A New Reading of Sociable Public Spaces: The Nexus between Urban Design and Microsociology

نوع مقاله : مقاله پژوهشی

نویسندگان

1 Ph.D. Candidate of Urban Design, Department of Urban Design, Faculty of Architecture and Urban Planning, Shahid Beheshti University, Tehran, Iran.

2 Assistant Professor in Sociology, Department of Cultural Studies, Institute for Social and Cultural Studies, Tehran, Iran.

3 Professor of Urban Design, School of Architecture and Environmental Design, Iran University of Science and Technology, Tehran, Iran.

چکیده

Over the past 50 years, while the development of intermediate texture of Tehran has focused on spatial dimension and physical structure, neglecting the user experience and social dimensions has become a design challenge. This paper has focused on Social interaction in public space neighborhood via integration of social and spatial dimensions which is essential more than ever. In this paper, a research has conducted through a literature review of theoretical and experimental researches in urban design and micro-sociological researchers. The aim of this paper is to develop a new perspective for reading sociability in public spaces. For reading contemporary social spaces, this article implements the combination of two observation methods to achieve better understanding regarding sociability of the public spaces. Firstly, Direct and walk-by observation tools have been used for creating behavioral map to better understand of the relationship between the temporal and spatial forms of social settings and secondly participant observation tools have been used. For being among the participants and identify the expression of their feelings and emotions, we used informal interviews and listened to their narratives and stories. The selected case is a neighborhood that has been developed in the intermediate texture of the city, “Koy-e-Nasr”, commonly known as “Geisha”, in Tehran, Iran. Although these spaces have no significant physical features, they are more popular for including the general interest of people. The findings offer new insight on what commonly have considered about the use of public spaces and illustrate the places and their locations such as streets edges and frontages, entrances and urban equipment, and variety of active and lingering or fleeting and passive social interactions and conditions.

کلیدواژه‌ها


عنوان مقاله [English]

A New Reading of Sociable Public Spaces: The Nexus between Urban Design and Microsociology

نویسندگان [English]

  • Fatemeh Dousti 1
  • Abbas Varij Kazemi 2
  • Mostafa Behzadfar 3
1 Ph.D. Candidate of Urban Design, Department of Urban Design, Faculty of Architecture and Urban Planning, Shahid Beheshti University, Tehran, Iran.
2 Assistant Professor in Sociology, Department of Cultural Studies, Institute for Social and Cultural Studies, Tehran, Iran.
3 Professor of Urban Design, School of Architecture and Environmental Design, Iran University of Science and Technology, Tehran, Iran.
چکیده [English]

Over the past 50 years, while the development of intermediate texture of Tehran has focused on spatial dimension and physical structure, neglecting the user experience and social dimensions has become a design challenge. This paper has focused on Social interaction in public space neighborhood via integration of social and spatial dimensions which is essential more than ever. In this paper, a research has conducted through a literature review of theoretical and experimental researches in urban design and micro-sociological researchers. The aim of this paper is to develop a new perspective for reading sociability in public spaces. For reading contemporary social spaces, this article implements the combination of two observation methods to achieve better understanding regarding sociability of the public spaces. Firstly, Direct and walk-by observation tools have been used for creating behavioral map to better understand of the relationship between the temporal and spatial forms of social settings and secondly participant observation tools have been used. For being among the participants and identify the expression of their feelings and emotions, we used informal interviews and listened to their narratives and stories. The selected case is a neighborhood that has been developed in the intermediate texture of the city, “Koy-e-Nasr”, commonly known as “Geisha”, in Tehran, Iran. Although these spaces have no significant physical features, they are more popular for including the general interest of people. The findings offer new insight on what commonly have considered about the use of public spaces and illustrate the places and their locations such as streets edges and frontages, entrances and urban equipment, and variety of active and lingering or fleeting and passive social interactions and conditions.

کلیدواژه‌ها [English]

  • Sociability
  • Social Public Spaces
  • Participant Observation
  • Direct Observation
  • Microsociology
Alexander, C. (1966). A City is Not a Tree, MagazineDesign. London: Council of Industrial Design.
Alexander, C., Ishikava, S., Silverstein, M., Jacobson, M., Fiksdhl-king, I., & Angel, S. (1977). A Pattern Language. New York: Oxford University Press, Inc.
Appleyard, D. (1981). Livable Streets. Berkeley and Los Angeles, CA: University of California Press.
Banerjee, T. (2001). The Future of Public Space: Beyond Invented Streets and Reinvented Places. Journal of the American Planning Association, 67(1), 9-24.
Bentley, I., McGlynn, S., Smith, G., Alcock, A, & Murrain, M. (1985). Responsive Environments: A Manual for Designers. London: Architectural.
Bhattacharya, T. (2015). Book Review: The Street: A Quintessential Social Public Space. Journal of Planning Education and Research, 35, 234-235.
Carmona, M (2010). Contemporary Public Spaces: Critique and Classification, Part One: Critique. Journal of Urban Design, 15(1), 123-148.
Carmona, M. (2014). The Place-shaping Continuum: A Theory of Urban Design Process. Journal of Urban Design, 19(1), 2-36.
Carmona, M. (2015). Re-theorizing Contemporary Public Space: A New Narrative and Nnew Normative. Journal of Urbanism, International Research on Place Making and Urban Sustainability, 8(4), 373-405.
Carmona, M., Tiesdell, S., Heath, T., & Oc, T. (2010). Public Places, Urban Spaces. Oxford: Elsevier Ltd.
Carr, S., Francis, M., Rivlin, L., & Stone, A. (1992). Public Space. Cambridge: University Press.
Derk, D.J. (1967). Applied Hodology. Landscape. 17 (2), 10-11.
Dempsey, N. (2013). Social Sustainability in Urban Areas: Communities, Connectivity and the Urban Fabric. Urban Studies, 50(5), 1089-1092.
Dempsey, N., & Burton, M. (2011). Defining Place-keeping: The Long-term Management of Public Spaces. Urban Forestry & Urban Greening, 11(1), 11-20.
Francis, M. (1989). The Making of Democratic Streets. Public Streets for Public Use. New York: Columbia University Press.
Francis, M. (2011). Mixed-li How to Study Public Life fe Places. Companion to Urban Design. New York: Routledge.
Gehl, J. (1971). Life between the Buildings: Using Public Space. Copenhagen: Danish Architectural Press.
Gehl, J. (2013). Cities for People. Washington DC: Island Press.
Goffman, E. (1963). Behavior in Public Places: Notes on the Social Organization of Gatherings. New York: The Free Press.
Hajer, M., & Reijndorp, A. (2001). In Search of New Public Domain: Analysis and Strategy. Rotterdam: NAi Publishers.
Jacobs, A., & Appleyard, D. (1987). Toward an Urban Design Manifesto. Journal of the American Planning Association, 53, 112–120.
Jacobs, J. (1961). The Death and Life of Great American Cities. New York: Random House.
Lang, J. (1987). Creating Architectural Theory: The Role of the Behavioral Sciences in Environmental Design. New York: Van Nostrand Reinhold.
Lofland, L.H. (1998). The Public Realm: Exploring the City’s Quintessential Social Territory. New York: Aldine
Loukaitou-sideris, A., & Banerjee, T. (1998). Urban Design Downtown: Poetics and Politics of form Berkeley.CA: University of California Press.
Low, S. (2006). The Erosion of Public Space and the Public Realm. Paranoia, Surveillance and Privatization in New York City, City & Society, 18, 43 -49.
Madanipour, A. (2003). Public and Private Spaces of the City. A Useful Examination of the Role of Public Space in City Development. London: Routledge.
Madanipour, A. (2004). Marginal Public Spaces in European Cities. Journal of Urban Design, 9(3), 267.
Main, B., & Hannah, G.G. (2010). Site Furnishings: A Complete Guide to the Planning. Selection and Use Landscape Furniture and Amenities. Hoboken, New Jersey: Wiley.
Mausner, C. (2015). The Street: A Quintessential Social Public space. Online Environmental & Architectural Phenomenology Newsletter, Kansas State University, Manhattan.
Mehta, V. (2013). The Street: A Quintessential Social Public Space. New York: Routledge.
Mehta, V. (2009). Look Closely and You Will See, Listen Carefully and You Will Hear: Urban Design and Social Interaction on Streets. Journal of Urban Design, 14(1), 29-64
Milgram, S. (2010). The Individual in a Social World: Essays and Experiments. Reading, MA: Addison-
Mitchell, D. (2003). The Right to the City: Social Justice and the Fight for Public Space. New York: The Guilford Press.
Parkinson, J. (2012). Democracy and Public Space: The Physical Sites of Democratic Performance. Planning and Design, 38, 5–23.
Putnam, R.D. (2000). Bowling Alone: The Collapse and Revival of American Community. New York: Simon
Relph, E. (1976). Place and Placelessness. London: Pion.
Sennett, R. (1977). The Fall of Public Man. Cambridge University Press.
Shaftoe, H. (2009). Convivial Urban Spaces: Creating Effective Public Places. London: Sterling.
South worth, M., Cranz, G., Lindsay, G., & Morhayhim, M. (2012). People in the Design of Urban Places, Guest Editorial. Journal of Urban Design, 17, 461–465.
Stevens, Q. (2006). The Shape of Urban Experience: A Reevaluation of Lynch’s Five Elements. Planning and Design, 33, 803–823.
Urry, j. (2001). The Sociology of Space and Place. In the Black Well Companion to Social Theory. Oxford Blackwell.
Varna, G., & Tiesdell, S. (2010). Assessing the Publicness of Public Space: The Star Model of Publicness. Journal of Urban Design, 15(4), 575-598.
Whyte, W.H. (1980). The Social Life of Small Urban Spaces. New York: Conservation Foundation.
Young, I.M. (1990). Justice and the Politics of Difference. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.
Ziari, k. (2010). Urban Land Use Planning. Tehran: Tehran University Publishers.