Placemaking for Silk Road in Iran: Process and strategies

ABSTRACT: Cities, during their lives are facing various urban challenges including threatening economic growth. The manifestation of those challenges is evident in urban spaces and places. In view of that, Iranian cities have been experiencing difficulties in adopting with economic shift from trading to oil industry economy. Such transferal economy has had its impact on Iranian urban places. Although there are many urban spaces in contemporary Iranian cities, there are very few urban places among them. The traditional Iranian cities, however, have had valuable examples of urban places, which especially developed along the main trading routs. Therefore, the aim of this study is to explore and rediscover the quality of successful remained urban places along the renowned trading route of Silk Road in Iran. The main aim of this research is to find out the appropriate approach or method of creating a successful urban public space in Silk Road cities. In this way, two principal objectives to this main purport were formulated, which includes, finding out what are the general and specific characteristics of urban public space for Silk Road cities, and secondly; to define particular approaches for placemaking in the creation of successful places in Silk Road cities. In correlation with the main objectives of this research, two independent or major research question are unfold: What should be the strategies for Place Making? How could Place Making improve the quality of UPS in SRCS in Iran? The research has been started with theoretical investigation about place and placemaking. Definitions and main concerns in line with the subject have been explained and understood. Consequently, the main criteria of placemaking have been investigated and the framework of analysis methodology has been discussed. The result of this investigation is the hierarchy and weight of each assessment that make a place successful. To achieve the weight of assessments the DELPHI technique and SAW method has been used. The site survey has been started with documentary survey about Silk Road cities and settlements in Iran. Through documentary research, the main Silk Road routes and their cities have been introduced. This part includes general information about geographical location, climate, economy and population for each city. The second part of site survey is for distinguishing Silk Road urban places in cities. Through this survey, totally 650 places in 17 cities have been listed. To set the limitation for the survey, an eliminated method for selecting places has been used and finally twelve places from three cities have been chosen. In this method first places which are out of cities have been eliminated. Then places that are not in the urban form have been eliminated. Finally places that are in the historic quarters have been remained. There are totally 12 places in three cities. In analysis part, twelve places have been surveyed and analyzed due to the assessments that were found in theoretical investigations. The analysis focused on reflecting the influence of placemaking assessments on the quality of places in Silk Road cities in Iran. The dissertation concludes that “Street life”, “Social network” and “Pedestrian activity” have more influences to make the Silk Road Places successful. Also it concludes that activities like “Trade” have a strong relation with successfulness of places, in a way that all three “Bazaars” between cases got the highest rank in the list of successful places. The other finding in this research is the importance or the scale of city has less influence for making successful places. Keywords: Silk Road, Place, Placemaking, Iran, SAW methodology. …………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………