The Experience of the Meaning of Place in Urban Spaces: Using Qualitative Content Analysis to Define the Meaning of Bagh-e Ferdows

“Placelessness” has emerged as the main issue in urban spaces following the standardization and the lack of identity of contemporary urban spaces. It can be said that placelessness occurs when a place loses its meaning. Therefore, the creation of meaning which is an essential feature of the vitality of urban spaces has become a challenge in the design of contemporary Iranian urban spaces, and thus factors contributing to the understanding of the meaning of places should be prioritized. This qualitative study aims to uncover the meaning of place in urban spaces. The case presented is Bagh-e Ferdows, which is a vital, historic urban space in Tehran. The experiences of twenty frequent visitors of “Bagh-e Ferdows” were collected and analyzed using the content analysis method. Participants were selected randomly and data collection was done using semi-structured interviews up until theoretical saturation. The data was then analyzed using qualitative content analysis. According to the results, four main themes emerged which influence the experience of place and understanding of the meaning of historic urban spaces, namely, naturalness, socio-cultural interactions, architectural authenticity, and historical significance. Study results indicated that these four elements were associated with the visitors’ understandings of both the explicit and implicit meaning of Bagh-e Ferdows. This theoretical model shows that the improvement of these four themes through urban design and planning interventions in other historical places, according to the attributes of each place, can lead to create successful urban places and to provide more vital and attractive public places within the place-making approach.