To be honest, I had never escaped from the centre, so I’m not the prime suspect. Part of my childhood memories and New Year’s family visits belong to the city centre of Tehran, yet my problem is that I’m not nostalgic. As an adult too, university, cultural events or gallery visits have always preserved my connection with the centre of Tehran. It all began when I went to the intersection of Hafez and Jomhoori for the Charsoo Bazar project where I was doing some interior design. The first time I stood on the scaffolding, I saw a strange landscape: a wonderful view to Tehran and Mount Damavand and a very healthy and intact historical texture. I gradually started to look for the beautiful buildings that I could see from up there, and eventually did not return with the car that would wait for near Charsoo and turned into an inhabitant of that texture. Beautiful urbanism, trees, single remarkable buildings, proper sidewalks and the presence of shops related to inter- esting and sometimes forgotten guilds (for instance knife-sharpener’s) and the city in general all gained a better meaning for me. It was as if the other side of the city was more carefully built. The strategic location of Neauphle-le-Château and 30th Tir is the golden intersection of Tehran city centre. The presence of numerous embassies has increased the security of the texture and at the same time, the existence of valuable buildings and stable urban infrastruc- ture has preserved the high quality of life in this district. I started studying similar experiences in other cities of the world. In the past ten years I travelled to Toronto and witnessed how there was an inverse migration to the city centre. Visiting Brooklyn, Berlin and Istanbul completed my mental puzzle. It show how this process was natural for cities. Therefore it could be the same with Tehran. The project started. I looked for good houses and after some time, realised that the competition for beautiful houses in the 11th district is between two main property owners, that is, Mr Ala’addin and the fam- ily of Dr Marvasti. The properties of Mr Ala’addin with its tower cranes were already under construction while the properties of Marvasi family were completely abandoned because the project of extending the hospital was shelved. When I approached the Marvasti family they were surprised why someone should buy these houses. Some of them assumed that buying them all at once was intended for building a large commercial office project. However, by gathering individuals with a similar mind set who were optimistic about creating a valuable process aimed at elevating urban quality, the purchase of houses and a design on the scale of the neighbourhood were defined. The use of the concept ‘mixed use’ is the first remedy that can make abandoned textures
attractive to citizens. This movement started in the central texture of Tehran a decade ago. With the increase of such urban nods we would be in need of real inhabitants. The experiences of the past decade were mostly scattered, this time we chose the nods closer to one another. The existence of Manoochehri house and its impact on the pro- cesses of buying old houses in Kashan, and the Lolagar project are very positive examples that encouraged the buyers. The experience of modern construction in the historical texture is being revived in some countries to protect the low-income inhabit- ants of textures. In these places municipalities begin to negotiate with builders promising tax exemptions and ask for part of the built units in return. The municipality will then give those units with subsidy and in several instalments to low-income individuals who are listed and whose situation is confirmed. The biggest advantage of this is to keep old inhabitants in the texture, and different classes in one neighbour- hood. This prevents acute class difference in the city to a great extent. In Iran, there are no such lists, yet like many other social activities that are solved through participation of individuals, the experience was welcomed when explained to the district municipality. During my several visits to the municipality in Qazvin Square for acquiring required permissions I realised that many of their officers live in district five. Considering the high spatial quality of these districts, if the idea of affordable quality housing is applied in such areas, the mere pres- ence of the officers of several offices can result in the preservation of the texture, culturalisation and facilitation of the urban traffic. This is just one example among thousands of solutions that could be found. In this issue we have tried to benefit from authors among artists and architects who have been associated with urban rehabilitation. Archi- tects in New York, Toronto and Istanbul have worked on this subject professionally. Since in different parts of the world artists are among the first classes that return to city centres we commissioned articles by Ali Nassir (Berlin) and Maryam Davoodi (Kashan) and organised a roundtable discussion with gallery owners in order to benefit from the experience of these individuals. All in all, the discussion has started in Tehran and many architec- tural offices now have such projects in Tehran and other cities. It is hoped that these offices can be influential in continuing this movement through publishing their experiences and researches.
فرشته اسدزادهFereshteh Assadzadeh
REVITALIZATION OF HISTORIC BUILDINGS IN OUR CURRENT
SPATIAL SITUATION AND CHRONOLOGICAL POSITION
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