Research on the patterns of self-organization in urban structures : case study Isfahan Bazaar

Abstract

Design is a critical aspect of solving problems by managing different layers of information. In the context of urban design, problems must be transformed to meet the needs of society. Consequently, urban design becomes a multifaceted task that can be hindered by oversimplification or disorder, both during the design process and in its evaluation. As Kipnis discusses, the heterogeneous space as a democratic space differs from the homogeneous universal space of modernism (determination without diversity) and incongruous heterogeneity in postmodernism (Kipnis, 1993). As an urban showcase for "democratic space," this research attempts to decode the spatial organization of a remarkably resilient urban structure in Iranian cities, the Isfahan Bazaar. The Bazaar, a conglomeration of internal markets, forms a cluster centered around a main thoroughfare. Its magnetic axis is considered paramount in Iranian cities, as it serves as the most significant movement-based structure of the urban form. Bazaar is an interwoven social, political, and cultural network representing remarkable adaptability to city transformation. Bazaars embody a subtle urban historical development that needs to be studied about how it addresses the variables, i.e., environmental forces alongside the social, cultural, and political changes.This complex structure, particularly in Isfahan Bazaar, caters to various demands as an urban and spatial embodiment of social interactions aligned with the concept of historical development and self-organization of society and its subsystems proposed by Niklas Luhmann. As underscored by Franck and Schumacher, the historical, social interrelation between the built environment and cities could have been better researched in the context of urban topologies (Franck, 2010; Schumacher, 2011). Therefore, there is room to suggest a morphological method backed by an analytical space syntax study of the evolutionary progression of the Isfahan Bazaar structure. This approach takes advantage of knowledge management software and decodes the underlying logic of self-organization for movement and occupation patterns within Bazaar in the periods under study. To study the patterns of self-organization and stable and unstable growth processes in urban structures, Isfahan Bazaar offers unique potential to explore its vivid appearance in the evolution of Isfahan in three major urban transformations. City generation in 772 AD; Urban transformation in 11-12th; Golden era of the city urban development in 16-17th. The analysis of the Isfahan bazaar focuses on the following patterns as two main components of any urban typologies. First, in movement-based patterns, i.e., the topography of movement in the Bazaar is examined to determine whether dynamic systems are suitable in the context of nonlinear self-organization in the Bazaar’s growing structure. Second, occupation-based patterns study the topologies in the Bazaar and their layout to determine the suitability of dynamic systems in cell formations or, on the other hand, topologies’ layout in the Bazaar. These two components are then tested on the scale “major” of the formation and evolution of the city and the scale “minor” of some significant segments of the Bazaar (e.g., around the central mosque). Altogether, by providing a historical perspective, this dissertation attempts to show how the idea of self-organization and dynamic systems in the context of urban structures can be addressed and what open questions need to be tackled by future research.