Unsuccessful urban development plans in Iran, as a result of imperative
positivistic planning and one-way up-down attitude, have averted cities from
sustainability. An approach through which moving toward sustainability can be
ascertained could be planning based on collaborative approach. But achieving
collaboration and consensus between decision makers and stakeholders due to
diverse interests of people is not an easy issue. In cases that society consists of
different groups and ethnicities like Bandar Abbas, building consensus has much
more difficulties. In order to reach social integrity and active interaction in the
society, increasing general awareness of citizens and providing capacity to
exchange knowledge are requisite. In fact. putting positive aspects of social
capital in practice is urgent for consensus building. This situation, definitely,
requires a particular space to have communication occurred. Outcomes of this
research, which has conducted by a qualitative method shows that recreational
spaces such as mosques, teahouses and daily bazaars in Bandar Abbas and
cities/regions with similar characteristics, can play the role as a social lubricant
tool to achieve sustainability. This case study research specifies that knowledge
transferring and putting social capital in practice in Bandar Abbas can be feasible
in such spaces and this is how recreational spaces take part in implementation of
collaborative planning principles and consequently in moving toward more
sustainable cities.