World Applied Programming, Vol (3), Issue (6), June 2013.

232-235
ISSN: 2222-2510
2013 WAP journal. www.tijournals.com

An Analysis on Urban Beautification and

Its Socio-economic Effects
Kaveh Kamali *

Pardis Tahmouri

Member of Department of
Architecture, Sahneh Branch, Islamic
Azad University, Sahneh, Iran.

Urbanization M.A. Student,

Arak Branch, Islamic Azad
University, Arak, Iran.

Abstract: To design urban spaces enjoys more sensitivity given that present century is referred to as urbanism
century and that cities dorm the largest human communities. Citizens need beautiful, fresh, and vivid urban
spaces Visual and aesthetic attractions are themselves an impressive element in designing urban spaces,
appearance, face, and view of a city, which create freshness sense and motivation for living among city
residents. By creatively creating forms, organizing spaces, and improving skeletal elements of cities, urban
design attempts to serve citizens effectively. How to design and beautify urban spaces may have different
social, economic, cultural, or political impacts. By attracting tourists, intercity beautiful spaces enhance sense of
national and local pride, identity, vivacity, security, and effective economic returns. This paper attempts to
study factors influencing urban beauty and its role socially and economically. Results show that 2 elements of
city look and face with their own subsets cause a city to look beautiful or ugly.
Next, it points to some socio-economic effects of city beautification such as enhancement of security sense,
national and local identity, sense of responsibility for the city fate, and reducing nervous pressure on citizens
among social effects, and to attract domestic and foreign investments due to development of urban tourism
among economic ones.
Keywords: Urban beauty, Social effect, Economic effect
INTRODUCTION
As an essential pivot of design policies, urban design has been introduced into new generation of instruments of areas,
regions, cities, and villages development, having a concept beyond improvement and beautification of externalities of
spaces between buildings as well as beyond merely cosmetic and aesthetic concepts, and entering all human life aspects
within the environment external to them, including such needs as identity, sense of belonging, safety and security,
creativity, self-esteem, and living in healthy and sustainable environments. In all steps and fields of development design
at any action level and scale, urban design is obliged to meet these needs and is the custodian of qualities realization [1].
Generally, urban design is searching for quantity and quality of better urban forms beauty based on land use and its
prediction. In his 2 books "City look" and "City Shape Theory", Linch has studied city shap, which is considered a
substantial element of urban design. Seemingly, the most important factors influencing a city beauty include 2 general
cases of city look and fact, each of which with its own subsets can represent a city beautiful or ugly.
CITY LOOK
City look consists of all city factors being viewed and eyes are able to see them, all of which act individually, in
particular, in a state as if they work steadily and collectively (at any moment, a combination of some or several factors
work with each other). In order to offer tangible symbols of a city look, linch mentions 5 main factors of city look as:
cues, roads, edges, nodes, and neighborhoods and gives a specific and given definition for each factor.
Cues: a factor in a city which attracts peoples attention and /or impresses them because of height, antiquity, or
particular features of characters.

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Kaveh Kamali and Pardis Tahmouri. World Applied Programming, Vol (3), No (6), June 2013.

Roads: an urban space being surrounded by buildings on its sides and /or linking urban masses and different points and
nodes and having such features ad vista and panorama (2 features of urban roads).
Edges: a factor separating one segment of an area fro another one An edge can be natural or artificial.
Nodes: a segment of a city/an area which is formed and paid attention to due to the thronging of the crowd or to the
roads intersection.
Neighborhoods: some segments of a city being separated because of guild-specialization characteristics or national /
cultural and /or religious factors [2].
City face: all visible factors of a city / urban area which are viewed from a close sight, for example, those major
elements and factors composed of the most pronounced visual elements of a city body, which we can see and touch
closely while walking around the city, its area or neighborhoods. Therefore, those elements forming a city face on a
small scale include.
a)urban exteriors:
In urbanization, projection of a building or its front on a vertical plane is referred to as exterior which we see 3-D in
urbavization and 2-D in architecture views.
b)city furniture
It includes fountains and benches, kiosks, pavements, billboards, electric cables, post boxes, trash cans, tableause,
arnamental plants, lawn, trees, shrubs, flowers, shelters, etc.
c)Urban spaces:
Such a space may be formed through adaptation to its surrounding context or open itself within a dense context and settle
in contrast with it. We have, of course, some spaces in different views such as public, semi-public, private spaces, the
first of which includes roundabouts, mini-roundabouts, parks, vacant lands, and streets (Ibid). The first role we consider
for designing city furniture is the very establishment of a proper visual relationship between design and people, that is,
the very relationship between city furniture and human identity and the second vole is to beautify environment because
human beings are lovers of beauty and are made calm due to city elements having this feature [3]. City elements are
among important ingredients of city furniture, which can be highly effective in the enhancement of citizens senses of
place and identity, and it is better for them to be designed so that they can combine with their environment logically
visually and create some signs through such combination which communicate with people effectively, among which
statues and symbols placed inside roundabouts and streets can be mentioned, correctly and appropriately design of which
is important. This movement, in fact, can be well directed only if it keeps pace within urban identity and view requiring
that such statues be designed within place where citizens focus on and where populations travel since it is in these places
that it has something to speak and symbols be compatible with their functions : To induce citizens identity. For example,
placement of a historical figures statue within a roundabout being accustomed to it and conveying past memories and
events to residents of that environment. In this sense, there are 2 influencing factors: one is its beauty because it is facade
and appearance of an object that appears in front of eyes primarily and exhibits such art-mixed beauty to all society
classes simply unambiguously and other factor influencing such designs is properly locating and scaling these elements,
that is, where and on what scale they are located [3]. Nowadays, experience with and application of urban elements show
that how making use of appropriate furniture and equipment can positively influence citizens and users of urban
environments. To design proper seats, for example, provides people with opportunities to enjoy sitting and watching
urban space and even to establish social and verbal relation ships with each other. Urban and environmental research
shows that users as well as general public want multipurpose equipment in their city and seek to have it beautiful as
much as possible so that it becomes an urban symbol and bulk responding to peoples aesthetic expectations and meeting
modern worlds needs commensurate with pretty designs of modern automobiles and products. [1]
Urban beautification and its social effects City beautification is always studied by experts of urban problems in 2
functional and visual dimensions, Functional dements addresses environmental ingredients, elements, furniture, and

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Kaveh Kamali and Pardis Tahmouri. World Applied Programming, Vol (3), No (6), June 2013.

urban view designs, generally influencing citizens bodies. Visual dimension deals with the subjects of colors, forms, and
compositions of spaces and environments, often taking mental and psychological components into account. Therefore, a
beautiful environment is a space in which people feel relaxed and comfortable physically and mentally. Such beauty
depends on factors and elements like quality of urban design, quality of materials used for exteriors, colors, forms
architecture, night lighting, architectural principles of exteriors, sight horizon and quality and quantity of landscape,
elements, and monuments as well as suitability of objects for environment, city cleanness, quality of city fundamental
installations, quality and quantity of city advertisements, etc. The important point is that total qualitative factors,
generally, cause citizens to perceive city desirably and to have pleasant image of it in their minds through emerging in
urban spaces and creating favorable environments. Such conditions result in the formation of such feelings ad belonging
to the site, loving the environment of life and activity, and ad a result of responsibility and sympathy senses toward its
fate, a trend is achieved in relation to growing and sustainable enhancement of the environment quality [4]. Relationships
between people and their tastes towards the city they live in a of special important to creating urban settings form and
beautifying environments. City look as well as buildings formation are completely effective in peoples moods and even
in rising and lowering levels of residents nervous and psychological problems. In general, sufficiently available open
spaces, watching a city horizon and country nature contribute to reduction of tiredness caused by works and activities
significantly [5].
Urban beautification economic effects subject of environmental beautification and improvement has been always a very
important topic,on which all municipalities have focused. Municipalities and city councils make their best efforts in
order to attract demestic and foreign tourists and travelers attention to their own cities by beautifying cities and providing
pretty and interesting centers, buildings, parks, and resorts in order to help hotels, shopping centers, and merchants with
economic affairs, based on which urban economy flows, citizens enjoy better and more affluent lives by making-more
efforts while entitling more rights, and cities yet more modernized reaching cultural, financial, etc. improvements.
Beautification and landscaping programs are given high priority within city affairs demanding cooperation from
municipalities management and public participation. Undoubtedly, success of this matter requires numerous activities.
For example, a committee can be established in which different public groups be involved in order to handle
beautification and parks affirs in order to direct city towards beautification of private properties and making public
investments focused on this sector [6].
In locating parks, strong attention must be paid to nearby land use. Business, official, residential, and cultural uses are
overshadowed by an adjacent park construction. As parks are among urban attractions, to construct them near other used
results in increased number of people referring to the site and affects other existing functions. Placement of a park in a
neighborhood needs to be done with respect to a series of city studies including examination of neighborhoods major
function, street networks, peoples tastes, proportion of user populations in relation to their income levels, land user, and
so on [7].
CONCLUSION
Our surrounding environment shape and appearance plays an important role in how we experience and perceive beauty.
Perception of environments is dependent not only on visible form of a city symbols and its innate and objective nature,
but also on observers nature, his life history, needs, and purposes as well as his social environment. Given what provided
by this paper, it can be concluded on superficial decoration; rather it includes all aspects of residents life like economic,
social, cultural, etc. aspects.
Furniture and elements, for example, can be expressive of a city identity and events, playing an important role in
conveying identity and culture to the city residents: an identity caused by invaluable historical works. In other words,
cities beautification can have both social (lowering levels of residents nervous and psychological problems, formation of
such senses as belonging to a place and loving life and work environments) and economic (helping with city
development and economic growth by attracting tourists, and providing suitable conditions for business by designing
appropriate economic spaces) effects.

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Kaveh Kamali and Pardis Tahmouri. World Applied Programming, Vol (3), No (6), June 2013.

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