside.

The target bridges in this s tudy were cons tructed during the Safavid era in Isfahan city and are considered as one of the mos t important components of the urban s tructure; during his tory. They have shown various functions in addition to their role as a connecting route, which has varied from individual scale to collective spaces over time. This research s tudy is trying to find out the architectural components affecting the public presence in these urban buildings, specifically in two bridges called, Allahverdi Khan (Si-o-se-pol) and Khajoo bridge in the contemporary era, to see if they would correspond the needs of today’s urban residents. To get this aim, the qualitative research approach was adopted based on an interview framework. To answer the ques tions was arranged based on three functional, physical, and s tructural aspects of these bridges, and a significant result was achieved by applying qualitative content analysis. The architectural components influencing the public presence were included eight general components and sub-components. These items were either in line with or opposite to each other, including the social functions and the contemporary space of bridges, the bridges’ cultural and physical s tructure, the shaping context of the bridges and the memorability of them, the environmental psychology and the related aes thetics aspects. According to the content analysis outcomes, a functional review of the space of these bridges in the future can lead to the qualitative improvement of architecture and space of them.