Analysis of Physical Structure and Mental Image in the Formation of Place Identity in Abresan Street of Tabriz

Authors

1 Associate Professor, Department of Geography and Urban Planning, Faculty of Humanities, University of Zanjan, Zanjan, Iran.

2 Assistant Professor of Geography and Urban Planning, Faculty of Humanities, University of Tarbiat Modares, Tehran, Iran

3 Ph.D. in Geography and Urban Planning, Faculty of Humanities, University of Zanjan, Zanjan, Iran.

Abstract

If we classify place identity under the categories of "place as a material environment", "place as a social space", and "place as an experiential and psychological difference of people from space", the present article has tried to explain place identity of street space from a positivist and phenomenological perspective toward its first component, “space as a material environment”, which is in turn the creator of social interaction and spatial cognition, as referred to by Jane Jacobs and Kevin Lynch. In line with this goal, the present research is an attempt to identify the direct and indirect effects of various physical and mental components of place identity on the context of Tabriz Abresan Street space. For this purpose, using the theories of Jane Jacobs and Kevin Lynch, two prominent urban thinkers, first the effect of spatial form on the characteristics of large-scale land uses, diverse and mixed land uses, the characteristics of the urban fabric of the region (population density and Net Residential Density (NRD)), number of building floors, graining of building parcels, possibility of permeability between buildings, ease of access to public space, and proximity was studied according to the characteristics of adjacent uses in street space from the point of view of Jane Jacobs. In addition, the map of people's mental image was drawn according to the point of view of Kevin Lynch and based on the interview conducted with ten informed users of the street space of Abresan Area. To analyze these components in the street space of the Abresan Area of Tabriz, models of Euclidean distance function, neural networks, and spatial statistics in ArcGIS Software environment were used. To draw a mental image map, ten non-specialist users aware of the space were interviewed.  The results showed that considering physical and mental dimensions from the perspective of positivist and phenomenological geography provides the basic basis for a broader qualitative analysis of the causes of attractiveness, high social value in people's minds and the overall identity of street spaces. Basically, to draw the scientific boundaries of geography, knowledge of these matters will provide a strong theoretical basis for the next steps of representing the place identity in public spaces of cities, implying that quantitative geography along with qualitative geography give a more comprehensive analysis of place identity.

Keywords

References

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Urban Structure and Function Studies
Volume 9, Issue 30
March 2022
Pages 179-212

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History

  • Receive Date: 29 December 2021
  • Accept Date: 29 December 2021

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