Place (un)making through soft urban densification: exploring local experiences of density and place attachment in Tehran

ABSTRACT

The relationship between urban density and social conditions in urban areas has received increasing attention in recent research. However, there is a lack of understanding of the dynamics between urban densification and these social conditions from a place-specific perspective, taking into account the institutional, socio-cultural, and contextual complexities. This paper seeks to enhance this understanding by unpacking the relationship between soft densification and place attachment in Tehran, Iran. The paper develops a framework for studying ‘soft densification’ as a process of incremental place change by prioritising local knowledge. The findings suggest that soft densification impacts place attachment by disrupting the everyday functionality of place, eroding its physical characteristics, erasing some of its collective and personal memories, and altering its socio-demographic structure. The paper highlights the importance of thinking ‘procedurally’ and ‘topologically’ about urban densification and calls for incorporating local knowledge and experiences into policy planning and urban decision-making.

KEYWORDS:

• Density
• urban transformation
• soft densification
• place attachment
• social sustainability
• Tehran
• qualitative interviews

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Vafa Dianati

Vafa Dianati is a teaching assistant at the Development Planning Unit (DPU), UCL. He holds a PhD in Urban Studies from the Bartlett School of planning, UCL and M. Arch from Tehran University.

Catalina Turcu

Catalina Turcu is Professor of Sustainable Built Environment at the Bartlett School of Planning, UCL. She holds a PhD in Social Policy from the London School of Economics and Political Sciences (LSE) and degrees in housing (MSc, LSE), urban planning (MA, UAUIM) and architecture (BArch and DipArch, UAUIM).