The urban design guidance for the unmanaged spaces under elevated expressways upon users’ preferences

There are many bridges in the Iranian major cities. It is still proceeded for constructing new bridges in order to solve traffic problems. The spaces under bridges and the expectations of users are rarely important for city officials and designers. Hence, this research is looking for guidelines of designing the unmanaged spaces under city bridges considering the environmental preferences of users. The main goal of this research is to achieve urban design guideline for designing the unmanaged spaces under elevated expressways based on expectations of individuals. This research is based on theoretical studies in the field of urban design, under bridge spaces, unmanaged spaces as well as environmental preferences. Besides, by researching about different kinds of urban design methods for evaluating environmental preferences, interview and classification of visual quality (Q-sort) were employed to gain environmental preferences of people. The results of evaluating user preferences from under bridges urban spaces indicate four factors involving reduction of air and noise pollution, safety and security. These are the most important qualities influencing on personal preference from under bridges urban spaces. The variety of unmanaged spaces under bridges is an important point in this research. This kind of variety is notable in the case of size, length and height. Some of these spaces require especial arrangements for creating urban spaces due to size and low height. One of the main results of this research in the field of theory is classification of environmental preferences people in three zones containing personal, social and local. The social preferences are in a direct relation to public art. In another word, the public art is the indicator of social preferences in urban spaces. The results revealed that it is possible to classify the guideline of urban design compatible to user preferences in two dimensions including superficial and substantive. It is shown in the end of survey through sketches and pictures.