Bio: Kamran Safamanesh
Kamran Safamanesh is an architect, urban designer and historian whose main research interest is history and theory related to the formation of the built environment. He studied at the University of Tehran and at the University of California at Los Angeles and Berkeley, and holds master degrees in architecture and urban design from both. He has taught in Iranian colleges and universities since 1983 and has lectured at academic institutions nationally and internationally. He founded the Urban Research Institute in Tehran, which has conducted architectural, social and urban formation research in Iran since 1980. The center now holds an extensive archive on the city of Tehran and its historical buildings, and also more generally on Qajar architecture and contemporary buildings in Iran. He is the principal partner of Safamanesh and Associates architects and urban planners, which has been responsible for many projects including new cultural and educational buildings, urban revitalization and the rehabilitation of city centers and their historical streets and complexes. The renovation of gardens and buildings are among some of the projects in which he has been involved during the last decades. He is currently completing a detailed study of ‘The History of Tehran and another on Principles for Evaluation of Historical Building and Complexes’, whilst previous publications include The Story of Two Gardens (1990) and Configuration and Evolution of Tehran's Arteries and Roads (1989), as well as many articles in specialist architectural journals and historical publications.
Abstract
Transformation of Public and Private Spaces
Six different periods in the evolution of public spaces and their
transformation from a traditional to a modern era can be distinguished.
Two are in the Qajar period, two in the first and the second Pahlavis,
and finally two modern periods - one in the last two decades before
Islamic revolution and the second the last two decades after Islamic
revolution. Examples and explanations for each era will be provided. The
transformation of the domestic house as a private space and the way it began
to open up to the public domain and its evolution from an inward spatial
organization to an outward looking entity is very important. It should be
noted how some of the traditional functions as private activity have been
transferred to the domain of public activities and, conversely, how some
public activities have been added to the space of domestic houses. The
typology of function, form, model, appearance, shape, building elements, and
people¹s behavior are among the subjects for investigation. Examples will be
given of these new public spaces, with their newly introduced functions such
as arteries, streets, squares, roundabouts, and buildings. Although we know
that the transformation in the patterns of public space is due to
fundamental changes in Iranian life as a result of the evolution from a
traditional to a modern or semi-modern society, some elements remain the
same up until the present time. The way the people of Iran today use
public space will be illustrated through field observation and examples.