Ahmad Pourahmad - University of Tehran
Bahar Habibian - University of Tehran
Mohamadreza Ahmadnia - University of Tehran

One of the factors that distinguish the city from other human settlements is the physical dimension thatalways absorbs significant attention of managers, urban planners, residents and visitors and quality of it hasan important role in quality of resident’s life. The lack of program and immethodical development, especiallyin big cities, caused current physical quality failed to meet the needs of residents and many criticisms hasrisen about this subject; Ahvaz city is an example for this matter. The objective of this research is toinvestigate and analysis of physical space of Ahvaz city and also capabilities and weaknesses of that spacefor providing residents’ requirements. Research method is descriptive-analytical with qualitative approach.The article was written in holistic scale and relies on the theory of main structure of city. In order to reachthe objectives of the research, after primary reviews, three hypotheses developed: 1. diversity is the mostimportant capability of physical space of Ahvaz city, 2.lack of inconsistency is the most important weaknessof it and 3.the physical space of the city has conformity with modernism more than other schools. Then,required data about literature of subject gathered from library studies and by selecting a set of criteria fromreviewed criteria, using survey observation and library data, some examples of capabilities and shortagesof Ahvaz physical space investigated. The result shows the diversity is the most important capability of thephysical space of Ahvaz and environmental factors, inconsistency and the lack of universality in the cityare the most important problems of physical space of it. In total, the identity of city is strong and it is weakin environmental criteria and also in discipline. Physical components of city have relative conformity withmodernism school.

Physical space, Fabric, Urban space, Urbanization, Ahvaz