Towards a framework for facilitating the implementation of Tactical Urbanism Practices: Assessment Criteria in the Place-making Approach in Iran

Abstract

One of the significant issues in developing countries like Iran is the decreased feasibility of place-making projects in urban development because the majority of urban design projects are top-down, high-cost, and long-term, thereby taking them years to be implemented. Even when implemented after a long time, these projects usually do not meet the users' demands of urban space as a result of the passage of time. Tactical urbanism (TU) has been recently proposed as a possible solution to facilitate place-making and promote “right to the city” in cities. This study aims to develop a framework for facilitating the implementation of TU projects in the Iranian context in the shadow of big government power. For fast and easy implementation of TU practices, a set of criteria was extracted from the literature and TU practices. All these criteria were validated with a panel of 20 experts of urban planning and design as well as local authorities using the Delphi technique to determine the most suitable ones for the proposed framework. The findings suggest that the TU facilitated criteria in the framework can be classified into six broad dimensions, namely, functional, experimental-aesthetic, environmental, social, governance and monitoring, and economic criteria. This framework has the potential to provide guidelines for TU practices on small-scale and informal place-making interventions based on citizens' needs in developing countries.