Assessing contextual development in historical urban areas : Lessons from the Khatami Cultural-Artistic Complex in Iran

The challenges posed by urban development to historical landscape conservation are more acute in developing countries. Due to widespread development in urban areas, the cultural heritage of cities may suffer irreparable damage; it is therefore necessary to strike a balance. The Khatami Cultural-Artistic Complex, located in the historical area of Ardakan in the Yazd Province in Iran, was selected as a reliable reference to research how to maintain the equilibrium between urban development and historical landscape conservation. In particular, the study looked at how the structure and historical texture could be preserved as a cultural space and its cultural heritage restored. This paper explores the concept of contextual architecture by first conducting a literature review. The strengths and weaknesses of the study sample were evaluated by stakeholder feedback and finally solutions for future designs were proposed. The results revealed that the best way to improve the quality of cultural architecture in historical urban areas is to apply context-aware designs taking into account the physical, climatic and sociocultural dimensions.