Morphological Transformations of Isfahan’s Historic Core: Impacts on Urban Fabric and Sustainability

Abstract

The shape of cities has changed at an unprecedented rate in recent years, with primarily adverse effects on the traditional contexts of historic city centers. The spread of new urban forms has led to the neglect of key features in traditional urban planning. Increasingly, old structures are being demolished rather than restored or updated, vernacular patterns are being lost, and the development of physical and functional spaces (shaped by centuries of economic and social relationships through trial and error) has been overlooked. This has resulted in the disappearance of values that once influenced the urban fabric, creating undefined and shapeless spaces. This research aims to address the question of how and based on what criteria the urban areas of Jamaleh can be evaluated to develop a more sustainable model, and what methods can be used to quantify these criteria. Through a review of the literature, the authors identified the criteria for evaluating urban areas in terms of shape and morphology, environmental, visual, movement, and access dimensions. Given the qualitative nature of some expectations for urban plots or blocks, the evaluation method for each criterion is also provided to quantify these qualities. Based on this evaluation, urban properties in four blocks of the Jamaleh neighborhood in Isfahan, in 1976 and 2003, were compared according to the established criteria. Finally, the research findings indicated that the Jamaleh neighborhood is losing its qualities in terms of form, environmental, and visual criteria, while gaining points only in terms of movement and accessibility.