An opening
Historical research and ethno-archaeological inquiry can trace the connections between contemporary urban fabric and the older neighbourhoods of Iran's old cities. The relation between modern centres and the classical buildings of cultural heritage shows that the central matter is the keeping and the restoring of part of cultural heritage that, even within the body of our ancestral cities, is being lost in the daily life of the people.
Abarkuh: a 5,000-year-old city of forty quarters
Abarkuh, a city in the Yazd region with a history of about 5,000 years, has within it some forty old quarters; the new buildings have grown old, and a few examples of memory of the urban structure of Abarkuh, the rebuilding of old passages, the keeping of the bazaars, the preservation of caravansarais, the historic houses and their restored interiors — these are among the important works being undertaken by the Cultural Heritage Organization of the country.
The Aqazadeh House — a striking example of restoration
The Aqazadeh House, in the old quarter of Abarkuh, with its unique wind-catcher (badgir) tower and a striking kolah-farangi pavilion, is a striking example of this work. The building, which had broad damage to its walls and roofs before the restoration, was brought back to life through Fariman Farahza's design and the restoration team. The central courtyard contains an abanbar (water reservoir), a sabat (covered passage), and the central pool-house; the prominent gypsum cornices and the decorative work of the windows and doors have been rebuilt.
Project credits
Restoration and revival design: Fariman Farahza. Electrical: Mohammad Mehdi Ataei. Mechanical: Ali Mohammad Javaheri. Structural: Saeed Bagheri. Civil engineer: Mojtaba Khabbaz. Supervisor of associates: Saeed Bayat, Mohammad Javaheri.
The customary process of design and restoration in Abarkuh
The customary method of building and finishing the roof-walls of houses in Abarkuh (an example rebuilt at the roof of the Aqazadeh House, Abarkuh) was: rough-stone walling, mud-and-straw rendering with a brick edging, and a final coating of straw-mud over the roof. In time, this method adds thick layers that, in later periods, need renovating; in the 1380s (2000s), builders use the brick-and-tile roof.
Around this important building, the houses of the Aqazadeh family in a dense quarter are made distinguishable from one another by their characteristic wind-catchers. In this fabric, the separation of the historic fabric from the newly developed urban quarter is the priority of the Cultural Heritage Organization.
Bazaars and caravansarais
These two building types, with difficulty, have kept on the northern front the trace of the activity of bodies damaged over past years; new constructions are gradually returning their old form. In the cities of Abarkuh, the caravansarais — once restored — would become a fitting place for tourism activity, exhibition, and the revival of the old quarters.
Pardisan: the Abarkuh fieldwork
Pardis-e-Vazir, in the area surrounding the historic-building complex of about 25 km, has at its high point an eleven-storey wind-catcher — born of the rich structure and activity that built the body of Iranian architecture in this period. This building, completed in 1380 (2001) by the Cultural Heritage Organization together with a student group at a distance of 1,200 metres outside the old fabric of Abarkuh, is a unique example in this ancestral programme. Its formation is drawn from analyses of the formation of correct wind-catchers over the past century, and the effort is that, on the foundation of stability and effectiveness, a sample of the Iranian vernacular architecture be given an answer in the modern age.
Cultural heritage and the future
The Cultural Heritage Organization, in the Pardisan project, with the cooperation of the private sector and educational institutes, is striving to set up a documented, accessible structure for the keeping, the revival, and the introduction of these buildings. Their role in the formation of contemporary urban fabric is very important: their language in establishing the historical continuity of the city, and in introducing variety and colour into the building of the new ancestral cities.
