The cultural and social organization of Mashhad municipality hosted the fourth specialized meeting to review the interplay between urban design and pilgrimage-related identity of Mashhad city with Dr. Ghalandarian, faculty member of Ferdowsi University of Mashhad and Dr. Forghani, representative of the Deputy of Urban Planning and Architecture of Mashhad municipality, as speakers.

At the beginning the meeting, Dr. Qalandarian presented a theoretical discussion on the relationship between urban design and the identity associated with pilgrimage. He portrayed the multi-level guidance and control process of urban design and explained the relationship between the identity of a person and a place and stated that the identity of a person and a place overlap but are not the same. This faculty member of Ferdowsi University of Mashhad continued and said, “Unfortunately, we generally look for treatment of symptoms instead of addressing the real causes of the sickness.” Finally, he offered some considerations for use in urban design models.

Next, Dr. Forghani stated that Mashhad was developed with the centrality of Imam Reza (AS) from the beginning and it should continue in the same way. While presenting the performance of the new municipality in relation to urban development and preserving the identity associated with pilgrimage in the city, he stated that in the new detailed plan, attempts have been made to maintain the spiritual and pilgrimage-related identity of Mashhad while observing justice and freedom. Finally, he mentioned that despite some of mistakes regarding destruction of old structures of Mashhad, we are doing our best to compensate for them.