Scientific Quarterly Journal

The Role of Aligning the Objective-Subjective Scale of “Industrial Development” with Its “Underlying Spatiality” in the Collapse of the Spatial-Semantic Organization of the City(Case Study: Garden City (Baghshahr) of Natanz, Isfahan Province)

Volume 6, Issue 23
Winter 2026
Pages 32-41

Document Type : Original Research Article

Author

Department of Landscape Architecture, Faculty of Architecture, College of Fine Arts, University of Tehran, Iran

Abstract
Natanz, one of Iran’s oldest desert settlements, is a city with a spatial organization based on the garden city (Baghshahr) concept, which has lost its vitality for various reasons, including its distance from the new eastern Isfahan highway, drought, climate change, and non-spatially planned industrial development driven solely by economic profit. The present study, aims to examine the reasons for the incompatibility of development with its hosting context through library-based document analysis, field visits, and open interviews with experts, citizens, and urban managers. The findings indicate that sustainable and balanced industrial development is achievable only when the scale of industrial development is aligned with the scale of the context’s potentials and capacities, including both the physical-material capacities of the context and the local community’s mental readiness to accept development, as one of the main pillars of place-based development. Otherwise, development will inflict irreparable damage on its hosting context, as observed in Natanz, where this misalignment led to the destruction of gardens and, consequently, the Baghshahr-based spatial organization of the city.

Keywords

Subjects
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  • Receive Date 16 September 2025
  • Revise Date 26 January 2026
  • Accept Date 01 February 2026