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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.

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Introduction.- Historic Urbanism.- Socio-economy and Culture.- Urban Continuity and Identity.- Homeyra Shayesteh: Typo-Morphological Analysis of Housing Layout and Density in Tehran.-Sima Vaez Eslami & Ayse Kubat: Urban Morphological Changes in Traditional Iranian Cities in the Context of Modernisation: A Case Study of Jouybareh Quarter in Isfahan.- Damoun Vahabi Moghaddam & Sepideh Zarrin Ghalam: Safeguarding Our Fragile ´Historic Urban Landscapes´: Should Historic Iranian Cities Be Worried?.- Sara Sabet & Sara Mehryar: Spatial identification and comparison of different segregated areas and their connection with their surrounding areas: A Case Study of Tehran.- Shaping Iranian Cities.- Urban Projects and Programmes.- Urban and Natural Environment.- Conclusion.

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