نوع مقاله : مقاله پژوهشی
موضوعات
عنوان مقاله English
نویسندگان English
Aim: Cities are composed of natural, economic, social, and residential dimensions, each shaping their distinct identity. This identity not only differentiates one city from another but also gives meaning to the lives of its residents. The unique characteristics of each city emerge from variations in function, content, and form. This study aims to examine semantic and semiotic indicators in the environmental visual system, with a focus on policy-based approaches for enhancing urban identity.
Material & Method: This research is developmental-applied in terms of type, and in terms of method, it employs a nest to nest combination. To answer the research question, the qualitative research method was used in nest to nest quantity.Finding: In the qualitative method, the Principles of grounded theory were used to verify the accuracy of extracting the variables, and 46 professors were interviewed. In the quantitative stage, the questionnaire was designed using the Likert scale, with one question assigned to each semantic and semiotic index in the visual system of the environment, aiming to establish the identity of the Fahadan neighborhood in Yazd city. The determined number of questionnaires was used for sampling from Morgan's table, which is 373 for a population of 7,000 people. The distribution of this questionnaire is random.
Conclusion: The results indicate that in the neighborhood of Fahadan, Yazd, the highest share is related to the components of the concept of space, with a value of (1.000), followed by cryptography with a value of (0.968) and the lowest share is related to the element of nature with a value of (0.457).
Innovation: A key innovation of this research lies in identifying operational factors influencing neighborhood identity and translating them into actionable design criteria. These insights provide urban designers and planners with valuable tools to create more meaningful and place-sensitive environments, fostering stronger emotional connections between people and place.
کلیدواژهها English
Every city is a combination of natural, economic, and social factors, as well as residential environments that are familiar to its people. The identity of a city can differ from that of other cities and gives meaning to the population living in it. This special character and identity is defined and described with different components. These components, which comprise the essential structure of the city based on differences in function, content, and form, vary across different cities. Therefore, the current research aims to explain and investigate the semantic and semiotic indicators in the visual system of the environment from the perspective of policies to promote identity to the body of the city. This article investigated semantic and semiotic indicators in the visual system of the environment from a policy-making perspective to help promote and identify the city texture. In this article, the researcher investigated the Fahadan Neighborhood of Yazd City as a visual example to address users’ mental images and how the neighborhood is perceived. The researcher, meanwhile, answered the question, “What are the semantic and semiotic indicators of the visual system of the environment, and how much would they influence policy-making to identify the Fahadan Neighborhood in Yazd, Iran?”
This research is developmental-applied in terms of type and in terms of method; it has a nest to nest combination. To answer the research question, the qualitative research method was used in nest to nest quantity. Qualitative data were collected through semi-structured interviews and analyzed using the Grounded Theory technique in two stages as open and axial coding.
In the qualitative stage, to verify how the variables were extracted, Grounded Theory principles were utilized, which were 1) applying brainstorming for the key factors, 2) restricting the main list to the main themes, and 3) ranking the list of key factors, which are briefly explained. In the brainstorming stage, the expertise of the individuals interviewed about the subject under study was assessed, and those with sufficient knowledge, experience, and relevant working records in semiotics and identification processes were selected. In the first stage, open-ended questions were designed to extract factors and indicators, as better results could be achieved by encouraging subjects to engage in brainstorming. Forty-six experts were interviewed. This stage involves extracting and verifying the list of factors.
In the quantitative stage, a questionnaire instrument was designed using a Likert scale, with one item considered for each of the semantic and semiotic indicators in the visual system of the environment, to help identify the Fahadan Neighborhood of Yazd City. The CVI:0.5 formula was used to assess the instrument’s validity, which involved the views of 20 experts. For the reliability of the instrument, Cronbach’s alpha was used, which was 0.78. The findings were entered into the related software, and the Regression Prediction Test was used to specify the contribution of each factor. Also, the variables’ internal correlation matrix diagram was used to utilize the type of linear or multivariate regression. After plotting the correlation matrix diagram, it was found that the factors lacked any linear relationships, making it appropriate to utilize multivariate regression. The Morgan Table was used to determine the number of questionnaires for sampling, as 373 questionnaires were selected from a population of 7,000 people. The questionnaires were distributed randomly in the meantime.
An urban texture visual system has been a subject of interest in the architecture and urban development domains, as policy-making measures to identify spaces that meet citizens’ satisfaction are seen as the main strategy adopted in architectural research. In this connection, architectural studies of landscape and the recognition of the visual system, as well as its configuration in urban neighborhoods, can have an impact on the desirable readability of the environment and help understand relevant meanings and signs. The key point is the recognition of visual system arrays, including visual elements, their functioning, and interrelationships, which thus significantly contribute to organizing, regularizing, and identifying urban textures. For this, the article aimed to meticulously revisit the visual system and its concepts to investigate how these concepts would be represented in Yazd’s Fahadan Neighborhood. This will certainly help reveal the significance and role of the visual system in identifying the city’s texture by investigating urban signs and their meanings. The researcher maintained that the article could serve as a technique to revisit urban visual arrays and help perceive them within other different textures of cities across Iran as it analyzed the visual system of the city using identification-based evaluation criteria and explained semantic and semiotic indicators in the historical texture of Yazd City, especially the Fahadan Neighborhood.
According to the findings, the contribution of each of the semantic and visual components influencing the identification of the Fahadan Neighborhood of Yazd City is as follows:
Y (Visual and semantic components of identification) = (purposefulness (0.615) + (unity/multitude (0.689)) + (explicitness (0.846)) + (Hierarchy (0.762)) + (harmony (0.743)) + (limits and privacy (0.753)) + (natural elements (0.457)) +(reflection (0.770)) + (geometric patterns (0.795)) + (mirror (0.571)) + (encoding (0.968)) + (symbol (0.732)) + (concept of space (1.000)).
This indicates the extent of differences between semantic and visual components in the identification process of the Fahadan Neighborhood where the component of the concept of space had the highest contribution (1.000), followed by encoding (0.968), whereas the lowest contribution was assigned to the component of the natural element (0.457).
Using the factors that influence neighborhood identification can help develop criteria for more appropriate designs and provide high-quality neighborhood designs. For this, urban planners and designers are required to pay special attention to a set of factors and characteristics that would help form sentiments between the individual and the place on a neighborhood scale. This will certainly lay the groundwork for the qualitative growth and development of a settlement environment for different residents within a social context.
The authors declare no conflict of interest.
