A cultural heritage led regeneration strategy for historical cities : the case study of Tehran

Abstract

Tehran presents the typical urban problematic of a historical city that has gone through several evolutions of urbanization; decline and loss of cultural heritage, blurring the identity of the city. Throughout distant periods of the history up to the twenty-first century, three disconnected spatial cultural heritage cores define the urban structure of Tehran, while being constantly reshaped by socio-spatial factors: Rey with an economic religious cultural heritage character, City center with a built-economic cultural heritage character, and Tajrish with a natural and built cultural heritage character. Each of these entities operates according to different spatial, economic and sociocultural modes, constituting settings that are weakly integrated and facing decline. Such a challenge creates a demand for experimenting with innovative pathways for regeneration. The challenge is to go beyond restoration or repurposing of a site and to demonstrate cultural heritage as a driver for an ecological and sustainable growth for historical cities, and as a factor of a means for introducing socially and environmentally innovative solutions; hence, preventing future decline. Through a holistic approach to the context, this thesis aims to promote open space networks as facilitators to achieve urban cohesion amongst the disconnected cultural heritage nucleuses. The open space network connects existing, projected and new cultural heritage spaces into a green cultural corridor that foster the integration of both tangible and intangible cultural heritage. In this sense, by strengthening and sustaining the local character of the socio-cultural practices, natural cultural heritage, built cultural heritage and cultural economy, and transforming declined derelict non-places to dynamic cultural spaces, Tehran’s identity as a historic city will once more be celebrated. By adopting such a strategy, Tehran becomes a city celebrated as a whole in its cultural heritage rather than a city with fragmented physical heritage and low pe