The Situationist Urban Design; Rules and Principles

From a general perspective, urbanism can be assumed as a bipolar world. On one hand, large-scale plans formulated by official organizations are shaping urban environment and the entirety of our cities; on the other hand, social activists and artists, active in the field of cities, are making an effort to give it a human character. According to De Certo (1984), the first approach to city, adopted by power structures, is composed of strategy, and the second approach, which is taking small-scale actions by ordinary citizens, artists and activists is made of tactic. One of the movement attempting to theorize these tactical actions is Situationist International. In spite of the philosophical and artistic essence, they were deeply interested in subjects related to the city and the everyday life of citizens. This paper aims to analyze the theories of this group and advancing their theory to the practice and supply practical instructions, utilizable in urban design discipline. For this purpose, it was necessary to use a qualitative method in which after spending a lot of time on studying their intellectual and philosophical products, we would be able to analyze and develop them to a theoretical framework utilizable in urban design field, both in scientific and professional approach. At the end of present paper, principles and indicators for the situationist urban design will be provided and listed in ten categories.