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New urbanism: assessing the effectiveness of residential complexes on the feasibility of the idea of community (case study: residential complexes in area one of Tehran metropolis)

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Abstract

During 1980s, a large number of American architects and urban planners criticized the consequences of modernism planning, which led to the emergence of a new movement called New Urbanism during 1990s. According to New Urbanists, the quality of designing urban environments (spatial forms) can enhance the sense of community as a social process. The present analytical-comparative study aims to analyze the dialectical relationship between the quality of space design and sense of community in urban residential complexes and examine whether New Urbanists can create a kind of dialectic between space and community in the context of urban residential complexes to enhance the sense of community. To answer the above-mentioned question, Sobhan, Atisaz, and Bagh-e-Arghavan residential complexes and their surrounding neighborhoods were selected and compared. The population included 372 people living in the indicated areas who were estimated based on the Cochran’s formula, among which 62 people were selected randomly. Based on the results, a significant difference was observed between the residents inside and outside the residential complexes in terms of sense of community. In fact, there appears to be a significant relationship between spatial form and social processes. In other words, there is a causal relationship between space and community.

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Data availability

The datasets analyzed during the current study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.

Notes

  1. Sense of not belonging and inability to share collective feelings with other people.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Geography and Urban Planning, Shahid Beheshti University, Tehran, Iran

    Hassan Rahimi

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  1. Hassan Rahimi
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Correspondence to Hassan Rahimi.

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Informed consent was obtained from all participants and/or their legal guardians for participation in the study.

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The author states that there is no conflict of interest.

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A questionnaire and SPSS software were used to conduct this research. Anyway, this data will be available through the following email. ha.rahimi@mail.sbu.ac.ir

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Rahimi, H. New urbanism: assessing the effectiveness of residential complexes on the feasibility of the idea of community (case study: residential complexes in area one of Tehran metropolis). SN Soc Sci 4, 77 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s43545-024-00868-y

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