Investigating the Application of the Concept of Affordance in Conservation of Historic Urban Squares in Iran

Affordance is one of the widely used concepts in the field of environmental psychology that is used to understand the relationship between behavior patterns and the needs of users to the environment. Also, a very important part of the conservation process in historical squares (as a form of public space) is to measure values based on the needs of stakeholders and their interaction with the environment. Affordance has been considered in the field of architecture and environmental design in recent years, but in the field of architectural conservation it still has no clear place. Therefore, investigating and determining the role of affordance in the conservation process, especially in urban historical squares, can be effective in understanding the stakeholders' relationship with the historical urban space and consequently protective decisions. The purpose of this research is to explain and investigate the role of affordance in the process of conservation of historic urban squares. In the present study, first in an analytical-deductive approach, and with a descriptive method, valid theories with the focus of the affordance is investigated. Then, in a logical reasoning process, the position of this concept in the process of conservation of historical urban squares is determined and explained. The results show that affordance can play an important role in explaining environmental values and protective decisions in relation to the needs of field users. This result could be the beginning of further research in the field of critique of conservation interventions in architectural heritage.