Cities, towards Missing Identities? Synergy Management of Sustainable Protection and Use of Cultural Urban Heritage in the Context of Global Change - the case of Tehran Sahar Khoshnood Cities, towards Missing Identities? Synergy Management of Sustainable Protection and Use of Cultural Urban Heritage in the Context of Global Change - the case of Tehran Vom Fachbereich Architektur der Technischen Universität Darmstadt zur Erlangung des akademischen Grades eines Doktors der Ingenieurwissenschaften (Dr.-Ing.) genehmigte Dissertation von M.Sc. Sahar Khoshnood, geboren am 31.07.1983 in Ramsar, Iran. Referentin: Prof. Dr.-Ing. Annette Rudolph-Cleff Fachgebiet Entwerfen und Stadtentwicklung, Fachbereich Architektur, TU Darmstadt Korreferentin: Prof. Dr. Monika Grubbauer Geschichte und Theorie der Stadt, HafenCity Universität Hamburg Datum der Einreichung: 08.03.2019 Mündliche Prüfung: 22.03.2019 Erscheinungsort/-datum: Darmstadt 2019 Hochschulkennziffer: D17 Bitte zitieren Sie dieses Dokument als: URN: urn:nbn:de:tuda-tuprints-89800 URI: https://tuprints.ulb.tu-darmstadt.de/id/eprint/8980 Dieses Dokument wird bereitgestellt von TUprints - Publikationsservice der TU Darmstadt. https://tuprints.ulb.tu-darmstadt.de/ [email protected] Verfügbar unter CC-BY-SA 4.0 International - Creative Commons, Namensnennung, Weitergabe unter gleichen Bedingungen Verfassererklärung: Hiermit versichere ich an Eides statt, dass ich die vorliegende Arbeit selbstständig und nur unter Verwendung der angegebenen Quellen angefertigt habe. Alle wörtlichen und sinngemäßen Entlehnungen sind unter Angabe der Quelle kenntlich gemacht. Die Arbeit wurde bisher weder im In- noch im Ausland in gleicher oder ähnlicher Form einer anderen Prüfungsbehorde vorgelegt. i Contents Acknowledgements iv Abstract v Zusammenfassung vi 1. .... Introduction 1 1.1. Background on Urban Identity Crisis 1 1.2. Problem Outline 2 1.2.1. Scope of Research 3 1.2.2. A Brief Account of Tehran’s Case 4 1.3. Theoretical Positioning of Research 4 1.3.1. Purpose of Research 5 1.3.2. Research Questions 6 1.4. Research Methodology Overview 6 1.5. Structure of Dissertation 8 2. .... Reviewing Literature… What Is Heritage? 10 2.1. Heritage Concept, Heritages Discourses 10 2.1.1. from Definitions to Interpretations 11 2.1.2. Global Setting of Heritage Value Systems 14 2.2. Cultural Heritage Conservation | How? 16 2.3. Roles and Controversies | Who? 18 2.3.1. Conflicts between ‘Development’ and ‘Conservation’ in Contemporary Cities 20 2.3.2. The Case of Iran 22 3. .... Redirecting Presumptions… What Really Matters? 33 3.1. Purpose(s) of Heritage(s) 33 3.1.1. Meanings and Perceptions 35 3.1.2. Local Heritage and Place-related Identity 39 3.2. Alternative/Unconventional Logic of Appreciation | Why? 43 3.3. Practices and Discrepancies | to Whom? 45 3.3.1. Variations between Socio-cultural Flow and Socio-political Orientations 48 3.3.2. The Case of Tehran 49 4. .... Neighborhood as Cultural Heritage 60 4.1. The Sentiments of Everyday Heritage 61 4.2. Place Immaterialities and People 65 4.3. The Case of Historical Centre of Tehran 67 4.3.1. Context Portrayal 67 4.3.2. Fieldwork Choices, Methods, and Ethics 69 4.3.3. Socio-spatial Description of Case Study Areas 71 4.4. The Distinctiveness of Tehran’s Heritage 78 5. .... Conclusion and Discussion 80 5.1. Summary 80 5.2. Closing Remarks and Recommendations for Future Research 84 ii Appendices 86 List of Figures 98 Bibliography 99 iii Acknowledgements Accomplishing this doctoral journey would have not been possible without the collective support I received from various institutions and many dear individuals, only a few of who are given a particular mention here. I would like to express my deepest gratitude to my supervisor Prof. Dr.-Ing. Annette Rudolph-Cleff for her valuable guidance, words of encouragement, and patience. I wish to extend my appreciation to my co-supervisor Prof. Dr. Monika Grubbauer for her contributions of time, insightful comments, and constructive suggestions. You two inspiring women kept having faith in me, my research, and my approach. Thank you for all of that. My sincere thanks go to Anna Ruths-Stiftung, the family Ruths and Dr. Gregor Seikel, for their kind concern and help during some tough times in my PhD pursuit. I also thank Deutsche Akademische Austauschdienst (DAAD) who provided me with funding for my field research stay, several conference travel grants, as well as the scholarship to complete the dissertation I was awarded within the STIBET programme. I am equally appreciative for Entscheidungsgremium Frauenförderung Architektur at TU Darmstadt and their financial support I was privileged to benefit from for some of my conference trips and also printing costs of the final version of my work. I am grateful to URBANgrad including the former and present directorate, professors, coordinators of the colloquium, and fellow PhD students I had the unique opportunity of getting to know on both academic and personal levels. I thank each and every one of you for the many critical discussions in our regular meetings and your excellent feedback, but also for the friendship we have built to hopefully last a life time. I want to particularly thank the loveliest Erika I know for being my ride-along on this journey. I thank all the people who contributed to this research, all unnamed experts, researchers, practitioners, city authorities, and local people that I interviewed. Thank you for your time and insight. I thank my colleagues at International Office (Arch.) who gave me the opportunity to work alongside them, especially Valentina Visnjic and Biljana Stefanovska, for whom I am grateful to have had their friendship. I thank all staff of the dean’s office at Faculty of Architecture who accepted me as their coworker with open arms, especially Juliane Huge for her caring spirit and motherly assistance for which I am extremely grateful. My heartfelt gratitude goes to Frank Metzger. You are a true friend, more than that; you have literally become family to me. I will forever be indebted to you for being there for me every step of the way. Last but not least, I thank my wonderful family and my closest friends for their unconditional love, understanding, and constant support. iv Abstract On a global scale, the complex interrelationships between cultural identity and heritage have for long been a topic of interest to many urban scholars. Tracing back ‘the modern concept of heritage’, which certainly emerged from a European context, one could track the expansion of its notions within an over three-century time span. There has been more recently a growing trend toward alternative perceptions of cultural heritage with a fresh interest in the nonmaterial aspects of the matter. Such shift in the general view started to partly turn the focus away from the material past, and with that triggered off some debates around what matters more. This is while, very often, newer definitions of heritage are either undertheorized or less dived into by academics and largely neglected by practitioners. That is partly why heritage studies have newly found itself at a turning point where many critical arguments thus arisen. This research, therefore, touches upon the challenges that reconceptualization of cultural heritage entails in terms of urban management. On the theoretical level, inspired by the concept of intangible cultural heritage, this research works on ‘meanings’ of urban heritage while looking into historical neighborhoods of the case of Tehran. By exploring the relationships between people and place, the research offers a deeper insight on some of the overlooked qualities that actually make up the character or essence of those urban areas. They could be best described as qualities with some sort of nonmaterial nature or nontangible connotation, no matter whether they stem from tangible things or intangible things. The primary aim is to build up to a more flexible and less predetermined view on what should and what should not be considered as worthwhile when it comes to heritages of urban areas for their people and communities. On the empirical level, in reference to the typically differing motives for heritage conservation and urban development, this research brings attention to the major changes which resulted from intervention practices in the case of Tehran’s historical center. While observing Iran’s contemporary political economy, the research argues why and how dynamics of city planning in Tehran rather knowingly overlooked historical neighborhoods until very recently, if not still. So, the idea is to, from one angle, find out the mindset behind some of the actual practices carried out by relevant administration and operation agencies which have been planned and designed by professionals; and, from the other angle, indicate why the locals’ viewpoints on the places they hold dear or even not are increasingly part of urban heritage studies. In addition to on field empirical study and desk research on secondary data resources, this research makes use of semi structured interviews conducted with a number of experts and national/local authorities involved in Iran/Tehran’s heritage management as well as informal conversations with individuals and groups of ordinary people. v Zusammenfassung Auf globaler Ebene sind die komplexen Zusammenhänge zwischen kultureller Identität und Erbe seit langem ein Thema, das viele Wissenschaftlerinnen und Wissenschaftler in der Stadtforschung interessiert. Ausgehend vom „modernen Konzept des Kulturerbes“, das zweifellos aus dem europäischen Kontext hervorgegangen ist, kann man die Erweiterung seiner Begrifflichkeiten innerhalb einer Zeitspanne von über drei Jahrhunderten verfolgen. In jüngster Zeit ist ein zunehmender Trend zu alternativen Sichtweisen auf das kulturelle Erbe mit einem neuen Interesse an den immateriellen Aspekten zu verzeichnen. Ein solcher Perspektivwechsel begann, den Fokus teilweise von der materiellen Vergangenheit abzuwenden, und löste damit einige Debatten über das aus, was wirklich zählt. Dabei werden sehr oft neuere Definitionen des Erbes entweder untertheoretisiert oder von Akademikern weniger berücksichtigt und von Praktikern weitgehend ignoriert.