The Role of the “Sense of Place” Concept in Improving Architectural Conservation Quality

Abstract
Although, subjective aspects of architectural spaces were taken into consideration by scientific circles
during last few decades and after the development of environmental sciences, current experiences in the
field of maintaining architectural heritage in Iran shows the little attention paid to this aspect, against
the focus given to the structure and function in related planning. The “sense of place” concept, as one of
environmental science’s meanings, has helped specialists and designers to identify subjective characteristics
of natural and built spaces. This paper believes that by considering the “sense of place” notion, spatial
aspects of conservation can be recognized and can form practical strategies to establish a comprehensive
connection between space and human beings. Due to the fact that the “sense of place” shapes the relation
between human and space by introducing the meanings of space, it will be a proper basis for cognition of
the meanings of heritage spaces and explanation of an appropriate attitude towards protective measures.
According to this view, the hypothesis are; A. Semantic preservation is the main basis of architectural
conservation, B. Paying attention to the “sense of place” is an important part of semantic protection and
C. Conservation that is based on the “sense of place” explains the pattern of physical and functional
conservation. Studying the relation between architectural conservation and the “sense of place” shows that
recognizing the “sense of place” in heritage spaces, results in understanding their structure and character,
and thus leads the architectural protection towards policies containing physical and functional measures
which finally results in the preservation of people’s sense of belonging to those spaces. This research is
done by relying on analytical and descriptive methods and using interpretation and classification of library
resources.