The logic of the “ecology of place”, a model of thought for urban landscape development, case study: Tehran’s Farahzad River-valley

Abstract

This study makes a contribution to our understanding of the paradigm of ecology in the structure of urban landscape. It looks at the concept of ecology in Tehran’s Farahzad River-valley’s natural landscape. However, this is not intended as a study of a unique experience, rather the spatial and temporal co-ordinates of the text, the particular characteristics of the river-valley, and the principal issues of the paradigm of ecology, offer a framework within which theoretical questions of a more general nature concerning the structural character of urban landscape can be explored. The focus is on the concept of the social production of the landscape, at the center of which lies the ideal process. It emphasizes that changes in the relation between the elements and actors of production, the physical and mental means by which the urban landscape is created, and the relation between moment and totality within which the production process occurs, are central to understanding the ecology of place and the organization of urban landscape. The paper outlines some of the challenges associated with Tehran’s Farahzad River-valley’s landscape development in order to achieve the following aims: (1) to apply a landscape ecology approach in conceptualizing a model of thought for urban landscape development; (2) to analyze the content composition and spatial configuration of Nahjolbalagheh Natural Public Space, which has been created as a part of Farahzad River-valley’s landscape development; and (3) to suggest strategies for the important process of networking different levels of organizational orders in Farahzad River-valley’s natural landscape.