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Report on the Symposium of ENVISIONING THE FUTURE SUSTAINABLE CITIES OF IRAN

RESEARCH-EDUCATION May 25 to May 28, 2015

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The Secretary of the Symposium: Prof. Nader Ardalan

The Chairman of the Symposium: Dr. Pirouz Hanachi

Director & Member of the High Council of the Technical Guidance of the Symposium: Eng. Reza

Pourvaziry

The Chairman of the High Council of the Technical Guidance of the Symposium: Dr. Babak Negahdari

Editor-in-Chief & Executive Secretary of the Symposium: Dr. Sajjad Mohammad Yarzadeh

Scientific Editor: Dr. Behnoosh Shamsollahi

Translator: PejmanTaqavi-Nejad Deylami

Administrative Affairs: Ali Shams & Faegheh Tanaomi

Graphic: Pedram Feizbakhsh

Publication: The Middle East Regional Center of the Best Practices and Local Leadership Programme

(MERC-BLP)

Tehran Urban Planning & Research Center

Secretariat of the Symposium: MERC-BLP, Unit 201, 2nd Floor, No. 19, Giti Blvd, Tehran, Iran

Tel: +98 (0) 21- 22017691

Fax: +98 (0) 21 22017688

Email: office@merc-blp.org

Website: http://www.merc-blp.org

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Report on the Symposium of ENVISIONING THE FUTURE SUSTAINABLE CITIES OF IRAN

RESEARCH-EDUCATION May 25 to May 28, 2015

First Day of the Symposium of Envisioning the Future Sustainable Cities of Iran ……….

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Second Day of the Symposium of Envisioning the Future Sustainable Cities of Iran ……. 35 Third Day of the Symposium of Envisioning the Future Sustainable Cities of Iran ………

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Report the Symposium of Envisioning the Future Sustainable Cities of Iran /Pilot of the Historical-Cultural City of Qazvin ………………………………………………………...

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Meeting with Dr. Gilabadi, President of Communications and International Affairs of Tehran Municipality ………………………………………………………………………

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The Symposium Manifesto “Envisioning the Future Sustainable Cities of Iran ………….

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Reports and news coverage of the Symposium of Envisioning the Future Sustainable Cities of Iran ………………………………………………………………………………. 116

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Report on the First Day of ENVISIONING THE FUTURE SUSTAINABLE CITIES OF IRAN

RESEARCH-EDUCATION Tuesday May 26, 2015 Pardisan Park- Tehran

National Anthem of Islamic Republic of Iran/ Quran Recitation Opening and Welcoming Speech: DR. YARZADEH, Executive Director MERC-BLP & Executive Secretary of the Symposium SPEAKER 1: Dr. Pirouz Hanachi, Deputy of Architecture and Urban Planning of the Ministry of Roads and Urban Development & Chairman of the Symposium SPEAKER 2: Prof. Nader Ardalan, Senior Research Associate & Harvard University Design School & Scientific Secretary of the Symposium SPEAKER 3: Dr. Siamak Moghaddam, UN-Habitat Representative and Chief of Tehran Office a.i SPEAKER 4: Dr Masoud Nosrati/President of the World Assembly of Islamic Cities & Chairman of the Pilot Study Group of Qazvin in the Symposium SPEAKER 5: Dr. Hossein Mohammad Pourzarandi, Vice President of the International High Council of Database of Sustainable Urban Energy (DSUE) University of Trento, Italy SPEAKER 6: Dr. Goshtasb Mozaffari, Vice President of Communications and International Affairs of Tehran Municipality SPEAKER 7: Eng. Mohammad Hassan Malekpoor, Consultant of MERC-BLP

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ARTICLE 1: University Buildings Can Function as “Living Laboratories for

Sustainability”, Dr. Volker Hartkopf, Carnegie Mellon University

ARTICLE 2: Engineering and Sustainability: A Solution for Urban Management and

Creating a Better Future, Dr. Farhad Sharif, Amirkabir University of Technology

ARTICLE 3: Water-Conserving Design in Historical and Modern Cities: A

Comparative Approach, Dr. James Wescoat, Massachusetts Institute of Technology

ARTICLE 4: An Analysis on the Environmental Conditions, Dr. Seyed Mohammad

Mojabi, Member of the High Council of the Technical Guidance of the Symposium

ARTICLE 5: Iran’s Future Designed City for Urban Livability: the cultural

components, Prof. Michael Fischer, Massachusetts Institute of Technology

ARTICLE 6: Future Sustainable Cities of Iran: Challenges and Vulnerabilities, Dr.

Nasser Fakouhi, University of Tehran

ARTICLE 7: Ecological Urbanism, Prof. Gareth Doherty, Harvard University

Graduate School of Design

ARTICLE 8: Contemporary Architecture of Iran; A Path through the New Metaphors

of Culture, Dr. Darab Diba, Dr. Shahab Ahmadian, Ms. Somayyeh Ravanshadnia,

Ms. Boroujerdi, University of Tehran

ARTICLE 9: A Dialogue on Iranian Architecture, Prof. Nader Ardalan, Harvard

University Graduate School of Design

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The opening ceremony of the first day

of the International Symposium of

Envisioning the Future Sustainable

Cities of Iran was started with national

anthem of Islamic Republic of Iran

and Quran recitation in the

international conference hall of the

Iranian Environmental Protection

Organization.

DR. Sjjad Mohammad Yarzadeh, Executive Secretary

of the Symposium and the Executive Director MERC-

BLP, as the first speaker of the first Symposium of

Envisioning the Future Sustainable Cities of Iran walked

to the podium to deliver a speech and to welcome the

invitees. While welcoming local professors and those

from overseas as well as students and those interested in

the concept of sustainable development, he thanked Eng.

Reza Pourvaziry as the founder of MERC-BLP and a

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pioneer in education for sustainable development, for his efforts and works and

continued to present a summary of the symposium’s objectives and key questions.

Dr. Yarzadeh defined sustainable development as a holistic development toward the

improvement of quality of life and reinforcement of cultural and social capitals in urban

communities. He described the objectives of the symposium as achieving Iranian

desirable paradigms for local urban planning and design and pointed out the necessity

of local sustainable development for revitalization and protection of local identity,

cultural identity and urban identity and declared social contribution, especially the

contribution of executive sectors and citizens as its requisite. The Executive Director of

MERC-BLP thanked the International City Leaders, Ministry of Roads and Urban

Development, Tehran Urban Planning & Research Center, Environmental Protection

Organization and City Bank at the end of his speech. He also appreciated the

municipalities of the cities of Tehran and Qazvin for being the pilot cit ies and for their

contributions during the symposium. Dr. Yarzadeh declared the Symposium of

Envisioning the Future Sustainable Cities of Iran as a result of a collective endeavor and

group contribution to reach future sustainable cities of Iran which would result in the

“Document of the Vision of Future Sustainable Cities of Iran”.

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Then, Dr. Pirouz Hanachi, The

Deputy for the Urban Planning and

Architecture of the Ministry of

Roads and Urban Development and

the Chairman of the Symposium,

delivered his speech on the identity

problems with which the cities of the

Middle East face due to not attending

to constructions appropriate to cultural codes and identities which has resulted in the

erosion of identity in cities. He stated “the urban future will of course be the result of

our past and today’s decisions; the decisions make cities either sustainable or

unsustainable and either guarantee the future of our children and our land or destroy it.

The separation of convention and modernity and coincidence of the old and the new are

not the main challenges to cities, but it is the fundamental subject of ‘value and no

value’ which threatens the quality and existence of diverse and plural cities of the land

of Iran. He declared the urban future as the complex challenge and serious concern in

the field of urban development, the way out of which is a change in the trends of

information as well as a serious determination. Dr. Hanachi continued to talk about the

determination of the Ministry of Roads and Urban Development of Islamic Republic of

Iran to overcome the challenges to cities through holding specialized meetings with

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scholars of urban sciences from around the world, and also expansion of serious

cooperation areas for finding solutions to overcome these challenges.

Prof. Nader Ardalan, the Scientific Secretary of the

Symposium and Senior Research Associate

Harvard University, welcomed the participants of the

opening ceremony of the first Symposium of

Envisioning the Future Sustainable Cities of Iran. He

declared the objectives of the symposium as creating

suitable areas for joint international research in order to

identify and define policies for environmental

protection, rehabilitation and sustainable urbanism,

protection of historical sites, social equity and

individual welfare in Iran. He stated:

The sobering pressures of Iran’s population growth and unsustainable urbanization; the

adverse impacts of climate change, air pollution, water resource depletion and drought

on public health; the deterioration of its historic architectural and city heritage; its urban

governance and economic shortcomings and diminishing social equity provoke an

urgent reconsideration to remedy the country’s current uninspiring urban patterns and

lack of potential to fully support human growth and well-being. World thought leaders

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have theorized organizing models for future cities that include such innovative concepts

as Net Zero Cities, Smart Cities, Ecological Cities, Biophilic Cities and Serene Cities.

Based upon supporting cross-disciplinary scholarship and professional practice, this is

an exploratory Research-Educational Symposium to gauge interest and support for

funded programs to ultimately provide international collaborative educational research

with Iranian Universities to examine the success and failures of selected cities from

Iran’s six primary bio-climatic/cultural zones. To commence the first phase of the

research with the historic mid-size city of Qazvin, and the Capitol City of Tehran

representing the inner Zagross/dry scrub biome where most of the country’s population

resides, will be the key focus of the Symposium. The sessions will compare today’s

dominant city model -“The Consumer-Based City” and review the many, negative

challenges that such cities face in the 21st century and identify and elaborate on the key

principles of what might constitute alternative, more successful New City Paradigms for

Iran. These Alternative Principles, some timeless and others radically cutting edge, must

be holistically sustainable, ecologically adaptive, financially affordable, sociologically

equitable, spiritually transcendent and, above all, healthy places for human habitation

and growth to enable a quality of life as never before. The precedence to the proposed

research are such criteria as developed by World Green Building Council, One Planet

Living Ten Principles, UN-Habitat and others, and more appropriate can be the “Habitat

Bill of Rights” publication sponsored by the Iran Ministry of Housing & Urban

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Development in 1974 and successfully presented at the 1976 Vancouver Habitat

Conference and the “Pardisan Park Project” commissioned by the Department of

Environment in 1976. Both projects were Iranian products by teams of top world

experts and directed by this consultant. Reference is also made to the “International

Conference on New Towns” of May, 2005 in Tehran. It is time to urgently bring

together such concerned and qualified academics and professionals to establish visions

and policies that can directly preserve and enhance the natural and built environments

of Iranian cities and contribute to the continuity of the nation’s world respected city,

architectural and cultural identity within the unfolding opportunities of the 21st

Century. To achieve these goals, your dedicated participation and creative contributions

are welcomed and encouraged.

Dr. Siamak Moghaddam, UN-Habitat Representative

and Chief of Tehran Office a.i was the fourth speaker

of the opening ceremony of Symposium of Envisioning

the Future Sustainable Cities of Iran. He pointed out

problems such as ineffective management,

environmental destruction and degradation of urban

identity in today's cities, including cities in Iran. Dr.

Moghaddam emphasized the necessity of considering

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research outcomes and scientific achievements in guiding Iranian cities toward

sustainability and in addressing these problems and put forward some lessons including

healthy city, resilient city, city with identity, repairable city, etc. which can be taken

into consideration in this direction. UN-Habitat Representative and Chief of Tehran

Office said that considering our today’s shortages and future needs, we should establish

our desirable cities with the help of international and historical lessons.

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Afterwards, Eng. Masoud Nosrati- President of

World Assembly of Islamic Cities (WAIC) and

Mayor of Qazvin delivered a speech. He expressed his

happiness with selection of Qazvin as a pilot city and

acknowledged that the Symposium of Envisioning the

Future Sustainable Cities of Iran was a step toward

accelerating the movement to sustainable development,

and this is the most important in the case of historical-

cultural cities like Qazvin, once the capital city of Iran,

and have rich sources of Iranian’s culture and

civilization. The Mayor of Qazvin expressed his

concerns about the Baghestan with an area of 6 thousand hectares surrounding the city

of Qazvin and pointed out: “we must not neglect the trees in this historical garden. Mind

that these trees have adapted to water shortage in Qazvin region so that we could have a

city embraced by a garden.” Eng. Nosrati added: “now, with the help of local and

foreign experts, we have to answer the concern that considering high costs of

maintaining and conserving Qazvin’s historical Baghestan and given the fact that the

owners of this 6-hectare garden cannot afford to keep it in current situations, how can

we preserve this historical garden for the next generation?”. He continued to underline

the necessity of planning for revitalizing and renewing the historical gardens of Qazvin

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as well as the historical identity and pointed out that they will exploit the past

experiences and documents in this regard so that they would be able to preserve the

original and identity developing resources of Qazvin and give it to the future

generations. The President of World Assembly of Islamic Cities emphasized the

necessity of considering the environment and stabilization of the buildings. He also

pointed out that caring for the future should not prevent us from trying to have quality

cities with identity at the present time. Eng. Nostrati in the continuation of his speech in

the opening ceremony of the Symposium of Envisioning the Future Sustainable Cities

of Iran stated: “the world is a trust in our hands and we should try to preserve it and this

requires the collaboration of scholars in different fields and we should not forget the

motto “city is for citizens and this is the requisite for achieving sustainable

development.”

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Dr. Hossein Mohammad

Pourzarandi, President of City

Bank and Chairman of Iran Urban

Economics Scientific Association

described sustainable city as one

which is able to thrive through the

economic use of resources, avoidance

overproduction of waste and

recycling them as much as possible,

and adopting useful policies. He also noted some indicators to examine the

sustainability of cities including population, economic status, climate, air quality, water

quality, social capital, education and security. President of City Bank considered

sustainable income resource, sustainable urban management, constructing resilient and

quality buildings, proper transportation system, and use of renewable energies as the

criteria of a sustainable city. He continued to explain the situations of cities and

urbanism in Iran. Pointing out the fact that the rate of urbanism has grown to 71%, he

declared it as a necessity and appropriate to attend sustainable urban development in

metropolitans of Iran. President of City Bank accounted investment in tourism as one of

the solutions of sustainable urban development in Iran and added: “now, tourism is

among the four best industries in the world and it produces more than 10 percent of the

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world's GDP. According to researchers, Iran is one of the ten forerunners in regard with

tourism attractions and this potential can be a reliable solution for achieving urban

sustainability”. Dr. Porzarandi declared electronic city and smart city as two symbols of

a sustainable city and added: “citizen contribution, good urban governance and

participatory process of urban development are other paths toward urban sustainability.

President of City Bank accounted economic capacity, role and application of cities as

other main assumptions of a sustainable city and said: “often, sustainable cities around

the world are those cities with strong economic infrastructures and so we have to do our

best to focus on establishing and reinforcing economic infrastructures of cities. In the opening ceremony of the symposium, Dr.

Goshtasb Mozaffari, Vice President of

Communications and International Affairs of

Tehran Municipality, pointed out institutions

producing and disseminating knowledge including

universities and scientific-research centers as key and

pivotal factors in achieving national development as

well as sustainable development. He said: “If

universities fail to respond to the needs of their

surrounding local communities and cities and to

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satisfy the expectations of local beneficiaries and city people, they will face with

fundamental and severe criticism.”

Vice President of Communications and International Affairs of Tehran Municipality in

the first day of Symposium of Envisioning the Future Sustainable Cities of Iran said:

“Universities and scientific and research centers- to put in a more useful and more

comprehensive term, “scientific society”- can cooperate in several grounds and

dimensions from problem finding, futures studies, policy making, planning, to

implementation and supervision on urban development procedures. Collaboration in

providing master and detailed plans, designing and implementing research projects,

designing, and holding educational courses, social research, providing specialized and

technical consulting services, supplying efficient and effective human resources, etc. are

important fields of cooperation between university and city in order to achieve an

appropriate level of sustainable development.” In the continuation of his speech, Dr.

Mozaffari underlined responsibility and efforts of universities to provide social needs of

sustainable development of cities and local communities may have an effective role in

creating confidence, legitimacy, contribution and support from external beneficiaries

and the general public.

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At the end of the opening ceremony of Symposium of

Envisioning the Future Sustainable Cities of Iran, Eng.

Malekpoor, Consultant of MERC-BLP declared

development as the main and dominant desire of many

communities and added that this phenomenon has directed

many of the settlements in a way irrelevant to their

properties. This situation has widely irreparable

consequences. Several factors in different scales and at

different levels, including the media, predominant world

spaces, peoples’ desires, approaches of businesses,

definite interests, ignorance, etc. have been, and still are, the causes of unsustainability.

Chair of the Founding Board of Islamic Cities Impact Investment Fund mentioned that

it has become impossible and irrelevant for the majority of people to understand this

issue and the resulted hazards. Depending on their consciousness and awareness and

programs, communities will sooner or later make ways to deal with this situation.

Facilitating and accelerating this process is included in the programs of scholars and

leaders of communities. Prevention of unsustainability is not the matter, but the aim is

to create inclusive quality in the realm of time and existence. Space is an effective

equipment to reach unsustainability, and to reach sustainability as well.

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After the opening ceremony, local and foreign professors presented their papers.

At the beginning of paper

presentations, Prof. Volker

Hartkopf, Carnegie Mellon

University, presented his work

under the title of University

Buildings Can Function as “Living

Laboratories for Sustainability”. At

the beginning of his lecture, he said

that during the past decades our world has increasingly realized that our every day

practices and habits in developed and rapidly developing countries profoundly affect

global energy demand and threaten our environments. So, constructing intelligent

workplaces (IWs)is of measurements which can be taken in this regard. He accounted

Individual Productivity and Comfort, Organizational Flexibility, Technological

Adaptability, and Environmental Sustainability as main goals of Intelligent Workplaces.

“Carnegie Mellon University is now well positioned to cooperate with Iranian leading

edge universities to assist in creating such labs in Iran”, Said he. The professor of

Carnegie Mellon University added that effectively educating the next generation

requires the recognition of the importance of school buildings performance. We can

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now share the research, development and demonstration results of created effective

buildings with Iranian Colleagues. According to Prof. Hartkopf Universities as Living

Laboratories for Sustainability will have major positive impacts to improve: Low

income, multi-ethnic, diverse communities; environmental performance and

sustainability of buildings.

“So, constructing intelligent workplaces (IWs) is of measurements which can be taken

in this regard. Building heating, cooling, ventilation and lighting energy demand in the

US and many developed countries exceed 40% of all energy and 70% of all electricity.

Cooling towers of centralized power plants evaporate as much water as agriculture

consumes. Furthermore, building materials, construction and renovation currently waste

enormous amounts of energy and resources. Effective practices, developed and applied

in the Robert L Preger Intelligent Workplace at Carnegie Mellon University

successfully address all these challenges and by creating highest indoor air-, thermal-,

visual-, and special-qualities generate and demonstrate opportunities for advanced inter-

and trans-disciplinary research, education, demonstration and public policies.”

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Dr. Farhad Sharif, Director General of Industrial

Relation Amirkabir University of Technology,

explained the fields of activity of Amirkabir University

of Technology in Sustainable Development. He

described sustainable development as a way toward

sustainability and illustrated on Resilient City. Director

General of Industrial Relation Amirkabir University of

Technology said that AUT attempts to realize

sustainability through different paths including

education, establishment of Sustainability Office, and

some activities in the campus of the university.

Achieving sustainability requires innovation, foresight and effective contribution. Dr.

Sharif declared information exchange with international universities as one of the

measurements of the university.

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Prof. James L. Wescoat Jr., Massachusetts Institute

of Technology, presented his paper under the title of

“Water-Conserving Design in Historical and Modern

Cities: A Comparative Approach” and spoke about

innovative urban water systems. He compared water

systems of two cities of Boston and Tehran and

pointed out that both cities have fascinating historical,

as well as modern, water systems, to protect them a

conceptual framework was presented with five key

components: conservation of waterworks (i.e., physical

infrastructure), conservation of water resources (e.g.,

through water budget analysis), conservation of water experience (e.g., pragmatist and

phenomenological approaches), conservation of water livelihoods (e.g., human rights

and equity in water access), wisdom and culture of water-conserving urban design (i.e.,

integrative and normative approaches to metropolitan water management). Prof.

Wescoat referred to “blue-green infrastructure” as water corridors that perform valuable

ecosystem services in cities.

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In the afternoon meeting of the first day of the

symposium, Dr. Seyed Mohammad Mojabi, Deputy

of Development Management, Legal and

Parliamentary Affairs of Environmental

Protection Organization, presented his paper on

environmental crises. He said: “in the past, there was

a unilateral look to economic issues so that every

productive activity which involved natural resource

exploitation resulted in the destruction of the nature.

When exploitation of the nature increased,

environmental pollution increased due to an increase

in the production of wastes resulting from productivity. As a result, we encountered

serious environmental crises in the late 20th century. He continued to say that for

controlling this problem, serious movements like world Earth Summit were formed in

which achieving sustainable development was on the table. After this summit, the

international community’s view to environment improved and Green Exploitation

raised in importance. Pointing to the subject of several crises in the area of environment,

Eng. Mojabi said that the world is facing water crisis, while there has not been taken

any serious measurement in collecting rainwater in rainy periods in arid and semiarid

cities like Tehran. Emphasizing on the issue that producing export products like

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pistachio and watermelon requires a great amount of water and it needs to be managed,

Deputy of Development Management, Legal and Parliamentary Affairs of

Environmental Protection Organization continued to say that the reduction of per capita

renewable water of the country gradually puts a pressure on the non-renewable waters

and consequently reduces the level of underground waters. Pointing to the fact that

sustainable urban development requires research and study based on problem finding,

he emphasized: “we must know what problems exist in each part of a city so that they

can be addressed as research projects after being categorized. The Deputy of

Development Management, Legal and Parliamentary Affairs of Environmental

Protection Organization said that futurology is a very important issue for cities and if

the events happening in the future are not programmed for, they won’t be manageable.

So, it is necessary to present an urban master plan regarding city management and

environment covering all the problems of the city.” Pointing to the problems of traffic

and air pollution, noise pollution, and water pollution, he added: “in developed cities,

environmental issues are addressed in order to increase citizen’s quality of life.

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Then, Prof. Fischer, Massachusetts Institute of

Technology, presented his paper under the title of

“Iran’s Future Design City for Urban Livability: The

Cultural Components”. He identified three sets of

cultural components and goals: sustainability and

resilience (under the name of eco-cities); livability

(live, work, relax); and aesthetics (transcendent

forms). He noted: “Iran has always been known for

two qualities: its aesthetic touch and its philosophical

bent. Both qualities are prominent in Iran’s cultural

pasts and its contemporary arts for living. He

illustrated first with modernizing some traditional elements of design, showing pictures

both of Qazvin’s refurbished bazzar area and a contrasting modern cultural center in

Qazvin. He cited Parviz Tanavoli’s sculptures of heech designed, with a modern twist

on calligraphy for public spaces, to inject also a sense of humor and sense of modern

well-being while still attached to tradition. And he cited Nader Ardalan’s modern

caravanserai-university (Tehran Harvard Business School, now Imam Jafaar Sadeq

University), designed specifically to foster debate and learning among small study

groups within a madrasseh garden like environment. But he continued by pointing out

the necessity of addressing upcoming challenges of urban development in Iran,

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suggesting that Iran could develop contemporary urban models, as it had in the past,

applicable across the Middle East and Central Asia and beyond. Prof. Fischer explained

the vulnerabilities of Qazvin and said that Qazvin sits amidst an earthquake prone series

of fault lines that at least ten times in the past have been destructive to the city. So, he

suggested as one possibility a new world class university design school as well as a

craft-vocational school for builders and craftsmen to serve as living laboratories for

new urban solutions for earthquake resilience, new water and energy systems, and

perhaps refunctioning parts of the bazaar as learning and incubator spaces for urban

innovation. While acknowledging Qazvin as the first pilot project city, he said that

“Tehran also provides the opportunity to create something entirely new, perhaps built

around theater and art spaces, using plays, photography, video, and poetry competitions

as ways to create new ideas adapted to, and reinventing, liveable life styles in different

neighborhoods. He suggested three kind of models to think with:” (a) different cultural

models of city design and growth, contrasting Qazvin, Yazd, and Tehran; (b) different

models of participatory design, and rapid urban prototyping, citing experiments he has

participated in at the Singapore University of Technology and Design, in affiliation with

the Massachusetts Institute of Technology; and (c) models of collaboration such as the

Public Lab and the Asthma Files Projects in the U.S. to deal with such problems as

disease causing air pollution. He stressed the need to work with rather than against

nature as a key Iranian cultural aesthetic (in danger of being lost by capital-driven

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building), and cited as future-oriented examples four Iranian scientists developing key

water, energy, and medical technologies working with rather than against nature as type

cases of extensions of traditions of tending gardens, orchards, waterworks, and the

transcendental wonders of the worlds we inhabit.

Also, Dr. Nasser Fakouhi,

University of Tehran, presented a

paper under the title of “Sustainable

Future Cities of Iran: Challenges and

Cultural-Social Vulnerabilities”. He

spoke of Iranian society’s conditions

and its reflection in the Iranian

contemporary architecture and urban

planning and said: “the Iranians now much more than ever, prefer unconsciously and

consciously, some sort of undefined and ambivalence conditions, leading to

architectural and urban styles in the same manner, but also ways of acting and thinking

in some sort “surreal” between the will to act pragmatically and the idealist spirit of

revolutionary wills still not accessible after 30 years. Regarding the cultural and social

situation of the current Iran, it seems to me that the most crucial question lies in

increased and accelerated differentiation of social identities and their impact on the

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lifestyles of urban everyday lives as well as physical and subjective relationship with

time and modern spaces (in the sense of modernus: "Here and Now"). And this is

continuing, without a real solution, neither from above nor from below, with some kind

of more or less spontaneous ways which no one can predict the future. For this same

reason, speaking of Iranian cultural identity is far from being practically adaptable to

the reality of things. We must constantly ask ourselves what identity we are talking

about: local, overall, ethnic, lifestyle, sexual, etc. These identities though having enough

dealing with each other over years, have created complex and often incompatible

interactions. Increasingly, we see that even in the most general lines of what we call

culture and traditional priorities; we are forced to radically revise our prejudiced and

our previous analyses. Dr. Fakouhi continued to declare that what is called "The Iranian

Modernity" is still very far from being able to define itself and this is the main reason it

is obviously unable to advance spatial or temporal solutions for changing the life and

the city, unless by repeating and asking constantly for a return to pre-revolutionary past,

itself, too diffuse. In these circumstances, it seems that a revitalization of traditional

cultural, local, and ethnic, is possible and beneficial to realize not a single but a multiple

Iranian maternities, accepting the right for existing of all the differences and even

paradoxical approaches in these maternities.

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In the continuation of the meeting, Prof. Gareth

Doherty, Harvard University, talked about a project

under the title of “Ecological Urbanism” which has

been published as a book by Harvard University and is

under translation by the University of Shiraz. In his

speech he pointed out the fact that the notion of a

wider understanding of ecology including

environmental concerns, yet going beyond solely the

environmental, is not new. It’s built along a long

trajectory, with many historic examples in Iran, and

elsewhere. He said writing some thirty years ago, the

French philosopher and social scientist, Félix Guattari, called for the three ecological

registers of the environmental, social relations, and “the mental” or human subjectivity.

The professor of Harvard University referred to some terms derived from several

projects, terms like anticipate, sense, curate, collaborate, produce, etc. which he

believed to show us a way of thinking about ecological urbanism. Explaining

environmental urbanism, Prof. Doherty said: “Iranian cities are a fertile context for

developing case studies, as a set of multi-scale urban projects that will resonate with the

ecological urbanism agenda and that will inform future interventions in the Iranian built

and natural environment.” He also referred to a long-term collaboration for developing

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case studies, projects, and research from Iran and the region into both academic material

and policy recommendations.

The first day of the Symposium of

Envisioning the Future Sustainable

Cities of Iran continued with the

speech by Dr. Darab Diba and his

colleagues on “Contemporary

Architecture of Iran; A Path through

the New Metaphors of Culture”.

Ms. Ravanshadnia, a colleague of

Dr. Diba, emphasized on concepts such as identity, culture, convention and history for

understanding and evaluating contemporary architecture in Iran and said: “Iran, whose

culture is essentially based on metaphysical concepts, has been confronted with new

western values: scientism, rationalism and the economic considerations of world

geopolitics. Words such as reason, logic, economy, secularism, religion, democracy and

progress have been so disseminated and used that they have become mere phonemes,

lacking too often the validity of their true meanings.

Modern times have been converted into new views to emerge in a kind of pluralism

where everything seems to be more or less valid and nothing is really of great interest.

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She continued to say that an inspiration from the universal abstract expression of

Iranian architecture can open new windows of relevance, appreciation and innovation.

The emerging paths of a new orientation could provide new morphologies in the

constitution of cities. Finally, she underlined that we should step back and evaluate the

qualities and positive experiences learnt from different cultures merged together to

build our new environments, our new ideas, and our new ways of thinking.

At the end of the first day of the symposium, Prof.

Nader Ardalan, the Scientific Secretary of the

Symposium and Senior Research Associate Harvard

University, started his speech with the question “What

are the most important challenges and opportunities for

reaching Iran’s full potential for meaningful architecture

and city building in the 21st century? He declared the

answer to this question as dependent on the four subjects

of common ground identity, timeless lessons of the built

heritage, best holistic sustainable world practice, and innovation- the new creation

“khalg-i-jadid”. The Senior Research Associate Harvard University added: “today,

UNESCO Conventions remind us that cultural heritage is an irreplaceable resource and

it is our common responsibility to save it for future generations. This includes both the

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tangible and the intangible cultural heritage which are important vital realities and

mainsprings of cultural diversity and a guarantee of sustainable development. Prof.

Ardalan continued to say that we should investigate in our higher places of education

how important domains of cutting edge research and application on the discoveries of

the neuroscience of the brain are being scientifically and philosophically used to explore

“new creation paradigms” of what architecture and the city can potentially be:

• How the natural and made-made environment directly impacts health;

• How to accommodate social, communal activities and rituals that give meaning

to our lives;

• How to identify culturally relevant, uplifting patterns and forms of spatial

design;

• How can theory be applied in actual practice through built case models and their

analysis.

Finally, the Scientific Secretary of the Symposium of Symposium of Envisioning the

Future Sustainable Cities of Iran stated that To truly achieve sustainable urbanism,

social equity, preservation of nature, a sense of the sublime in architecture and to regain

our cultural identity in the built environments of Iran, we need to begin with a shared

culturally attuned cosmic, systemic awareness of the context and physiology of human

existence on both a phenomenal and numinal level. Throughout humans’ presence on

the earth, the relationship between spirituality, urbanity and the built architectural

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environment has, continues to have and will have profound effects on each other. How

we draw from past and present experience to cultivate a new vision for architecture and

city building is an imperative that Iranian decision makers, including scholars, planners,

and poets of architecture, landscape architects and artists must address through

philosophical, theoretical and practical considerations, but most importantly through

inner contemplation. Asking from within themselves – what is the role of man and

nature within the context of the contemporary and the unfolding of future life?

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Report on the Second Day of ENVISIONING THE FUTURE SUSTAINABLE CITIES OF IRAN

RESEARCH-EDUCATION Wedenesday May 27, 2015

Pardisan Park- Tehran

The first day of the the specialized meetings of the symposium was started with national

anthem of Islamic Republic of Iran and Quran recitation in the Sarv Hall in Pardisan

Park on Wednesday, May 27, 2015 at 9:00 in the morning.

Start of the meeting by Prof. Nader Ardalan; the second day of the symposium was

held as a specialized meeting In Sarv Hall of Pardisan Park. In this meeting, Prof.

Ardalan as the Chair of Meeting and the Scientific Secretariat of the symposium

introduced Dr. Mohsen Habibi and invited him to present his paper under the title of

“Iranian Eco-City”. Dr. Habibi started his speech by quoting a statement by Eleanor

Roosevelt which says: “The future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their

dreams.” As an introduction, he said: “my discussion is related to the past 200 years,

since the industrial revolution which resulted in accelerated growth of urbanism and the

destructed of the relation of human beings with the nature.” He continued his lecture

with some questions: “what should human beings do to make their relationship with

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nature sustainable? How can we minimize the use of land, energy, and material? How

can we minimize the disturbance with the natural environment?” According to him:

“(considering the School of Chicago) the first paradigm crossing the mind is ecology of

the city. This is important to know that the earth is not ours, but it belongs to the next

generations. An American Indian proverb says that: “We didn’t inherit the earth from

our fathers, but we stole it from our children.”

Dr. Habibi continued to emphasize the fact that “In an ecosystem, the improvement of

quality of life should be within the limits of environmental system.” He believed that

city is for people, not for cars. In the Safavid period, we achieved a school of urbanism

called “School of Isfahan” which is not related to the city of Isfahan, because examples

of this school can be found in Taj-Mahal, Samarkand and Bukhara. In the School of

Isfahan, city is in perfect accordance with its surrounding environment. City is in

accordance with its surrounding villages. The relation between city and the nature is

distinctive. And finally, city is a complex of economic, agricultural, social and cultural

activities.

Dr. Habibi recognizes three kinds of knowledge in relation with city which are:

Historical knowledge (culture) base on which human beings learnt how to be in relation

with their surrounding environment and transfer it from one generation to the next.

Biological knowledge; the knowledge causing differences in the architecture of

different regions and lands. And finally, technical knowledge relating to the

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contemporary time. He continued his lecture to say that “My suffering today is that I’ve

forgotten the biological knowledge of my homeland. I have forgotten my bio-climatic

knowledge and my historical-cultural knowledge, and for I’ve forgotten these, I just use

my today’s knowledge. In Farsi I have a trilogy of “Yaad” (memory): I learn (Yaad

migiram), to teach (Yaad bedaham), to remember (Yaad biavaram) and if I didn’t learn I

cannot teach. So, first we should learn where we are living, in which nature and what

culture and with what technologies. Accordingly, if I utilize these three kinds of

knowledge together, then my architectural knowledge will be accompanied with

innovation.”

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Following Dr. Habibi, Dr. Nasser Fakouhi, anthropologist, said: “Research with an

anthropological approach has been started in the Municipality of Tehran since many

years ago, when urban anthropology had not found his true place in Iran, and because of

this we had many problems with the Municipality. They asked us: What the difference

is between urban anthropology and urban sociology? It should be said that the

difference between these two is the focus of urban anthropology on “culture”. The city

of Qazvin had been one of the capital cities of Iran many years ago. And many other

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Iranian cities have experienced the process of urbanism since so many years ago.

Accordingly, we have to use the three kinds of knowledge to which Dr. Habibi referred;

because due to our long history of urbanism, we do have the three kind of knowledge.

We must try to revitalize the relationship between human and the nature. If we want to

utilize Iranian architecture, first we should know what Iranian culture is. We should

recognize the borders between Iranian culture, Islamic culture and local culture so that

we would be able to create Iranian architecture, Islamic architecture, and local

architecture. We have very good spaces here in Iran of which we don’t use, and this is

due to the lack of public participation and mere exertion of the officials’ priorities. So,

there is just a mechanical approach to space. “Identity” was the first work we did in the

municipality; the relation between identity, space and time. City is a complex of

minority and majority. It should not be forgotten that the minority need space and time,

too. And this applies for women as well, because women are always present in public

spaces. The second issue is “Tehran at night”. This issue has been neglected by the

officials. The Municipality of Tehran wants to know how to manage Tehran at night.

Many girls and boys go to the national library and stay there until 1:00 am, and they

face many problems when getting back home. The final issue is related to the urban

advertisements. As you know, advertisements, including those on city buses, produce

big revenue. So, there is a lot of space for advertisement, but there is no space for art.

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How can we bring art and symbols to Tehran spaces? We don’t have a monument in

Tehran, yet.

After Dr. Fakouhi, Eng. Nikravan, from Sustainability Office, AUT, explained the

works they did in regard with sustainable development. First he pointed out:

“Sustainability Office was established with the aim to see in which direction we are

moving and how we can guide university environment toward sustainability, because a

lot of people who work in universities and a lot of students who study there use these

spaces. Water and sustainable development, and constructing green building are two

subjects we have worked on. We tried to provide a safe and healthy environment in

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laboratories. Also, in line with the objective of Sustainability Office, we hold several

conferences. Currently, we are working of transportation (how do students generally go

to the university?). After the explanations of Eng. Nikravan, Eng. Shabestani described

projects of Amirkabir University of Technology and pointed out that we need a local

model to reach sustainable development. We have studied a model in Australia

(Queensland University) called Musix which is working in Indonesia as well, but we

need to obtain a local model. Then, Prof. Ardalan referred to the necessity of

considering the projects done by UN-Habitat, such as CPI.

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Then, Dr. Fakouhi referred to the problems they have with the Municipality of Tehran

including lack of cooperation by engineers with researchers in the field of anthropology.

He noted the inefficiency of cultural centers known as “Farhang-Sara” and said: “When

Mr. Karbaschi was in office, many cultural centers were established. Today those

centers are not being used because there is no activity happening there. It is because of

this that we believe green spaces can always be the best, like Pardisan Park to which

people come for recreation and workout and for enjoying the landscape. Accordingly,

we should promote such spaces which people are willing to attend.”

Then, Prof. Ardalan asked Dr. Fakouhi about predestrian walkways and he answered:

“Some investigations have been done on this issue, but as engineers dominate spaces

the trend can be seen in organizing walkways, too. Expansion of highways is one of the

hazards to walkways and caused the movement of walking people to become limited.

Actually, it can be said that cars are killing Tehran.”

Dr. Fakouhi pointed out the necessity of public participation in the governance of cities

and said: “We should search and see why people are not willing to participate and why

they don’t use cultural spaces like they do in case of other cultural centers? Why do

people prefer to go out of the city for “Sinzdah-be-dar”, a public holiday in Iran, and

wouldn’t like to attend green spaces inside the city? Then Prof. Fischer referred to the

necessity of developing and recognizing spaces of which people make use and not be

useless.

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At the end of the first day of specialized meetings of the Symposium of Envisioning the

Future Sustainable Cities of Iran, Prof. Ardalan concluded the discussions and finally

assigned two important research objects to be investigated in the projects to the second

day of the specialized meeting:

1. Blue-Green Infrastructure in two cities of Tehran and Qazvin

Qazvin: preserving, enhancing, and learning from Qazvin’s Baghestan

Tehran: toward a transcendent garden city

2. Green Campus Initiatives in accordance with sustainability criteria

Qazvin: Islamic Azad University of Qazvin

Tehran: Amirkabir University of Technology and the University of Imam Sadegh

(pbuh)

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Report on the Third Day of ENVISIONING THE FUTURE SUSTAINABLE CITIES OF IRAN

RESEARCH-EDUCATION Thursday May 28, 2015 Pardisan Park- Tehran

The second day of the specialized meetings of the symposium was started with national

anthem of Islamic Republic of Iran and Quran recitation in the Sarv Hall in Pardisan

Park on Thursday, May 28, 2015 at 10:00 in the morning.

Start of the meeting by Dr. Yarzadeh; Today is the last day of the symposium and we

are going to achieve a conclusion and a manifesto in order to develop the “Document of

Envisioning the Future Sustainable Cities of Iran”. Through the meetings we have had

with urban managers and experts, we concluded that we need their contribution in this

work and for developing the document. MERC-BLP recognizes it as its duty to follow

the contents of the final manifesto to be presented. I invite Prof. Hartkopf to chair

today’s meeting.

At the beginning of his speech, Prof. Hartkopf said: “Prof. Ardalan has asked me to

focus on the two research projects specified yesterday, and to determine workgroups.

But now I invite Dr. Eetesam to present his paper.

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Dr. Etesam began his lecture by a description of cities of Iran and said: “All new cities

and the big city of Tehran were actually new towns with beautiful plane trees and

streams in the time of Shah Tahmasp. By new town we do not mean utopias. We mean

the cities that first were formed in England and then gained popularity in Iran. The main

purpose of developing new town was controlling urban population. Some towns were

developed in England to control the population. But after World War II, some of the

established towns turned into important cities such as Washington D.C. for three

decades. In any case, development and management of these new towns followed the

concept of garden city up to the 1970s. And we have been facing with a crisis in

urbanism and architecture since 1960s. Most of the criticisms of new towns at that time

were made about their physical aspects, not about their socio-cultural, climatic, and

environmental problems. Since 1970s on, especially these days, with the experiences

gained, most attention has been paid to internal parts of cities than suburbs. In effect,

developments outside of cities did harm existing cities, because this made low income

classes to settle in suburbs such as San Diego. Most of the people from low income

classes began to settle in suburbs. Though, there has been an increase in the attention

paid to city modifications in the past decade. New urban theories have been developed

with certain objectives of which Almere in the Netherlands and Seaside in Florida are

examples which gained a lot of attention from the people. Regardless of limited and

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scattered experiences gained before the Islamic Revolution, there has been a great

attention given to making new towns. This was due to the resolutions made by

administrations. These are resolutions, not laws:

− Help population decentralization policy

− Help to the harmonious distribution of population

− Prevention from degradation of environment and land around cities

− Land and housing prices regulation

− Accommodating the surplus population from big cities

− Prevention from ungovernable growth of big cities

− Developing new settlements in accordance with environmental regulations and

high standards

The thing that caused Tehran to expand is the expansion of highways and attractions

existing in Tehran as the Capital City. In 2005, the International Conference on New

Towns was held and we learned good experiences from other countries such as

Germany, the Netherlands, and Sweden.

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After Dr. Etesam, Prof. Hartkopf gave Pittsburgh as an example of successful

sustainable cities. Challenges and opportunities for instance in Pittsburgh include the

changing behavior of young future oriented professionals in one neighborhood: Prof.

Hartkopf pointed out that in one redeveloping neighborhood of Pittsburgh 60% of the

young employees walk, bicycle or use public transportation to and from work. He

pointed out that 60% percent of the population use buses, bicycles and walkways for

traveling in this city. He believed that for the wasteful ways we are now living, we need

4 to 5 Earths for providing our resources. Prof. Hartkopf, as the Chair of the specialized

meeting in the second day said that Prof. Ardalan had asked him to develop two

workgroups to focus on the two research projects determined for Tehran and Qazvin as

pilot cities:

1. Blue-Green Infrastructure in two cities of Tehran and Qazvin

Qazvin: preserving, enhancing, and learning from Qazvin’s Baghestan

Tehran: toward a transcendent garden city

2. Green Campus Initiatives in accordance with sustainability criteria

Qazvin: Islamic Azad University of Qazvin

Tehran: Amirkabir University of Technology and the University of Imam Sadegh

(pbuh)

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He said: “We want to make a comparison between Tehran and Qazvin and study their

challenges and to learn from the past days of Qazvin. While talking about the blue-

green infrastructures, we must attend to the effective measurements taken in the past.

We have good examples of the past in Qazvin for which Prof. Doherty and Prof

Wescoat will be responsible.

When we learn how important environmental experience is, we will take more effective

measurements. We must know how much energy is used in a building; how the cooling

and heating systems work, because these are related to ventilation of the apartment. We

want to make ‘living’ laboratories in universities, meaning green spaces that are

constantly progressing in which we can establish new technologies and systems. There

must be no waste of the material when constructing the building and our relationship

with the nature must not be degraded. And the building must be completely independent

from artificial energy. We want to establish a laboratory that is not only ‘living’ and

also ‘lived-in’.”

The problems in this project are as follows:

1. What kind of data do we lack?

2. How are we going to analyze the data?

3. How are we going to transfer the data?

4. What kind of data do policymakers need?

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Green Campus Initiative workgroup

Director: Prof. Hartkopf

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Blue-Green Infrastructure

workgroup Directors: Prof. Doherty

& Prof Wescoat

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Later in the meeting of the third day of the symposium which was held as a specialized

meeting, Prof. Wescoat and Prof. Doherty as the directors of Blue-Green Infrastructure

workgroup, and Prof. Hartkopf as the director of Green Campus Initiative workgroup

presented reports of their workgroups. Subsequently, Prof. Ardalan took the

chairmanship of the meeting and Prof. Fischer read the manifesto of the symposium

which was approved with a majority vote of those present at the meeting.

At the end of the meeting, Dr. Sajjad Mohammad Yarzadeh, the Executive Secretary of

the symposium and Executive Director MERC-BLP expressed his thankfulness to Prof.

Ardalan for his efforts along the procedure of planning and managing the symposium,

and to other professors who participated in the meetings. He said: the Symposium of

Envisioning the Future Sustainable Cities of Iran does not end here, but the Middle East

Regional Center of the Best Practices and Local Leadership Programme, MERC-BLP,

is going to develop the “Document of the Vision of Future Sustainable Cities of

Iran” and prepare backgrounds for the second and third symposiums with the aim of

sharing the outcomes and progress of the pilot projects and for operational programs of

prosperity and sustainability.

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Report on

ENVISIONING THE FUTURE SUSTAINABLE CITIES OF IRAN RESEARCH-EDUCATION

Monday May 25, 2015 Pilot of the Historical-Cultural City of Qazvin

Mafakher Conference Hall

National Anthem of Islamic Republic of Iran/ Quran Recitation SPEACH: Eng. Masoud Nosrati- President of World Assembly of Islamic Cities (WAIC) and Mayor of Qazvin SPEACH: Eng. Ahmad Nasri- Chair of Board of Trustee, MERC-BLP Objectives and Necessity and the Presentation of the Scientific Report of the Symposium: Prof. Nader Ardalan- Harvard University, Graduate School of Design & Scientific Secretary of the Symposium Presentation of the Executive Procedure of the Symposium: Dr. Yarzadeh/ Executive Director, MERC-BLP & Executive Secretory of the Symposium Prof. Hartkopf/ Director, Center for Building Performance Carnegie Mellon University Prof. Michael J. Fischer/ Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA/ Urban Anthropology and Science and Technology Studies Prof. James L. Wescoat/ Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA (Urban Planning) Prof. Gareth Doherty/ Harvard University/ Landscape Architect

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Visits: − The Neighborhood of Hadj Chorouck and a Visit to Bazaar Pathway and to

Masjed-e-Nabi − Sado Saltaneh Complex/ Presentation by Workgroup of Cultural and Social

Planning- Representative of the Workgroup: Mr. Haghshenas/ Dr. Hadj Karimi − The Context of Ab-Anbar-e Hadj Kazem Neghiborhood and Aminiha

Housseinieh − Baghestan/ Presentation by Workgroup of Public Health and Air Pollution

Control- Representative of the Workgroup: Eng. Hakimnia − Imam Khomeini International University/ Presentation by Workgroup of Urban

Architecture Representative of the Workgroup: Dr. Sameh and Dr. Maddi − Islamic Azad University of Qazvin/ Presentation by Workgroup of Urban

Planning: Representative of the Workgroup: Dr. Tabibian and Dr. Khatibi

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Masoud Nosratai/ Mayor of Qazvin: “Today, in the first international Symposium of

Envisioning the Future Sustainable Cities of Iran, professors and experts will visit the

historical, cultural and natural context of Qazvin and its traditions and costumes. The

symposium will continue in Tehran within the next three days.”

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President of World Assembly of Islamic Cities reiterated: “This program will eventually

result in the development of manifesto and a final document and it is a beginning for

Qazvin as the pilot among historical-cultural cities.

He added: “With the cooperation of Imam Khomeini International University, Islamic

Azad University of Qazvin,

Engineering Organization of the province, general administrations and experts, the

studies and documents have been gathered in the minimum length of time possible.”

This official declared based on the visits to central, historical, and cultural contexts and

a visit to Baghestan some results will be obtained for the six workgroups.

Nosrati said: “the activities of these workgroups are intended to result in the issuance of

a manifesto for the city of Qazvin.” “With exchange of thoughts and consultation, this

symposium will turn into a Manifesto and a final document”, said he.

The Mayor of Qazvin pointed out: “Based on the visits to the central and northern

contexts of Qazvin and the context of Baghestan and presentation of the outcomes of

the six workgroups, we hope to be able to establish a good intuitive cognition for our

invitees so that the developed document and manifesto can result in an MOU and in

signing a contract, and a national document would be provided which is helpful for Iran

and for the historical city of Qazvin.

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Then, Eng. Ahmad Nasri- Chair of Board of Trustee, MERC-BLP said:

“Observance of relevance and density in public pathways and dominance of homes over

each other are two important facts that provide citizens’ mental tranquility and they

must be taken into consideration in new urbanization.”

Ahmad Nasri pointed out that programs being implemented in the area of urban

development should result in considerable outcomes, so that the citizens would be able

to enjoy them. The outcomes of urban development should be tangible and visible to

citizens, or else, the investigation of time and costs is wasted and the result of the job

won’t be satisfying.

Chair of Board of Trustee, MERC-BLP said that neglecting citizens’ needs in building

construction has caused that we are facing with several problems and we have to pay

great amount of costs, while we could resolve many of the problems. He noted that

logic commands that we move in a way that future generations do not criticize us and

do not question our work. So, if we think well and move with research support our

mistakes will decrease.

He pointed out that 60 new towns are under construction. So we must be careful how

we want to make them so that they can be at citizens’ service with minimum amount of

problems and guarantee their welfare.

The former Governor of Qazvin Province reiterated that unfortunately the privacy of

homes is not observed nowadays and apartments are close to each other. So, while the

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apartments are dominant on each other, there is no comfort and security you always

have to draw the curtains and be deprived of the blue sky and the nature out there. He

added while we must plan constructions in a way that citizens will be able to freely use

the outdoor spaces and nobody disturb them, this matter is not observed in the

constructions these days.

He referred to immigrations from villages as the main cause of the development of

cities in this country and said that one of the main and most prominent causes of the

development of cities in Iran has been ungovernable immigrations from villages to

cities so as today 60 new towns are being constructed in the country.

While noting the fact that sustainable development must be a priority in constructions in

cities, he said that today, the most important concern in constructions in cities of the

country is how to construct according to sustainable development. Accordingly,

congruency between population density and public and urban pathways must be

observed in constructions.

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Prof. Nader Ardalan, Senior Research Associate Harvard University and the

Scientific Secretary of the Symposium said that Iran has a special status in different

fields globally and has always been noticed.

He added that we should be able to communicate with reputable universities around the

world and to complement research systems by information and research exchange. We

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should have an amazing city in accordance with the culture of our country and the city

of Qazvin should be a pilot city.

He continued to say that industrial products have turned our city to an industrial one

rather than making it beautiful. And we should try not to let our city undergo such

negative environmental changes.

Prof. Ardalan added that by awareness and communications and research, we will be

able to create sustainable cities and we should not let the state-of-art technology to

destroy the rich cultures of cities. We hope Qazvin makes progress day after day and

will be accounted for as a sustainable city. We failed to use the experience of the past

properly in recent years for sustainability of cities, and we have forgotten the successful

experiences of sustainable cities. He added that we should make new spaces go ahead

step by step along with sustainable development of cities, using past and today’s

knowledge. Prof. Nader Ardalan, Senior Research Associate Harvard University and the

Scientific Secretary of the Symposium, noting that this symposium wants to create

awareness of Sustainability Engineering for us, said that by information exchange and

consultation we can achieve useful outcomes that guide us toward sustainable cities. We

should exchange information with universities of Qazvin and coordinate research with

each other, so that we would be able to obtain good results and attain a sustainable city.

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Scientific Secretary of the Symposium pointed out that today we can mention the

historic cities of Iran as extremely good examples of sustainable cities (e.g. Isfahan and

Qazvin that are part of our cultural heritage), and the answer to this question can resolve

a lot of problems; are we environmental-friendly?

He said that due to Iran’s global geographic location, it is today the worlds airline

crossroads, much as in yesterdays it was the bridge connecting the East and the West. In

1976, we were working with Environmental Protection Organization on the Pardisan

Park Project in which we documented that the world is basically composed of eight bio-

climatic regions. Iran, due to its large size, actually contains six of these bioclimatic

zones. Qazvin is located in the inner Zagross/dry scrub zone where most of the

country’s population resides. Scientific Secretary of the Symposium of Envisioning the

Future Sustainable Cities of Iran continued to say that Iran is a very important country

for the world in the 21st century, and the world has become very important for Iran, too.

Prof. Ardalan reiterated that we intend to exchange information with the universities of

Qazvin and take appropriate measures for improving our research systems.

Scientific Secretary of the Symposium of Envisioning the Future Sustainable Cities

noting that compatibility and concordance of our projects with the environment need to

be reviewed, he said: “Implementation of research projects require financial resources

and we should be supported in this regard.

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He pointed out that one of the main aims of this symposium is to awaken the urgent

need for holistic sustainable thinking and education in our schools, universities and by

rge decision makers of Iran.

Prof. Hartkopf, Director of the Center for Building Performance, Carnegie Mellon

University said that Qazvin, with historical, natural, and cultural capacities is able to

present a proper model of life to other cities around the world. In the Symposium of

Envisioning the Future Sustainable Cities of Iran which was held in Mafakher

Conference Hall of Qazvin with the presence of distinguished scholars and professors

from Harvard University, The Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and Carnegie

Mellon University, University of Tehran, Amirkabir University of Technology, Sharif

University of Technology, Prof Hartkopf mentioned that we must make wealthy cities

livable by adopting permanent and sustainable policies. Reinforcement of buildings and

prosperity of neighborhoods can help welfare of city and bring more convenient lives

for citizens.

He said that if we could find a solution for a deeper relationship of universities with

urban life we would obtain valuable results and Qazvin, having the Islamic Azad

University and The International University of Imam Khomeini, has a very good

capacity to move forward in this way. Director of the Center for Building Performance,

Carnegie Mellon University said that we should take it serious to produce cheap and

eco-friendly energies in our cities and it is a necessary action in this regard.

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Prof. Michael J. Fischerfrom Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Urban

Anthropology and Science and Technology Studies, noted the fact that elements have

a special importance in Iranian architecture which should be taken into consideration

these days. He said that constructions were done in accordance with geographical and

historical situations. Hence, environmental elements had a special importance in the

kind of constructions in cities, but nowadays they are neglected.

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Also, noting that preserving water resources has a direct relationship with cities and

gardens, Prof. Wescoat of Massachusetts Institute of Technology said that preserving

water and preserving city should be in line with each other. He pointed out that

economic development is in relation with cultural and financial development. Values

can make cities and the Islamic world get closer to each other and the 21st century will

be an opportunity for the United States to think differently.

Afterwards, Prof. Gareth Doherty, Landscape Architect from Harvard University,

referring to local culture, said that the Islamic Iran has a very rich and dynamic culture

by which it can influence urban life.

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Report on the First meeting of ENVISIONING THE FUTURE SUSTAINABLE CITIES OF IRAN

RESEARCH-EDUCATION Meeting with Dr. Guilabadi, President of Communications and

International Affairs of Tehran Municipality Wednesday May 27, 2015, 19:00

Milad Tower- Tehran

Speech by Dr. Guilabadi: Plato believes the world is made of lovers, not by people of

accounting. It is for this that I declare in advance that if you ever want to giggle to my

comments, go on! No problem.

The basic question is this: sustainability against what; against the world that is

constantly hanging or against the human the nature of which changes once every three

month? If we close our eyes and make an outline of this world in our minds, we’ll see

that the God enunciated that he created human being for himself. It means we are

humans of God. And it is told in different verses of Quran and in Old and New

Testaments that God created the Earth for human. So “I” gain identity in this way. “I” is

the origin of the world. And human arrives at a stage that God defines a vision for him.

In this vision, God teaches us everything of how to explore in the nature. Sometimes,

we see a construction built by an architect; a building in accordance with an earthquake-

prone region moves with it and tell the human “be careful about the environment you

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are in. if you explore it, all things are hidden in it.” Now, Prof. Ardalan enjoys what he

himself designed, because he first explored the nature and then designed. God has

taught human where to settle and establish a city. The cities which are established

resulted in behavior development in humans and this is how an unsuitable building

causes violence and sometimes a building causes somebody to reach spirituality. If

sustainability means to consider human precious, and all the constructions be according

to human’s spirituality, this is a valuable sustainability. Sometimes we define a project

with the aim of providing people with convenience, but we fail, and it will entail

hardship for them.

Tehran is a city comprising a land area of 700 km2. Green space is unique in Tehran. It

is a criterion of assessment in the Middle East. Tehran’s per capita green space is 16.5

m2. The question may cross the mind how much precipitation Tehran gets. I answer the

question in a low voice: less than 240 mm per year. Per capita of the forests around

Tehran is 23 km2. The subway system has a unique record in Tehran. Now we are

sitting here, while a city is being developed underneath. More than 300 sites are under

construction underground. The record for subway development is unprecedented. 23

kilometers of tunnel is excavated each year. We passed the record last year and reached

30 km. currently, Tehran has 153 kilometers of subway and it is predicted to increase to

two times within the next 3 years. There are a lot of issues we can refer to, one of which

is managerial issues. Tehran’s highway network covers nearly different districts of

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Tehran (11 km). There are more than 400 kilometers of highways in Tehran; 480

kilometers to put it more precise. Urban water is not used for watering the green spaces

in Tehran and water consumption in green spaces of Tehran is fully managed. There is a

10-year-long vision for Tehran, and the planning for each year of Tehran is according to

that vision. Everything is defined in this vision and all of these are for us to face with a

world-city. I used the compound term “world-city” because according to the implication

we defined for ourselves, epistemology, I believe Tehran will be effective in the region

in it’s the 10-year-long vision. Tehran has currently a considerable effect on cities in the

Middle East and according to UN-Habitat, Iran’s criteria are comparable with other

cities of the Middle East. The municipality of Tehran is not just a service institution, but

also a cultural-social one. Its factors are many, but don’t want to make my speech

longer. We are asked several times that Iran be visited closely. And we are interested in

more extensive studies on Tehran. We want to see different projects from different

angles and we support these projects. No doubt, as we have used a lot of world

experiences, such as tunnel excavation which we learned from the Austrians, we are

now ready to use other countries’ experiences for developing Tehran. And no doubt, we

support any research proposals that can help Tehran and its development and

management.

I hope we move in a direction which is very innovative, but my I declare my

philosophical view: no innovation is compatible with sustainability.

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Following Dr. Gilabadi, Prof. Ardalan, the Scientific Secretary of Symposium spoke.

Referring to the Symposium of Envisioning the Future Sustainable Cities of Iran, he

said: “We are here to identify the existing challenges of Iranian cities and propose

resolutions to cope with them. However, these resolutions will be inspired by a

spiritually based holistic model for human habitation. Accordingly, he proposed a new

branding challenge for Tehran: “Tehran, Transcendent Garden City.” He emphasized

that we don’t just need spaces for cars, but also we need spaces for humans.

Accordingly, we propose a project called “Transcendent Blue-Green City” for Tehran.

Prof. Ardalan made an analogy between Tehran and a flower to which something will

happen within 35-36 years that will make the flower bloom. He referred to another

proposed research project in Qazvin for revitalizing its Baghistans (traditional gardens).

Then, Prof Ardalan asked professors from abroad to briefly introduce themselves. First

Professor Fischer, then Prof. Wescoat, after him Prof. Doherty, and finally Prof.

Hartkopf briefly introduced themselves. Prof. Hartkopf briefly explained the project

“Green Campus” with the aim of developing university environments with

sustainability criteria.

After their introduction, Dr. Gilabadi said: “it seems that we can perform good research

and fulfill good projects with the present expert group.” He continued to announce the

set of dada provided with for Tehran Urban Planning & Research Center and said that

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this information can be effective in the realization of the projects. Dr. Mozaffari and

Tehran Urban Planning & Research Center are ready to hold further joints meetings for

more exchange, because Tehran welcomes any kind of study and research to have a

more brilliant future. People of Tehran deserve the best, as the human of God deserves

the best. And the urban management of Tehran does its best to use world experiences so

that it would be able achieve a better ecosystem and living environment. We are beside

you and our experts share information with you. And we try for a better future for

Tehran.

Finally, Dr. Yarzadeh, the Executive Secretary of the symposium and Executive

Director MERC-BLP, thanked Eng. Pourvaziry, President of International City Leaders/

Toronto, Canada, as a founder in the field of training sustainable development for his

efforts and said: “though he is not present here, but his heart is with us, because he had

a decisive role in this area.” The Executive Secretary of the Symposium of Envisioning

the Future Sustainable Cities of Iran continued to thank Tehran Urban Planning &

Research Center for the realization of sustainable development and for their hospitality,

and asked for contribution and cooperation of this center in developing the “Document

of the Vision of Future Sustainable Cities of Iran”.

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THE SYMPOSIUM MANIFESTO “ENVISIONING THE FUTURE SUSTAINABLE CITIES OF IRAN”

This document is the result of the Sense of the Educational-Research Symposium

“Envisioning the Future Sustainable Cities of Iran”, held in the cities of Qazvin and

Tehran between May 24th and 28th 2015. The Symposium was a historic and unique

collaboration between visiting faculty members from the American universities of

Carnegie-Mellon, Harvard and MIT and the Amir Kabir University, Qazvin Azad

University and the Imam Khomeini Universities of Iran; the Municipalities of Qazvin

and Tehran; the Ministry of Housing and MERC.

All parties agreed to seek ways to continue their collaboration to further the

commitments made at the Symposium. To advance the gains of the Symposium requires

a number of follow-up activities and actions. In this spirit, the following next steps are

necessary:

1. First, in the coming month, MERC in partnership with the American faculty team, led

by Prof. Nader Ardalan and others, should take the lead to develop the organizational

frameworks that clearly define the contractual conditions for all parties concerned with

implementation of two types of MOU, the first for Long range Mega-scale and the

second for Short term Micro-scale Collaborative Research Projects in Iran:

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a) The intentions for the Long range Mega-scale Collaborative Research

Projects might include the following:

1) The definition and launch of a Major Collaborative Research Project for

development of a series of regionally specific guidelines that could help shape the path

towards the future sustainability of Iranian Cities. The guidelines can be provided by

collaborative research undertaken by the different partner universities in Iran and the

American faculty team that could be augmented by other specialists as required. There

could be two different research teams dedicated to the two cities of Qazvin and Tehran,

coordinated by an Executive Board and a Peer Review Advisory Board;

2) It would be important to conceive these collaborative projects as contributing

towards the development of a Strategic Plan based on the real priorities of the cities of

Qazvin and Tehran and which also can identify investment plans for realization of real

priority projects of significant benefit. This would be important in shaping the New

Urban Agenda for sustainable Iranian cities based on real evidence. The possible use of

the City Prosperity Index as developed by UN-Habitat as well as other Holistic Future

Planning Models can provide the framework to obtain data on a number of key

variables that shape prosperous and sustainable cities. The data generated by these

Holistic Planning Modelscan identify key areas for the development of specific action

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plans to further enhance the prosperity and sustainability of both Qazvin and Tehran.

This collaborative, international partnership could be expanded by the respective cities

with others to advance this work. For example, Qazvin could develop a partnership with

International City Leaders to develop their City Prosperity Index and the lessons from

this can be shared at the subsequent Symposiums.

3) The suggested MOU and future research planning agendas might also include

plans for the 2nd and 3rd Symposium. The 2nd Symposium could take place in an

American or European university and be an opportunity to share the results and

progress of the collaborative research projects and other developments since the 1st

Symposium. The 3rd Symposium could take place in Iran and present the summary of

lessons learned from the experiences towards sustainability to date. The 3rd Symposium

might also be an opportunity to share the Prosperity and Sustainability Action Plans as

they evolve out of a city’s City Prosperity Index or other findings and the occasion to

invite other Iranian cities to join the movement towards the Future Sustainable Cities

of Iran.

b) The intentions for the Short term Micro-scale Collaborative Research Projects

are to carry out the collaborative research projects identified during the 1st Symposium

over a 12 month period, tentatively starting in fall, 2015. As complementary research to

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the Mega-Scale Long Range Planning Research, the two projects categories and the six

specific projects that have been identified are:

Green Campus Initiatives:

1)Amir Kabir University Green Campus Project (AKU) -Tehran

2)Azad University Green Campus Project (AZQ) - Qazvin

3)Imam Sadegh University Green Campus Project (ISU) - Tehran

Transcendent Blue-Green Infrastructures: