Traditional Urban Form Research Articles

Traditional urban forms in contemporary cities: morphological analysis of the traditional Iranian bazaars in present-day cities

PurposeThis study aims to explore the relationship between contemporary cities and traditional urban forms. The central focus lies in identifying the key factors that facilitate the harmonious coexistence of these contrasting sides of the city.Design/methodology/approachThis study takes Iranian bazaars as exemplars of traditional urban forms. To assess their current status, a comprehensive examination of their general evolution is conducted, tracing the transition of these urban complexes up to the present day. Subsequently, morphological analysis and exploration of spatial arrangements across numerous cases are employed to unveil the factors contributing to their disappearance or adaptation within the framework of Iran’s contemporary urban era.FindingsThe evolution process of the Iranian bazaar shows that the encounter between traditional bazaars and modernity occurred swiftly and blindly, resulting in adverse effects on traditional urban forms, notably bazaars. In recent years, contemporary urban planning has undertaken corrective measures, adopting a more nuanced approach. This shift significantly strides in restoring the symbiotic relationship between cities and their traditional bazaars. Morphologically, certain bazaars have preserved their vitality in contemporary cities through their natural development patterns, adept integration with new urban textures and the implementation of ingenious adaptive strategies.Originality/valueThis study employs a comprehensive and equitable approach to examining a distinct category of traditional urban forms. It initiates the inquiry by meticulously considering historical continuity in conjunction with detailed contemporary circumstances, subsequently scrutinising their losses, damages and developmental aspects. An extensive collection of cases is assembled and subjected to a consistent analytical framework for comparative evaluation to obtain the most accurate result. Consequently, the outcomes of this research may help the present urban planners engaged in projects concerning the restoration, preservation, revitalisation and development of traditional urban forms.

WEIGHTED MATRIX INDEX: A TOOL TO DECODE THE INTERCONNECTEDNESS OF SOCIO-CULTURAL EXPRESSIONS, URBAN CONTEXT AND BUILT ENVIRONMENT

The ever-changing nature of our urban fabric reflects the complex cultural and socio – economic environment we live in. Globalization has brought with it a shift in the way we view our cities, from traditional urban forms that consider the wisdom and skills of our ancestors to analytical diagrams largely used to facilitate urban development. While this has resulted in a more efficient and convenient urban environment, it has also led to an insensitive and unresponsive urban fabric. Fortunately, there are examples of urban forms that have managed to preserve their significance over a long period of time, while still being adapted to the changing cultural and socio – economic contexts. These examples prove that it is possible to create places that are both timeless and responsive to the needs of the present and serve as inspirations for cities of the future. The purpose of this research study is to examine the role of design in shaping the continuity and change of urban fabric. Specifically, this paper investigates the relationship between contextual factors and design decisions that contribute to the evolution of the built environment in urban areas set in unique contexts. Within this framework, this paper aims to intricately compare and contrast Rome and Bhutan as distinctive urban environments, each situated within its own unique settings. This research study has used an approach that combines analysis of development processes, observation notes, documentary reports, published literature, and studies of case examples to investigate the relationship between design decisions and the continual change in the urban fabric. This factor, in particular underpins the relationship between the built environment and socio-cultural expressions that inform contextually appropriate design. A tool (weighted index matrix) for deciphering the interconnectedness between socio-cultural expressions, urban settings, and built environments was developed as a result of the research study. Further, the matrix index has been applied for the two select case examples and the results have been evaluated and analyzed.

Quality of the thermal environment of urban courtyards in arid and semi-arid cities. Case of the city of Ouragla

This work deals with the quality of urban thermal environment in an arid context of the city of Ouargla, in the south-east of Algeria.The focus has long been on interior ambiences, while city producers are being asked, in the light of new sustainability data, to make more tangible improvements by ensuring acceptable standards in urban living. . The present work is part of this perspective and aims to improve the microclimatic quality of outdoor spaces. The study examines the response strategies in terms of climate adaptation research, especially in the summer period, and tries to evaluate the thermal regulation measures relating to criteria for attenuating energy heating due to intense diurnal solar radiation, which continues with a rise in temperature at night caused by heat loss under the effect of nocturnal radiation. And this by essentially taking into account the impact of the geometric parameters which consist of the profile of the built form expressed by the ratio of the height of the geometric form to its spatial extent defining different configurations at court in relation to different solar orientations.The objective is to assess whether such configurations can be the subject of models of organization of cities in an arid context.Field experimentation led to interesting results from a scientific point of view and likely to shed new light on the contribution of traditional urban form to passive strategies.

The Effect of Urban Form on the Heat Island Phenomenon and Human Thermal Comfort: A Comparative Study of UAE Residential Sites

The Urban Heat Island (UHI) has a detrimental impact on human thermal comfort and the health of city dwellers through raising average temperatures. Urban geometry is one of the factors that affect the intensity of the UHI phenomena. The purpose of this research is to evaluate and compare traditional vs. modern urban forms with respect to temperature and thermal comfort in the United Arab Emirates. Three of each were chosen based on their densities and form. Traditional buildings in the UAE differ from others in the Middle East in that they are primarily single-story, while in the surrounding countries of the region, such as Iran, Iraq, and Saudi Arabia, they are mainly two stories. The UAE climate also has its distinct characteristics. Each configuration was investigated using the ENVI-met urban microclimate simulation software. The comparisons were made for three seasons: summer, winter, and spring. Each configuration was evaluated through four parameters: building shape, street geometry, orientation, and urban density. The results revealed that the low-density traditional urban form exhibited the lowest air temperature in August because it has a low sky view factor (SVF), high height-to-width ratio, and less density. The highest ambient temperature was observed in the sites with low-medium density, lowest height/width ratio, and maximum SVF. The high-density modern urban form displayed lower air temperatures in the summer season than the low and low-medium-density modern urban sites due to the building form, high height-to-width ratio, low SVF, and wind corridors. The traditional compact urban form in Al Fahidi, which has the highest urban density of the six configurations, achieved the best thermal comfort levels in the summer due to the sizable height-to-width ratio and lowest SVF.

El excepcionalismo verde y el nuevo urbanismo en el mercado de las miniciudades costarricenses

Las miniciudades son negociadas y publicitadas como nuevos productos inmobiliarios que contribuyen a diversos cambios para adaptarse a las realidades locales y a los retos que imponen las metrópolis. Este artículo trata sobre cómo el mercado inmobiliario utiliza el excepcionalismo verde costarricense y la teoría arquitectural del Nuevo Urbanismo (NU) para inspirar el diseño de los proyectos de uso mixto llamados miniciudades en Costa Rica, y así justificar la venta y promoción de supuestos “nuevos” productos urbanos. La estrategia metodológica incluye un breve análisis histórico de conceptos que concatenan en una discusión sobre el discurso publicitario y las técnicas de paisajismo ya que esta es una ventana para la comprensión de los “mecanismos discursivos” de diversos actores. El caso de estudio seleccionado es la miniciudad costarricense más antigua: Avenida Escazú. La contribución del artículo es una reflexión sobre del discurso simbólico publicitario, desde la perspectiva de la geografía urbana y la semiótica, para identificar cómo el sector privado utiliza el excepcionalismo verde para justificar las “novedades” en las dinámicas de consumo en las miniciudades. Se va más allá de una clásica conclusión binaria y, de esta forma, se cuestiona y resalta la complejidad del NU en Costa Rica. Se concluye que, el sector privado participa de la mutación de espacios, prácticas e intercambios en diversas formas urbanas, brindando lo que el sector público no ha podido satisfacer: el sentimiento de seguridad, de limpieza, de moda, de tranquilidad y de comodidad asociadas a las formas urbanas tradicionales.

The Socio-Environmental Metamorphoses: U.A.E. as a Case Study

This paper explores the relationship between the tangible objects reflecting the use of the space and the cultural aspects expressing the identity of the place. The importance of the public spaces in the communication of identity might be seen as one aspect of the area of research into the meaning of the urban space and its relationship to the physical form of housing in the U.A.E. It is assumed that the physical form of the urban space mediates and structures gender relations. This will be illuminated by elements of the urban development and particularly of the urban activities, and an explanation of its relationship to changing ideologies and architectural norms. Typically, the urban and public places symbolize accepted notions of the appropriate function of the gathering spaces and preferred public relations, such notions are in themselves profoundly important in structuring gender relations. The city of today differs from its past in several respects: size and scale, street layout, land use patterns, architectural style and type of housing. Traditional urban form and building which would have provided information about regional and national identity have been largely replaced by forms characterizing the international and universal buildings and spaces. These changes have altered the city’s form and have given rise to questions about the impact of these changes on the image of the city in terms of size and cultural values.

Workplace location and the quality of work: The case of urban-based workers in the UK

Recent growth in flexible work which is detached from traditional urban workplaces, including homeworking, mobile working and forms of self-employment (gig work), has increased interest in the quality of work. This article compares job quality indicators between urban-based workers in standard (employer/business premises) and non-standard (homeworking, driving/travelling, mobile working) workplaces. Multinomial logistic regression is applied to UK panel data from four waves (2010–2011, 2012–2013, 2014–2015, 2016–2017) of the Understanding Society study. The analysis finds that urban-based employees working at home, predominantly in highly skilled occupations, have jobs which exhibit a number of characteristics of good work. Self-employed homeworkers, more often women, have lower job quality but leisure satisfaction benefits. Mobile working jobs offer greater spatial and temporal flexibility and job satisfaction, but also exhibit lower quality characteristics evident of trade-offs and divisions between forms of mobile work. Driving/travelling jobs exhibit lower job quality characteristics, especially among self-employed urban-based workers.

Urban Tissue of Traditional Chinese and Southeast Asian Port Cities: The Influence of Maritime Trade

In the process of urban development and regeneration, a city always gradually derives multiple morphological characteristics from its original single form. The transformation of urban form can be viewed as representation of consequence of overlapping of cultural attributes, an urban quality which is often ignored by property developments. This paper addresses that culture is a starting point to analyze traditional urban forms of Chinese and Southeast Asian traditional port cities. On the one hand, it analyzes their urban morphological characteristics focusing on the urban tissue level, which can reflect a process of urban evolution based on multi-culture brought by the ancient maritime trade. On the other hand, four port cities with similar cultural attributes including Quanzhou and Guangzhou in China, Hanoi in Vietnam and Malacca in Malaysia are analyzed comparatively to demonstrate their morphological differences and similarities. Based on the analysis of the two aspects, the paper recovers the relationship between cultural attributes and urban morphology, as well as some universal and special rules of urban development.

The Rules in Reconnecting the City Fabrics: A Morphological Study of the Regeneration Case

In the recent 30 years, Shanghai experienced fast urbanization which landscape shows various types of conflicts among the modern forms and the traditional forms. The insertion of new typologies in the traditional district introduces new urban characteristics and dynamics, which are not typically associated with the traditionally framed cities. The constructions of substantial industrial and commercial projects have caused the demolition of traditional urban forms. Urban designers aspire to revitalize the traditional neighborhood by combining urban fabrics without destroying the structure of the historic neighborhood. This paper attempts to exam the effectiveness of the urban network, the continuity of public structures and operational interactions between new projects and the local context through the study of a “failed” regeneration project in Shanghai, China. Consequently, this paper raised rules in reconnecting the city fabrics towards differential urbanism.

INVESTIGATING THE APPLICABILITY OF SUSTAINABLE URBAN FORM AND DESIGN TO TRADITIONAL CITIES, CASE STUDY: THE OLD CITY OF SANA'A

This research compared the traditional urban form of old Sana'a with the modern by applying three main basic principles of sustainability; 1. Form and density, 2. Walkability and connectivity and 3. Building energy. The method of inquiry was based on qualitative and quantitative methods and analysis using GIS, ECOTECT and Space Syntax modelling. The findings show that traditional form with its higher building density and compactness is a good model with regards to sustainable principles. Similarly, as to walkability index, traditional layout has higher rates of intersections and connected nodes and least angular changes with higher rates of integrations and choices in terms of Space Syntax properties than new layouts. Finally, the result of applying ECOTECT for urban solar analysis to confirm that the traditional pattern achieved sufficient values of solar access, exposure and shadows over different periods of the year. The overall results indicate that the traditional urban layout is more sustainable in terms of form and density, walkability and connectivity and urban solar energy than the new layouts.

TRANSFORMATION OF SMALL SLOVAK TOWNS IN THE ERA OF SOCIALISM EXAMPLE OF BÁNOVCE NAD BEBRAVOU / NEDIDELIŲ SLOVAKIJOS MIESTŲ KAITA SOCIALISTINIU LAIKOTARPIU BANOVCE NAD BEBRAVOU PAVYZDŽIU

Several decades of socialism had their effect on urbanism and architecture of towns. These processes can be found in several post-socialist countries. One of the examples in Slovakia is the town of Bánovce nad Bebravou. Until the end of the 19th century the town was not economically important. During the time of socialism the city underwent significant architectural and urban changes due to large industrial development. The definitive image of the historic core changed according to the principles of modern urbanism. Nowadays with the compact city policies, it is important to find the balance between the traditional compact urban form and the modern urban form. The contribution deals with mapping and the process of former urban changes. The aim is to find locations for the transformation and refurbishment of the town’s historic core, in order to its preserved cultural and historical values, while fulfilling the requirement for an ecological and sustainable city.

The Efficacy of Traditional Urban Form in Promoting Sustainability in Northern-Nigeria: A Theoretical Review

The Efficacy of Traditional Urban Form in Promoting Sustainability in Northern-Nigeria: A Theoretical Review

Traditional Urban Form and Evolutionary Mechanisms - Quanzhou and Malacca

Ever since the days of the ancient Maritime Silk Road, as a result of the cultural interaction between China and Southeast Asia, the urban morphological evolution of port cities in these regions has always been relatively diverse and inclusive. This paper considers two typical traditional port cities, Quanzhou and Malacca, as research objects, analysing and comparing their morphological characteristics from the different urban evolutionary periods. Due to the morphological analysis, two categories of urban mechanisms that promote the urban evolution of port cities in different historical periods including both the local and the foreign influencing mechanisms can be summarised and scrutinised deeply. This paper concludes that Quanzhou and Malacca represent two important urban evolutionary modes on the Maritime Silk Road, the self- assimilation mode and the transplantation mode.

Street as Sustainable City Structural Element

Sustainability in architecture is nowadays of particular significance in the course of globalization and information density. The technospehere spontaneous development poses a threat to the sustainability of traditional urban forms where a street is one of the essential forming elements in the urban structure. The article proposes to consider formally compositional street features in relation to one of the traditional streets in the historic center of Ekaterinburg. The study examines the street-planning structure, the development of its skeleton elements, silhouette and fabric elevation characteristics as well as the scale characteristics and visual complexity of objects. The study provided architectural and artistic aspects of street sustainability, and limits of the appropriate scale and composition consistency under which the compatibility of alternative compositional forms existing at different times is possible.

Towards Sustainable New Settlements in Egypt: Lessons Learned from a Comparison between Traditional and Modern Settlements in Greater Cairo Region - Egypt

The last few decades, Egypt drawn into a dramatic socio-economic change that causes a relative change in adopted development patterns. Different typologies of new residential districts have turned from globalized westernized world into Egyptian context. Planners and authority thought that changing adopted development patterns from traditional to modern neighborhood could provide solutions for old town's problems. On the other hand, different scholars have emphasized that traditional compact, mixed use, high-density urban forms are important for reaching sustainability goals in term of environmental, economic and social advantages. Based on a comparison of the sustainability of three case studies Shubra, Heliopolis, and new Cairo city; this research examine analyze the sustainability of New Egyptian Settlements. The analysis depends on observation and spatial analysis to investigate the variations of performances between the three case studies in terms of urban, social, environmental, and economic sustainability indicators. The research aims to assess the sustainability of moving from traditional to modern urban form in GCR' new towns and to extract development criteria and lessons learned from traditional urban form to enhance the sustainability of modern settlements. The research concluded that both traditional early developed settlements like Shubra and new planned settlements like new Cairo recorded low performance in sustainability issues, each one in its own way; and that early planned settlements like Heliopolis recorded moderate performance in sustainability issues, this paves the way for criteria to prepare new plans of new settlements and provide intensification repair tools to fix existing new settlements.

Microclimatic modelling in assessing the impact of urban geometry on urban thermal environment

Diversity in urban geometry can create significant variation in microclimatic conditions. Especially, in tropical warm-humid context, deep urban canyons with variable building heights perform better than uniform canyons, because taller buildings rising above those around them reduce solar gain and enhance wind speed at the pedestrian level. Field measurements in Dhaka comparing the varying traditional urban forms with the more regular formal residential areas have revealed an average air temperature (Ta) difference of 3.3°C and a maximum difference of 6.2°C, and a mean radiant temperature (Tmrt) difference of 10.0°C. The aim of this paper is to understand the responsiveness of the microclimate simulation tool ENVI-met V4 in identifying the variation in urban geometry as reported in the field measurements. The study aims to make specific comparisons between the measured and the simulated data by analysing a particular challenge in complex geometry. It attempts to demonstrate how ENVI-met could benefit from using the correct input as the boundary condition. While the modelling tool aims to produce good results by using synoptic weather information as boundary conditions, this study suggests that it is important to use representative data from the actual site and that hourly input of climatic variables as boundary information can produce the best results. Results show that modelling is able to predict the relative variations in Tmrt conditions between sites, although highly overestimated. However, in terms of Ta, modelling was unable to produce any variations between different urban geometry characteristics. This indicates that, although ENVI-met can produce sufficiently good results in predicting Ta when hourly forcing is used, it is unable to distinguish between the precise details in urban geometry features that can cause significant variations in microclimatic conditions in real situations. Therefore, further assessment of microclimatic variables is needed for using such modelling techniques in order to evaluate the impact of diversity in urban geometry.

Investigating the process of traditional design principles formation in the Iranian-Kurdish urban quarters

The traditional urban quarter is considered here as a materialized form of human thoughts, skills and resources which created functional, meaningful and identifiable spaces in relation to society, time and place. Regarding these leading points, this research focuses on traditional Iranian-Kurdish urban quarters of Qatâr-chyân to investigate its design principles. Various approaches to traditionally built forms were reviewed to pave the way for a methodological inquiry. The data were generated through historical archives, direct observation of the existing built form and interviews with elderly. The findings enable us to discover the shaping design principles which characterize the urban character of the selected quarter as a distinctive traditional urban form especially as compared to other Islamic-Iranian cities. These findings can be recognized as indigenous rules embedded in the structure of traditional quarters which can help designers to reconcile the traditional and modern urban architecture by applying these principles in city conservation plans or new development plans in the city suburb.

Qualitative Analysis of Residents′ Perceptions of Tourism Impacts on Historic Districts: A Case Study of Nanluoguxiang in Beijing, China

Tourism is becoming a viable and important economic development strategy in the regeneration of historic districts. Nonetheless, tourism may bring negative impacts to the local communities. As a result, local residents′ perceptions and attitudes toward tourism development are critical to the sustainable development of tourism. This study follows a qualitative research approach, attempting to examine the relationship between local residents′ social-demographic features and their perceptions of tourism development. The framework is applied to the case of Nanluoguxiang in Beijing, China, which is a typical tourism destination benefitting from its traditional urban forms. Data from 24 in-depth interviewees are analyzed using word-frequency analysis through text encoding. The results reveal that the cultural perception of the residents promoted place attachment, which was associated with impact perception, and together, they determined behavioral demand. The stronger the cultural perception of the residents is and the stronger their place attachment is, the more the negative impact of tourism is perceived and the stronger their demand for cultural protection is. Long-term residents, those with occupations unrelated to tourism, and those who live adjacent to the tourism attractions perceived more negative impacts.

Developing a Framework for Qualitative Evaluation of Urban Interventions in Iranian Historical Cores

Iranian historic city cores are important parts of modern cities because of their valuable monuments and morphology but are also significant because of their population density, location and the major governmental functions they house. Since 1920, modernisation policies and urban development trends in Iran have justified spatial transformation and redevelopment and the demolition and destruction of traditional urban fabrics as a way to provide contemporary requirements and hygiene improvements for the residents. As the UNESCO recommendation on the Historic Urban Landscape argues, historic urban cores can only sustain their role in the daily life of the city by getting prepared for and participating in this transformation process. Disagreement over the value of historic urban cores on the one hand and inevitable modification of urban areas in a developing country like Iran on the other, creates a problematic condition for the preservation of the historic environment. The Valletta Principles for the Safeguarding and Management of Historic Cities, Towns and Urban Areas states that historic towns and urban areas require an integrated approach including their “protection, conservation, enhancement and management as well as their coherent development and their harmonious adaptation to contemporary life”. In order to support the process of reaching a balance between these spatial targets in Iran, this research discusses the relation between urban transformation projects and their heritage context. In doing so it connects international literature on urban quality and traditional Iranian urban forms to contemporary Iranian urban design practice. To achieve this integration between urban heritage and spatial development, a framework of quality attributes has been developed to evaluate urban interventions in a heritage context. The three main pillars of this framework have been extracted from and inspired by international literature and guidelines. Place-making theories have proved to be especially helpful. An analysis of traditional urban forms in Iran and their main characteristics - especially for the urban type of the bazaar – has provided a list of specific and relevant parameters. The framework has been tested by evaluating two case studies in Shiraz that illustrate two different approaches to heritage intervention on an urban level. The outcome has led to modification of the framework and new research questions.

Street Networks between Traditional and New Egyptian Developments, Problems and Learned Lessons

With no doubt, street network design and urban form are assumed to mutually influence each other over time and the link between them is well tested in literature. In Egypt, however, this link is seemingly ambiguous particularly in planning of the new cities. In most of the new-city plans no apparent street pattern relevant to the Egyptian city have been introduced which in turn create unsustainable cities. It is widely agreed that the traditional urban form developed hundreds of years ago may hold some significant guidelines for the future. The current generation of the new city policy invite some urban sustainability guidelines based on the international benchmarks and with some applicable to the traditional form. As a result, an increase demand for defining a sustainable urban form for the new cities is quickly raised. This paper extends the discussions over the sustainability urban form using the analysis of road network. The paper makes a critical comparison between different cases from Greater Cairo Region that range from early developed neighbourhoods to the new planned cases. Route Structure Analysis and Simple Network analysis are the two main themes employed here in building the analytical framework that are then translated into a number of dimensions and quantitative measurements. The research uses a geographic information system (GIS) as an instrument for the analysis.