Fardin Heidari | Imam Khomeini International University(IKIU) (original) (raw)
Papers by Fardin Heidari
Problem Statement: it seems that in current times, many of the urban designs and plans in Iran ha... more Problem Statement: it seems that in current times, many of the urban designs and plans in Iran have totalitarian, centralized, and monopolistic essences. This condition is predictably originated from the absence of deliberative and collaborative democracies; in light of the foregoing, the inefficiencies of the stages of presentation and implementation have led to neglecting the citizenship rights and the public preferences. Hence, citizens have little social responsibilities for the negative consequences of inefficient urban practices. In addition, an appropriate context is not provided for them to affect the various steps of urban processes, claiming their rights to the city, and expressing their opinions. In this spirit, the urban projects lose their basic figures in providing stability and promoting the role of people in urban development and management. Hence, the impetus behind this study is to improve the urban democracy in the process of urban planning and design. Purpose: th...
Bagh-e Nazar, 2019
Problem Statement: it seems that in current times, many of the urban designs and plans in Iran ha... more Problem Statement: it seems that in current times, many of the urban designs and plans in Iran have totalitarian, centralized, and monopolistic essences. This condition is predictably originated from the absence of deliberative and collaborative democracies; in light of the foregoing, the inefficiencies of the stages of presentation and implementation have led to neglecting the citizenship rights and the public preferences. Hence, citizens have little social responsibilities for the negative consequences of inefficient urban practices. In addition, an appropriate context is not provided for them to affect the various steps of urban processes, claiming their rights to the city, and expressing their opinions. In this spirit, the urban projects lose their basic figures in providing stability and promoting the role of people in urban development and management. Hence, the impetus behind this study is to improve the urban democracy in the process of urban planning and design.
Purpose: this study attempts to investigate the reasons for the lack of democratic involvement by the citizens in the process of urban development and management, as well as to find some solutions to remove this widespread deep-rooted social dilemma.
Research hypothesis: the realization of democracy and actual participation of citizens in the process of developing the urban spaces can lead to more accurate and efficient decision makings, as well as more successful implementation of urban plans and projects.
Research method: this article was conducted through content analysis and comparative methods. While studying the pillars of the democratic system, the methods of democratic participation of citizens in the processes of urban development and management in Iran was studied regarding the Principles of the Critical Theory. In fact, an effort was made to provide a platform for presenting the findings and suggested solutions through the process of criticizing and analysing the current situation of the Iranian urban plans and designs along with comparing them with the necessary elements for the realization of democratic and people-friendly urban processes. This should be stated that the data collection method was based on interviews with people, studying documents, and also field observations.
Conclusion: results indicate that Dilemmas in the Iranian urban system have been originated from the non-democratic factors, such as the lack of participation, the lack of all-inclusiveness, the violation of citizenship rights and urban justice, illegitimate urban laws, inflexibility, the downfall of pluralism, and etc. Hence, through scheming criteria such as the diversity of opinions, all-inclusiveness, flexibility, forming NGOs, the citizen education and discourse, diversity and respecting the citizen’s rights, etc., these processes can be democratized and also a platform for the emergence of a comprehensive type of a democratic urban planning and design would be materialized; a process which strengthens the urban democracy and honors the position of people, not as the problem but as the solution, by creating equal opportunities in a disinterested fashion.
International Journal of Architecture and Urban Planning, 2018
The "Urban Village Approach" is one of the most appropriate ways to eliminate recent urban proble... more The "Urban Village Approach" is one of the most appropriate ways to eliminate recent urban problems, including social, environmental, cultural, and economic shortcomings. Although the urban village approach is generally proper to resolve these types of flaws, its combination with the democratic concept of urban design can definitely provide more effective solutions. So at first, this paper aims to present a theoretical combination of these two approaches in the form of recommended principles and criteria, and then attempts to introduce a hypothetical wasteland for illustrating the practical aspects of it through design suggestions. A major part of the achievements of this paper is based on theoretical and empirical findings obtained from comparisons and descriptions, but in order to achieve more tangible results, the practical aspects of findings are proven by displaying 3D designs and schemes. Consequently, these proposed principles and criteria can be utilized in designing a democratized urban village form that finally leads to some vital qualities, such as flexibility, inclusiveness, localism, diversity, vitality, naturality, identity, etc. These qualities, in an appropriate and consistent relation with the existing contexts, will also bring some desired concepts within, like justice, equality, freedom, and democracy to the urban and rural areas and neighborhoods.
International Journal of Human Capital In Urban Management, 2018
The physical identity in the urban areas can be considered as a concept which is influenced by th... more The physical identity in the urban areas can be considered as a concept which is influenced by the way of arranging the urban body. As a matter of fact, the appropriate coordination and the compatibility of physical components, such as the urban façades, can definitely facilitate the reorganization of the urban environment for being more identifiable; this issue is so obvious in the historical Iranian cities which have proper identities in their physical structures. Nowadays, the dominance of contradictory approaches and the absence of a convenient orientation have unfortunately produced inadequate urban façades and have annihilated the physical identity in Iranian cities. Also, the process of globalization and elimination of the cultural differences have greatly undermined the possibility of creating the traditional and contextual memories. In fact, the Iranian urban developments with the lack of comprehensive, endemic, and contextual plans and actions, increasingly decline the urban identity in any aspect and dimension. These types of flaws have specifically brought severe problems such as poor beauty, weak legibility, lack of unity, inappropriate physical integrity, etc., which eventually result in the non-identifiable and depersonalized urban bodies. Thereupon, this article needs some visual information which can intuitively assist to scrutinize the deterioration factors of the physical identity in the Iranian cities. Hence, by choosing the field study method is tried to reach some empirical investigation in order to collect the required visual information through photography. Moreover, at the end of this article is attempted to offer several solutions and arrangements for promoting the physical identity and also healing the depersonalization in Iranian cities.
Manzar (Scientific Journal of Landscape), 2019
| The necessity has been arisen nowadays to frame the concepts of the right to the city, citizens... more | The necessity has been arisen nowadays to frame the concepts of the right to the city, citizenship, and urban justice in a more specific manner due to the interdisciplinary essence of urban design profession as well as the modern debates related to it. The right to the city is an issue of social, political and legal nature, which claims a legal framework that fairly and transparently makes the living environment more citizen-friendly by redefining the concept of citizenship right. In this regard, urban design processes perform an underlying role in creating the living environment of the citizens, and thus, the right to the city can be realized in urban settlements, again emphasizing the interdisciplinary essence. Hence, this article tries to provide a meaningful link between the theory and the practice of urban design by adopting humanistic backgrounds as well as exploring into the right to the city, in order to be able to develop the quality of public urban spaces by utilizing the significant role of social concepts along with environmental qualities. In doing so, comprehensive social norms have been listed using the collection of materials on the notion of the right to the city in addition to urban justice based on library research. Finally, an effort has been made to provide a theoretical framework including qualitative indicators; the indicators which are effective in the emergence of citizen-friendly urban design in two areas of urban design process and production through comprehensively utilizing comparative methods, content analysis, analytical description, as well as matching the comprehensive citizenship norms with qualitative characteristics proposed by the experts. Keywords | The right to the city, Citizenship, Citizen-friendly urban design, Qualitative indicators, Urban justice. Introduction | Nowadays, more attention has already been paid to the concept of citizenship, as an interdisciplinary topic in both citizen-friendly and democratic urban design, due to the new orientations. Urban projects as well as urban public spaces, supposedly fulfill the minimum range of citizens' requirements in Iran. Citizens spend a lot of time at the private and semi-private spaces as well as the semi-public buildings, rather than in public urban spaces. Moreover, they rarely participate in the process of scheming in addition to shaping public spaces, and simultaneously they are poorly considered
International Journal of Human Capital In Urban Management, Apr 1, 2017
The rich identity, originality and validity of the “Ancient Iranian Urbanism and Architecture”, a... more The rich identity, originality and validity of the “Ancient Iranian Urbanism and Architecture”, always have been stimulating the urban designers and planners to have research about their valuable qualities and historical principles. Unlike the past, today’s Iranian cities have inefficient urban qualities; because they are inspired by the
western urban designs, without paying attention to their contents and contexts, which have destroyed the originality and identity of them. So in this research, to achieve more efficient urban design solutions, is tried to revive the concepts and principles of the ancient Iranian urbanism. Also, according to globalization and urban commonalities, the main attempt is to find the overlaps and common qualitative norms between the western contemporary urban design approaches and the ancient Iranian urbanism principles. Due to this, by utilizing the comparative and descriptive methods, is tried to have research in theoretical resources to suggest some comprehensive principles, in order to reach an appropriate concept for the implementation of urban design projects in Iran, which may revive the original Iranian contextualism. This research will create a linkage between innovations of the western urbanism approaches and values of the ancient Iranian urbanism principles to have a prospective and more accurate understanding of the Iranian urban developments.
Conference Presentations by Fardin Heidari
Nowadays, in historical cities, many of the urban spaces due to the changes arising from mo... more Nowadays, in historical cities, many of the urban spaces due to the changes arising from modern urban development and the lack of attention to different spatial qualities have lost their identities and also the importance of their past resulting from the city’s history and its culture. In this study, the purpose is to restore the urban life and the identity, associated with the historical past of the Southern Lalezar street in Tehran; in this regard, by adopting the urban regeneration and vitality approaches, is tried to create a suitable human-oriented context in relation to missing background. According to the theoretical reviews and the empirical investigations, this paper tries to restore the value and meaning of the Southern Lalezar street and its public spaces, with emphasis on some appropriate principles, like pedestrian-orientation, internal and infill development, using brownfields and the injection of the artistic and cultural activities. Finally, by extracting some principles and different methods from the urban regeneration and vitality approaches and also analyzing the case study, have been attempted to revive the old but valuable urban structure and emphasize the redevelopment of historical identities of the Southern Lalezar street.
Problem Statement: it seems that in current times, many of the urban designs and plans in Iran ha... more Problem Statement: it seems that in current times, many of the urban designs and plans in Iran have totalitarian, centralized, and monopolistic essences. This condition is predictably originated from the absence of deliberative and collaborative democracies; in light of the foregoing, the inefficiencies of the stages of presentation and implementation have led to neglecting the citizenship rights and the public preferences. Hence, citizens have little social responsibilities for the negative consequences of inefficient urban practices. In addition, an appropriate context is not provided for them to affect the various steps of urban processes, claiming their rights to the city, and expressing their opinions. In this spirit, the urban projects lose their basic figures in providing stability and promoting the role of people in urban development and management. Hence, the impetus behind this study is to improve the urban democracy in the process of urban planning and design. Purpose: th...
Bagh-e Nazar, 2019
Problem Statement: it seems that in current times, many of the urban designs and plans in Iran ha... more Problem Statement: it seems that in current times, many of the urban designs and plans in Iran have totalitarian, centralized, and monopolistic essences. This condition is predictably originated from the absence of deliberative and collaborative democracies; in light of the foregoing, the inefficiencies of the stages of presentation and implementation have led to neglecting the citizenship rights and the public preferences. Hence, citizens have little social responsibilities for the negative consequences of inefficient urban practices. In addition, an appropriate context is not provided for them to affect the various steps of urban processes, claiming their rights to the city, and expressing their opinions. In this spirit, the urban projects lose their basic figures in providing stability and promoting the role of people in urban development and management. Hence, the impetus behind this study is to improve the urban democracy in the process of urban planning and design.
Purpose: this study attempts to investigate the reasons for the lack of democratic involvement by the citizens in the process of urban development and management, as well as to find some solutions to remove this widespread deep-rooted social dilemma.
Research hypothesis: the realization of democracy and actual participation of citizens in the process of developing the urban spaces can lead to more accurate and efficient decision makings, as well as more successful implementation of urban plans and projects.
Research method: this article was conducted through content analysis and comparative methods. While studying the pillars of the democratic system, the methods of democratic participation of citizens in the processes of urban development and management in Iran was studied regarding the Principles of the Critical Theory. In fact, an effort was made to provide a platform for presenting the findings and suggested solutions through the process of criticizing and analysing the current situation of the Iranian urban plans and designs along with comparing them with the necessary elements for the realization of democratic and people-friendly urban processes. This should be stated that the data collection method was based on interviews with people, studying documents, and also field observations.
Conclusion: results indicate that Dilemmas in the Iranian urban system have been originated from the non-democratic factors, such as the lack of participation, the lack of all-inclusiveness, the violation of citizenship rights and urban justice, illegitimate urban laws, inflexibility, the downfall of pluralism, and etc. Hence, through scheming criteria such as the diversity of opinions, all-inclusiveness, flexibility, forming NGOs, the citizen education and discourse, diversity and respecting the citizen’s rights, etc., these processes can be democratized and also a platform for the emergence of a comprehensive type of a democratic urban planning and design would be materialized; a process which strengthens the urban democracy and honors the position of people, not as the problem but as the solution, by creating equal opportunities in a disinterested fashion.
International Journal of Architecture and Urban Planning, 2018
The "Urban Village Approach" is one of the most appropriate ways to eliminate recent urban proble... more The "Urban Village Approach" is one of the most appropriate ways to eliminate recent urban problems, including social, environmental, cultural, and economic shortcomings. Although the urban village approach is generally proper to resolve these types of flaws, its combination with the democratic concept of urban design can definitely provide more effective solutions. So at first, this paper aims to present a theoretical combination of these two approaches in the form of recommended principles and criteria, and then attempts to introduce a hypothetical wasteland for illustrating the practical aspects of it through design suggestions. A major part of the achievements of this paper is based on theoretical and empirical findings obtained from comparisons and descriptions, but in order to achieve more tangible results, the practical aspects of findings are proven by displaying 3D designs and schemes. Consequently, these proposed principles and criteria can be utilized in designing a democratized urban village form that finally leads to some vital qualities, such as flexibility, inclusiveness, localism, diversity, vitality, naturality, identity, etc. These qualities, in an appropriate and consistent relation with the existing contexts, will also bring some desired concepts within, like justice, equality, freedom, and democracy to the urban and rural areas and neighborhoods.
International Journal of Human Capital In Urban Management, 2018
The physical identity in the urban areas can be considered as a concept which is influenced by th... more The physical identity in the urban areas can be considered as a concept which is influenced by the way of arranging the urban body. As a matter of fact, the appropriate coordination and the compatibility of physical components, such as the urban façades, can definitely facilitate the reorganization of the urban environment for being more identifiable; this issue is so obvious in the historical Iranian cities which have proper identities in their physical structures. Nowadays, the dominance of contradictory approaches and the absence of a convenient orientation have unfortunately produced inadequate urban façades and have annihilated the physical identity in Iranian cities. Also, the process of globalization and elimination of the cultural differences have greatly undermined the possibility of creating the traditional and contextual memories. In fact, the Iranian urban developments with the lack of comprehensive, endemic, and contextual plans and actions, increasingly decline the urban identity in any aspect and dimension. These types of flaws have specifically brought severe problems such as poor beauty, weak legibility, lack of unity, inappropriate physical integrity, etc., which eventually result in the non-identifiable and depersonalized urban bodies. Thereupon, this article needs some visual information which can intuitively assist to scrutinize the deterioration factors of the physical identity in the Iranian cities. Hence, by choosing the field study method is tried to reach some empirical investigation in order to collect the required visual information through photography. Moreover, at the end of this article is attempted to offer several solutions and arrangements for promoting the physical identity and also healing the depersonalization in Iranian cities.
Manzar (Scientific Journal of Landscape), 2019
| The necessity has been arisen nowadays to frame the concepts of the right to the city, citizens... more | The necessity has been arisen nowadays to frame the concepts of the right to the city, citizenship, and urban justice in a more specific manner due to the interdisciplinary essence of urban design profession as well as the modern debates related to it. The right to the city is an issue of social, political and legal nature, which claims a legal framework that fairly and transparently makes the living environment more citizen-friendly by redefining the concept of citizenship right. In this regard, urban design processes perform an underlying role in creating the living environment of the citizens, and thus, the right to the city can be realized in urban settlements, again emphasizing the interdisciplinary essence. Hence, this article tries to provide a meaningful link between the theory and the practice of urban design by adopting humanistic backgrounds as well as exploring into the right to the city, in order to be able to develop the quality of public urban spaces by utilizing the significant role of social concepts along with environmental qualities. In doing so, comprehensive social norms have been listed using the collection of materials on the notion of the right to the city in addition to urban justice based on library research. Finally, an effort has been made to provide a theoretical framework including qualitative indicators; the indicators which are effective in the emergence of citizen-friendly urban design in two areas of urban design process and production through comprehensively utilizing comparative methods, content analysis, analytical description, as well as matching the comprehensive citizenship norms with qualitative characteristics proposed by the experts. Keywords | The right to the city, Citizenship, Citizen-friendly urban design, Qualitative indicators, Urban justice. Introduction | Nowadays, more attention has already been paid to the concept of citizenship, as an interdisciplinary topic in both citizen-friendly and democratic urban design, due to the new orientations. Urban projects as well as urban public spaces, supposedly fulfill the minimum range of citizens' requirements in Iran. Citizens spend a lot of time at the private and semi-private spaces as well as the semi-public buildings, rather than in public urban spaces. Moreover, they rarely participate in the process of scheming in addition to shaping public spaces, and simultaneously they are poorly considered
International Journal of Human Capital In Urban Management, Apr 1, 2017
The rich identity, originality and validity of the “Ancient Iranian Urbanism and Architecture”, a... more The rich identity, originality and validity of the “Ancient Iranian Urbanism and Architecture”, always have been stimulating the urban designers and planners to have research about their valuable qualities and historical principles. Unlike the past, today’s Iranian cities have inefficient urban qualities; because they are inspired by the
western urban designs, without paying attention to their contents and contexts, which have destroyed the originality and identity of them. So in this research, to achieve more efficient urban design solutions, is tried to revive the concepts and principles of the ancient Iranian urbanism. Also, according to globalization and urban commonalities, the main attempt is to find the overlaps and common qualitative norms between the western contemporary urban design approaches and the ancient Iranian urbanism principles. Due to this, by utilizing the comparative and descriptive methods, is tried to have research in theoretical resources to suggest some comprehensive principles, in order to reach an appropriate concept for the implementation of urban design projects in Iran, which may revive the original Iranian contextualism. This research will create a linkage between innovations of the western urbanism approaches and values of the ancient Iranian urbanism principles to have a prospective and more accurate understanding of the Iranian urban developments.
Nowadays, in historical cities, many of the urban spaces due to the changes arising from mo... more Nowadays, in historical cities, many of the urban spaces due to the changes arising from modern urban development and the lack of attention to different spatial qualities have lost their identities and also the importance of their past resulting from the city’s history and its culture. In this study, the purpose is to restore the urban life and the identity, associated with the historical past of the Southern Lalezar street in Tehran; in this regard, by adopting the urban regeneration and vitality approaches, is tried to create a suitable human-oriented context in relation to missing background. According to the theoretical reviews and the empirical investigations, this paper tries to restore the value and meaning of the Southern Lalezar street and its public spaces, with emphasis on some appropriate principles, like pedestrian-orientation, internal and infill development, using brownfields and the injection of the artistic and cultural activities. Finally, by extracting some principles and different methods from the urban regeneration and vitality approaches and also analyzing the case study, have been attempted to revive the old but valuable urban structure and emphasize the redevelopment of historical identities of the Southern Lalezar street.