Assessment of Proposals for Revitalization a Dilapidated Plot of Land Located in Yazd according to Integrated Conservation and Regeneration Approach

Historical neighborhoods need be regenerated in order to be able to play an eminent role in the urban context. This regeneration might require designing new spaces. As this will influence the historical neighborhood in its entirety as well as its values, the possible impacts of regeneration plans should be closely checked before actual implementation. This study aims to assess such effects in four proposals suggested for revitalizing a dilapidated plot of land in the Dār al-Shafā neighborhood in Yazd through specifying the criteria and variables for prognosticating physical changes. Employing integrated conservation and regeneration as the most comprehensive approach, the parameters for assessing the historical neighborhood were explicated by using deduction and questionnaires. The participants were five professors teaching at prestigious universities with relevant publications and research interests. Then, employing a pseudo-AHP method and questionnaires, four proposals put forth for revitalizing that plot of land were assessed. At this stage, more university professors were questioned. Simultaneously, assessment of proposals is executed by 14 PhD students and 6 professors, who accepted invitation for assessment.32 students and professors are randomly invited. The results conveyed that “respecting and preserving historical and cultural values,” “preserving and improving the neighborhood’s current values,” and “employing the neighborhood’s value system in designing and bringing about the changes” are three criteria for assessing proposals. The resulted criteria for assessment with respect to three values of historical urban fabric Including “Historic value”, “Cultural value” and “Current value”; and according to the Principle of “harmony” that interpretation of it comments two principles of "respect and preserve neighborhood values" and "do not imitate" included "respect to principles and values of present and future" and "respect to change" for continuity and sustainability of historical neighborhood in the past, present and future time; are three criteria of “Respecting for and preservation of historical and cultural value”, “Preservation and upgrading the current value of the neighborhood” and “The use of criteria what value to building of neighborhood for new design”. First criterion includes four sub-criteria “Observance of authenticity”, “Observance of integrity”, “Observance of identity and character” and “Observance of Continuation of collective memory and historical memory”. Second criterion includes four “Physical improvement”, “Economic improvement”, “Promotion of social capital” and “Functional improvement”. Also, based on this criterion, the "change" should be observed values of creation process itself, for example, the quality of the idea, quality of design and the quality of its relationship with the environment and nature", on the best possible level of compliance. The main distinguishing feature of the newly proposed assessment system is the consideration of current cultural values side by side with an attempt to preserve and revitalize the historical ones.