This volume considers the major trends and developments in Iranian architecture during the 1960s and 70s in order to further our understanding of the underpinnings and intentions of Persian architecture during this period.

This volume consider the major trends and developments in Iranian architecture during the 1960s and '70s in order to further our understanding of the underpinnings and intentions of Persian architecture during this period. While narrative explorations of modernism have relied heavily upon classifications based on Western experiences and influences, this book provides a more holistic view of the development of Persian architecture by studying both the internal and external forces that influenced it in the late twentieth century. The essays in Architectural Dynamics in Pre-Revolutionary Iran, accompanied by more than eighty images, shed light on the fascinating--and sometimes controversial--evolution of Iranian architecture and its constant quest for a new paradigm of cultural identity.

What is the relationship between development as a globalizing project and the production of cultural specificities in developmental contexts? Utilising an architectural lens, this book illustrates how development instigates interest in the past and in the process, creates heritage. It show multiple uses of the past and their contestation in highly fluid social contexts.

The Politics of Architectural Pedagogy in Iran explores the evolution of architectural pedagogy during two significant socio-political upheavals in Iran: The White Revolution (1963) and the Islamic Revolution (1979). It examines how these transformative periods influenced the field, providing valuable insights into the intersection of architectural education and broader socio-political shifts in Iran. By examining the critical role of education in achieving geopolitical objectives during the Cold War, this book explores architectural pedagogy as an agent for resistance and revolution. It highlights how architectural pedagogy not only reflects radical ideologies but also actively engages in socio-political transformation. The book uncovers how architectural pedagogy became one of the mechanisms to accomplish revolutionary goals. This is evident in initiatives like the "Pedagogical Revolution" during the White Revolution (1963), aimed at modernizing educational institutions, and the "Revolutionary Pedagogy" during the Islamic Revolution (1979), which sought to serve the masses and the religious revolutionary society. In this way, the book adds a new geopolitical perspective to the contemporary discourse of radical pedagogies. This book explores the intricate connections between architectural pedagogy and politics through a transdisciplinary approach. It analyzes original multilingual documents, including political agendas, cultural agreements, curricula, teaching methods, student works, exhibitions, and conferences. It will be of interest to architectural historians and architecture students, particularly those interested in Global South development, modernism, architectural pedagogy, international relations, and Middle Eastern studies.

Historiography is the study of the methodology of writing history, the development of the discipline of history, and the changing interpretations of historical events in the works of individual historians. Exploring the historiography of Persian art and architecture requires a closer look at a diverse range of sources, including chronicles, historical accounts, travelogues, and material evidence coming from archaeological excavations. The Historiography of Persian Architecture highlights the political, cultural, and intellectual contexts that lie behind the written history of Persian architecture in the twentieth century, presenting a series of investigations on issues related to historiography. This book addresses the challenges, complexities, and contradictions regarding historical and geographical diversity of Persian architecture, including issues lacking in the 20th century historiography of Iran and neighbouring countries. This book not only illustrates different trends in Persian architecture but also clarifies changing notions of research in this field. Aiming to introduce new tools of analysis, the book offers fresh insights into the discipline, supported by historical documents, archaeological data, treatises, and visual materials. It brings together well-established and emerging scholars from a broad range of academic spheres, in order to question and challenge pre-existing historiographical frameworks, particularly through specific case studies. Overall, it provides a valuable contribution to the study of Persian architecture, simultaneously revisiting past literature and advancing new approaches. This book would be of interest to students and scholars of Middle East and Iranian Studies, as well as Architectural History, including Islamic architecture and historiography.

This book represents a reflection on the policies of preservation that were established and interventions for restoration that occurred in Iran before and in the years after the Khomeinist Revolution, as well as being an analysis of the impact that Italian restoration culture has had in the country. Research concerning the state of conservation and the ongoing restoration of the Armenian churches in the Khoy and Salmas areas is included, along with precise documentation of the observation of the two cities, their architecture and the context of their landscape. The problems of architectural restoration in present-day Iran and the compatible use of buildings no longer intended for worship are addressed. The book is bolstered by first-hand documentation obtained through inspections and interviews with Iranian specialists during three missions carried out between 2016 and 2018 and a large anthology of period texts that have only recently been made available for the first time for study in electronic form, including travel reports written by Westerners describing Persia between the 15th and 19th centuries.

Here is the basic study, with measured drawings, photographs, and written description, of a major monument in Iran, the ruins of Sarvistan, which has been much discussed but up to now has been poorly documented and is thus little known. The author examined the ruins of all buildings which had been attributed over the years to the Sasanians, Iran's last pre-Islamic dynasty (A.D. 226-651), concentrating on the impressive remains of a building near the town of Sarvistan, 100 km southeast of Shiraz. Sarvistan, considered a key monument of Persian architecture since its "discovery" in the 19th century, occupies a prominent place in the history of medieval architecture of both East and West.

During its long history Persian culture has played a fundamental role in, and has made major contributions to, human civilisation. During the last few decades, scholarly interest in Persian culture, including its history, archaeology, art and architecture, has accelerated research into Persian cultural heritage. Scientific studies have provided information about knowledge on which Persian traditional buildings are based and methodologies used for their preservation. This book gives comprehensive information about Persian architectural heritage for scholars, students and practicing engineers in civil, structural, architectural, hydraulic, and restoration engineering, and other related disciplines.

Revolution and tradition are two sides of the same coin in Talinn Grigor's book on Iranian architecture. It starts in 1925 after Reza Pahlavi seized control of the country, but it arcs back to Ancient and Medieval Persia. Not that the government was rejecting modernity. IT instead promoted a reconstruction of the past that would aid efforts to make modern Iran an independent nation with an irrefutable claim to existence and power. Prodigious archival research informs Grigor's account of the excavations and discoveries Iranian authorities used to construct monuments to national heroes like Omar Khayyam, an important mathematician and astronomer of the 11th century as well as the author of the 'Rubauyat'. Grigor also brings immense knowledge to her lively discussions of the modern idiom integrated into such retrospective monuments and buildings. This book is the first in English to study 20th century Iranian architecture within the historical contexts that shaped its from and significance. The corpus of photographs will help the many readers unfamiliar with the architectural riches of Iran. Current turbulence and misunderstanding with the Middle East highlight the important of Grigor's book. ILLUSTRATIONS: 158

One of the most heated scholarly controversies of the early twentieth century, the Orient-or-Rome debate turned on whether art historians should trace the origin of all Western—and especially Gothic—architecture to Roman ingenuity or to the Indo-Germanic Geist. Focusing on the discourses around this debate, Talinn Grigor considers the Persian Revival movement in light of imperial strategies of power and identity in British India and in Qajar-Pahlavi Iran. The Persian Revival examines Europe’s discovery of ancient Iran, first in literature and then in art history. Tracing Western visual discourse about ancient Iran from 1699 on, Grigor parses the invention and use of a revivalist architectural style from the Afsharid and Zand successors to the Safavid throne and the rise of the Parsi industrialists as cosmopolitan subjects of British India. Drawing on a wide range of Persian revival narratives bound to architectural history, Grigor foregrounds the complexities and magnitude of artistic appropriations of Western art history in order to grapple with colonial ambivalence and imperial aspirations. She argues that while Western imperialism was instrumental in shaping high art as mercantile-bourgeois ethos, it was also a project that destabilized the hegemony of a Eurocentric historiography of taste. An important reconsideration of the Persian Revival, this book will be of vital interest to art and architectural historians and intellectual historians, particularly those working in the areas of international modernism, Iranian studies, and historiography.