Designing Urban Spaces in Informal Settlements Using Urban Acupuncture Approach (Case Study: Kooye Manbae Ab in Ahvaz, Iran)

This study investigates the potential of a novel therapeutic approach to improve informal settlements, which is a highly localized healing treatment to regenerate urban spaces. The purpose is to find out how urban acupuncture can be applied to accomplish the empowerment plans of informal settlements. The process-oriented approach of urban acupuncture creates an appropriate context for the possibility of the community participation in different stages of improving public spaces. However, the social conditions and characteristics of the residents of informal settlements create challenges and require the use of special methods in dealing with the issue of participation. The first part of the research is based on formulation of an urban acupuncture framework for improving informal settlements. The theoretical finding of this part is applied in the second part of this research, which focuses on the public spaces of an informal settlement, “Kooye Manbae Ab” in Ahvaz, a city in Iran. The results showed that urban acupuncture as a small-scale, bottom-up approach, provides motivations for residents of such neglected parts of the city. Nevertheless, a combination of different participatory techniques should be applied to encourage and motivate residents to be consciously involved in the process of upgrading their environment.