The Role of Outdoor Cafes in Urban Regeneration Case of Isfahan Chahar Bagh Avenue

Document Type : Research Paper

Authors

Abstract

Many cities and towns across the world have poured investment into improving and re-creating the urban public realm, in the redesign of plazas, streets and parks. These designs are intended to have a social impact by encouraging more active social life in urban public space. With the concern to bring back places lost vitality, recently, attention has been focused on the creation of cafe culture and developing outdoor cafes. In outdoor cafes Apart from drinking and relaxing, people enjoy a number of activities which derive from the public character of the setting: watching the world go by, being 'entertained by street life', bumping into people one knows, seeing and being seen and meeting strangers. This paper aims to investigate about the role of pavement cafes in urban regeneration and tries to probe into how these cafes can be used in order to revitalize functionally an urban place. Adopting an analytical-descriptive research method, the concepts of sidewalk cafes and their urban role is theoretically studied in this paper. After summarizing the views of leading researchers of this realm, "improving sense of attachment to place", "enhancing social interactions", "having economic benefits" and "increasing feeling of safety" are mentioned as physical, social and mental functions of outdoor cafes. The research for this article was conducted on Chahar Bagh Avenue in Isfahan. This case is the most important historical street of Iran which was built in safavid era by Shah Abbas as an recreational and commercial axis. Recently, regeneration of this street has become an important part of city development plans. With the concern to bring back this street lost character, most of proposals lay emphasis on rebuilding of street facades and pedestrainisation of it. Although these plans are affective and somehow essential, but they need lots of Infrastructure measures, and they are costly and time consuming. Consequently, taking into consideration of other solutions which are less expensive and time saving, seems indispensable. This paper puts forward the argument that developing sidewalk cafes and cafe culture could be considered as a Preliminary solution of regenerating Chahar Bagh Avenue, functionally. As a result, this paper carry out a study of all the factors that play a part as social, physical and mental restrictions of recreational activities in Chahar Bagh. Supporting evidences gathered by empirical examination of behavioral responses of people in this limited area. Observation and Structured and semi structured interviews were used to study deficiencies which limit users’ recreational activities on this street. Then through a descriptive-comparative approach this paper draws an analogy between the economic, social, environmental, physical-spatial, administrational and cultural dimensions of outdoor cafes and this street limitation as a recreational zone. This comparison establishes a connection between Chahar Bagh needs of social conditioning and what street cafes offer as social institutions. There for, this paper draws the conclusion that sidewalk cafes and cafe culture, in the absence of sufficient researches, proper decisions and governmental support, can be used in order to revitalize functionally Chahar Bagh Avenue.

Keywords

References

احتشامی، لطف الله (1382)، ییلاقات صفویه در دارالسلطنه اصفهان، مجموعه مقــالات همایش اصفهان و صفویه، ج 2، انتشــارات دانشگاه اصفهان، اصفهان، صص 1-4.
اشراقی، احسان (1353)، اشاره‌ای به تفریحات و نظام تفریحی دوران صفویه، هنر ومعماری، سال 12، شماره های140 و 141، صص 28-35.
انصاری، محمد اسماعیل (1382)، فعالیتهای تجاری- صنعتی عصر شــاه عباس اول در اصفهان، مجموعه مقالات همایش اصفهان و صفویه، ج 2، انتشارات دانشگاه اصفهان، اصفهان، صص 36-50.
اهری، زهرا (1385)، خیابان چهارباغ اصفهان مفهومی نو از فضای شهری، گلستان هنر، شماره 5، صص 48-59.
اولئاریوس، آدام (1379)، سفرنامه آدام اولئاریوس (اصفهان خونین شیخ صفی)، ترجمه حسین کردبچه، هیرمند، تهران.
آیت الله زاده شــیرازی، باقر (1386)، شهرسازی ظریف و بی نظیر عهد صفویه، ماهنامه دانش‌نما، سال 16، شماره 148-150، صص 19-20.
پورمختار، احمد (1392)، بررسی میزان پیاده مداری در خیابان چهارباغ اصفهان و تأثیر آن بر تعامل اجتماعی شهروندان، مطالعات شهر ایرانی اسلامی، شماره 11، صص 91-101.
حسینی، آرزو (1392)، شربت و شربت خانه در گذر زمان، باغ نظر، سال 10، شماره 25، صص 49-58.
دالمانی، هانری رنه (1348)، سفرنامه خراسان تا بختیاری، ترجمه فرموشی، چاپ تهران، تهران.
ذبیحی، حسین؛ علیخانی راد، یحیی (1391)، امکان سنجی پیاده راه کردن خیابان چهارباغ عباسی اصفهان، دانش نما، سال 21، شماره 3، صص 6-19.
زرگریان، محمد مهدی (1389)، مطالعه و امکان سنجی باز زنده سازی بدنه ی غربی چهار باغ عباسی (حد فاصل نهر فرشادی تا خیابان شیخ بهایی)، پایان نامه کارشناسی ارشد مرمت و احیای بافت های تاریخی، دانشکده معماری و شهرسازی دانشگاه هنر اصفهان، اصفهان.
شاردن، ژان (1375)، سفرنامه شاردن، ترجمه اقبال یغمایی، توس، تهران.
علیخانی راد، محمد (1391)، طراحی محور پیاده با رویکرد گردشگری (نمونه موردی خیابان چهارباغ عباسی اصفهان)، پایان نامه کارشناسی ارشد معماری، دانشکده معماری و شهرسازی دانشگاه آزاد اسلامی واحد تهران مرکز، تهران.
فیگوئرا، دن گارسیا دسیلوا (1363)، سفرنامه فیگوئرا سفیر اسپانیا در دربار شاه عباس اول، ترجمه غلامرضا سمیعی، نشر نو، تهران.
کارری، جملی (1348)، سفرنامه کارری، ترجمه عباس نخجوانی، نشر اداره فرهنگ و هنر آذربایجان شرقی، آذربایجان شرقی.
کمپفر، انگلبرت (1363)، سفرنامه کمپفر، ترجمه کیکاووس جهانداری، خوارزمی، تهران.
مسجدی، حسین؛ ابراهیمی، مژگان (1382)، شبها، شورها و شعورها؛ بررســی اجمالی سیاســت صفویه برای ســرگرمی های فرهنگی (اوقات فراغــت)، مجموعه مقالات همایــش اصفهان و صفویه، ج 2، انتشارات دانشگاه اصفهان، اصفهان، صص 1-14.
هنرفر، لطف الله (1349)، چهارباغ اصفهان، مجله هنر و مردم، شماره 96و97، صص 2-14.
Aditis, Mantrawadi (2005), An Urban Design Based Evalution of Fountain Square, (AS A Potential Location For Successful Outdoor Cafes & Restaurants), University of Cincinnati, Design, Architecture, Art and Planning: Community Planning.
Agrawal, R. (2009), Threat of a “me too” perception: A case of Café Coffee Day, The Marketing Review, Volume 9, Issue 3, PP 251-271.
Bianchini, F. (1995), Night cultures, night economies, Planning Practice and Research, Volume 10, Issue 2, PP 121-126.
Edensor, Tim (2000), Staging tourism: tourists as performers, Annals of Tourism Research, Volume 27, Issue 2, PP 322–344.
Gehl, Jan (2001), Life Between Buildings:Using Public Space, Island press, Washington D.C.
Green, R. (1999), Meaning and Form in Community Perception of Town Character, Journal of Environmental Psychology, Volume 19, Issue 3, PP 311-329.
Jackson, J. B. (1994), A Sense of Place, a Sense of Time, Yale University Press, New Haven.
Lewis, P. F. (1979), Defining a Sense of Place, The Southern Quarterly, The University of Southern Mississippi, Volume 17, Issue 3&4, PP 24-46.
McChesney, Robert D. (1988), Four sources on Shah Abbas’s building of Isfahan, Muqarnas, Issue 5, PP 103-134.
Montgomery, John R. (1997), Café culture and the city: The role of pavement cafés in urban public social life, Journal of Urban Design, Volume 2, Issue 1,PP 83-102.
Montgomery, John R.; Owens, P. (1995), The evening economy of cities, Regenerating Cities, Issue 7, PP 32-40.
Nepa, Stephen E. (2011), The New Urban Dining Room: Sidewalk Cafes in Postindustrial Philadelphia,  Buildings & Landscapes, Journal of the Vernacular Architecture Forum, Volume 18, Issue 2, PP  60-81.
Norberg-Schultz, C. (1980), Genius loci: Towards a Phenomenology of Architecture, Academy Editions, London.
Oldenburg, Ray (1991), The great good place: Cafes, coffee shops, bookstores, bars, hair salons, and other hangouts at the heart of a community, Marlowe, New York.
Oosterman, J. (1992), Welcome to the pleasure dome: play and entertainment in urban public space:
the example of the sidewalk cafe, Built Environment, Volume 18, Issue 2, PP 155-164.
Papachristos, Andrew V. & etal. (2011), More Coffee, Less Crime? The Relationship between Gentrification and Neighborhood Crime Rates in Chicago, 1991 to 2005. City & Community, Volume 10, Issue 3, PP 215–240.
Relph, E. (1976), Place and Placelessness, Pion, London.
Sancar, F. H. (1994), Paradigms of Postmodernity and Implications for Planning and Design Review Processes, Environment and Behavior, Volume 26, Issue 3, PP 312-337.
Tuan, Y.F. (1980), Rootedness versus Sense of Place, Landscape, Volume 24, Issue 1, PP 3-8.

Verbeke, Myriam Jansen (1987), Women, shopping and leisure, Leisure Studies,  Volume 6, Issue 1, PP 71-86.

Wekerle, Gerda R. (1980), Women in the Urban Environment, Signs, Volume 5, Issue 3, PP 188-214.
Whyte, W. H. (1982), The Social Life of Small Urban Spaces, The Conservation Foundation, Washington DC.
Journal of Fine Arts: Architecture & Urban Planning
Volume 20, Issue 3 - Serial Number 3
September 2015
Pages 31-42

Files

Share

How to cite

Statistics