Walkabillity with Emphasize on Environmental ‎Quality and Valuable Historical Context;‎ Case Study: Fahadan Neighbourhood,‎ Yazd

1/13/2019 12:00:00 AM

As a concequence of the Industrial Evolution and automobiles’ dominance on cities, pedestrians ‎began to be more and more neglected. Automobile, which was supposed to be a tool for a better living, ‎gradually turned into an occupier of most human public spaces. Since about onehundred years ago, alongside ‎with the cars entering urban spaces in Iran, pedestrian platform started being less paid attention to. Old texture ‎of the city Yazd, is one of the most ancient urban cores among Iranian cities. This texture is being the target of ‎outfil development strategies which has caused to a big loss of its residents during recent years and suffers poor ‎urban liveability. Among most influencing factors are automobiles’ access inside the texture, low social security ‎and museum-liked preservations; which in spite of attracting many visitors and tourists, is causing the urban life ‎go weaker and weaker daily. During the time, local residents continued to leave out the fabric for a more ‎modern housing area and therefor, this part of the city is now setteled mainly by immigrants due to its lower ‎prices. The new residents though, come up with less social ties to the place which may eventually lead toward ‎less interest in their social activity and grow crimes. Lack of interest among new residents also drives public ‎spaces quality toward poor situations. The rich architectural, social and structural core of the city is being in a ‎high demand of social life and attention today. ‎ Therefore, with regard to the above, the thesis is compiled in five chapters. The first chapter addresses the ‎general issues of the subject, including the issue's expression, the necessity of the subject, the questions and the ‎goals of the research. In the second chapter, the theoretical foundations of the research have been studied. ‎First, the terminology of keywords such as walkability, urban quality and historical texture preservation has ‎been investigated, then the history of walkability has been discussed, in the following, the concepts related to ‎walkability are explored, with the aim and findings of each one being examined. Then, the definitions of each ‎of the concepts related to the subject are discussed, and finally the indicators of the walkable-neighborhood will ‎be extracted according to the views of the experts. From which the guidelines for designing the walkable-‎neighborhood have been reached and ultimately reached the theoretical framework of the research. In the third ‎chapter, there has been a review of global experiences in the field of walkability, which includes three examples ‎in the Australia, Denmark and US, and an internal sample in Yazd. Finally, each with extracted indicators is ‎measured from theoretical bases and their walkable-design will be examined. The fourth chapter deals with the ‎study of the neighborhood of Fahadan and finally analyzes the current situation in the neighborhood. In the ‎fifth chapter, we present the design model and also present the goals, strategies and policies to the design of the ‎neighborhood based on the findings of the theoretical foundations of the research.‎ Ultimately, with the design, efforts have been made to transform Fahadan into a neighborhood that, with its ‎past identity, is able to meet its own needs. The project seeks to respond to some neighborhood needs based on ‎the new definitions of the walkable-neighborhood, which they have achieved through the defined walkability ‎criteria. The design results include: creating an appropriate spatial structure and neighborhood coherence, ‎increasing pedestrian functionality, building a business pole, strengthening social spaces, reviving social ‎activities and creating biking paths, using strategies designed to each has been dealt with.‎