Evaluation of Navab Regeneration Project in Central Tehran, Iran

Urban design has been used in the cities throughout the world to achieve certain goals and purposes. It has been common in developing countries, including Iran, to use urban regeneration plans in the older sections of large cities to eliminate urban blight and decay, and eventually achieve modernization and in some cases to also overcome socio-economic and cultural problems. Approaches have been used are modernist, technocratic, and elitist type of design/ decision-making, which, as, the present case study show, results in complete failure. This study intends to, following a discussion on theoretical basis of the issue, through a post-construction/ post-occupancy evaluation of the Navab Regeneration Project in central Tehran, explore the reasons behind this failure and see how the problems involved in the product may be construed to the kind of design/decision-making process applied.