Redefining Valiasr Street Public Space for the Youth, Tehran, Iran

Leilasadat Mirghaderi

Public space by itself does not form a community; rather, a community is built by people who participate in community building activities. Despite being the capital city of Iran with so many public and semipublic spaces such as parks, restaurants, cafés and shopping malls, Tehran is still missing a dynamic and active public space. The current public spaces of Tehran suffer from dysfunctionality of features and lack of coexistence among users which make them unattractive for the young generation. In this age of communication, youth are looking for new experiences and they are eager to expand their social circle. Despite the rapid changes in social trends over the last few decades, there hasn’t been any significant changes in the design of public spaces of Tehran. This study will try to address this issue by providing a public space that could improve opportunities for the youth to interact with one another more easily.

The main focus of this study is to employ leisure and amusement as architectural programs to encourage the youth to participate in social interactions that are based on cooperation and social exchange. These activities should be within the boundaries of Islam which is the official religion of Iran. Valiasr Street which is one of Tehran’s significant historical streets is chosen as the area under study. Valiasr Street is a tree-lined street that divides the city into its eastern and western parts. It is one of the major paths for both pedestrians and motorists in need of improved public spaces. To address this issue, there is a need for gathering information (through a literature review, and an exploration of obtaining information from social media, and archival sources) about how users interact with a major public street, and with each other.  From that information I would like to develop information useful for design that will support social interaction of the youth in public spaces. A part of this study relies on social science to find trends and patterns in people’s behavior. Also historical research has to be used to study the past and present state of the area to develop a design for the future.

In this path, my goal is to find answers for the following questions: What kinds of activities encourage social interactions in young people? What factors of a place can transform passive users to active ones? What design features can prolong the duration of stay of the youth in a public space? The outcome of this study would most likely result in design features for a number of small scaled places that will make a dynamic environment to allow young generation pause for a few moments from their daily routines and socialize.

Public space by itself does not form a community; rather, a community is built by people who participate in community building activities. Despite being the capital city of Iran with so many public and semipublic spaces such as parks, restaurants, cafés and shopping malls, Tehran is still missing a dynamic and active public space. The current public spaces of Tehran suffer from dysfunctionality of features and lack of coexistence among users which make them unattractive for the young generation. In this age of communication, young generation is looking for new experiences and they are eager to expand their social circle. Despite the rapid changes in social trends over the last few decades, there hasn’t been any significant changes in the design of public spaces of Tehran which is located in a developing country. This study will try to solve this issue by providing a public space that could improve coexistence and understanding of the others.

Main focus of this research is to come up with new features that will support social interaction in public spaces in one of the significant historical streets of Tehran; Valiasr street is a tree-lined street which divides this city into eastern and western parts, which makes it one of the major paths for both pedestrians and motorists. As it was mentioned, there is a great potential for improving the public space of this street. To address this issue, multiple methods of gathering data such as archival information, observation, surveys and crowdsourcing of social media will be used. A part of this study relies on social science to find trends and patterns in people’s behavior. Also historical research has to be used to study the past and present state of the area to develop a design for the future.

The outcome of this study would result in design features for small scaled places that will make a dynamic environment to make young generation pause for a few moments from their daily routines and socialize. My goal is to find answers for the following questions: What kind of experiences make the young generation enthusiastic about social interactions? What factors of place can transform passive users to active ones? What aspects of design makes it possible to spark something among strangers who have no previous history from each other?

One of the major concerns of the architectural design is what features make a place meaningful. The raised question is what features can transform space to place, to make it meaningful in terms of encouraging social interaction among strangers. Tehran as a capital city of Iran, despite of having so many parks, restaurants, coffee houses and shopping centers, still misses social interaction and passion in public spaces that could improve coexistence and understanding of the others. Unfortunately, with passage of time, the passion of people to go to the parks has decreased, mainly because of safety issues. Therefore, enjoyability has decreased and many parks have become places for homeless and addicted people. On the other hand, restaurants and coffee houses in Tehran are typically designed in a way that they do not engage people in social interactions. Furniture arrangement is mostly focused on separation of spaces, meaning that they provide a private space for groups of people. Also, in these kind of places there are no special events to provide a foundation for connecting people with different backgrounds, cultures and thoughts. So, you can usually see individuals enjoy their privacy. Therefore, it is unlikely to see sparks among strangers.

The focus of this study is to explore new methods that will support social interaction in public spaces in one of the significant historical streets in Tehran. Valiasr street is a tree-lined street which divides this city into eastern and western parts, which makes it one of the major paths for both pedestrians and motorists. Even though it is one of the major attractions of Tehran, lack of a decent public space is obvious. Although, it has lots of common public spaces such as parks, restaurants and cafés, as a capital city of a developing country there is a lot of room for improvement. To achieve this goal, multiple methods of gathering data such as archival information, observation, surveys and crowdsourcing of social media will be used. A part of this study relies on social science to find trends and patterns in people’s behavior. Also historical research has to be used to study the past and present state of the area to develop a design for the future.

The result of this study would be coming up with design of small scale places with specified boundaries or furniture arrangements that will make a dynamic environment to make people pause for a few moments from their daily routines and socialize in new ways. The outcome is mostly concerned with the experience of the users. There are some questions that need to be answered: What kinds of social interaction beyond conversation could be developed in urban space? What kind of experience makes people enthusiastic about social interactions? What factors of place can transform passive users to active ones? How is it possible to spark something among strangers who have no previous history with each other?

Valiasr Street Public Space (Tehran, Iran): Transition space to place

One of the major concerns of the architectural design is what features make a place meaningful. The raised question is what features can transform space to place, to make it meaningful in terms of encouraging social interaction among strangers. Tehran as a capital city of Iran, despite of having so many parks, restaurants, coffee houses and shopping mall centers, it still misses something; Real social interaction and passion. Unfortunately, with passage of time, the passion of people to go to the parks decreased because of safety issues and therefore enjoyability has decreased. Parks became places for homeless and addicted people. On the other hand, restaurants and coffee houses in Tehran are typically designed in a way that they do not engage people in social interactions. This can be due to different design characteristics; for example, furniture is arranged in a way that does not easily provide an opportunity for individuals to have informal dialogues with one another. In addition, furniture arrangement is mostly focused on separation of spaces, meaning that they provide a private space for groups of people and do not take into account the individuals. Also, in these kind of places there are no special events to provide a foundation for connecting people with different backgrounds, cultures and thoughts. So, you can usually see individuals enjoy their privacy for relaxing by having a snack or a meal or groups of people who usually have history in between them from before. Therefore, it is unlikely to see sparks among strangers.

The focus of this study is to explore new methods and information about features that will support social interaction in public spaces in one of the significant historical streets in Tehran. Valiasr street is a tree-lined street which divides this city into eastern and western parts, which makes it one of the major paths for both pedestrians and motorists. Even though it is one of the major attractions of Tehran, lack of a decent public space is sensed. Although it has a lots of common public spaces such as parks, restaurants and cafés, as a capital city of a developing country there is a lot of room for improvement. To achieve this goal, multiple methods of gathering data such as archival information, observation, surveys and crowdsourcing of social media will be used. A part of this study relies on social science to find trends and patterns in people’s behavior. Also historical research has to be used to study the past and present state of the area to develop a design for the future.

The result of this study would be coming up with design of small scaled places with specified boundaries or furniture arrangements that will make a dynamic environment to make people pause for a few moments from their daily routines and socialize. The outcome is mostly concerned with the experience of the users. The features of the surrounding should be in a way to encourage social interactions. There are some questions that need to be answered: What kind of experience makes people enthusiastic about social interactions? What factors of place can transform passive users to active ones? How is it possible to spark something among strangers who have no previous history with each other?