Investigating the Position of Color in the Urban Townscape (Case Study: Mashhad, Imam Reza Street)

Nowadays, we observe our cities turbulent and unorganized in respect to color. Inconsistent locating of the buildings along with each other, the use of inhomogeneous colors, and the lack of attention to the psychological properties of colors have created the spaces in cities that are not compatible with the spirit of human and we do not feel relaxation in them any longer. This article is an attempt to express the importance of color theme and how to handle and use it in the city. Imam Reza Street has taken a kind of visual contamination in urban townscape due to the lack of appropriate color harmony. Color inconsistency and heterogeneity in the street walls of this street has created turmoil in the urban townscape; by using appropriate color in the street townscape it can be made a coordinated and rhythmic view, and a general unity and solidarity can be created in the city and make a favorable, appropriate, and more lively townscape of the city. The research method in this article is descriptive-analytical and data collection is in the form of a library-field method. To select a field, a part of Imam Reza Street (between 15th Khordad Square to Basij Square) was selected and extracting colored layers of street was performed through the RGB system by the aid of Photoshop software; then by using the Kil Hong’s Matrix, the elements composing the color in the street were analyzed, and the criteria and solutions were presented for planning in respect of the correct use of color in the urban townscape; finally, some plans were locally performed on several samples of the images taken from the street to illustrate the desired plan.