No abstract

The development of the 24-hour city includes the development of infrastructure, and economic, cultural and social planning. The approach taken in most of the western cities has been considered compatible with the lifestyles prevalent in those countries, and has three main parts: people, place, and creativity, and three basic principles: providing a safe city centre for people and their places of leisure, developing the night economy, and improving the city’s image. The interaction between proponents and opponents of 24-hour cities and their effects on the planning of the cities is also one of the challenges in cities in Islamic countries. Most proponents tend to encourage the creation of new urban places and the introduction of special activities compatible with nightlife. However, some cities already provide opportunities for attendance and activity at all times of day and night without formal organisation, including areas such as Karbala and Mashhad where the focal point is a holy shrine. Islam has a special view of urban life and lifestyle and therefore defines its own favoured activities, entertainment, residency, and purpose, proposing special times and places for all things. Reviewing the concept of the 24-hour city in light of the Islamic lifestyle using examples of holy cities can thus help redefine the 24-hour city and produce new patterns for it that are more compatible with the needs of Islamic countries. This research thus tries to answer the following questions using a qualitative method and surveys to develop a case study of Karbala city: What are the connections between an Islamic lifestyle and 24-hour city life? What capacities of the city are lost, based on the current local nightlife? The aim of this study is to begin to redefine the 24-hour city concept to make it compatible with both Islamic culture and local capacity.

Streets are like a vein in the body and play an important role in whole cities. These crucial elements are so essential in each cities structure. The primary roots of the system can quickly figure out by the distribution of city streets. So central streets are more critical than the peripheral ones because more users refer to them. Hamedan is a mountainous city in the west of Iran, which is shape by circles form . This unique structure is exceptional in Iran and is based on the main square and its six streets. This paper tries to figure out the differences between this street, catalyst intervention, and cardriven streets. Also, comparing these two types of streets and their results can help urban management and city responsible. Catalyst projects are some intervene that seek to inject new spirit in target areas. These actions are trying to respond to further people's needs based on the context's general identity. The research methodology is quantitative based on ANP techniques to specify these six streets' priorities and interpret differences between catalysts projects and cars-driven streets. So, the results show that two streets among six central streets are more acceptable in users' mindsets. Bu Ali st and Ekbatan st have high normalized points than other streets. Besides, users can easily walk all the parts of these two streets, perform window shopping, sit wherever they want, and do all kinds of group and individual activities. These consequences have more overlapping with two streets that have been intervened by catalyst actions, and their roles transformed into walkable instead of car-driven streets.

City centres are the vital social, economic, and cultural nuclei of urban spaces, and, as such, revitalisation of city centres’ economic, social, and environmental aspects can significantly improve citizens’ quality of life. Imam Square, as the most pivotal space in the historic and culturally important city of Hamedan in the west of Iran, is one such centre, playing a key role in all nearby urban functions and activities, and affecting both residents’ social lives and local economic features. The “Urban Catalyst” approach is one of the most realistic approaches to improving urban environmental qualities, and this can be used for regeneration programmes to support new urban development policies that seek to recover multiple types of public domain and which acknowledge the primacy of peripheral areas. The purpose of this paper was thus to investigate the urban catalyst project carried out in Imam Square and to compare the resulting situation with the preceding conditions with particular reference to the area’s former central role as a traffic nucleus. This allowed an assessment of the changes following urban catalytic response, another goal of this research. The methodology was based on mixed, with space syntax used to consider the urban configuration and related quantitative aspects and qualitative analysis, developed based on field observations and interviews. The results demonstrated that after pedestrianisation of the central core and the refurnishing of Imam Square, the degree of integration and connectivity of the square and surrounding areas was significantly improved, which has led to an increase in the quality of public spaces and the number of people present.