Culture-led Regeneration in Historical and Cultural Areas

The Case of a Historical Quarter in Mashhad, Iran

Abstract

Despite embracing various historical and cultural values, historical areas of Iran are experiencing massive changes in their functional, social and physical profiles, often without apt recognition of the role of culture in urban regeneration. This paper aims to examine the role of culture-led regeneration in enhancing the quality of a cultural and historical district in Mashhad, Iran and determine appropriate spatial strategies. Based on a critical literature review, this paper presents a conceptual framework for culture-led regeneration, which considers different approaches to culture-led regeneration and their associated spatial strategies: competitive-led, community-led and creativity-led. The framework's applicability in our case study is then assessed through multiple methods, including field observation, reviewing secondary documents and a three-round Delphi survey of experts' opinions. Our findings reveal the applicability of the three approaches to culture-led regeneration in the selected area considering context-specific adaptation. The results also highlight that community-led and then creativity-led strategies are perceived as more essential than competitive-led ones. The paper also offers practical implications for designing the historical district based on the prioritised approaches and strategies.