Abstract:
Conservation of historical urban patterns in the
traditional neighborhoods is a part of creating integrated urban
environments that are socially more sustainable. Urbanization reflects
on life conditions and social, physical, economical characteristics of
the society. In this regard, historical zones and traditional regions are
affected by dramatic interventions on these characteristics. This
article focuses on the Uch Dukkan neighborhood located in Ardabil
City in Azarbaijani region of Iran, which has been up to such
interventions that leaded its transformation from the past to the
present. After introducing a brief inventory of the main elements of
the historical zone and the neighborhood; this study explores the
changes and transformations in different periods; and their impacts
on the quality of the environment and its social sustainability. The
survey conducted in the neighborhood as part of this research study
revealed that the Uch Dukkan neighborhood and the unique
architectural heritage that it possesses have become more inactive
physically and functionally in a decade. This condition requires an
exploration and comparison of the present and the expected
transformations of the meaning of social space from the most private
unit to the urban scale. From this token, it is argued that an
architectural point of view that is based on space order; use and
meaning of space as a social and cultural image, should not be
ignored. Based on the interplay between social sustainability,
collective memory, and the urban environment, study aims to make
the invisible portion of ignorance clear, that ends up with a weakness
in defining the collective meaning of the neighborhood as a historic
urban district. It reveals that the spatial possessions of the
neighborhood are valuable not only for their historical and physical
characteristics, but also for their social memory that is to be
remembered and constructed further.
