This book, based on conference excerpts, investigates various aspects of
contemporary Iranian urbanism. The topics covered range from the impacts
of political developments on the cities' rapid socio-economic
developments, to the cities' troubled relationship with the country's
built-environment history and their frequently ill-managed exposure to
Western notions of development and globalisation. Last but not least,
the country's vulnerability to natural disasters in an age of increasing
urban-population densification is also considered.
Alongside more theoretically and artistically oriented debates, the
book's individual contributions turn their attention to the now much
higher proportion of urban dwellers in the country's rising population.
It also discusses the policies designed in response to these demographic
moves, including those to develop new towns, find housing for the excess
population in existing cities, renovate historic buildings and create
new public spaces. The practice-policy oriented contributions also
include those concerning the country's responses to natural disasters.