According to the Public Relations and International Affairs Department of the Arak Metropolitan Municipality, a specialized brainstorming session to review urban issues and academic research projects was held, chaired by Hossein Zandieh-Vakili, Deputy for Urban Planning and Architecture of the Arak Metropolitan Municipality, and attended by managers and experts of this department as well as Ali Hosseini, professor at Amir Kabir University of Technology and Vocational. In this meeting, scientific and specialized solutions for identifying and examining Arak’s urban issues and challenges, leveraging the capacities of the academic community in urban studies, decentralizing the city’s central core, and creating new urban activity centers were discussed and exchanged. In this meeting, the necessity of conducting precise and specialized studies at the neighborhood level in Arak, in cooperation with academics and specialists in architecture and urban planning, was emphasized. The attendees identified the recognition of each neighborhood’s capacities and issues, the examination of existing challenges in the city’s physical structure, and the definition of targeted projects aligned with urban needs as requirements for planning balanced development in Arak. The issue of insufficient width of main passages and urban streets was also examined as one of the city’s infrastructural challenges, and the need to address this issue in the process of urban studies and planning was emphasized. Hossein Zandieh-Vakili, Deputy for Urban Planning and Architecture of the Arak Metropolitan Municipality, referring in this meeting to the necessity of diagnosing the current issues and problems of the city from the perspective of architecture and urban planning specialists, considered the use of specialized knowledge and the research capacities of academics essential in identifying problems and providing effective solutions. Emphasizing the need to revise the way urban activities and services are distributed, he stated: one of the main goals in defining new urban projects is to move toward decentralization and take the Arak metropolis out of a single-core structure; an approach that can pave the way for the formation of new activity hubs and a more appropriate distribution of services and facilities across the city. Further on, by explaining the principles of urban design and the requirements for forming new cores, the necessity of moving away from a purely commercial view in defining urban centers was emphasized. Accordingly, creating and establishing a set of cultural, sports, and recreational uses alongside one another can act as one of the main drivers for attracting population, increasing social dynamism, and revitalizing different parts of the city. Such an approach, by providing the conditions for citizens’ presence in urban spaces with diverse goals and needs, makes it possible to strengthen new activity centers and reduce the functional dependence of neighborhoods on Arak’s central core. Another محور of discussion in this meeting was the necessity of balanced distribution of services and facilities needed by citizens across neighborhoods. In this regard, providing service per capita appropriate to population and local needs and ensuring proper access to everyday services were cited as among the requirements for improving urban quality of life and reducing unnecessary trips to the city center. Based on this, strengthening the service capacity of neighborhoods and moving toward their relative self-sufficiency in meeting citizens’ needs can, while reducing the concentration of activities in the central area, help reduce traffic load, prevent congestion, and improve the distribution of intra-city travel flows. At the end of this meeting, the necessity of continuing interaction between the Urban Planning and Architecture Department of the Arak Metropolitan Municipality and the academic community, conducting expert studies, and defining research projects suited to the city’s real issues and needs was emphasized. It was also stressed that simultaneous attention to the physical structure, distribution of land uses, condition of streets, and dispersion of urban services, as part of the requirements for planning to achieve balanced development, strengthen neighborhood identity, and move toward a multi-core structure in the Arak metropolis, is essential.
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