Investigating the Spatial Conflict Effect of a Port as a Symbol of Sea-Based Development on the Core and Structure of a Port City (A Case Study of Shahid Rajaei Port and Bandar Abbas City)

Examining the development of port cities has been highlighted in the process of “sea-based development.” Given their opportunities and capacities for facilitating development objectives, the ports are among the strategic and desirable projects that have been incorporated into land development plans. As a result, they contribute to the prosperity of sea-based industry and trade in a specific geographical area thanks to the increase in sea utilization. The outcome is the production of a tool and machine model that monopolizes the model of city development and its iconography. The concern of this study is the elements of the spatial organization of a port city, including contemporary life within the city, the contextual and physical transformation brought up by the sea-based development within the city, or the context where there is a connection between the city and the ports. This research employed a qualitative method with a descriptive and analytical approach, and data were collected through field observations and library and document studies. The research attempts to investigate the regulatory structural components, including the center, structure, territory, and small groups in the city of Bandar Abbas. As a result of this interaction, the relationships among the elements of the space organization are under threat. The construction of new neighborhoods just to accommodate immigrants has distorted the face of the city and made the urban structure useless. The structure of the city of Bandar Abbas is no longer dependent on the system of estuaries and coastal terraces but on the system of ports and the settlement of the immigrant population. Among these pillars, the core has lost its subjective and conceptual meaning as defined by the sea and has emerged only in the form of a physical thing in the market of the city. The transformation of the city of Bandar Abbas into the hinterland of Shahr-Bandar Shahid Rajaei has turned the communication corridors between the two into service corridors and has faded the concept of the road landscape and weakened the connection with the sea.