An Investigation of the urban shrinkage phenomenon and the effect of unused spaces on its occurrence; Case study: Isfahan's Risbaf factory district

Background and objectives: Urban shrinkage is a type of structural crisis associated with population decline and economic downturn resulting in abandoned or disused spaces. Despite many US cities having encountered the phenomenon in the early 1950s, the discourse around shrinkage did not emerge until the late 1990s and 2000s. In most studies, even the term ‘shrinkage’ was not applied, with terms such as ‘decline,’ ‘decay,’ ‘abandonment,’ ‘anti-urbanism,’ ‘urban crisis,’ and ‘population recession’ being more common. The urban shrinkage discourse emerged as the problems of older American cities exacerbated, and with authorities began to make drastic changes at the turn of the millennium. This shift was reflected in the publication of books with titles such as Comeback Cities: A Blueprint for Urban Neighbourhood Revival (Grogan et al., 2000) and Cities Back from the Edge: New Life for Downtown (Gratz et al., 1998). With the emergence of positive changes in some long-suffering cities, the discourse ultimately appeared as a distinct subject (Daniel et al., 2016). Typically, the definition of shrinkage is accompanied by an image of decline (Beauregard, 2005). Spatially, shrinkage is understood as a doughnut or a mosaic pattern with hollow spaces. In other words, the term may not represent a homogeneous phenomenon across a given area: some sections may experience minor growth, whilst others left abandoned, stagnant, and shrinking (Sousa et al., 2011: 15). As such, abandoned and disused spaces are both causes and symptoms of urban shrinkage. These spaces are disconnected from their surrounding environment, with socio-spatial disintegration being one of their most important indicators. In dynamic cities, development and decline occur simultaneously. In some cases, abandoned spaces may be reused within a short timeline, while in others, no interventions take place, potentially leading to significant problems within the region. These abandoned spaces can be considered as opportunities for cities, conveying a history that facilitates a redesign as well as an introduction of certain urban scenarios. They also provide opportunities for urban designers, city planners, and architects to develop and apply various methods engaging in creative thinking (Berger, 2006). Among these spaces are old factories located on the outskirts of cities, which, due to urban development, have become part of the inner city and remained disused. Such areas need to be investigated in search for ways of integrating them into their surrounding urban fabric. In Isfahan, once known as the ‘Manchester of the East’ for its abundant textile factories, old factories such as the Risbaf have lost their primary functions due to economic transformations and deindustrialisation, resulting in large abandoned parcels situated in the inner city. The aim of this paper is to evaluate the impact of such disused factories on urban shrinkage, using Risbaf as a case in point, and to propose urban design strategies responding the challenges posed by this phenomenon.
Materials and Methods: Based on a study of the theoretical foundations of the topic, the work started with identifying the causes of urban shrinkage. The next step involved recognising the consequences of urban shrinkage, including economic, structural, social, or a combination of all three aspects. These consequences may occur over varying timelines and, if unaddressed, may lead to a ‘domino effect’. To understand how to intervene and reuse abandoned lands, it is crucial to first comprehend how these forces impact the socio-spatial formation of cities. Consequently, to conduct a comprehensive analysis of Risbaf as an example of urban shrinkage, this research focused on understanding and analysing its area from an urban design perspective, with an emphasis on the structural (physical–spatial) dimensions. A brief review of other dimensions, including demographic, economic, and managerial factors, provided a more thorough analysis of urban shrinkage within the study area. For data collection and analysis, a mixed quantitative- qualitative method was applied. For data analysis, Space Syntax techniques, cognitive and behavioural mappings were applied. One of the key concepts in the Space Syntax theory is the notion of connectivity: an indicator suitable for understanding collective spaces and facilitating movement between areas, as well as representing active nodes and links between spaces. The connectivity indicator is directly associated with the integration indicator, that is, the greater the number of interconnections within a space and the more connections it has to multiple nodes, the greater its degree of integration (Kalantari et al., 2018). In so doing, axial maps were drawn using AutoCAD and then imported into DepthmapX. Then, spatial analysis maps were prepared using QGIS and GIS to evaluate the factory based on which the results were displayed on a blue to red spectrum, where red colour indicates strong and blue denoting weak connections. Qualitatively, in order to understand people’s perceptions of the immediate peripheral axis, and identify significant signs and axes from the users’ point of views, the cognitive and behavioural tracking maps were analysed.
Results and conclusion: The quantitative and qualitative findings of this study indicate the isolation and spatial disintegration of the Risbaf factory and its low connectivity and integration at the local and macro levels, which are considered as indirect consequences of the urban shrinkage. Therefore, this valuable industrial heritage currently stands as a complex devoid of function and disconnected from the urban fabric, exemplifying the phenomenon of urban shrinkage. It is necessary, in response, to adopt urban design strategies, including Urban Connector and Place Patchwork strategies. This would be in line with reinforcing connections and integration of the complex at both local and macro levels through creating interconnections between the complex’s elements and establishing connections of the factory as part of whole within the existing structure. On top of that the factory preservation and revitalisation need to be considered.