تبیین ویژگی‌های طراحی شهری ایرانی اسلامی تبریز، مورد مطالعه: بازار بزرگ شهر

Tabriz city has a rich history affected by various socio-economic, cultural and natural aspects. Tabriz old traditional built form, like all other traditional Iranian cities, is the result of various historical events and a valuable culture in urban Design context. Great indigenous urban design complexes like Iranian Bazaars are the reflection of cultural and spiritual aspects of a process in a long period of time. Their design patterns are not copied from other places. They are quite indigenous and unique in their types. Reconstruction of Tabriz after destructive earthquake in a short time indicates that they had clear specific urban design concepts and criteria to regenerate such a great complex. Tabriz Bazaar was the center of exchanging European commodities; therefore, it was famous in the world. Due to this reason, it is registered as a world cultural heritage in UNESCO. It is also an important socio-economic and cultural element which gives identity to the Tabriz city. A large part of the Bazaar area is located in the south of the Mehran Rood River. The existence of the river has caused the formation of “Pol-bazaar” (Local name) which means Bazaar created on bridge. This bridge bazaar is along the “Rasta” (main axis), leading to the north of the Bazaar. A large number of entrances all around the bazaar show the outstanding elements that indicate the extend and amount of various activities going on in the area. Religious places like mosques for Muslim are usually built along the Bazaars too. The main problem is that, there hasn't been proper respect for bazaar as a cultural heritage and there is no familiarity with Iranian Islamic urban design criteria of the Bazaar in Tabriz city, as far as urban design theories are concerned. The main aim of this research is to derive urban design criteria of Tabriz built form as a school of thought of urban design. Deriving such urban design criteria and getting lesson from it would not only help in up grading the condition of existing bazaar itself, but also it helps in improving urban design quality of other places with similar culture in the region.  In this article, the methodology is analytical descriptive. Data collections is done through library research, review of available documents and also from filled survey and site observation and then all these are analyzed. Finally it is concluded that, Tabriz Bazaar has a different pattern from those of Tehran, Esfahan and Shiraz which are of linear type. It has a network pattern. The network of Tabriz great Bazaar is combined from main “Axis”, “Corridors”, “Nods”, “Teams”, “Timchehes”, “Saras”, “Caravansaries” and “Mosques”. These all have been functioning considering all aspect of socio-cultural and economic with lot of diversities, throughout history. At last, it is concluded that; the culture of urban design of Tabriz is a unique school of thought with convivial urban spaces, unique socio-commercial places such as “Pol-Bazaars”, and rich social capital (with regard to religious & cultural values). Fine grain and uniform texture of the built form is full of warmth and intimacy. It forms a happy composition which has lots of lessons for designing in future.  No doubt that such a built form creates a special kind of sense of identity and belonging.