This week’s insightful presentation belongs to Dr. Sanaz Shobeiri, a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at Queen’s Belfast University. Her presentation titled “Age-Gender Inclusiveness in the City Centres: A Comparative Study of Tehran and Belfast” was a highlight at the SPACE International Conference 2021 on Architectural Design and Theory.
Abstract:
In the pursuit of socioculturally sustainable cities, the debate on inclusiveness in city centres is paramount. Dr Shobeiri delves into the challenge of “pedestrianisation vs vehicle orientation” and analyzes various age-gender groups to envision vibrant, convivial urban spaces. The study compares two distinct city centres, Tehran and Belfast, exploring how contextual differences influence age-gender inclusiveness despite sharing similar urban functions.
Key Urban Functions Investigated:
* Identity-based historical element
* Shopping
* Religious buildings
* Residential area
* Network of squares and streets
* Connection with natural structures
* Administrative and official buildings
* Recreational and non-reactional retail units
Methodology:
The study employs direct appraisal over a defined period, encompassing seasonal and festive effects, with an extension to account for the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Extended Abstract Reference:
Title: Age-Gender Inclusiveness in the City Centres: A Comparative Study of Tehran and Belfast
Authors: Sanaz Shobeiri
Published in: E- Proceedings – SPACE International Conferences April 2021, ISBN: 978-1-9162841-8-0
To read and cite the article: Shobeiri, S. (2021). Age-Gender Inclusiveness in the City Centres: A Comparative Study of Tehran and Belfast. E- Proceedings – SPACE International Conferences April 2021, 16–18. https://doi.org/10.51596/CBP2021.XWNG8060
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Hello everyone again and I hope everyone is keeping fine and safe in this challenging time of the covid war please kindly let me bring my uh PowerPoint file okay um just let me say about my background so the project is going to be clear about what it is
About uh I’m currently a postdoctoral researcher at Queens University Belfast and uh in the background I’m an architect and Landscape urbanist but at the moment I’m working about the age and gender inclusiveness in City centers and I’m actually making a comparative study of Terron and Belfast and uh today’s
Presentation is based of my most recent findings and also the procedure I’m in however uh as I explained earlier because of the pandemic it has been affected because it’s based on onsite uh situation of the city center however as you know know the city do not
Look like cities these days so if I just want to say about my uh short abstract you see that I have highlighted some of the key words here so it is about the inclusiveness in City centers and it is a more or less a comparative study of
Two case study cities and uh it is studying about studying the physical mental and spiritual aspects of users and the environments in the city center and how this can be answered in the most uh inclusive sense more or less by this comparative study I’m trying to find out
How the contextual differences of the two cities of teron and Belfast can be reflected in achieving the age and gender inclusiveness so by by now I have identified eight categories which I have highlighted here that shows that we have some similarities of the functions in two different case studies however how
They are interpreted in each context and how they can uh positively and negatively affect the human affect the inclusiveness in the city center might Def and by my on-sight study I’m trying to uh explore these aspects so uh just a short and brief um introduction about my
Case studies the first is Tran and the second is Belfast Tran is the capital of Iran and it is located in Middle East so uh some of you might not be very familiar about Middle East by some Middle Eastern countries so I would like to say that uh in the Middle Eastern
Countries you might see very different weathers during the summer and weekend summer and U Winters and Teran is more or less located here so we have the mous recreation mous areas all around these types and here we have the deserts and dry lands so as you see here Teran has a
Semi weather conditions so in summers we reach the temperature of 40 even 45° and in Winter we reach as – 4 – 5 which is called for us as Iranians not for some people who are used to call the vs such as Europeans or Canadians but anyway to
Cut the short story long story short um you see that here is the area of the city center of teron the size is more or less uh five star five square kilometer uh speaking about the history of this city teron was a very small village Village until about the 14th
Century but later on it became recognized as a city so it started to be very um structured and it started to grow as a city with uh with some kinds of constructive elements including the Royal Citadel also known as AR neighborhood residence uh protective elements such as the Ws that we had all
Around the city and also the shopping things which was the bazaar which was the be beating heart of uh the economy of the city so this all happened in the Years Around 1524 so you see the how it looked like at this time then it became
Recognized as the capital in the time of a king called aad Khan so uh in those years the city started to go grow more uh quantitatively as you see here and later on Teran became a more expanding Capital with new walls so in this time we had some Modern U modern signs
Entering the area of the teron so it was a more or less a cultural eclecticism that started to appear some parts with traditional designs and some part with modern design you see in level C and then later on in the time of the king called R pav in the Years 1925 and
Onwards uh it started to grow as a City without the surrounding walls in these time some administrative and Industrial functions uh started to grow in the city center and actually in the center in the in the city and this is what we see at the moment from teron which is a growing
City which as earlier my profess Professor Dr phom explained it is now recognized as a megalopolis so it is growing quite fast with with not a very old well organized system so you can see some images from a small City small village or we can say a small City then
Having more qu quantities then having some cultural eclecticism symptoms which shows that we have some traditional design as you see here and some kinds of more modern designs such as uh the shapes of rectangles and others being added and then later we we started to move towards the uh comp towards the Modern
Life as you see the starts of the uh growing of the greed and pl network of streets and squares and this is the current Teran as you see quite TSE and compact with the population of over 10 million just in the city of Theon so if you are interested about more about the
History of this city and the Kings and dynasties which which uh strongly affected the context of Theon please see this slide uh later and I just would like to say that Teran which is recognized as Metropolis or megalopolis as my professor ear explained with the population of over 10
10 million uh was something like five centuries ago was known as a very small village that even it’s not its name was hardly recognized and was barely known by many many designers many Architects many urban planners I can say so it was not known by even general public
Something like five centuries ago so whatever happened to the city center which you might see here only happened in um more or less less than uh five centuries so this map which I created on the Google Map is the map of the streets and squares as you see here and here is
The bazaar that we still have that and here is the Royal City though or also known as AR so the structure some elements of the structure uh of the paston still continue to exist but it is not well organized anymore and it is just a huge
Um intering of uh this context in the city center so just the C just the some images some some further Maps as you see of the squares and streets as you see here the main streets as you see it’s a greed and pl system of networks so it
Doesn’t look like the spontaneous and organic design which used to exist in uh old old Teran so at the moment as I said it’s quite Compact and dense you see the high volume of traffics even at night even until 1:00 a.m. and uh the construction has continued up to the
Minimum uh limits of the natural structures the image as as you might see here is a river valley that we have in Teran and as you see the constructions continues uh up to completely I can say the edge of the river shifting to my other context which
Is the city of Belfast so shifting from um Middle Eastern country to Western Country so as you know UK continues four Estates or I can say four parts including England Scotland Wes and Northern Island and Belfast is located in the northern Island if you feel interested about further further details
Of this city and what’s going on about this city you might be interested to use this map I just click it you might see it is a kind of interactive map so if you want to see further details about the city center how works just click on
That bton uh the arrow bottom and you see it’s going to be an interactive land use map so you can clearly uh choose the part that you would like to see however I just would like to say something please remember that this um they they are quite um strict about the copyright
So please remember to include it wherever you are going to use it and uh you might ask you might need to ask for the official permission as well they are quite strict about it so as you see here when we have the we can for example
Select the city center so you can see it location you can see Hills so it’s an interactive map so if you feel interested to um learn further about this city please use this link and okay this is the area of the city center as I showed you you can compare
It to the size of the whole city and in comparison to Teran with uh with the city center with a size of uh five star five square square kilm here we we are dealing with something like 2 kilm and 2 kilm so it’s much smaller so this the
Two cities are very different in the scale in the density in the population the population of pelas at this time is uh uh 350 and 350,000 so it’s it’s it’s much less population I can say it’s it’s um density compactness and everything is much less in comparison to the city of
Their own however I repeat myself we have lots of similarities in the functions but their inter interpretations and their usage in achieving the age and gender um inclusiveness is much different just for your interest if you feel interested about the agenda and local development plans and interactive maps please use
These links in in your future studies if you like and as I said the two cities are very different in scale and size compactness populations weather and geography Eastern versus western style of living and official standards however we have eight categories in in common which I’m going to explain these have
Been identified during my research uh and the next step which I’m going to explain is how to understand the difference of the usage of them in achieving age and gender inclusiveness so we have the historic elements in teron we have the AR as I said some images of that and in
Belfast we have the Belfast City Hall and the Memorial Garden just located in exactly the city Center we have the shopping Motif so in Teran we have the bazaar which is more or less still the traditional design and some kinds of traditional motifs being added to the paintings decorations the
Pths in a more kinds of curved and organic and spontaneous design still we have them and here we have shopping stores such as the which is called Victoria Square and we have shopping streets as well in their neighborhood so we have a combination of indoor and outdoor shopping in the in the
Belfast we have religious buildings uh in in Teran we have the most at the moment the majority of Iranians are Muslims however before that we had the zor asrian uh so we have the fire temples and the some kinds of zorian based religious areas as well but here we have
The churches so the concept of religious things still exist in the city center but the definition of them uh strongly vary and then we have the residential neighborhoods as you might see here the quality of them might not be very good in the context of Terron and in the
Center of uh Terron more or less the people from the moderate or I can say lowincome people are living you can see from even the quality of the buildings and here in Belfast the residential areas uh are a combination of modern and traditional highrise and low rise or
Medium rise and sometimes they follow the structures of the existing natural structures such as the river Lan that we have here and then uh very similarly in the city center we have the networks of squares and the streets uh but squares as you see here is is more or less the
Intersections Junctions or I can say the roundabouts in the in the Eastern countries in the eastern country actually I’m mean Teran and uh the streets are sometimes the place for the people to continue their shopping activities and their business Tes inside the scope of the streets but here the
The streets are a little different however we still have some streets which are based completely on automobiles uh in the vest as well but something like improving the culture of clean and net energies such as the cycling things here however I would like to just note a positive things about
Both of these two contexts we have the squares and streets which are the platform of the people together and enjoy the time uh Outdoors for demonstrations as you see strikes demonstrations Gatherings festivals uh eating and drinking in both of them as you see so the squares can be defined in
Both context as a place just for the transit of automobiles and also just as a place for the recreational aspects so both of these two concepts exist in the two uh context that I have studies and then we have the connection to the nature nature can be constructed such as
Constructed landscape such as the green uh green area and a park called city park that we have in teron or it can be less constructed such as the um paths that we have for pedestrians coming along the river as you see here and then uh we have the administrative and industrial buildings
As you might see here in the context of teron so which was added in the time that Terron started to grow as a modernized city and here we have uh I can say Administrative Building not Industrial in Belfast we have some kinds of offices firms and the City Hall and
We have some offices to let as you see here this building is called Scottish Pro Provident Institute which includes offices and in the lower ground it started to have some shopping areas as well so the concepts of administrative things have been inserted to the city centers worldwide and the eighth um item
That we have in common in both contexts about the recreational and non-recreational units which are based on shopping so we have some technical shops in Teran in the area of City Center which is the business one so it’s not recreational but here we have restaurants cafes and bars as as you see
So when it turns to the um to the night time it become a place for the people to come and enjoy so the city continues to be a city for people at night as well as during the day and uh apart from them we have some items which might be different from one
Context to another for example we have the universities here and in teron and in Bast but for example we have the landmark items which are quite crucial and important in the context of belf Fest you see we have the big fish here sometimes people come and take lots of
Photos with them we have Albert Memorial clock which is the representation of the past we have Beacon of Hope which is related to Thanksgiving Concepts but here in teron we have these statues and sculptures but they are not a place for the people to gather so they are not
Recognized as monuments so sometimes we have the names very similar but uh the understanding of the people and how they can attract people to the area of the city center is very different so what I have done so far was that in year one this is actually based on a two-year
Research project I’m working on so in the year one I have worked about the bazaar network of squares and streets and also about the tools and Technical shops so I have used these methods so you can see the direct appraisal hearing from people reading about them as well
And then I have taken picture and started to analyze these images which I’m going to show you by the bar charts and G charts and then I have used the platforms of conferences and journal articles as a platform of sh saving this for further uh developing that so the
Maps that you have already seen were a part that I have tried to recreate them find out which square is a roundabout which square is for example uh is just a junction which are still a gathering point of people and I have uh started to make quantitative as well as the qualitative
Analyzis as well so for instance I have made a categories of a according to the uh age and gender indicator so for example I use all the images which I took from the direct appraisal on the site which was based on the use of a
Common user so I I I try to specify these do these peoples as the dots for example a a woman on the on a vehicle is recognized as a hatched red CER and then we have the children for example in uh in co co colors and then I uh I changed
These images to these photos which we only have the uh red the dots and then I provided some kinds of um Excel charts and uh then I provided some kinds of diagrams to find out what they mean where we have the children and why we have the children in
Specific locations so it uh what I have done so far is more or less a kind of combination of qualitative and quantitative analyzes in the context of the own in the categories that I have showed you which were streets and squares Bazaar and also the shops so so
Another example so a square and then we I have um made a kind of images in the specified them as the dots and then provided these photos and then provided the charts the gun charts and then provided some further analyses of the overall Ros another example was analysis of
People based on being pedestrians and V on vehicles because one part of achieving age and gender inclusiveness is thinking of people just as pedestrians and then thinking of them as pedestrians with different age and gender categories so uh I have made further analysis about pedestrianization versus being on vehicles which are shown
By dots again and then I have provided analysis of them made a comparison between the categories of streets and squares that we had and then makes the overall analyzes about them as well besides I have uh tried to find out the key items of architecture buildings and also the
Urban buildings that we have in the city center so I have tried to find them all of them in the area of city center with different scales and then they were something around 230 as you might see here and then I tried to provide a new categorization system for them uh as you
Might see here which is not uh just a land use that we used to have before this new land use system that I introduced is based on the uses that we have so it is based on Direct appr appraisal that I used in the ordinary
Time in 2019 when we didn’t have any Co things so I I made analyses of the current of the I can say not current of the usual condition of the city and made a new categorization of the land uses and then as you see with a new system of
Land use not with how it exists and uh then I combined it with the street networks and then I proposed a new system for the city I’m going to cut the long story short if you feel interested about these details please um do not hesitate to contact and I would
Be more than happy to share it with you but this is the overall things I have done so far so as I said we had these eight categories in teron and I have worked on Bazaar networks of squares and streets and this so one reason of making
This presentation was to think that if somebody is interested about working Bazaar squares um working about three the other aspects AR or principal religious buildings residential neighbor who because by reaching the uh time of the co thingss people are not are not experiencing the usual life so if I
Would make the direct appraisal on them on the current situation it’s not going to be a data which can be extendable to the um overall and General Life of the people so one reason was to ask for for any kinds of collaborations or interest about the other aspects I haven’t worked
On so far and the second is that I as I said I started to work on uh on the city Center of Belfast as well I have made qualitative analyzes as you have seen But about the quantities by reaching the time of the co things they are going to
Remain incomplete and by the end of my second year in September I might not be the post structural researcher anymore so it’s not going to be complet be uh put F any further at the end of this year but it can be applied as a kind of new opening for the future
Collaborations if anyone might feel interested and also I would like to ask for any other people who might be working about similar Topic in other cities if they have found any uh interesting references or if they have any idea about how they might be dealing about the same concer at the present
Time that’s all from me and I hope you have enjoyed if you have any questions or suggestion please not hesitate to contact me