Investigating the relationship between: urban identity, quality of urban life, and urban physical form in Iranian new towns

New Towns in Iran have been located, planned, and built near the big cities since early 1981 to attract the overflow population of metropolises and reduce the density of the mother cities. Andisheh is one of the Iranian new towns that was built in 1992 in a 30 kilometers distance from the metropolis of Tehran. Despite the efforts of the planners and urban designers in locating new towns, and designing open spaces, squares, streets, parks, appropriate width of roadways, and residential complexes, new towns lack something. Their urban spaces are not attractive for their inhabitants, residents are not satisfied with the quality of the urban environment and they tend to leave new towns. Moreover, most of the new towns are faced with such problems as being a dormitory for their residents. It is important to study the quality of urban life and urban identity related to physical form in urban areas such as new towns since urban physical form affects perceptual aspects of residents, so perceived quality of life, sense of belonging, and sense of place. Human perception and experience of their surrounding urban spaces and QOUL affect the behavior of residents. Urban identity is related to the identity of residents and also the identity of the city. The urban environment reflects its resident’s needs and values and all of the residents are part of their cities, because, without citizens, the cities would not be what they are. The present research investigates the relationship between the quality of urban life (QOUL), urban identity (UI), and urban physical form (UPF) in Andisheh new town focusing on density, housing, land use, layout, and accessibility. This study includes descriptive, analytical, and explorative research, in which a mixed-method approach including the qualitative and quantitative methods – a case study approach and a quantitative descriptive method- is utilized. The methods used in this research are (1) the literature review and theoretical analysis, (2) questionnaire to survey the case study with a ...