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Spatial fragmentation and bottom-up appropriations: the case of Safavid Isfahan

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  03 April 2014

SOMAIYEH FALAHAT  and
M. REZA SHIRAZI
SOMAIYEH FALAHAT
Affiliation:
Institute of Architecture, Technische Universität Berlin, Berlin, Germany
M. REZA SHIRAZI
Affiliation:
Institute of Architecture, Technische Universität Berlin, Berlin, Germany
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Abstract

It is widely claimed that there was a clear spatial continuity in the evolution of the traditional Middle Eastern city, with every new development the result of an intelligent, albeit unplanned, evolution of pre-existing doctrines of construction. However, as far as the new Safavid urban development of seventeenth-century Isfahan (in Iran) is concerned, it is possible to distinguish a spatial fragmentation, in terms of urban pattern and urban structure, between the old texture and new extensions.

Type
Research Article
Information
Urban History , Volume 42 , Issue 1 , February 2015 , pp. 3 - 21
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2014 

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