نشریه مرمت و معماری ایران
پیاپی 6 (پاییز و زمستان 1392)

Historical districts of towns contain historio-cultural values and are amongst precious legacy for future generations. Having experience and art as well as the sense of place and human community, they display teachings of human’s collective wisdom. Thus, ignoring of such places will prevent contemporary generation from learning the past experiences and being in the path of historical continuity as the code of cultural survival.The mainspring of this article is an analytical study of definitions, theories, methods of intervention and analysis of the international experience of successful urban restoration in the cities of similar countries (such as China, Egypt, Yemen, and Morocco). Using a qualitative approach, this research aims to provide the main components of effective and successful revitalization of historical districts and areas in the form of an analytical-methodological framework. Finally, for explaining the mentioned goal of this research in the case study of Bazaar Shah district, the proposed strategies of revitalization and determining the areas of intervention were used.This article has been formed by extracting a logical order out of available scattered materials and to do this the strategy of logical argumentation has been used. The results of this research show that the main factors in successful revitalization of historical districts include physical-functional, economic, social, historio-cultural and managerial ones. On the other hand, exploring the global experiences shows that the main reasons behind the success of urban restoration and revitalization projects are, respectively, social factors (residents’ participation), integrated management of the historical districts and, in the next step, determining the area of intervention.

Isfahan Jame’ mosque, one of the oldest buildings of Islamic period which is still living, has a valuable experience of traditional conservation which is the reason for the continuity of its present life. Based on the international charters, understanding this local knowledge can lead to the enrichment and enhancement of modern conservation movement in Iran, the necessity which was unfortunately received scant attention. Furthermore, nowadays conservation intervention turns to be a challenge and a controversial issue in the international and consequently national scope of conservation. Concentrating on the conservation intervention in this building and following the evidence of traditional intervention from construction time to Qajar period, this paper aims to reveal the main approach of traditional conservation intervention in Isfahan Jame’ mosque hoping to achieve traditional conservation intervention on the horizon. Through applying the grounded theory and coding of the interventions, adaptation with new conditions of each period for the continuity of its function is observed as the main approach of the conservation intervention. The main reason for the adoption of this approach is the originality of function in traditional architecture. Moreover, two secondary approaches, religious one by people and political one by government, are introduced in this mosque.

The form of cities has changed with unprecedented rate during the last half of the century. This change has had unpleasant influence on historic core of traditional urban fabric. Dominance of new urban form leads to ignorance of traditional urban qualities. Destruction of old urban fabric instead of revitalization, not paying attention to local patterns and formation of living and functional spaces developed during the years after much trial and error proportionate with economic and social relationships resulted in the destruction of valuable influences on the formation of urban fabric and anti-spaces. This research has defined morphological, visual, ecological and access criteria which evaluate urban lots. For evaluating the qualities, the following method was suggested: urban lots of Jamaleh district in 4 blocks from 1976 to 2003 were compared regarding the evaluating criteria. Except access criterion which has rising trend, the results of this research show that Jamaleh district has lost its quality with regard to morphological, ecological and visual criteria.

In this paper, the performance technique of a special and rare kind of ornaments, i.e. pastiglia on stone, is investigated. The investigated sample in this paper consists of pastiglia ornaments on stone in “Shams-al-Emare” edifice. Pastiglia technique has been often performed on plaster surfaces. In accordance to the smooth surface of marble stone which is the surface of the investigated ornaments, the performance of pastiglia with common method was difficult. The most sufficient method for investigating the performance technique was making sample and reperformance because there is no guidance about the performing method of this special kind of ornaments in written sources and also there is no investigation about this subject until now. This investigation was done based on library, visual and laboratorial studies. For identification of organic materials, FTIR (Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy) and for microscopic image, SEM (Scanning Electron Microscope) have been utilized. Experiments revealed that the "Kaman oil" was used as constituent material in these ornaments. Results of investigation showed that these ornaments with pastiglia method have not been performed by experts and traditional masters and the created thickness in these raised ornaments has been completely made with brush on the surface. In fact, the investigated ornaments were not pastiglia and a completely different technique has been used in them. So, pastiglia was not a clear and perfect name for these ornaments. Therefore, “embossed drawing on the stone” was proposed instead.

Chemical cleaning reagents used on archaeological bronze artifacts not only attack the corrosion products but also may cause some visual effects in the patina. There are few investigations on the visual effects of cleaning reagents and studies have mostly focused on dissolution corrosion products. Regarding archaeological objects as historical documents and aesthetic entities, it is essential to assess the level of treatment damages to both of these aspects. This paper surveys the visual effects (color changes) of cuprous oxide, Cu2O, treated with traditional cleaning reagents. Artificial cuprite patina was formed electrochemically on almost pure copper. Samples were immersed in various solutions separately. Color measurement of cuprite patina was carried out using a colorimeter before and after 1-hour immersion. Solutions used were Calgon®, disodium ethylene diamine tetra-acetic acid (Na2-EDTA), tetrasodium ethylene diamine tetra-acetic acid (Na4-EDTA), sodium tripolyphosphate (STPP), citric acid, formic acid, alkaline glycerol, alkaline Rochelle slat and distilled water. Na2-EDTA, citric acid and formic acid were found to cause the most visual impact on cuprite patina as it is possible for human eye to discriminate between the two colors. Alkaline Rochelle slat, alkaline glycerol, Na4-EDTA and distilled water result in less color changes. Calgon® and STPP caused the least color changes which could be disregarded.

Recognizing the value of each phenomenon has a direct relation with the credit, knowledge and desire of the people who attempt to identify and evaluate that phenomenon’s values. Historical works are valuable phenomena and they have been able to manifest in themselves religious, social, historical and cultural values. Comprehensive recognition of the values of historical works is in line with the thorough recognition of the culture and identity of each society and it can reveal different aspects of the world view of members of that society throughout historical periods.The main issue in this research involves the question that what is the content of the value and the effective components in recognizing and evaluating the value in historical works? To this end, value was firstly explored from different points of view so that effective components in identifying and evaluating the value were determined. Attempt was made to determine the relation between the value and the intervention approach through identifying the mentioned components. The research is of the type of the theoretical-fundamental researches conducted with logical reasoning and the required material for research has been achieved through the library and field studies; moreover, the analyses used for concluding are qualitative. The last result of the research shows that the value and evaluating the value in the historical works is a dynamic process and they are changing in accordance with the natural conditions and chronological situation. Moreover, alongside the effective historical, cultural and physical components in evaluating the value, the issue of human’s understanding of the surrounding environment is also effective in evaluating the value and there is a direct link between recognizing and evaluating the value in the historical works and intervention approach.

The art of lighting and its design is one of the most influential factors in creating the sense of architectural space. The harmony between lighting and architecture can be one of the factors for reinforcing the identity of a place and promoting its special character. Accordingly, historical buildings as valuable urban places have an outstanding role and are of national and international importance due to the very values, too. Artificial lighting in the night can change and transform the type of values and even replace them.Thus, this research aims to expound the process and mechanism of artificial lighting of historical buildings by using analytical method and identify all dimensions of the building as well as the main idea of lighting designer and computations in the field of lighting. Through this, no change and transformation in the values of the buildings due to the special quality of their lighting is created. On the other hand, technical and artistic values of elements, spaces and decorations and real hidden meanings in the architecture are also displayed.Finally, theoretical and practical foundations proposed in this study were presented in the form of case study of Shiekhlotfollah mosque in Isfahan in order to show the superiority of analytical method relative to trial and error method, especially in the lighting of historical buildings for preventing the damages to them.

Historical urban textures are valuable recourses which are considered as cultural properties of cities and countries. The large amount of planning interventions for restoration of these textures shows their important role in presenting an attractive image of cities. Considering a great amount of these planning interventions related to restoration of historical urban textures indicates that there is a mono-dimensional approach to do so which means that physical aspects have had an important status in the planning of restoration of historical urban textures while functional aspects have been neglected. With the aim of presenting a new approach to the restoration of historical urban texture, this paper tries to describe and extend the general strategy of creative and cultural industries and clusters for restoration of historical urban textures. Using descriptive-analytical method and taking an interdisciplinary approach, this paper proceeds to present developmental indices of cultural clusters in the form of benefits, facilities, and potentials. Exploring the documents of restoration and renovation plans of Iranian historical textures, the needs, restrictions and problems of such plans are proposed at last. Doing different kinds of pair comparison between the needs and problems of historical urban textures and benefits and potentials of cultural clusters, the used analytical model in this research aims to present operational strategies for restoration of historical urban textures.