At home in heritage: an Inquiry into belonging and a sense of place in a World Heritage Site in Isfahan City, Iran

Abstract eng:
With hindsight the pursuit of modernist planning agendas, typified by land use segregation and suburbanisation, has resulted in the standardisation of many urban environments. Sadly, this pursuit often involved the replacement of older, mixed-use landscapes with those spawned by synoptic planning approaches. Almost a quarter of a century ago, Relph (1976, preface) lamented the ‘the casual eradication of distinctive places and the making of standardized landscapes that results from an insensitivity to the significance of place’. Increasingly, we are becoming sensitive to the fact that those traditional places were imbued with a rich sense of place that has developed organically over prolonged periods of time. Those traditional places that remain, fortunately, retain this strong sense of place. The object of this paper is to explore the complexly entwined aspects of these places that make them so rich. Specifically, a case study of Isfahan’s Grand Bazaar Neighborhood is presented. The Grand bazaar area, whose wending route is attributed as being the longest continual bazaar in the world at some 2kms in length, is situated in the center of Isfahan City, which enjoys a history of almost 2500 years. The area is a multifunction spatial settlement constituting housing, commercial activities and associated social facilities and cultural institutions, including public baths, places of worship, schools, small inns and guesthouses. Anchoring the site is the Naghshe Jahan public square and the Isfahan Friday Mosque, both of which are recognized by UNESCO as World Heritage Sites. Drawing upon a multi-methodology involving questionnaire sampling, interviews with local residents, landscape deconstruction and participant observation, the paper explores how the organic and historic nature of the study site provides a framework of continuity, rootedness and distinctiveness within the areas’ landscape and how this provides a strong sense of commitment, security and belonging for the local community. Ultimately, the paper does not seek to distil the elements evident in Isfahan as providing a template for contemporary developments. To do so would be an anathema to the organic development of places that have now come to be considered as traditional over prolonged periods of time. Rather, the paper concludes with a celebration of such traditional places and an affirmation of the need to preserve them.

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