ABSTRACT
The attention of contemporary planners to environmental factors and increasing awareness and communication of man with his surrounding environment has increased the layers and defining factors of design and planning concepts. In such a way, a common problem with the issue of environmental capabilities to respond was put in front of the planners. The collection of ideas presented in this era was in the form of responsive planning, focusing on the maximum use of environmental capabilities. The necessity of the emergence of a comprehensive discourse to overcome the plurality of factors, definitions and design methods in the environmental fields has been given less attention. Based on this, the current research aims to organize the leading theories in this field in a targeted manner and seeks to improve them based on their synergy. The structural question of this research is the meanings, examples and meaningful contexts of flexibility in various aspects and scales of urban planning. The research method used is qualitative thematic analysis with the help of artificial intelligence in MAXQDA software in a 6-step processing process. The important application of this research is to structure the minds of the planners of this field to reduce the scattered and interdisciplinary problems of the resources. The results of this research revealed dimensions such as identification and recognizability, diversity and changeability, adaptability and expandability, distribution, separation and continuity, organization and compatibility in the field of flexibility and related to the corresponding parts in urban planning
Extended Abstract
Introduction
Responsiveness-based design and planning emphasizing the maximum use of environmental capacities to meet users' needs implicitly cause a targeted improvement of environmental quality. As the environmental awareness of contemporary man has expanded and the platforms have become more diverse, many challenges are raised in the field of environment-oriented in the field of infrastructure quality and service provision. Urban developments and new developments in cities should be interpreted with integrated conceptualization. The conceptualization of interpretive flexibility in the planning and designing of public spaces in the city is used as an interdisciplinary perspective in urban space design to open and discuss its connection and potential as an approach to strengthening social cohesion and inclusion.
The general definition of flexibility is that it can create places with new forms of meaning and be used for different groups to strengthen its coherence and multidisciplinary inclusion in terms of design and planning of space and body. On this basis, the concept of flexibility is proposed as a principle in the context of design and planning due to its wide range of effects on background phenomena. The history of such a role can be seen in the diversity of users' needs. In such a way, it is impossible to express the specific time and area of the need to pay attention to this concept. This is in line with Oldenburg's theory of "social public spaces," in which being in public space, communicating with people and the environment through observing the streets, sidewalks, squares, and parks of the city is a necessary step for people as a part of their social life. The meaningfulness of the design of the artificial environment was considered. In any case, in the contemporary era, on the one hand, at the same time as the quantitative and qualitative increase of human environmental awareness, there is no longer any phenomenon in the eyes of contemporary man arising from a unique aspect and range of factors. On the other hand, his life needs in the individual and collective dimensions have seen a high diversity, which has led to the formation of multiple semantic domains of past flexibility.
The meaning of flexibility in such an interdisciplinary platform and basic design refers to the concept of understanding and responding quickly and efficiently to environmental changes. Such a holistic definition for this broad field of environmental design means the implicit acceptance of the role of scale in the meaningful domain of these concepts. On a macro scale, it means making design options to increase the presence, participation, and power of choices of users of the environment in participatory urban planning and design methods, and on a small scale, it means making design options to increase spatial quality and, as a result, the quality of activities. The daily activities of environmental users are through selection against the "dominant space." Flexibility at different scales is crucial for dimensional optimization, shaping, and structuring spatial features, leading to improved performance of space components and spaces.
The development of the concept of "flexibility" from various studies in metropolitan to micro scales, such as interior architecture, allows it to pass the discourse of responsiveness to provide a broad approach to environmental design in which different values, interests, and priorities are prioritized. As a result, the issue of flexibility in environmental design has been raised as a multi-dimensional field in the design and planning of the basic environment. The breadth and complexity of this concept have made the researchers of this field deal with it in one or more ways, and it has been avoided to provide a comprehensive framework about the nature and structuring processes. The current research presents a structured view of flexibility in architecture and urban planning with an environmental approach.
Methodology
The methodology to achieve this goal is to use the macro research method and achieve a comprehensive framework by combining categorized interpretations. In such a way that by sorting and categorizing these concepts and bases in a new way, he has found a new level of theoretical findings, which will be a suitable answer for the gaps in scientific knowledge and scientific methods created in this field. In this context, the research method "thematic analysis" has been used with a qualitative approach and the use of library resources. Also, to overcome the breadth and complexity of these concepts and the multi-layer networking of concepts in this research method, artificial intelligence has been used in MAXQDA research assistance software.
Results and discussion
In the meantime, attention should also be paid to the fields of influence and application of the results of this research because designers refer to flexibility as the creator of environmental qualities, including dynamism. Also, since flexibility, along with the principles of readability and adaptability, affect the lifestyle and behavioral patterns of the audience of environmental design in architecture and urban planning, it will also be effective in dealing with the challenge of complexity in environmental design factors. One of the key questions for achieving research goals on this issue is how flexibility in environmental design impacts the relationship between flexibility and scale.
Conclusion
The most important finding of this research suggests that first, it requires a focus on the conditions under which the processes of perceiving human abilities and discovering the needs of the human audience can manifest. The theoretical framework arises from a comparative approach between design disciplines. These conditions are independent of the final state of the design product, and strengthening the environmental capacities will lead to a direction and an area that includes environmental flexibility. By responding to new situations, the construction of the space and the body within a space building can be adapted to various configurations. Even though the environment may remain constant, the designed place will continue functioning as a strong living system over time.
It also seems that the nature of issues related to flexibility has complexity. Considering that the quality of flexibility in urban planning and architecture is significant in multilevel and multifaceted scales from micro to macro, it is important to pay attention to the scale of different variables. In order to reduce this problem, the consistency and adjustment of the scale of the variables measured in a specific analysis should be considered in the first step.
Funding
There is no funding support.
Authors’ Contribution
All of the authors approved the content of the manuscript and agreed on all aspects of the work.
Conflict of Interest
Authors declared no conflict of interest.
Acknowledgments
We are grateful to all the scientific.