Kaveh Dabiri_TEHRAN 2030+

TEHRAN 2030+ ‘Voidstructure’ Scenario for the future Mega-City of Tehran

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Kaveh Dabiri Mentors: Stephen Read, Daan Zandbelt EMU-TU Delft, June 2009

The future Mega-City of Tehran 2030+ Kaveh Dabiri Mentors: Stephen Read, Daan Zandbelt Reader: Prof. Han Meyer EMU TU Delft, June 2009

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What happened in Iran during the last month is an unseparable part of my thesis.

This thesis is dedicated to those courageous citizens, students and women in Tehran who stood for the obvious rights of a nation, during the last two weeks, yet were beaten or murdered despite a civilized and nonviolant expression of reality. This is just to share my feelings with them.

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[Acknowledgements] This thesis would not exist without the support of my mentors, Stephen Read and Daan Zandbelt, with their inspiring guidance and useful comments during these months.

I would like to thank the reader of my thesis, Prof. Han Meyer.

Special thanks to Kaveh Banan, Djamshid Banan and my mother for their sincere supports during these years of study in TU Delft.

Above all, this thesis owes a special debt of inspiration and daily support to Azadeh Mashayekhi.

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Table of contents

01. [Introduction] 6 01.1. Thesis Statement 01.2. Approach and Tools 02. [Future Megacities] 8 02.1. Urban World 02.2. Megacities; Threats and Opportunities 02.3. The Regional City 03. [Tehran; Urban and Regional Features] 12 03.1. Iran Plateau and the settlement logic 03.2. Metropolitan area of Tehran 03.3. Tehran’s Snapshots 03.4. City between mountain and desert 03.5. Radial Structure 03.6. Fast growing city and region 03.7. Masterplan’s effect 03.8. Dispersed territory with a Supercentre 04. [Excursions on Capacities] 46 04.1. Future Population Scenario 04.2. Built vs. Unbuilt 04.3. Settlement Capacity Studies 05. [Hypotheses and tools] 58 05.1. Probable Growth Scenarios 05.2. White Strategy as a Tool 05.3. Quality Generators [Reference Projects] 05.4. Main Components of The ‘Voidstructure’ 05.5. Green space survey 06. [Design Proposal] 85 06.1. Future City Concept 06.2. Diagrams of Eco-Structure Components 06.3. The Phasing Diagrams and Development Choices 06.4. Typology and locations of the public open spaces 06.5. Vision Plan 06.6. Design 130

08. [References]

132

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07. [Conclusion]

01. [Introduction] 01.1. [Thesis Statement]

The Urban population is constantly increasing in the world today. According to the United Nations reports in 2030 about 61% of the world will live in cities. ‘Over The past 30 years, the world’s urban population has risen from 1.6 billion to 3.3 billion, and over the next 30 years cities in the developing world are set to grow by an extra 2 billion’.

The number of Megacities is increasing worldwide Due to urbanization on such a vast scale, city related disciplines’ attempts were failed to control the current conditions. As Koolhaas points out, ‘Professionals of the city are like chess players who lose to computers’. By understanding the future projections of emerging Megacities phenomena and vast urban regions, we could have a more clear answer to the question: what kind of interventions can influence the future of such rebel urbanization? How could find ways to create potentials for territories instead of imposing limits and making certain decisions. What is the future city condition?

In this research I study the mega-city of Tehran as one single project in a more than 2 decades future. Tehran, the most populous city of Iran, houses about 15 million inhabitants in the metropolitan area and about 8 million in the city, which indicates a very fast growth since 1900 when the city had just 200,000 inhabitants. The population has jumped about 70 times although the country’s population has increased just 7 times.

Such a fast growth especially resulted in a massive dispersion an enlargement of suburbs mostly during the last decades migrations. According to the very central role of Tehran region, there are still migrations taking place and more messing up the territory and decreasing the quality of life especially in the suburbs. The approach of the state with making masterplans has been a losing battle and could never be implemented properly. Such plans are more based on a tight control by rigid rules, especially by ignoring Tehran as a region.

According to the forecasts of inhabitants by 2030+ in relation to country’s population, two probable scenarios indicate that there will be more than 20 million people living in the province of Tehran. The vast consumption of lands, the lack of public and green spaces and facilities, destruction of landscape, water shortage, and remote accessibilities to the Tehran as the monocentre and waste of energy will be the consequence of such a growth.

According to such trends there are some questions to be answered in this thesis: HOW THIS FUTURE CITY WILL SURVIVE? HOW TO INCREASE THE LIVING CAPACITY OF THE TERRITORY? HOW TO EXPLOIT THE EXPANSION? WHERE THE CITY HAS TO INVEST TO BATTLE THE RISKS OF SUCH A REBEL GROWTH? HOW TO POTENTIALIZE THE TERRITORY? WHAT KIND OF INTERVENTION COULD GUARANTEE THE QUALITY OF EXPANSION? WHERE THE GROWTH SHOULD BE GUIDED?

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01.2. [Approach & Tools] Regarding the raised questions on this thesis, the fast growth of the city and its suburbs where the built is suspicious requires an alternative approach to take. As many critics of the city such as Koolhaas point out, the confrontation of Urbanism discipline with such a phenomena requires to take different actions as we did before. There is a special interest in taking a more serious look at th voids and landscape. Koolhaas uses the term ‘irrigation of the city with potentials’ in order to declare that there are not fixed and certain decisions which are the proper approach today but to make potentials for the city and realize the uncertain conditions.

In such a condition where the ‘built’ is suspect, the ‘unbuilt’ is certainly reliable. Where should not be built or urbanized and where to offer new public projects and investments? ’Urbanism of good intentions’ where the city and people benefit from high quality of public spaces, takes place when the municipality more focuses and invests on such projects, in other words to put stress on the White and not the black.

My approach in this project mainly focuses on implementation of three elements, the infrastructure, the landscape and the public facilities. These are the tools to use in order to keep pace with the growth and reorientation it instead of making plans which intend to control the built mass itself.

This project is about to introduce an open space structure in the metropolitan area of Tehran ,through strategies and scenarios, which consists of green, water, infrastructure, recreations, etc. in a single system which sustains the future mega-city, by using the existing landscape and infrastructure qualities as well as new proposed ones. I call this new structure, the SUPERVOID STRUCTURE. There are three main tools to implement: 1.the infrastructure to reorientation the growth and provide the public accessibility to the whole key projects, 2.the landscapes including agriculture lands, green, water, desert and mountains to be preserved and be integrated & 3.the public facilities which consist of both iconic public buildings and parks.

The concept of the project is in a close relationship to the geography of the territory where it introduces an ecological system on a very large scale. The future growth will be reoriented along the mountains, which provide the water from the mountains, and avoid the sprawl. It is intensification along the mountains on the irrigated flanks.

At the end, in order to shift from large scale diagrams and scenario to reality, one strip of the project is designed as a test of its spatial quality.

The Structure

The 2nd chapter is describing the global trends of urban life and the threats and opportunities of emerging megacities. The third chapter is a first a general overview on Tehran and the urbanization in Iran and secondly the description of the major inputs for the problem statement related to the Tehran mteropolitan area such as the infrastructure conditions and water capacities. The fourth chapter the capacities of the city and the megacity are tested. The approaches, tools and hypothesis are explained in the fifth chapter and the last chapter is the design proposal.

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02. [Future Megacities] 02.1. [Urban World] Urban World and the rise of more mega-cities in the developing world

The 21st century is the century of cities and of urbanisation (Hall/ Pfeiffer, 2001). Over the past 30 years, the world’s urban population has risen from 1.6 billion to 3.3 billion, and over the next 30 years cities in the developing world are set to grow by an extra 2 billion. An important corollary of contemporary urban growth at the global scale is the rapid increase in the number and size of the largest cities. Despite the general rise in the number of city inhabitants it is the metropolitan centres that are proliferating and rising the fastest. The UN estimates indicate that number of cities with over 8 million inhabitants increased from ten in 1970 to 24 in 2000 which two third of them are situated in the developing world.

The only two mega-cities during 50s were New York and London, both in the developed countries. The population of Mexico City, Sao Paulo, Seoul, Bombay, Jakarta and Tehran has tripled between 1970-2000.

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While many of the developing countries which are facing an urban over-concentration are trying to implement policies to decentralize such urbanisation on the vast scale, ‘The World bank argues that third-world cities grow so big and so fast precisely because they generate vast economic advantages, and that these gains may be increasing and slowing down, or pushing it towards places not linked with world markets, is costly and futile’ (Lump together and like it, The Economist, 6th Nov. 2008). An example of such implemented policies is Egypt, which builds 20 new cities to divert people away from Cairo.

[ ] source: google earth

02.2. [Megacities; Threats and Opportunities] The agglomeration and metropolitan areas as well as megacities come into the international focus of policy and science because of their serious impact on the global environment. In fact the following characteristics of megacities imply a lot of serious risks but also potentials and opportunities for the regional and global developments: Density: Megacities show the highest density of inhabitants, industrial assets and production, social and technical infrastructure. Metropolitan areas and especially megacities become more and more the centres and nodal points of the global economy.

Dynamics: Megacities are characterized by highest dynamic in the fields of spatial and demographic growth, change of land use and consumption of land for settlement purposes that mostly take place in absence of urban planning and on foreign plots. Also the formal and informal urban economic sectors are on a high dynamic level.

Settlement, infrastructure and land tenure: The extension of cities is always in advance of urban development work and the provision of public facilities. Beside the “proper city�, which is in the focus of strictly conventional urban planning, all the other quarters and districts of the agglomeration and megacities grow up outside the law and without the benefits of urban planning. In many cases there is a lack of an efficient infrastructure for the public and private traffic, of proper garbage removal and also of sewage systems with wastewater purification.

Socio-economic disparities: In megacities we can recognize a wide range of social standards and social fragmentation, social-cultural conflicts because of the different background of the immigrants and a great number of urban poor, which are bad provided with public facilities and infrastructure and their housing areas are often edged out by stronger economic purposes and land use.

Risks and vulnerability: Considering the density and number of inhabitants and also the accelerated development megacities run highest risk in the cases of men made and natural disasters. Related to the population we have a high rate of consumption of natural resources especially land for new settlement areas, water and energy. The result is an ecological strain of the environment with serious pollution of the air, water and soil.

Governance: One of the greatest challenges of agglomerations and megacities is their governability and one can recognize a crisis of urban government in this. The experiences show that the possibilities of traditional forms of centralized governance with top down strategies are restricted because of the extension, highly dynamic and highly complex interactions within the megacities and also with their surroundings.

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Source: Prof. Dr.-Ing. Theo KĂśtter, University of Bonn, Germany Risks and Opportunities of Urbanization and Megacities

source: www.worldprocessor.com

02.3. [The Regional City]

The fact that the idea of the regional city is not a new one and it was just before the turn of the twentieth century that Ebenezer Howard created the vision of the Garden City as a way to decentralize the urban population and restore the balance between urban and rural life. Ever since then our metropolitan areas have grown consistently larger and regionalism has gone in and out of fashion. Planners, economist, environmentalists and others who for decades ignored the metropolitan region now acknowledge that the region is, indeed, a basic driver of many cities growth pattern.

As the “globalization” of our economy has accelerated we have come to realize that the region is the basic unit in economical terms. The global economy operates best at the regional scale for two reasons. First, much to everyone’s surprise, despite our advances in telecommunications technology, proximity still matters a great deal. And, second, because of the decentralized nature of the economy, networking among a large number of highly specialized people and businesses matters more than ever. Increasingly, businesses recognize that they must operate at a regional scale to be competitive in the global marketplace. Businesses are coming to understand that the entire metropolis—central city, older suburbs, newer suburbs, and so on—must be viewed as a single economic unit in order for them to be competitive.

The region is also an environmental unit like an economical issue. Many of the most important environmental initiatives of the past twenty years have focused on maintaining and enhancing larger “ecosystems” based on land and water patterns. Most natural systems do not operate at a local level. Rather, they function at a much larger scale that many ecologists and designers often call the “landscape” level, which includes entire watersheds, agricultural territory, and ecosystems that cover many communities.

Today the ecological region and the economic region are woven together so tightly that they form the basic fabric of the metropolitan region.

World Urban & Rural population UN

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World Urbanization UN

CASPIAN SEA

PERSIAN GULF

GULF OF OMAN

03. [Tehran; Urban and Regional Features] 03.1. Iran Plateau and the settlement logic Settlements on the plateau

The interior part of Iran is a vast plateau, which encloses a series of basins which lie at an altitude of between 300-1,200 m. It’s here that two of the most arid deserts are to be found; the Kavir-e-Namak and Dasht-e-Lut. Aridity within this central area is one of the major reasons why most settlement is located on the margins of these deserts, towards the foothills of the surrounding mountains. Here water resources are available, mainly from ‘Qanats’. As a result, the large important cities of the interior part of the country are located on the western, northern and southern flanks of these deserts. Furthermore important historical routes as the great Silk Road from China to the Mediterranean passed through Iran on the southern slopes of the Alburz and the ancient Indian highway ran from south to north on the eastern flanks of the Zagros and connected these populated centres and was major reasons for their development.

Tehran is one such city located on an alluvial plain, between two of the south facing valleys of Central Alburz range, the Karaj valley to the west and Jajrud valley to the east.

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Tabriz

Mash’had

Tehran

Esfahan

Shiraz

The satellite image of the country at night in which it shows the urban pattern of the country and the urbanization on the plateau that is related to the main geographical features such as mountains, deserts and the seas. The concentration of the settlements is within and on the edge of the two Chain Mountains of Zagros and Alburz as well as the coastal areas in the north by the Caspian Sea and in the south by the Persian Gulf.

The blank central and eastern parts are arid lands of the two main deserts. None of the main cities of the country are located by the sea as mentioned on the map, although most of the world megacities are located next to large water surfaces, such as Tokyo, New York, Lagos, Mumbai, Istanbul, etc.

78% Urban by 2030

According to the global trends and due to the Global Urban Observatory statistics, by 2030 Iran will be 78% urban. On the other hand United Nations’ forecasts declare that Iran will house between 90 to 100 million inhabitants by 2030, 90 million people according to a medium variant and about 100 million inhabitants according to high variant projections. There will be a population of 70-78 million people living in the cities of Iran by that time which will be still living next to the mountains and by the coasts.

2030+ 100MHigh variant 90MMedium variant

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Caspian Sea

Karaj

Tehran

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The crucial part of this increase is the migration to the big cities of Tehran, Mash’had, Esfahan, Tabriz and Shiraz. Tehran as the capital of a developing country with an immense concentration of the infrastructure, wealth and administrations will be the main target for both future investments and consequently the migration. This counts for both Tehran as a city and the metropolitan region, the province of Tehran. According to UN Urban agglomerations report, the main big cities in Iran, will gain less than one million inhabitants each by 2025, except for the city of Tehran which will gain about 2 million people. Karaj which is located 40 kilometres away from Tehran and is the main big city in the Tehran metropolitan area will increase 50% of its current population and will reach Esfahan as the third populated city in Iran. Since such data is just about the main centres of the region, the megacity of Tehran will face an enormous growth of population.

Source: google maps

Interrelations of the Terrain and settlements in the Tehran region A zoom-in through the northern part of the country where Alburz Mountain and the Caspian Sea are located is a sample of the settlements along the coast and on the flanks of the mountains. Tehran is located in this area. As shown in the comparison of the two maps, the terrain and the urbanization, Tehran and Karaj fill the two flanks on the southern parts of the mountain. The urban pattern of Tehran region shown on this page declare the expansion of city beyond the flanks and follow 2 directions; a sprawl on the southern plain and a linear growth along the mountains boundary towards the northwest because of the arid plain on the south-east side.

Spatial and geographic analysis of Tehran and its region is a crucial

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Source: google maps

Adminstration divisions

03.2. [Metropolitan area of Tehran] The city of Tehran is a located at the centre of the province by the same name with an area of about 18,900 km2 which is located to the north of the central plateau of Iran. With about 14 million inhabitants, it is the most densely-populated region of the country which is also known as the metropolitan area of Tehran. According to the imbalanced concentration of power and consequently the infrastructure, wealth and public facilities in the Tehran, the Province houses about 18% of the country’s population and contributes approximately 29% of Iran’s GDP although it covers only about one ninetieth of Iran’s area. 86.5% of the province inhabitants live in the urban areas such as Tehran, Karaj, Eslamshahr, etc. There are many cities very close to Tehran: One is the city of Karaj, 40 km to the west, with 1.5 million inhabitants, and the other is Eslamshahr, 60 km to the south, with a population of 400 thousand.

The province gained its crucial importance when Tehran was chosen as the Capital of the Qajar Dynasty in 1785, although the city of Rey which is more than 5000 years old, as one of the ancient urban areas in the world, which some believe was the first, was located outside of the village of Tehran.

Relief map

Population density source: Atlas of Tehran Metropolis

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The province at a glance source: Atlas of Tehran Metropolis

0

20

40 KM

In the south of the province, desert covers the land under 900 m above sea level. In those areas, industrial complexes such as slaughter houses and other polluting industries have increased. Tehran’s new international airport is also located in this area, in the south of Robat Karim.

The urban area of the province has a rich network of highways and roads, connecting dispersed urban complexes separated by vast agricultural and barren lands.

On the other hand many other highly populated villages often lack the adequate network of roads. As shown on the map above, the infrastructure in the province, both roads and rails support a central structure with Tehran as its focal point.

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[03.3.Snapshots]

Density

03.3. Tehran’s Snapshots

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Tehran from north to south

New developments

s

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New developments

03.4. [City between mountain and desert]

Tehran is a mountainside city with an altitude of 900 to 1700 meters above sea level. Its urban area spreads entirely over the Iranian plateau, on the slopes of a very high dense mountain barrier, with a peak of 3933m (known as Towchal) which is 2200m higher than the city’s residential areas.

Such an immense height difference in a distance of less than 70km and the region’s particular geographic feature create an extraordinary contradictory climate and landscape condition, from cold to warm, fertile to arid and high to low. As we can see in the section, city is located in between the high mountains and the desert. In the south of Tehran and its suburbs, beyond the IKIA airport, the desert begins. The mountains on the north are an integral part of Tehran region where they are used as the recreational places daily and seasonally, including, the adjacent valleys with water streams, villages within the southern valleys and the highest points. The plain of Tehran is covered by alluvium deposited by the rivers and seasonal streams running from the Alburz, which divide the territory into three different sections.

In this project such geographic features of the Tehran region will be more taken into consideration in the upcoming chapters for developing the concepts and scenarios for the future development of the region.

3000 M.

OVER SEA LEVEL

2600 2200 1800 1400 1000

MASIL-E-KAVIR 0

VARAMIN 10

FASHPUYEH 20

Cross Section from the mountains to the desert

RE 30

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REY 40

TEHRAN 50

SHEMIRAN 60

ALBURZ 70 KM

City between the mountain and desert source: Atlas of Tehran metropolis

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Chaloos

#

*

#

Karaj Tehran

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*#

Dam Ski Resort Damavand Summit

#

*

*

Tehran

Tehran is one of the scarce megacities of the world which is not located by the sea and doesn’t have a coastline. However having the Caspian sea in a close disance of about 100km, with its green coast and the adjacent forrests where it is already the main touristic region for Tehran inhabitants, is a great opportunity for Tehran metropolitan area. There are two main roads connecting Tehran to the coast, one through the west near karaj and one through the east. However there is one freeway under construction which directly connects Tehran to the Coast, Chaloos city, in less than one hour which is a great opportunity for the city to reach the coast in a short travel distance, but at the same time a huge ecological threat for the forrests and northern Alburz ecosystem.

Ski resorts in the northern mountains of Tehran are also recreational regions for Tehran inhabitants.

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Regional features of Tehran and relation to the coast

Water supply in Tehran

Tehran region has a dry climate. Unlike many other cities in the Middle-East, however, Tehran does not have an acute shortage of water supply. Although the annual rate of rainfall is only 229mm at downtown, 400mm in northern neighborhoods and less than 150mm in arable lands of Varamin, heavy rainfall in Alburz mountains, mainly as snow, provide a fairly reliable source of water supply for Tehran’s residents and the city’s development.

The main source of water supply to Tehran is a system of large dams built on Tehran’s water organization over Karaj river in 1956, over Jajrud river in 1968 and over Lar river in 1981. There are also new dams under construction such as the dam on Taleqan river to compensate the future water shortage.

Karaj Dan

The graph on this page shows the trend of water consumption and supply by a conservative scenario till 2030 in which the city is facing the shortage of water in the near future. The new dams and the consumption management will solve the problem for a growth of population with the current rates.

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Dam River

Rivers and rainfall source: Atlas of Tehran metropolis

Rivers of Tehran and Contamination

Southern slopes of Alburz are dry, while mountain tops and northern slopes are very humid and have an annual rainfall of more than 2000mm, mostly as snow. Thus, rivers are fed for a long time. Each valley of the southern slope defines the down stream town associated with it. Tehran is an exception since no river passes through the city other than Kan floodway which is sometimes dry. Jajrud river with about 295,000,000m3 of water per year, flows down from mountains and irrigates the great arable plain of Varamin in the south east of Tehran. Westward, Karaj River has the most copious flow in this region with about 535,000,000m3 water per year. The major amount of Karaj river is refined to supply the drinking water for Tehran inhabitants and the rest is used for irrigation of the agriculture lands on the south, however, the water is contaminated due to the sewages of the industries located on the north west of Tehran as well as the waste water from the houses which flow to this river.

The same problem exists for the Jajrud River in the east which absorbs the industrial and housing wastes from the north east of Tehran. In this regard, the water organization is developing projects to filtrate the sewage of Tehran by constructing the canals of the sewerage system for collection of the surface water, in order to avoid the contamination of those rivers.

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Karaj Dam

Latyan Dam

Ka j ra e riv r Jajrud river

Ka

n

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10

50

st

re

am

Main Rivers & Streams Secondry streams

100 KM

Province of Tehran water resources

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Karaj river / recreational magnets

Karaj river on the northern parts

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Although one of the biggest challenges of Tehran for the future will be to supply enough high quality drinking water, the existence of high mountains on the north part of the region is an outstanding opportunity to provide water for the city by construction of more dams, on the other hand, today however, the crucial way to make sure that this city and the region can have a sustainable development is to think about water treatment and recycling. In addition to the water management itself the guidance of future urban growth to the areas which have a more efficient access to clean water would be of importance which is a crucial input for the future city concept in this project.

To Ch aloos

To Ch alo os

To Qa zvin

Karaj

Roudehen To Caspian

Tehran Shahryar

Mehrabad national airport

sea

Central train station Rey

Eslamshahr Pakdasht Robat karim

veh Sa To

To Se mn an

IKIA, Tehran internationl airport

*

Varamin m Qo To

To Q om

Freeways,Main roads Railways, Metro

* 4/9 Metro lines drawn on this map, inside Tehran, are active and the rest are not completely constructed yet.

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Persian Gulf Freeway in the south

03.5. [Radial Structure]

The regional and national infrastructures of Tehran shape a radial structure with the city of Tehran as their focal point of this central system. The peripheral freeway today connects all the main roads and in the near future to the highway reaching the Caspian coast towards the north, however the periphery is not the only connector of streets and secondary roads to the regional and national road and highway system, yet there are several highways within the city which are continuously provide such connections as well as their specific role in the city scale.

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Infrastructure network of Tehran

Due to the uncompleted metro system and the dependence of the majority of public transportation on the public taxis, the road traffic in Tehran is so high that is an enormous waste of daily time for all the citizens. Despite the rich network of highways and still more under construction, the traffic in Tehran remains unsolved unless completing the metro system as soon as possible. The cars are the main source of the air pollution in Tehran which is so high especially in the centre as well as some northern areas of the city by the mountains where the wind blow is blocked. The production of natural gas vehicle (CNG) for especially public taxis and buses has been a rather successful way to reduce the toxic particles.

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The new geographic distribution of population in Tehran metropolis has led to profound changes in daily life of Tehran’s residents in regards to urban services, employment, urban infrastructure, and in particular urban transport.

While in the past, one’s life was organized within neighbourhoods, today movement between various places of residence, work, entertainment, education and shopping have a pivotal role in organizing Tehran Metropolis and daily life of its residence. Mobility within the metropolitan area has turned into an issue facing the citizens and urban officials since it requires huge investments in urban transport.

This has necessitated a new life style to take form in Tehran. Launching the urban railway between Tehran and Karaj in 2000, as an extension of Tehran subway system, inaugurated in 1998, points to the formation of this new environment.

One of the new characteristic of urban life in Tehran is the commuting that makes Tehran’s down town overcrowded during day time and nearly empty at night. More than 150 km from Tehran, 10 cities have developed and have benefited from industrial decentralization policy. These have now formed the network of Tehran’s satellite cities.

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FAST GROWTH

X70

TEHRAN 1900 200,000 Inh. TEHRAN 2009 14,000,000 Inh. COUNTRY’S POPULATION

X7.3 03.6. [Fast growing city and region]

Recent developments

Fast growth of Tehran region

The population of Tehran has increased about 70 times, from 200,000 inh. in 1900 to 14 in 2009, while the country’s population has increased only 7.3 times during this period. The immense concentration of power and wealth in the capital of the country is the reason behind this growth. Despite the policies for decentralization of the country, Tehran is still gaining the population, not just in the city but more within the region and the province border. As shown in the graph, the growth of suburbs is much faster than the city especially since 1980s when the Iran-Iraq war started and there were a large amount of migration from the border cities more involved in the war. Today according to the high increase in land prices in the city there are more settlements taking place in the southern suburbs. Karaj, a former suburban city in the metropolitan area of Tehran has about 2 million inhabitants and by 2030 it is expected to be the third populous city in the country, equal to Esfahan, after Tehran and Mashhad.

) AN Y HR CIT TE GA ER ME EAT (GR CITY

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Formation of Tehran metropolitan region 1956-1996 and the integration of the main infrastructure supporting such growth 1956

Chaloos Qazvin

Hashtgerd

Hashtgerd Karaj 14,526

Nazarabad

Fasham

Eshtehard

Fasham Lavasan

Amol Rudehen

Tehran 1,560,934

Shahryar

Karaj 44,234

Nazarabad

Lavasan

Phiroozkooh

Pishva

Qom

0

8

16 km

Varamin 11,183 Saveh

Qom

0

8

16 km

1986

Chaloos

Hashtgerd 16,761

Hashtgerd 5.682 Fasham

Karaj 197,370

Nazarabad 9,889

Nazarabad 21,660

Lavasan

Eslamshahr 50,292

Lavasan 6,003

Amol

Phiroozkooh

Shahryar 11,697

Robat Karim

Fasham 5,377

Karaj 589,954

Rudehen

Tehran 4,530,223

Eshtehard 5,149

Eshtehard 8,095

Tehran 6,042,584

Robat Karim 17,903

Qarchak 14,925

Saveh

Varamin

Qom

Pishva 9,934

0

8

16 km

1996

Chaloos Qazvin Hashtgerd 134,319 Fasham 6,762

Karaj 940,000

Lavasan 10,587

Malarad

Robat Karim

Qom

Eslamshahr 215,129

Qarchak 77,957

Varamin 58,311

Semnan Pishva 17,283

0

8

16 km

Within 40 years since 1956 to 1996 and till now there are several counties, satellite cities and cities emerged and grew around the city particularly on the southern plain on the agricultural lands covering the surrounding lands.

Despite the decentralized pattern of settlements, Tehran is still the main working place for the majority of about 6 million people living outside the city boundaries.

Phiroozkooh Eslamshahr

Pakdasht 147,368

612,000 Qarchak

358,000 Semnan

Varamin Qom

Pishva

0

8

16 km

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Qom

Phiroozkooh

Tehran 6,759,000

Qods

Shahryar 560,000

Amol Rudehen

Saveh

Amol Rudehen 6,650

Shahryar 22,433

Semnan

Saveh

Semnan Pishva 6,332

Qazvin

Qazvin

Eshtehard 11,000

Qarchak

1976

Chaloos

Phiroozkooh

Eslamshahr

Semnan

Varamin 5,205 Saveh

Robat Karim

Qarchak

Amol Rudehen

Tehran 2,980,041

Shahryar 6,626

Eshtehard 5,149

Eslamshahr Robat Karim

Nazarabad

1966

Chaloos Qazvin

Pardis sattellite city located in the east of the province

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Since1980s, Tehran’s suburbs, with the emergence of towns and cities such as Eslamshahr and Karaj, which are also the most populated and least understood cities in this region, faced a significant growth. Development within the municipality’s limits, from now on, depends greatly on development of its suburbs that contain 30% of the total population. This population was mostly immigrants from other cities which they moved towards the capital either for economic reasons or they are the war immigrants; whom they lost their houses, families, etc.

Tehran’s suburbs are also very young and lack appropriate facilities and services. In particular they have no social and cultural history which is necessary for creating an integrated metropolitan area.

These young small cities without any culture and identity which growing without any control they create the archipelago of towns around Tehran.

[35]

Tehran and the surroundings in 1947

Stages of Tehran’s growth

[36]

The initial city of Tehran which was founded in the 16th century (the Safavid era) had an area of 4.2km2. In 1870 after it became the capital of Iran, a new wall (fortification) was constructed around Tehran that increased its area to 18 km2. In 1930, the city had an area of around 46km2 and began growing northward because of its better climate.

In 1960s, Rey (ancient city in the south of Tehran) and Shemiranat summer resort in the north were merged with the city of Tehran. In early 1970s, northern and central parts of the city were connected to increase Tehran’s area to 250km2. In the years following the Islamic Revolution and then during the imposed war of Iraq and Iran, the growth was towards south and south west because of the high rate of immigrants from other cities and small towns which they couldn’t afford to live in the north part of the city. In 1991 include the city only within its border a total area of Tehran reach 700 km2 which this ignored the new suburbs around Tehran.

[37]

City’s Growth

03.7. [Masterplan’s effect] The Expander: 1960s Masterplan for Tehran

During 60s while Tehran as the capital of Iran was facing a massive growth, the authorities’ ambition was to create a modern capital for the country to keep and reinforce its unique regional and international role. The agenda was to expand the metropolis so that in 1964, preparation of the first comprehensive masterplan of Tehran was encrusted to the Farmanfarmanian Consulting Engineers in Tehran in cooperation with Victor Gruen in Los Angeles.

Vision of the Future City

The resulted masterplan had a vision to project a linear city including 10 urban districts, with 500,000 inhabitants each, along the Alburz mountains in westward direction. These districts were to be linked by a network of highways and fast public transportation facilities and surrounded by open spaces with very low population density. The major commercial activities are located on the main public transportation network nodes. According to this plan Tehran metropolis would have had extended westward toward Karaj (the industrial town in the western part of the city), merged with Rey (in the south) and Tajrish (in the north). The master plan was emphasizing on the idea of decentralization. The two crucial points of the plan were firstly, the infrastructure network as the backbone which connects the districts and their centres to each other and particularly to the main centre, and secondly, constant amount of population for each district.

This masterplan was based on an unrealistic figure of population forecast by planners who ignored the region surrounding the City and not only the focus was just on the city itself but also the design concept itself was based on the fixed population in each district so that the Plan was more a rigid design imposed on a huge territory than to offer flexible tools for intervention.

This plan which was published in 1966, began to be implemented in 1968, however the process was stopped in about 10 years with the fall of Pahlavi regime in 1979 with the revolution. It was time to put the flexibility of the plan into test. The city found then an alternative direction for growth without any plan, southward rather than westward, however the 60s masterplan had a massive impact on spatial structure of Tehran and introduced an extensity with the major dependence on car instead of public transpirations and changed the city’s lifestyle.

[38]

Linear extension of Tehran [masterplan 1960s]

3d view of the city’s extension in the masterplan of the 60s

[39]

Tehran and its environs in 1900 source: Tehran, an analysis

[40]

[41]

Tehran *IKIA, international airport

Built mass Agricultural Land, Green Landscape Arid Land Relief, Mountains Road

Dispersed supercentricity

[42]

03.8. [Dispersed territory with a Supercentre]

Tehran 1920

The Metropolitan area of Tehran, particularly on the southern plain where the agricultural lands are located, is a dispersed region with the fragmented pieces of built mass both connected to and disconnected from the main infrastructures. There are 10 out of 14 million of the inhabitants living within the main cities of Tehran, Karaj, Eslamshahr and some satellite cities, yet the rest 4 million are living on the in-between lands. The inhabitants of these areas are mostly the ones who can not afford to live in cities, especially the low class immigrants from the other parts of the country who move to capital for a higher quality of life. During the war between 1980-1988 there is a huge migration from the western border cities where more involved in the war, which were mostly settled in the suburbs and suburban cities like Karaj because of the cheaper land prices.

Today the living prices not only in Tehran but in some suburban cities like Karaj are so high that more suburban settlements are expected.

Tehran 1962

The Radial infrastructure, roads and rails, are the main drivers of the sprawl in the territory. The main concentration of population in the mega-city of Tehran is like a hemi-star in which 8 million living in its centre and in average about one million on each wing. The western and the south-western axes are the most populous wings. The infrastructure is strongly supporting the supercentricity of Tehran in addition to the capital’s centric condition in the country. There is an enormous daily work travel to Tehran from all the suburban cities which causes a big difference in the day and night population of Tehran. In addition to the policies needed to decentralize the job opportunities in the region, to reorientate the infrastructure in the proper directions in order to weaken the supercentric condition would be an important step to provide a sustainable city.

Tehran 1994 [43]

The growth of Tehran and its suburbs, source: Tehran Masterplan

*

KARAJ

Limits

During the last decades Tehran has reached its limits to the east and to the north up to the mountains, except for an area in the North West which is already under development as the 22nd district of Tehran. In the future the majority of people living in the region of Tehran will be living on the southern flanks of the Alburz mountains. The development of villages within the valleys is not really considerable, because of their limited lands, comparing to the expansion on the southern axes.

The second limit for growth is the aridity of the lands located on the southern plain of Tehran just beyond the irrigated lands, on which the urbanization would be costly, if not impossible, with a low living quality. Since mountains are the main source of water in this region, the more we reach the southern area, the more we face the shortage of water.

ARID PLAINS

[44]

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[45]

04. [Excursions on Capacities] 04.1. Future Population Scenario

In order to establish a long term vision for a ‘primary mega-city’ like Tehran, it’s crucial to predict how many people are about to live in there and not only based on the current trends but also on the future possibilities.

The population growth of Tehran projected on the graph shows the population growth in relation to the political and economical conditions since 1920 till 2030+.

Due to the economical and political centrality of Tehran in the country, the demographic changes of the city and the political-economical conditions of the country are intensively interconnected. From the Nationalization of the oil during 50s and increasing the oil prices during 70s to the more sudden changes such as the revolution during 70s and the war during 80s, have caused irregular increases. The most influential political event was the revolution in 79 and immediately the IranIraq war. The unstable government and the country’s economical and war conditions caused an uncontrolled migration to Tehran where was not yet involved in the war and there was a higher quality of life.

Today one of the most effective events could be establishment of more intensive economical, political relations with the west. What if Tehran can enter WTO? What if Iran can use its extreme opportunities for investments? In China the diminishing the economic isolation policies caused a huge migration to big cities.

Based on the current trends with the same ratio of country’s population, by 2030 the metropolitan area of Tehran will house about 20 million people. As mentioned before more investments in the country especially in Tehran means the prosperity of The capital and consequently more migrations. According to the UN data and statistics, the internal migration in the developing countries to the big cities especially the capitals, is increasing drastically. If Tehran house just 25 percent of the countries population by 2030 it will have a population of 25 million inhabitants in the mega-city.

[46]

MORE THAN 25M PEOPLE BY 2030+

?

25

) AN Y HR CIT TE GA TER E M EA (GR

Y HR CIT TE GA ER ME EAT (GR

CITY

CITY

[47]

[48]

[49]

25.4% HOUSING

55.4% BUILT

20.2%

8.5%

MILITARY

6.9%

SERVICE

5.7%

INDUSTRY

4.8%

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1.5% LEISURE 0.9%

URBAN FACILITIES

0.4% 0.4% 0.9%

CULTURE RELIGOUS OTHERS

OFFICIAL CITY BOUNDARY AREA: 686 KM2

ROAD NETWORK

9.1%

PUBLIC GREEN

8.4%

UNBUILT 3.1% GARDENS 2.9% AGRICULTURE 0.9% WATER CANAL

Data Source: Municipality of Tehran

04.2. [Built vs. Unbuilt] Empty Spaces vs. Built

Within the official boundary of Tehran, the Built space occupies about 55.4% of the whole area and there are only 9.1% of public landscapes which are mostly located in the north. Since the last decades, the gardens and agricultural lands are constantly under developments particularly because of the real estate business prosperity during this period, and today they are just using 6% of the total land area which will disappear gradually. The city is still has about 8.4% of unbuilt spaces owned mostly by the municipality.

As shown on the built program divisions on the left side, Tehran suffers from the neglect of the public facilities such as the culture and leisure and the new developments are mostly ignoring the green space extension and the recreational activities development. For instance the majority of cinemas are still located in the centre and they are just a few cinemas built since 1980 while the population has increased more than 3 million, inside Tehran, since then.

The image on the opposite page is an extremely low quality development located in the east of Tehran. They are developed with the infrastructure; however there are no investments on the green space and public facilities just compact low rise housing.

[50]

[51]

Available spaces for future developments Military Sites

As mentioned before, military bases occupy about 8.5% of the city’s land which means an area of 56 km2. Most of them used to be located out of the historical rectangular citadel of the 19th century and remained untouched since then and today are still used as military. The ones specifically around the centre to the north have high spatial qualities such as the green spaces and tall trees remained from old times. It is already in the masterplan to move them out of the city and transform them to public projects and green public landscapes.

Mehrabad Airport

Mehrabad airport, the current national airport of Tehran, is today located in the middle of the city and is a source of sound pollution for a large housing area surrounding it. This airport will move to the new airport located outside the city. The airport and the related military site near by cover about 20km2 of land inside the city.

8.5% Millitary bases 56.3 km2 + Mehrabad airport 20 km2 = 76.3 km2 Free space owned by the state

Military sites

Ghal’e Morghi military Airport

[52]

Hill which places the public buildings and city’s iconic tower of Milad 22nd district of Tehran under development

Abbas Abaad hill, already places governmental buildings and public facilities such as the national library and still under development with public facilities such as the Book Park.

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Doshan Tappe military Airport

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Qasr military base is one of the largest & oldest millitary bases in Tehran which today is located in the middle of a dense urban fabric.

Mehrabad national airport

[53]

[54]

Tehran city boundary Existing population: 8 million Area: 686 km2 Density: 11,600/ km2

Existing Tehran population at Manhattan Area: 320 km2

Tehran filled with Mexico city d Population: 4 million Density: 5950 / km2

Tehran filled with Manhattan density Population: 17 million Density: 25,000 / km2

Unbuilt spaces of the city filled with Tehran density Extra: 0.63 million Population: 8.63 million Unbuilt: about 8% (55 km2)

Existing population of Tehran a Mexico city density Area: 1370 km2

Tehran filled with LA density Population: 1.7 million Density: 2500 / km2

Unbuilt spaces of the city filled with Manhattan density Extra: 1,35 million Population: 9.35 million Unbuilt: about 8% (55 km2)

Tehran 2030 (UN projection) 10.5 million inhabitants in the c Density: 15,300 / km2

Existing Tehran population at Manhattan Area: 320 km2

Tehran city boundary Existing population: 8 million Area: 686 km2 Existingkm2 Tehran population at Manhattan Density: 11,600/ Area: 320 km2

Tehran filled wi Population: 4 m Density: 5950 /

Tehran filled with Mexico city density Population: 4 million Density: 5950 / km2

04.3. [Settlement Capacity Studies] Scenarios for Capacities

How many people can live within the official boundary of Tehran? How dense the city could be? How much space needed to house more people? The questions are tested with the various densities, from very low to very high, of cities like Los Angeles, Mexico City, Manhattan and Tehran in order to realize the capacity of the city’s boundary due to the massive population growth. Obviously such tests are more discovering the Unbuilt spaces of the city filled with quantities rather than the qualities, however they indiTehran density Extra: 0.63 millionthe maximums. cate Existing population of Tehran at

x2

Tehran filled with Manhattan density Population: 17 million Density: 25,000 / km2 Unbuilt spaces of the city filled with Tehran filled with Mexico city density Tehran density Population: 4 million Extra: 0.63 million Density: Population: 5950 / km2 8.63 million Unbuilt: about 8% (55 km2)

Existing populat Mexico city den Area: 1370 km2

Population: 8.63 million Mexico city density Unbuilt: about 8%1370 (55 km2) Area: km2

x2 Unbuilt spaces of the city filled with Manhattan density Extra: 1,35 million 2030 (UN projection) Population: Tehran 9.35 million 10.5 million inhabitants in the city Unbuilt: about 8% (55 km2) Density: 15,300 / km2

Tehran filled with LA density Population: 1.7 million Density: 2500 / km2 Unbuilt spaces of the city filled with Existing Manhattan population of Tehran at density Mexico city density Extra: Area: 1370 km21,35 million Population: 9.35 million Unbuilt: about 8% (55 km2)

+

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Tehran density > 215 km2

Tehran density > 215 km2

Manhattan density > 100 km2

Mexico city density > 420 km2

Mexico city density > 420 km2

[55]

Tehran 2030 (UN projection) 10.5 million inhabitants in the city Manhattan density > 100 km2 Density: 15,300 / km2 Tehran 2030 (UN projection) 2.5 million extra population with various densities Area needed:

Tehran 2030 (U 10.5 million inha Density: 15,300

In the most congested scenario, the defined boundary of Tehran could house 17 million people with the Manhattan density which is more a fantasy. Even with the conservative population growth by 2030 (2.5m), with the existing city fabric, an area of 215km2 is needed with the existing density of Tehran (almost 1/3 of the total area). According to the studies on the last 2 pages, the city area could not house more than about 10 million people with its current densities even if it is intensively using the free lands and empty spaces and rebuilding parts of the low quality urban fabric. By considering the quality factors such as the spatial qualities, public space, infrastructure, etc. probably the capacity is much less than this.

Metropolitan area

As mentioned before, a population of 20-25 million people will live in the megacity of Tehran and the majority of this population will live in the suburbs on the southern plain. The black rectangles on the opposite page indicate the areas needed for the emerging population, with the density of Tehran (which is the maximum possible for the suburban condition) in two different population scenarios. The larger one with an area of about 1150km2 is the area needed to house 11 million(25m in total) inhabitants by 2030 or more and the right one is the growth with a population of 6 million (20m in total). Comparing to the existing situation, the needed area occupies an extraordinary amount of land of the southern irrigated plain on which the agricultural lands are located.

Such studies display an extreme reality to deal with and think of interventions for protecting the existing qualities and proposing new ideas in order to make the city survive in the future and remain liveable.

[56]

+

+

EXTREME PROJECTION CITY WILL HAVE 25+% OF COUNTRY’S POPULATION

CONSERVATIVE PROJECTION CITY HAS THE CURRENT RATIO COUNTRY’S POPULATION

EXTRA POPULATION IN THE MEGACITY: 13,000,000 TOTAL POPULATION: 26,000,000

OF

EXTRA POPULATION IN THE MEGACITY: 7,000,000 TOTAL POPULATION: 20,000,000

WITH THE CURRENT TEHRAN DENSITY 1150 KM2 IS NEEDED TO PLACE THE EXTRA POPULATION

WITH THE CURRENT TEHRAN DENSITY 600 KM2 IS NEEDED TO PLACE THE EXTRA POPULATION

AN AREA BIGGER THAN THE CITY’S TERRITORY

1150 KM2

600 KM2 [57]

05. [Hypothesis and Tools]

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05.1.Four most probable scenarios for urbanization on the Tehran plain according to fast population growth: 1. Spread megacity: a very low density settlement on the Tehran plain entering the southern arid lands. Such a sprawl defies any order for its growth with an immense destruction of landscape & agricultural lands. The settlements are not necessarily connected to infrastructure both roads and public transportation. The black spots leave a few spaces for the future open space and public facilities.

2. Radial megacity: settlements along the radial infrastructure, both rails and roads. In this model the existing radial infrastructure is to support a radial city with a super focal point which is the city of Tehran. The two main axes of development are the western axis towards the city of Karaj and the south-western axis to the airport and the large counties of Eslamshahr and Robat Karim.

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3. Linear megacity: in this model the major development is taking place on the western axis towards the city of Karaj and along the mountains thus the two cities are attached together. The rest of the growth is in form of a sprawl on the plain on the south especially around the airport and the counties of Eslamshahr and Robat Karim.

4. Congested megacity: this model offers an intensification of urban development around and within the existing settlements as well as the airport. There will be congestion instead of coherence or sprawl. This model is the less probable model according to the current trends of sprawl. Relying on the existing radial structure of the region is what this model has in common particularly with the model no.2.

[59]

HOW THIS FUTURE CITY WILL SURVIVE? HOW TO INCREASE THE LIVING CAPACITY OF THE TERRITORY? HOW TO EXPLOIT THE EXPANSION? WHERE THE CITY HAS TO INVEST TO BATTLE THE RISKS OF SUCH A REBEL GROWTH? HOW TO POTENTIALIZE THE TERRITORY? WHAT KIND OF INTERVENTION COULD GUARANTEE THE QUALITY OF EXPANSION? WHERE THE GROWTH SHOULD BE GUIDED?

[60]

In such a massive growth the built mass tends to spread over the lands and extend the dispersion on a much wider scale with larger quantities. The built mass of Tehran as we see on the image on this page is already compact but low rise with a vast footprint which doesn’t leave enough spaces where the city can breathe and invest on its green and public open spaces, especially in the south were the land is cheaper.

All the attempts to increase the density and decrease the land consumption were losing battles because of their unrealistic approach to define everything clearly by preparing rather fixed masterplans for such a big city. According to such rebel demographic mutations which makes the cities and its planners to be surrendered to chaos, the argument in this project is based on the questions of firstly what kinds of interventions in the urban discipline could generate the qualities for the future city or to preserve the existing ones which is flexible enough? And secondly how we could manage, reorientate and exploit the growth where it could result in a liveable mega-city?

[61]

05.2. [White Strategy as a Tool]

The questions on the last page are the crucial inputs of this project to be responded.

According to city’s rebel growth where the built mass [black dots] is spreading over the lands of the Tehran suburbs, the issue of controlling the quality of both the expanded city and the existing one seems rather impossible, however there are tools to be generated and implemented in order to avoid the major threats and increase the quality and the capacity of living. In such a condition where the ‘built’ is suspect, the ‘unbuilt’ is certainly reliable. Where should not be built or urbanized and where to offer new public projects and investments? As the Central Park was a tool to avoid the area to be urbanized so that a park was proposed and built which is even today surviving in the congested Manhattan and is an identity for the city. ’Urbanism of good intentions’ where the city and people benefit from high quality of public spaces, takes place when the municipality more focuses and invests on such projects, in other words to put stress on the White and not the black.

This project is about to introduce an open space structure in the metropolitan area of Tehran ,through strategies and scenarios, which consists of green, water, infrastructure, recreations, etc. in a single system which sustains the future mega-city, by using the existing landscape and infrastructure qualities as well as new proposed ones. I call this new structure, the SUPERVOID STRUCTURE. There are three main tools to implement: 1.the infrastructure to reorientate the growth and provide the public accessibility to the whole key projects, 2.the landscapes including agriculture lands, green, water, desert and mountains to be preserved and be integrated & 3.the public facilities which consist of both iconic public buildings and parks.

THE PROPOSING STRUCTURE IS ABOUT TO INTRODUCE A ‘RICHNESS’ IN ITS VOID CHARACTER > BE DIVERSE IN SIZE, ACTIVITIY, FORM, PATTERN, ETC. WHICH TRIES TO RELATE A SYSTEM OF ENVIRONMENTAL TOOLS SUCH AS THE GREEN, WATER AND ENERGY GENERATORS WITH A NETWORK OF PUBLIC ACTIVITIES IN ORDER TO SUSTAIN THE FUTURE CITY.

[62]

Southern Tehran looking to the north

[The Whites] ARE: THE CONTROLLING TOOLS TO STRUCTURE THE CITY / THE ISLANDS WHICH SURVIVE IN/ THE FUTURE CITY/ THE ENVIRONMENTAL ENGINES OF THE CITY/ GREEN AND POPULAR/ NOT ONLY UNBUILT BUT PUBLIC

[63]

05.3. Quality Generators [Reference Projects] Central Park

Central Park in Manhattan designed by Olmsted was a great sustaining approach for Manhattan and introduces a great tool for urbanism. By 1850, the possibility that New York’s exploding population could engulf the remaining space in the Grid; urgent plans were made to reserve sites that are still available for parks. Central park is a result of an intelligent forecast of the future. In contrast to most of the parks which are built within the existing city fabrics, the Central Park was to generate the built mass around it. As Koolhaas mentions, it is a taxidermy preservation of nature in Manhattan. If central park can be read as an operation of preservation, it is, even more, a series of manipulations and transformations performed on the nature “saved” by its designers. How much the city’s functions, population, density, etc. changes, the Central Park survives.

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Ville Nouvelle Melun Senart, OMA

The project done by OMA for a competition in Paris for the new city of Melun Senart is a very inspiring project for me, as an alternative approach to urbanism, in which the attempt is to make the city with its open space and leave the rest to be filled. By reading the existing open space qualities on the site, they propose a preservation of the existing qualities mostly filled with the programs which makes them beyond the nature and protection.

‘A system of bands, linear voids, is inscribed on the site like an enormous Chinese figure’(OMA, S.M.L.XL.). The designers argue that the energy should be invested on protection of the bands in maintaining their emptiness. There are the islands in between the bands that are considered as to be filled in the future. The Concept of this project was an intelligent and influential approach for the urban design discipline which picks the controllable elements of the city to intervene and not the uncontrollable, although in the project design itself the interrelationship of the ‘void’ system and the ‘attention’ is missing. There must be a clear relationship between the two.

[65]

Cerda’s Plan for Barcelona source: Reweaving UMA

Cerda Grid, Barcelona

The Cerda plan for Barcelona is another influential reference project, especially in three parts. The existing city is strongly integrated with the future city with the axes crossing the old city and continued in the grid. The city is extended by a flexible mature tool: The Grid, which the future city will fill it completely.

There is a public square [Plaza Cataluña], designed on the border of the existing and the future city, which is an integral part of the plan. Metaphorically the old city of Barcelona is like Tehran, obviously in a very different scale, which should be reordered and extended with a flexible tool, with integration with the existing city of Tehran, [66]

Cerda’s Plan for Barcelona

[67]

Crop Production in Iran

Vegetation cover in the region, Source: Atlas of Tehran Metropolis

3 Vegetation Cover Zones

As explained briefly before, Tehran has three large zones of vegetation cover corresponding to three large topographic zones of the region: mountain, mountain-slope and desert. The high mountain range of Alburz has snow-covered tops in winter. The northern slopes have tick forests and the southern ones, near Tehran, include mountain pastures and steppes. The valleys are cultivated. The mountain slope areas, in the middle, have a detrital soil. In lower parts irrigated farming is done in a vast area from east to the west of the region up to the desert rim. Desert areas mostly include salt marshes and very exhausted soil. The agricultural zone in Tehran’s southern periphery, which includes fruit gardens, vegetables and summer crops, has a richer vegetation cover than other sections of the region.

[68]

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IKIA, Tehran international airport

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3zones & The Future City Extension

The current infrastructure supports a dispersion of the megacity heading into the arid lands which is not a sustainable growth at all and results in: vast consumptions of land, waste of energy, disconnections from the main infrastructure, difficulty of water supply [from the mountains], destruction of the high quality agricultural lands, being far from the urban public facilities and the lack of a strong identity for The region. The middle zone where the city’s surrounding landscape is located and where the majority of future population will live is the most proper place for the future city to be developed along.

The Vegetation cover map of the region shows the parallel lines from the Caspian Sea to the arid lands in the south of Tehran. The irrigation of the lands along the mountains, by the snow, makes it possible to provide an easier water supply from the mountains and a higher spatial quality especially of green space, in order to make visions for a future sustainable city. The more close to the mountains the higher is the quality of life.

[69]

Linear city diagram

Linear MegaCity Scenario

Regarding the ecology of the region, this project tends to reorientate the growth along the mountains boundary and provide an intensity of urban life there, in regard to the argument of designing the open space system in order to increase the spatial qualities of public structure in the future mega-city of Tehran. The conceptual diagrams above show the process of transformation from a radial dispersed structure to a linear along the mountain boundary.

On the opposite page the linear city concept is displayed, in between the two transition zones, one between the mountains and the landscape and the other one divides the landscape and the desert. The second transition zone is the city’s buffer with the desert which metaphorically is a coastline or better to say a desert front.

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3 Coastline [Transition zones]

[71]

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05.4. [Main Components of The ‘Voidstructure’] As argued before, the region’s Landscape is of great importance in proposing the void structure of the future city.

The existing voids inside Tehran, The water streams, the public landscapes and the agricultural lands are the basic components of this structure. In the coming pages the city and region’s landscape is analyzed.

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Green Valley & Hill, Forrest Park Large Public Facilities and Sport Centres Urban Park Agriculture Lands [Crops, Vegetables & Fruits]

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Parks, Landscapes and valleys of Tehran

Typology of Public Landscapes in Tehran

There are three categories of landscape in side Tehran, which are almost the total public landscapes within the region except for 2-3 national parks outside Tehran on the mountains and one next to the desert. 1. The city’s landscape and vistas such as the green hills, green valleys, forest parks etc. 2.Urban parks from small to medium sizes which contain sports and cultural facilities from the iconic ones such as the museum of contemporary art to the local sport fields. 3.

The large semi-public sport complexes and landscapes.

There are three distinguishable zones in the city according to these landscapes, all the first category, city’s green landscape, are located in the first zone, most of the urban parks are located in the south (but still the main parks with a city-scale audience are located in the centre and the north). The middle zone which is the central Tehran is suffering from the lack of open green spaces, although it’s the most crowded and polluted areas in the city. The national airport which introduced as the possible development sites is located in the middle zone which is an opportunity for the large green space.

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The average size:

7.5 km2

1 km2

[78]

Scale

The Size of the public landscapes in Tehran varies from the very small sizes to large chunks, from 0.15km2 to an average of 7.5km2. Introduction of new scales will be of a great importance for the future city compared to the immense population growth.

0.5 km2

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05.5. [Green space survey] The Parkland per capita of Tehran is about 8m2.

If the city grows with 2 million inhabitants, an area of 16km2 of parkland needed to keep its current ratio and 40km2 for an extreme growth of 5 million people. Comparing to other cities like London, Tehran has to expand the parklands about 60km2 with 10 million inhabitants [2m extra] by 2030, almost equal to the calculated area of the military sites [about 54 km2] and if we add the current national airport, the available area will be about 73 km2. So If the city invests all these lands which are owned by the state, on public green spaces, Tehran will compete with London even if the population grows with 2.5 million inhabitants.

2 million inhabitants by 2030

16 KM2 extra parkland million inhabitants inhabitants by by 2030 2030 25 million

40 KM2 extra extra parkland parkland 16

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40 KM2 extra parkland Tehran to keep its current ratio of parkland, about 8 m2 per person 2 million inhabitants by 2030

60 KM2 extra parkland 5 2 million million inhabitants inhabitants by by 2030 2030

90 60 KM2 extra extra parkland parkland

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90 KM2 extra parkland Global green space survey: M2 of Parkland/ 1000 persons excluding green spaces in streets and squares Global green space survey: M2 of Parkland / 1000 persons excluding green spaces in streets and squares

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Park-City Scenario

The map on this page shows the green archipelago of Tehran if we also transform the military sites and the national airport to the green public spaces. The city which was divided into three zones regarding the distribution of green space quantity is disappeared and a semi homogenous green structure is visible in the city, especially to increase the living quality of the centre and the south. The ownership of the lands by the state is an opportunity to make it possible to invest on the public activities there.

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Landscape of Tehran and its surrounding

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TO ADD

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Mega-City Parklands

Keeping London as a park city model, the region of Tehran, with a future population of 25+ million inhabitants, has to invest on 250 km2 of more public landscapes in order to reach the city of London [about 310km2 in total]. The London could be used as a basic model but couldn’t be the ideal state. In the Scenario the ambition is to prepare more quantities of landscapes for a long term sustainable future of Tehran metropolitan area.

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[84]

06. [Design Proposal] 06.1. [Future City Concept] Ecological Structure of the Future City

As explained before, the future city is to be reorientated along the mountains. This is not only going to happen by the development of the new infrastructure but more also with designing a new ecological structure which is the main support of what we called the supervoid structure. The coming pages are the territorial layering’s in which the different layers of the region including the relief map, water streams, built mass, infrastructure and the landscape, are displayed that are the main inputs of the proposal.

The proposed project has an ecological base which is based on its essence of extending the city along the mountain boundary. The mountains on the north provide water by the snows on the heights, the water flows down to the flanks and irrigates the agricultural lands, and supplies the city, the rivers and streams connect the mountains to the desert front to be protected as the ecological corridors. There will be chunks of landscapes on the transition zones and connected to the corridors, thought as centralities, containing the hybrid programs such as agriculture, recreational zones, eco parks [to produce energy and refine the waste water, etc.], and public built facilities close to the existing settlements. The various parts of this structure are elaborated in the coming pages.

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[The Relief Map]

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DAM River & Stream Secondry stream

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[The Built Mass]

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[The Infrastructure, Roads, Rails & Metro]

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IKIA, Tehran international airport

Roads, Highways Metro & Rails Water Stream Landscape

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[The Green Landscape]

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06.2. [Diagrams of Eco-Structure Components] 3000 M.

06.2.1 & 2. The Transition Zones

OVER SEA LEVEL

There are two main transition zones within the region which are defining the two limits of the future scenario:

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OVER SEA LEVEL

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Cross Sections of the city from the mountain to the desert, transitional zones highlighted

1. The transition zone between the Mountains and the flanks [city and agricultural lands] 2. The transition Zone between the Agricultural lands and the desert

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The Kan valley, north of Tehran

06.2.3. Ecological Corridors

The Main Rivers and streams from the mountains are the third elements shaping the ecological structure of the future Tehran. The water streams are the corridors which connect the two transition zones and provide a continuity of the whole system and make the structure having an extendable essence. Like a ‘LADDER’.

One of the water streams which shown on the map; crosses Tehran and the existing national airport. Its highest point in Tehran on the mountain’s boundary is shown on the image above.

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Water streams diagram

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Zoom-in of an area showing the green strip along the rivers

The eco-corridors which are the interconnection of the two transition zones are based on the main rivers and streams but also they provide a green zone around and form strips, of course with different widths although the map on this page shows a single width along the corridors diagrammatically.

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Ecological Corridors

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Agricultural Landscape in Varamin Plain, South-east Tehran

4. Public Landscape chunks

The third element of the system is the landscape fragments. These are the landscape pieces which contain the programs such as agriculture, recreational activities, parks, sports, eco-parks, etc. The concern is how these chunks are connected with the rest of the system as well as the built mass and settlements. In the coming pages different scenarios are shown as diagrams to locate these units.

The map on the opposite page indicates the clusters of the existing landscapes and their locations on an area of about 10 km width which is the average width of the irrigated lands along the mountain boundary. In the design part, a more careful look is taken into the landscapes in order to choose the areas to intervene. *

IKIA, Tehran international airport

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[103]

Southern landscape of Tehran highlighted

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The constant elements

The simplified diagram here indicates the general Ladder structure of the ecological system.

Locating the Landscape chunks(no.4) within the system By diagrams on this page, the various scenarios are generated according to the location of the landscape chuks in relation to the 3 main ecological elements, 2 transition zones and eco-corridors. Not all the 6 scenarios are devlelopped in the project.

The diagram number 4 is the most advanced one because of locating the landscape units on the main ecological structure. The diagram number 5 has an advantage of the relation between the infrastructure and the units. The coming scenario is mainly built based on the two models of 4 & 5.

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1. On transition zones

2. Corridors

3. Ciherent Corridors

4. Spread on the corridors & Tansition zones

5. Central Axis

6. Interconnections

The size of the existing landscapes are compared according to their programs. From the smallest to the larger scales, the program differs from the most simple to the most hybris. At the end one of the proposing landscape chunk is displayed to show its size compared to the existing public landscapes. The new public landscapes are offering hybrid programs regarding to its size. Hybridity means a combination of Nature (water and green), Leisure (sports, recreation) and production (Food and energy). More elaborations on this part will be at the end of the booklet in the design test.

CURRENT FUNCTIONS POCKET PARKS

GREEN LANDSCAPE, PARK

URBAN PARKS , RECREATIONAL CENTERS

GREEN VALLEY

GREEN HILLS, RECREATIONAL CNETERS, FORREST PARKS

AGRICULTURAL LANDS

NATURE + PRODUCTION + LEISURE

SIMLPE-Mono functional

Mixed Use

Landscape Chunks: Size in relation to the functions

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[06.3. The Phasing diagrams and development choices]

The selected area where the phasing plans introduce, is the most populated region in the metropolitan area of Tehran, between Tehran and Karaj including Eslamshahr with all the dispersed settlements in between. Obviously as mentioned before the linear structure along the mountain’s boundary is extendable.

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Phase 0. Existing condition, water streams, Landscape (agricultural lands) Investments on preservation of existing landscape and water streams’ qualities.

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KARAJ

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ROBAT KARIM

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Phase 1. Ecological Corridors Connecting the mountain and the desertfront green landscape by making green strips along the water streams and rivers which means protecting the existing green strips and adding the green (planting trees etc.) where it doesn’t exist. It’s both offensive and defensive.

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* KARAJ

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Phase 2. The Infrastructure corridor, is a linear strong fast transportation strip, containing the freeway and fast public rail transportation. This corridor is the main driver of the new regional city, which firstly reorientates the city in the desirable direction and secondly connects the linear city simply and fast.

Spin Off: The cross points of the existing radial roads/rails and the new infrastructure line are expected to become magnets for new developments and so the centralities. [the points shown on the map are the road junctions and not the rails].

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BEHESHT-E ZAHRA GRAVEYARD

ESLAMSHAHR

ROBAT KARIM

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Phase 3. Connections to Tehran / Existing cores on the south The main north-south axis of Tehran is extended from the central train station from the edge of historical centre to the south where intersects the highway. An extra crossing point with the new infrastructure corridor is made.

Programmatic interventions, new public facilities along the street, next to the existing settlement cores and the city’s graveyard.

TEHRAN

* KARAJ

REY

ANDISHEH

BEHESHT-E ZAHRA GRAVEYARD ESLAMSHAHR

ROBAT KARIM

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Phase 4. The second road corridor, is a new tool for the reorientation. The limit of the city on the south

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Phase 5. The Desertfront, the buffer between the city’s landscape and and the desert. The desertfront is a green corridor including the agriculture lands.

The airport is buffered by a landscape.

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Open space Structure of Paris Source: Google

Open space Structure of Paris Source: Edmond Bacon

The strong structure of Paris open space connected by axes and iconic buildings is a source of inspiration for the design proposal. The main Gardens, parks and monuments of paris are located parallel or crossing the Seine. This is what mainly structures the public activities in the centre of Paris.

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‘LES GRANDS PROJETS’

*+

Projects on the Transition lines [EDGE LANDSCAPES] Projects on the Corridors, Eco & Urban [HYBRID UNITS] Projects on the existing cities’ edge [ICONS]

Transition lines [EDGE] Eco-corridors [STRIP] Infrastructure Corridor Highway Urban Corridor

TEHRAN

KARAJ

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Typologies of the public landscapes and the infrastructure

[06.4.Typology and locations of the public open spaces]

In the proposing voidstructure, the public open spaces are mainly divided in three types, the ones located on the transitional zones known as edge landscapes, the ones located by the infrastructure line on the edge of Tehran and Karaj which known as Icons and the ones in the middle of the strip, the hybrid units. The names reveal the characteristics of the open space units, regarding their location condition and their relation to the built mass, infrastructure as well as their ecological condition. This is what was called before as the richness of this new structure: its diversity. In the zoom-in design there will be shown their spatial qualities.

[111]

indus recreational valleys

val i-e asr st.

Kan river Karaj river

Tehran

Karaj

historical center

Rey

industries

agriculture

graveyard

Th

Urban Corridor agriculture

ecological corridor

ecolo corrid

desertfront agriculture

agriculture fruit gardens

airport buffer landscape

*

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[06.5.The Vision Plan]

The plan is the general overview of the future mega-city’s voidstructure. This plan is an ambitous radical diagram which has to be more clarified in the next part of the design when it’s put to test. The orange dashed rectangle is where this is going to be tested.

industries

The black dots and shapes are locations where the future public facilities [with landscape and leisure quality] should be placed.

Jajroud river mountains’ edge

Rey

ecological corridor

veyard

The grid

freeway + fast train

agriculture

railway - metroline ecological corridor

ecological corridor

freeway

ertfront

agriculture ecological corridor ecological corridor

desertfront

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The Vision Plan

70

Ayatollah Khomeini Tomb

Shahed University Campus

[06.6.Design] Design Test area

A part of the vision plan is zoomed-in in order to see the various features of this project and to realize how the spatial qulaities of the medium and small scales could represent the qualities of the XLarge-scale plan. This area is located in the south of Tehran on the way to the international airport.

The spatial qualities and programs of the public facilities and the landscape will be revealed in this part, as well as the infrastructure specifications.

06.6.1 Dynamics

In addition to the city of Tehran, there are certain dynamics in the selected area, the Eslamshahr county with about 400,000 inhabants, the university campus, the city’s graveyard with a considerable audience esp. during weekends, the airport in a close distance and dispersed clusters of settlements, as well as its landscape and water streams.

The suburban counties such as Eslamshahr are obviously suffering from lack of green space and public facilities, close to zero.

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Eslamshahr County

Behesht-e-Zahra Graveyard

Mehrabad national airport

Azadegan park

Train station

To S emna n

Built Mass

Historic center

Bibi Shahrbanou mountain

Agricultural Land

Qale Morghi military airport

Rey Azadegan periphery

er riv

Mountain & Hill

n Ka

To V ara min

Baqerabad

Shahed university

Water

Behesht-e Zahra graveyard

Eslamshahr

Road Rail

To Q om

To S aveh

Ka ra jr ive r

m Qo To

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[115]

The zoom-in area

06.6.2 Layers

Historic center

Mehrabad national airport

Azadegan park

Train station

To Se mnan Bibi Shahrbanou mountain

Qale Morghi military airport

Rey Azadegan periphery

n Ka

To V ara min

er riv

Baqerabad Shahed university

Behesht-e Zahra graveyard

Eslamshahr

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IKIA, Tehran international airport

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Infrastructure

Train station

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IKIA, Tehran international airport

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Mehrabad national airport

Azadegan park

Train station

To S emna n

Bibi Shahrbanou mountain

Qale Morghi military airport

Rey

Azadegan periphery

To V ara min

Eslamshahr

The new main freeway

To S aveh

Road, Highway Metro To Q om

06.6.3 Daigrams: The new infrastructure

Historic center

Fast Train Railway

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Infrastructure

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06.6.4 Diagrams: Basics rules

1.The Landscapes to be kept are shown in the map.

Historic center

2.The main chunks of landscape [to keep and intervene] are directly connected to the corridors; 1. Ecological corridors [water streams, mountain boundary and desertfront], 2. Infrastructure corridors [the two new infrastructure coddidors and the road connections to Tehran].

3. Connection of the main landscape chunk to Centre of Tehran and the train station

Azadegan park

Train station

Mehrabad national airport

To S emna n

Bibi Shahrbanou mountain

Qale Morghi military airport

Rey

Azadegan periphery

To V ara min

4. The buffer green [agricultural] landscape around the airport, both by protecting the existing landscape and by new interventions.

Baqerabad

Behesht-e Zahra graveyard

Shahed university

5. The public facilities to be located next to the existing cores; the settlements, the university campus, the graveyard and the airport. Of course the programs offer a richness and diversity according to their adjacent core; culture, sports and green next to the university campus, office park close to airport and the more iconic ones such as the tradefair park on the edge of Tehran.

Eslamshahr

r ive nr Ka

Ka ra jr ive r

To Q om

7. Roads and Public transportation in the eastern-western direction.

To S aveh

6. The public facilities and public landscapes to be just located within the voidtructure.

m Qo To

IKIA, Tehran international airport

Landscape [Agricultural Lands] Landscape [Water, Green, Agriculture]

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[118]

Train Station

GREEN

PUBLIC FACILITIES

RECREATIONAL

SPORTS

CULTURAL

PUBLIC FACILITIES

COMMERCIAL

Fast rail transportation

MAIN ROAD CONNECTION TO TEHRAN

06.6.5 Daigrams: Program

ICONIC PUBLIC FACILITIES

CULTURAL

PUBLIC FACILITIES

AGRICULTURE

Green Axis UNIVERSITY PUBLIC FACILITIES

Tomb of Ayatollah Khomeini

Behesht-e Zahra graveyard

ECO-PARK

WATER POND

PUBLIC FACILITIES RECREATIONAL

RECREATIONAL

ECO-PARK AGRICULTURE

Eslamshahr

Shahed university

SPORTS PA R K

PUBLIC FACILITIES

AGRICULTURE

GREEN

r ive nr Ka

AGRICULTURE PUBLIC FACILITIES

AGRICULTURE

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LANDSCAPE

Diagrammatic display of the mixed use landscape chunk . Urban Public Programs along the road, urban corridor connecting Tehran to the southern infrastructure corridor. . Main Public facilities [parks etc.] located on the edge of the eco-corridor and adjacent to the existing cores and dynamics. . Agriculture is still the dominant part of the landscape.

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The diagram of the landscape chunk showing the diversity of its pattern and program.

Existing topographic map

06.6.6. Final Design Proposal

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Water Pond

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the existing agricultural Lands and the river

The Eco-Corridor, based on

To The Centre

The Crossing points of the radial infrastructure and the new easternwestern corridors, shown by dashed circles, are the major players of the future developments to avoid the sprawl by concentrating the growth around them.

Train Station M

New Eastern-Western infrastructure corridors, the urban corridor from the city to the south are the major elements.

The Infrastructure network,

M

Ka ra jr ive r

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M

M

Shahed University

Graveyard

Eslamshahr Metroline to the Airport

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Freeway Fast train line Metroline Highway Urban Corridor [Avenue] Tramline Road Railway Built mass

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Network of Green and Public facilities

To The Centre

r ive nr Ka

Ka ra jr ive r

Eslamshahr

Public Green Space Public Building Bike Route

To The Airport 9-10KM

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Existing Built Mass

National Sports Village Metro

‘12th of June’ Memorial Park Science & Culture Campus

Metro

water pond

woods

Recreational path

Urban Park office Park

r ive nr Ka

Descriptive map of the Public Network

Train Station

woods

ve r

Tehran Trade Fair / Expo

Persian Garden

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Olympic Park, London

Emerald Necklace, Boston Versailles Garden, Paris

Parc de La Villette, Paris

Hyde Park, London

Office park, Utrecht

Trade Fair, Mellat Park & sport complex, Tehran

Shahzadeh Garden, Kerman

The Trade fair of Tehran is now located in the heart of the city, yet is already planned to leave the city because of its enormous traffic during the expos.

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element of the voidstructure

r ive nr Ka

Agriculture Lands, The integrative

Ka ra jr ive r

Agriculture

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Agricultural Grid, Phoenix, Arizona

Large units

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Masterplan

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Train Station M

Train Train station station

Historic Historiccenter center and Bazaar

M

M

Azadega park

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etroline to he Airport

Eslamshahr

M

To The Airport 9-10KM

M

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M

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er riv n Ka

[07. Conclusion] Regarding the precondition of a huge population growth by 2030+, this project is supposed to answer that how the future mega-city of Tehran will survive? and how to make interventions which provide a liveable city in the future?. The attention is on the reorientation of growth towards the appropriate directions and to potentialize the city and its region by public open spaces which could guarantee the spatial quality of such a populous city.

The final output of this project is in general a ‘voidsystem’ which I argue is the tool to overcome the negative aspects of the future sprawl and undesirable expansions. The main feature of the proposal is the systematization of major green and public spaces of the mega-city, in order to guide the growth, facilitate the whole region with public programs and to protect the existing landscape qualities. Generally the base structure indicates rules to locate the public facilities for future investments. The mega-city will be irrigated by a diverse set of public landscapes spread over it.

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The Green Archipelago The major public facilities and green spaces of Tehran are organized in a single structure consisting of an ecological system and the infrastructure. Both the infrastructure and the ecological elements, rivers and two transitional zones, are the backbones of the metropolitan scale public facilities and parks where they are distributed over. All chunks of landscape together, form a public archipelago fed with a rich infrastructure and natural elements such as rivers. There is an interrelarionship between the system of ‘voids’ and the system of ‘attention’, attention both according to the existing cores in addition to the orientation of infrastructure. As tested in the design part, the landscape chunks and public programs are both connected to local and metropolitan dynamics and infrastructure which cause each of them to be a centrality for the future city which is supposed to be decentralized.

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[08.References]: Literature and book: - Bahrambeygui H., Tehran: An urban analysis, 1977, Sahab Books institute, Tehran.

- Habibi S.M. & Hourcade B., Atlas of Tehran Metropolis, 2005, Tehran Geographic Information Centre [TGIC], Tehran.

- Madanipour A., Tehran the making of a metropolis, 2002, TGIC Tehran.

- Adle Sh. & Hourcade B., Teheran capitale bicentenaire, 1992, Institut Francais de recherche en Iran & Tehran engineering & technical consulting organization, Tehran.

- Ghomami M., Tehran urban region : urban development strategy studies, Iran architecture and urbanism studies centre, 2004, Tehran.

- Calthrope P. & Fulton W., The Regional City: Planning for end of sprawl, 2001, Island press.

- Lump together and like it, Nov 6th 2008, The Economist.

- Clark D., Urban World/ Global City, 1996 & 2003, Routledge, New York.

- Vettorato L., Scenarios: An introduction, some case studies, and some research prospects, IUAV Venice.

- Mashayekhi A., Behind the mutation, EMU graduation project, 2008, TU Delft, Netherlands.

- Shahrnegar No.36, Special edition of Tehran Masterplan, 2006, TGIC, Tehran.

- Koolhaas R., The Generic City & What Ever Happened to Urbanism?, S.M.L.XL., 1995, The Monacelli Press, New York.

- Kotter Th., Risks & Opportunities of urbanization & Megacities, 2004, University of Bonn, Germany.

- [GUST], The Urban Condition: Space, Community, and Self in the Contemporary Metropolis, 1999, 010 Publishers, Rotterdam.

- Mutations, Arc en reve Centre dárchitecture, ACTAR, Barcelona.

- Melun-Senart, OMA 6 PROJETS, P85-180, Institut Francais d’Architecture, 1990, Paris.

- Smets M., ‘Grid, Casco, Cleaning & Montage’, Topos No. 38, Mar 2002, CALLWEY MUNCHEN. - Boyer M.Ch., Playing with Information: Urbanism in the twenty-first century, Future City, 2005, Spon Press, New York.

- MVRDV, KM3 Excursions on Capacities, 2005, ACTAR, EU. - MVRDV, FARMAX Excursions on Density, 1998, 010 Publishers, Rotterdam.

- Vanstiphout W., The Saddest City in The Wrold: Tehran and the legacy of an American dream of modern town planning, The new Town, Mar 2nd 2006.

- Mau B., LIFESTYLE, Toronto Downsview Park, PHAIDON.

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Documents: Masterplan of Tehran, 1960s, by V. Gruen & A. Farmanfarmayan Consulting Engineers.

Current Masterplan of Tehran, by Boom Saaz Gaan Consulting Engineers, Architects and planners.

WDR 2009, World Bank.

Tehran Municipality reports, 2003.

Images & Maps: The sources of Images and maps which are not a product of myself are mentioned below each image within the booklet.

Websites for maps, lectures, data and images: www.tehran.ir www.worldbank.org www.unstats.un.org www.maps.google.com www.sci.org.ir www.devinfo.info/urbaninfo/ world.bymap.org www.worldmapper.org data.un.org www.economist.com www.wikipedia.com www.devinfo.info/urbaninfo/ www.longnow.org www.earthtrends.org www.ngdir.ir/ www.ess.co.at/WEBAIR/ www.tehranmetro.com www.worldprocessor.com www.usc.edu www.flickr.com

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