Basics on Conservation of the Settlements Related to Historic Gardens in Birjand

Document Type : Original

Authors

1 Ph.D. Candidate of Urban Planning, Islamic Azad University, North Tehran Branch

2 Urban Planning Department, Technical Faculty of Azad University, Tehran North Branch

3 Assistant Professor of Urban Planning Department, Technical Faculty of Azad University, Tehran North Branch

4 Associate Professor of the Research Institute of Cultural Heritage and Tourism

Abstract

The relation between historic settlements and historic gardens is among those topics that have received little attention. Many historic gardens have experienced changes in their contexts. In Birjand region, there are several historic settlements near historic gardens which provide the possibility of studying their relations. As, these historic settlements with the historic gardens and other elements have constituted entire and integrated complexes, therefore it seems essential to rescue them from decline. The mentioned settlements are valuable from historical, cultural, social and economic aspects. According to multi-aspects challenges and wide ranges of destruction that in many cases have pushed them to irreversible point, in this article four international documents in the field of conservation are mentioned. At the same time, with refer to historical documents, as well as field studies, and analysis of historical stories of those residents who had the experience of living during 60s and 70s, some issues are achieved for conservation of such settlements. Therefore, the research method of this article is based on combination of interpretation, observation and story analysis. The results despite many common aspects demonstrate at least three different patterns of settlements related to the historic gardens in Birjand with various challenges and damages. The damages put these settlements into four different groups according to the severeness and nature of them. The settlements which are famed to Kalateh are around the irreversible point to some extents, as these kinds of settlements were totally depended on historic gardens in which ruler/landlord were resided. On the one hand, the wide range of damages made them candidate for a kind of conservation which is called life-giving in this article. This kind of conservation is mentioning restoration as well as rehabilitation at the same time via action plans. On the other hand, in rural settlements which were existed before construction of historic gardens, the proposed action plans for conservation are mentioned to be mostly focused on maintenance and empowerment.