Developing a checklist for assessing urban design qualities of residential complexes in new peripheral parts of Iranian cities: A case study of Kerman, Iran

Today, there are difficulties emerging in the majority of peripheral areas of the cities such as car domination, disconnection from the center, lack of environmental and social sustainability, and prioritizing of rapid and extensive patterns of growth over the quality of life. It is necessary to pay attention to the design quality of residential environments at an urban scale rather than merely focusing on single buildings. Therefore, this study was performed to develop a comprehensive checklist of design qualities for assessing residential complexes located in peripheral areas of cities. This research was conducted in two steps: Desk study and fieldwork. In the desk study step, theoretical sources, successful practices, and design assessment tools were evaluated. They were used to propose a checklist of urban design qualities for residential complexes. In the second step, the researchers asked a group of experts to prioritize qualities in pairwise comparison (using the AHP method in Expert Choice software) and then assess four residential complexes in new peripheral parts of Kerman City according to the proposed checklist. Finally, the obtained data was analyzed using descriptive statistics. The results show that environmental and functional dimensions earned the lowest and highest points, respectively. Among the 25 qualities of the checklist, six of them were not present in any case studies, four of which belong to the environmental dimension. The overall achievement of this research was developing a checklist for urban designers and planners to assess the urban design qualities of residential complexes located in the peripheral parts of the Iranian cities and similar developing countries.