How Did Reza Shah Reduce The Growth Of Large Cities

After 1979 new Iranian towns were being constructed to help control the growth of the large cities. New sites were proposed by the Ministry of Housing & Urban Development & Architecture. Working under their control was the Central Construction Company; in charge of site location, surveys, planning and the execution of plans for the entire country. The construction of these new towns was a devastating failure for Iran. They had a negative impact on reducing the population of the large cities. Instead they served as an in between stepping stone from rural living to big city living. The government expected to attract three million people from their large cities to the 18 newly constructed cities they had built nearby. Instead they received approximately

He homogenized the country making Persian the official language and pushing out tribes. The walls were demolished for the last time in 1937 for open space inspired by Haussmann’s plan for Paris. This new space shifted the core up. Reza Shah’s urban development was authoritarian; he stressed the look without planning for function. He constructed infrastructure that facilitated movements of commodities and constructed monumental buildings. He rejected tradition through destruction. However, his plan to widen streets didn’t succeed. In 1946, after World War II, there was a a shift to the United States being their dominant influence. They had market driven urban expansion into peripheral rural lands creating strange circumstances of major highways adjacent to farm land. Tehran grew in all directions leaving city managers powerless. Un regulated development lead to corruption. The consumption of rural lands encroached on the buffer zones of rivers, reducing the natural absorption of rainwater leading to acute seasonal flooding. The lack of grey and black water systems lead to the contamination of underground water tables, environmental problems, and disease (Madanipour 1999, 57-65). The attempt to control the development could actually deter inward investment and be counter productive. Climatically the driver conditions created a more compact