SPATIAL ASPECTS AFFECTING THE VITALITY OF AN IRANIAN TRADITIONAL BAZAAR: THE CASE OF QAZVIN BAZAAR

Abstract

Urban public spaces are significant parts of a city. These spaces provide a platform where people can go inside, make contact with the social world outside and experience the opportunity to be with, see and hear others which instills stimulation. They are spaces that give people a chance to see something new, feel different, learn and be inspired (Kishore Rupa, 2015). “It is the public realm which provides the terrain for social interaction and a significant part of a city’s transaction base (i.e., the market square, the street vendor, the shop frontage and the sidewalk café)” (Montgomery, 1998). The public realm has physical (space) and social dimensions. The physical public realm is the setting that supports or facilitates public life and social interaction. The activities and events in those spaces can be considered as the sociocultural public realm (Carmona et al., 2006). Spaces that support activities (standing, sitting, talking, eating, reading), provide opportunities for short-term, low-intensity contact that create easy interactions with other people in a relaxed and relatively undemanding manner (Askarizad and Safari, 2020). The vitality of the public realm is an important quality because it can reduce crime, make commercial interests more viable, increase passive enjoyment of the streetscape (such as peoplewatching), encourage social interaction and provide opportunities for cultural exchange. So, vitality in urban space is regarded as an important measure of its health (Costamagna et al., 2018). In Montgomery’s definition (1998, 97), the concept of vitality refers to the number of people in and around the street (pedestrian flows) across different times of the day and night, the uptake of facilities, the number of cultural events and celebrations over the year, the presence of an active street life, and generally the extent to which a place feels alive or lively