Development, Architecture, and the Formation of Heritage in Late Twentieth-Century Iran - A Vital Past

This book analyses the use of the past and the production of heritage through architectural design in the developmental context of Iran, a country that has endured radical cultural and political shifts in the past five decades. Offering a trans-disciplinary approach toward complex relationship between architecture, development, and heritage, Mozaffari and Westbrook suggest that transformations in developmental contexts like Iran must be seen in relation to global political and historical exchanges, as well as the specificities of localities.

The premise of the book is that development has been a globalizing project that originated in the West. Transposed into other contexts, this project instigates a renewed historical consciousness and imagination of the past. The authors explore the rise of this consciousness in architecture, examining the theoretical context to the debates, international exchanges made in architectural congresses in the 1970s, the use of housing as the vehicle for everyday heritage, and forms of symbolic public architecture that reflect monumental time.

About the author

Ali Mozaffari is ARC DECRA Senior Research Fellow in the Alfred Deakin Institute for Citizenship & Globalisation at Deakin University

Nigel Westbrook is Associate Professor of Architecture at the University of Western Australia

Product details

• Authors: Mozaffari Ali, Nigel Westbrook
• Publisher: Ingram Publishers Services
• Languages: English
• Product format: Paperback / Softback
• Release: 20.01.2026
• EAN: 9781526195616
• ISBN: 978-1-5261-9561-6
• No. of pages: 304
• Illustrations: 76 black & white illustrations; 8 colour plates
• Subjects: Humanities, art, music > Art > General, dictionaries; Natural sciences, medicine, IT, technology > Natural sciences (general); Iran, Architecture, HISTORY / Middle East / Iran, ARCHITECTURE / History / Contemporary (1945-), Later 20th century c 1950 to c 1999, Development Studies, Museology & heritage studies, Museology and heritage studies, c 1945 to c 2000 (Post-war period)