Regenerating historical districts through tactical urbanism: A case study of Sarpol neighborhood in Isfahan Province, Iran

Abstract

This paper examines historical urban fabrics’ challenges regarding quality of life and visual disturbances despite their cultural and identity value. Regeneration and socialoriented approaches considering social, economic, and cultural dimensions preserve and enhance these valuable materials. Tactical urbanism, with its people-oriented approach, can address these issues. This study focused on Sarpol in Khomeinishahr County, Isfahan Province of Iran. The city’s urban structure divides into two parts: despite its active social structure and valuable spaces, Sarpol is a historic neighborhood with significant deterioration. We followed Corbin and Strauss’s version of Grounded Theory in the qualitative research methodology. Purposive and snowball sampling methods were employed to select 21 participants from the Sarpol neighborhood for semi-structured interviews. The analysis involved three stages of coding: open, axial, and selective. The themes included religious participation, identity, sustainable social bonds, indigenous dependence, and low environmental quality. The central issue identified was the crucial role of religious and cultural values as a driving force for tactical urbanism, which emerged as the most critical semantic domain related to the research problem.

Key words： Tactical urbanism; Urban regeneration; Historical fabrics; Neighborhood; Grounded theory; Social-oriented approaches