Regeneration and revival of historical context
Reza Alishahi; Najma Esmailpoor
Abstract
HighlightsLeveraging economic potential from cultural heritage and community engagement are key strategies for regenerating Iran's deteriorated historic areas.Urban events provide a link between culture-based and community-driven approaches to regeneration.Aligning regeneration policies with holistic ...
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HighlightsLeveraging economic potential from cultural heritage and community engagement are key strategies for regenerating Iran's deteriorated historic areas.Urban events provide a link between culture-based and community-driven approaches to regeneration.Aligning regeneration policies with holistic frameworks enhances the success of revitalization efforts in Iran's historic urban areas. IntroductionIn recent years, urban regeneration has gained significant prominence as an approach in urban preservation and revitalization, aiming to transform abandoned or underutilized urban spaces. This approach not only seeks to restore these areas but also fosters economic growth, improves competitiveness, promotes sustainable development, strengthens cultural identity, enhances citizens' quality of life, and advances urban management practices. Despite extensive research on urban regeneration, few studies have holistically examined the integration of its dimensions and components. This study aims to investigate the role of various dimensions and components of urban regeneration in enhancing Iran’s deteriorated historic areas.Theoretical FrameworkUrban regeneration entails a series of actions aimed at improving life quality in economically, socially, culturally, or infrastructurally deprived areas by mobilizing local assets and fostering civic participation. As an interventionist strategy, it works to modernize and revitalize these spaces, paving the way for sustainable urban futures. In Iran, the past decade has seen urban regeneration initiatives attempting to tackle urban inefficiency and developmental challenges. Key milestones in this journey include the 2014 "National Strategy Document on Revitalizing, Upgrading, Renovating, and Enabling Deteriorated and Underutilized Urban Fabrics" and the 2018 "Executive Bylaw of the National Sustainable Urban Regeneration Program."These policies aim to strengthen urban governance, alleviate poverty, enrich cultural identity, and enhance urban resilience. Yet, misalignment between policy frameworks and real-world conditions, combined with the absence of concrete action plans, has hindered progress toward these objectives. Urban regeneration encompasses a wide range of dimensions—social, cultural, economic, design, management and law, and environmental—each containing specific elements intended to rejuvenate urban spaces and improve residents' quality of life. As such, urban regeneration serves not only as a tool for physical transformation but as a comprehensive and sustainable development strategy.MethodologyThis study employed a three-phase qualitative approach. In the first phase, a literature review was conducted to identify relevant dimensions and components, validated through the Content Validity Index (CVI); items with a CVI score below 0.79 were excluded. Twenty-two experts participated in the CVI assessment. In the second phase, a systematic review of articles from 2011 to 2021 yielded 28 studies on urban regeneration, which were analyzed using MaxQDA 2020. The content analysis produced 111 open codes, 38 components, and 6 dimensions. The study's reliability was confirmed through Cohen’s kappa coefficient, and VOSviewer was used to visualize spatial relationships among the elements.Results and DiscussionThe findings reveal that, throughout the 2010s, the social, economic, and cultural dimensions have been most emphasized in urban regeneration studies. The social dimension was the most prominent, with a particular focus on social participation and social vitality, which are essential for empowering communities and enhancing urban spaces. Within the economic dimension, the neighborhood and urban economy components were the most frequently highlighted, underscoring their role in improving economic conditions. The cultural dimension, meanwhile, was dominated by an emphasis on cultural heritage. Over 70% of the reviewed studies incorporated a mix of social, economic, and cultural dimensions, aiming to boost tourism and, in turn, the economic and social well-being of urban areas by capitalizing on cultural heritage and attracting investments.ConclusionUrban regeneration studies generally pursue two main goals to address urban decay and inefficiency: revitalizing the economic and social aspects of declining areas by activating existing community potentials, emphasizing social participation and its links to neighborhood and urban economies; and utilizing cultural assets for economic revival and rebranding, with a focus on authenticity and heritage. Future research should investigate the synergy of these approaches, especially the role of urban events as a connecting force between social and cultural regeneration.Comparing these findings with Iran's urban regeneration policy framework reveals alignment with the overarching research objectives and the vision of improving residents' living conditions. However, insufficient attention to environmental, managerial, and legal dimensions in the policies may have contributed to their limited success during Iran’s fifth and sixth development plans. Aligning the policy framework with comprehensive theories—such as eventful cities and Iranian-Islamic urbanism—could increase the effectiveness of development goals.This study focuses on the role of urban regeneration dimensions and components in improving Iran’s obsolete historical fabrics, drawing on Farsi-language articles from the 2010s. Primarily analyzing Ministry-approved urban planning journal articles, this research highlights the need for broader source inclusion in future studies to deepen the understanding of urban regeneration. The findings serve as a basis for identifying research challenges and gaps in this field, guiding policymakers and professionals toward more effective strategies for revitalizing historic urban areas.
