An Exploratory and Reflective Process of Urban Spatial Morphology within Social Sustainability: Lessons from Middle Eastern Islamic Tradition

This article outlines the significant role of ideologies and values that lie beneath the physicality of the city, in reforming urban spatial morphology within a framework of social sustainability. We focus on the urban morphology of Middle Eastern cities, which have evolved within the framework of Islamic tradition, to illuminate the relationship between the ideological and physical dimensions of spatial morphology in all urban contexts. We examine the process by which a collective of religious, political, and cultural values underlying the physicality of the city have evolved into aesthetic conventions. This process played a crucial role in the maintenance of social and urban sustainability. We propose a form of “pattern language,” here termed the anatomical approach, that brings together the ideological dimension of a city's inhabitants and the physical characteristics of urban morphology. Such a model may help urban designers and architects to understand and create more responsive and friendly cities. It furthermore contributes to the planning education process by providing the essential knowledge and analytical foundation for site analysis and conservation of valuable contexts.