Manzar
Year:2022 | Volume:13 | Issue:57|Papers Count:7

According to middle-aged people in major cities and for children who are living in all cities and villages of Iran, the «alley» is a place for manifestation of their social life. From early morning until sunset, the alley was a place for children to get-together and play. Later, as they grew older, they walked around the street with other children. The alley was a space for common experiences, emerging collective memories, making friendly bonds and holding wedding celebrations. It was also a place for elders to meet each other. Women sometimes considered it as a common space with their neighbors, and used to did their housework together in the alley. The alley residents were responsible for making and keep it alive; even naming the alley was their own job. Paving the front courtyard were continuing to the alley space, and it seemed was covering with forty diverse pieces, with a share for each house. If a tree was planted in an alley, then it was clear who is responsible to keep it safe. The alley was restricted to aliens. Where the alley was a dead-end, the residents asked the reason for the arrival and entering of strangers, and if it was an open way, they were used to look along the passer-by to get them out of their own privacy. The alley was a stand point and a place for collective life; Looking after the children who were playing in the alley was the responsibility of the residents according to an unwritten rule, and everyone was responsible for daily life of the alley. It was considered as a geographical territory that was representing democracy flowing in the public life of their residents in the best possible way. The alley was a symbol of sharing democracy, against the representative type of democracy, which used to establish a deep and effective relationship neither between the attorneys and appointed, nor among the constituents. Alley-based democracy was an attempt to found a social and an active contribution of space. The space in this kind of connections was not allocated to preserve the event, but instead it was meant to cause it and drive it forward. The alley space, was particularly organizing the inhabitant’ s daily life and their requests, as a social act that structured the relations between individuals. Moreover, with its spatial appearance, it was leading the emergence of communal experiences and the current of collective life. The alley (Koocheh), as its name indicates is consisted of two parts «Koy + Che» that refers to a place of collective living. The alley residents› perception of the physical appearance of events and their function represent a comprehensive landscape, in a manner that emerges in a physical body and is perceived in a distinct way through happenings and events which are experienced within it. This kind of perception to the alley arising from its definite inhabitants. Alleys provide passages for passers-by with a variety of signs; however, for their inhabitants, each alley stands a landscape that emerges numerous spaces based on their collective memory. The greatest destruction happened to the current cities is the removal of alleys as a bond reason between a particular area of neighborhood. This realm and the means of perceiving it as an alley has been overlooked in modern cities with a predominance of the urban`s four functions. Since then, the local communities and, consequently, the participation of their inhabitants in ruling urban life have been failed to recall. The front cover image has been adopted from the master works of «Ali Jafari-Nodoushan» who is an artist photographer; it perfectly represents one of the picturesque alleys of Nodoü shan city, reflecting its multi-layered life, even in its long-standing and damaged textures, where life still flows in them. The photo donation to MANZAR Journal is a great favor and is highly appreciated.

According to the available evidence and documents, during the Safavid period, many gardens were built in Isfahan, of which only their names have remained today. The Hezar Jarib garden is one of the most famous of these gardens. This garden is located in the south of Zayandehrood river and at the foot of the Sofeh mountain. Today, the University of Isfahan and parts of one of the urban neighborhoods (Mardavij) are built on its remnants. To introduce its characteristics, the study of this garden helps better understand some of the values of ancient Iranian garden building. In this regard, descriptive and illustrative documents can be a solution to analyze the physical characteristics of the Hezar Jarib garden at the time of its prosperity. Many tourists in different periods have described this garden in terms of architecture and its events during its prosperity and deterioration. For the first time, this research tries to comprehensively represent the framework of the Hezar Jarib garden and its elements. On the other hand, the irrigation method of this garden will be revealed in the process of its visual representation. Descriptive and illustrative documents perform this modeling. Field studies also revealed some of the unknowns of the garden over time. The purpose of this article is to represent the transformation of this garden over time. The findings are based on the four primary systems of the Persian garden; Roads, plants, buildings, and water. With the analysis of the spatial relationship of different parts of the Hezar Jarib garden, the ratio of void and solid spaces, the number of surfaces, and the shape of the buildings were obtained. On the other hand, the changes that occurred over time were also revealed.

In recent years, the integration of the landscape approach with other approaches has attracted wide attention for its holistic view and new paradigms redefining the relation of man and environment. Yet there is no consensus over precise definitions for the landscape, and landscape approach to reflect their essence. The extensive theoretical literature on landscape definitions has caused ambiguities in understanding these terms and concept and made its application difficult. The purpose of this study is to explore the nature and different dimensions of the landscape approach by developing a conceptual model. Based on the findings of this study, from theoretical perspective, landscape is an objective phenomenon, and objective-subjective whole, or a temporal-spatial phenomenon born through the interactions between nature and culture, and hence a complex system. Also, from a practical view point, it is the landscape approach that deals with a holistic view and the applied aspect of theoretical concepts. The systematic review of previous research shows that, this approach is based on three components: conceptual nature, principles and characteristics, and management processes. Its nature is composed of physical-semantic aspects and presents an interpretation of the conceptual framework of landscape in the human-environmental system. The principles and characteristics that emerge from this nature are holistic, multifunctional, multidisciplinary, interdisciplinary, participatory, dynamic (ecological-social), complex, place-based, and can involve multiple stakeholders. Also, integrated, adaptive, participatory, contextual, and resilient dimensions are the main features of the landscape approach at the management level, which lead to the guidelines for their applications through two processes: planning policy-making and decision-implementation. This approach is evaluated through monitoring and controlling and evolves into a cyclical and progressive process to expand.

Iranian cities as rich treasures reflect successful architectural and urban experiences. These cities comprise a myriad of components ranging from small to large. So far, most of these components have been the focus of researchers who have scrutinized their different aspects depending on the subject of research. Despite their numerous functions and potentials, especially in the field of landscape, rooftops (in Persian Baams) have been overlooked by researchers. This is surprising because they are the most important spaces in Iranian homes and cities. Therefore, this study uses document analysis to identify the forgotten and original roles of rooftop landscapes in Iranian cities. The authors of the current study believe that the roofs for Iranian houses do not just cover the lower spaces which merely serving structural function. Therefore, the present study seeks to answer this question: what roles have the rooftop landscapes had in Iranian cities and the lives of residents? This research employs content analysis to analyze documents and data related to roof space in literary texts, historical reports, visual arts associated works, and contemporary cinema. The analysis was based on the data gathered through bibliographic research and field surveys on existing Iranian houses. Roofs in Iranian cities and houses have had various functional patterns and rooftop landscapes and have been one of the most important factors contributing to the location of houses and the identity of cities, whose main roles can be identity-associated, social, or nature-related.

Walter Benjamin, a philosopher, and theorist associated with Frankfurt School, is known as one of the leading figures in studies about urban modernity. The point that “ modern city” is the central theme of many of Benjamin’ s works, has been investigated in several studies. However, what has been mostly neglected is the influence of visual/spatial qualities of the modern city on shaping Benjamin’ s method for thinking, thereby writing, and forming the perceptive experience of readers while facing such texts. The present research, which is qualitative and fundamental research based on qualitative content analysis, correlates the origins of visual and spatial qualities in Benjamin’ s writings with his interest in images and his studies on visual arts and the visual culture of the modern city. Concentrating on two chief works by Benjamin about city, One Way Street and The Arcades Project, the article tries to review the specifications of this method of writing. It is discussed that as Benjamin considers “ flaneur” as the archetype of modernity who wanders across the urban landscapes, his writing method recalls a reader who seeks flanerie among textual landscapes. This research seeks to understand what perceptive qualities emerge for the audience-flaneur among the urban landscapes of Benjamin’ s texts that distinguish this experience from the experiences of reading traditional forms of text? Thereafter, it is concluded that in opposition to traditional forms of reading based on the perception of an isolated, motionless, concentrated subject, the flanerie-like encounter with the text is a distracted reading which is shaped in an absent-mindedness condition. The subject of such a reading is a collective, corporeal, and moving subject. In this regard and while reading, the audience experiences the text through collective corporeality, similar to the mass experience of the modern metropolis.

As the first intervention on an urban scale, Bala Khiaban (the street above the buried Imam Reza’ s corpse) and Paein Khiaban (the street below the buried Imam Reza’ s corpse) were built in Mashhad and they created an east-west axis to the center of the holy site. Since it has always played an important role in the spatial structure of cities and the imaginations of inhabitants throughout history, this axis has always been the focus of all administrations. However, interventions made in recent decades, particularly since the second Pahlavi to the present, have disrupted the urban texture, structures, districts, and systems that govern it, displacing locals as the true beneficiaries of this texture and causing several social, cultural, economic, and other issues. The present paper is an inferential study that examines different resources from three historical eras to read the landscape of these two streets: Pre-Pahlavi (including historical documents and intellectual works), Pahlavi (historical and urban documents), and Post-Islamic Revolution (historical and urban documents as well as in-depth interviews). This research uses a landscape approach to investigate the significance of the streets in the spatial organization of Mashhad. According to the studies, the characteristics of the landscape in question served a single purpose in relation to each other in a harmonious manner prior to the urban interventions of the first comprehensive plan in the Pahlavi era. Despite the current period’ s crisis and its repercussions on the street’ s form and physical features, the public perception as the viewer is always so superior to the matter that the street landscape still exists to some extent and can be revived through some interventions in its main function. As a result of the research, it was discovered that the street in issue has typically been seen as a sublime axis associated with the concept of pilgrimage.

Nowadays, the entrance to Shiraz from Isfahan is marked by Tang (Strait) Allah Akbar and the Qur’ an Gate. Over time and different periods, numerous components have defined this natural entrance, and have been added to or reduced from this entrance, and have changed the identity of the being an entrance to this area for Shiraz. The study seeks to answer this question “ which component has historically been stable in the definition of the entrance of Shiraz and has been the essential component shaping the view of the Shiraz entrance? To answer this question, according to the context of social, political, and cultural changes of each period, the study analyzes the several components that have shaped the entrance of Shiraz over a century. The study precisely scrutinizes the landscape changes that took place in this area in the five-time periods of the Buyid dynasty to Qajar, Qajar, Pahlavi I, Pahlavi II, and the Islamic Republic. The results designate that the Qur’ an Gate, along with the two components of the valley and mountains around the entrance, has played an objective and subjective role in shaping the landscape and identity of Shiraz entrance in different historical periods. This stability has been changed dynamically and in line with the changes and needs of the time, but the landscape burden of these components in line with the definition of the entrance of Shiraz city has never been reduced. Nonetheless, after the Islamic Revolution, the historical and natural identity of this area as the entrance to the city of Shiraz has been disturbed. This article shows that the lack of coordination of these components with changes in time and lack of attention to the essential importance of these components in defining the entrance identity of the city has provided the grounds for elimination, destruction, or marginalization of these components and has distorted their role in defining the entrance of Shiraz.