Evaluation of Urban Intervention in Imam Hussain Square (Tehran) with Emphasis on Urban Reminders

Human settlements are filled with memories. Sometimes these memories are personal and sometimes they have collective nature. Collective memory is a memory shared between group members and is formed in a social framework, a place context, and through the time. These memories would fill the space with meanings and through them, a space would become a place and a place would become a meaningful, memorable and valuable place.
Today, many place-based researches have been emphasized on the importance of narration and memory in cities.
In this approach the city is considered as a diary of place collective memories. These memories which are rooted in the context of urban places and can form affective bonds between people and places, Furthermore have an important role in formation of people’s place-identity and sense of belonging to place. Having regard for or ignoring these memories (and memorable elements tied to them) in urban interventions, can strengthen or weaken people’s sense of belonging to place and their place identity. This can lead to numerous consequences and results.
Vanishing of memories may cause identity crisis and mental-psychological disease.
Most of researches with the subject of place collective memory are focused on the formation of collective memories in the city and its effective criteria. But the recording and transition of those memories for the future and posterity are given less consideration. Confrontation of people with urban reminders help them to remember memories of the past events. These reminders as forms, functions and meanings would help people to remember urban memories and narrate (tell the story of) the city's past. These reminders are considered as mnemonic aids. But some urban interventions regardless of these memory reference points, would remove city narration consciously or unconsciously over time. Interventions which would make our cities generic, without any memory, history or important feature.
Imam Hussain square intervention plan has been accomplished in 2012 with the approach of maximum changes and today after four years its results could be analyzed. Current research is pursuing the analysis of urban intervention in the Imam Hussain Square to see how it pays attention to place collective memories through protection and strengthening of urban reminders. This research combines existential and First-person phenomenological approaches. With a qualitative Analysis method, it uses content analysis combined with expert analysis. Through the research various gathering information techniques are employed, such as deep interviews, structural interviews with open questions, and expert observations.
The results show that the new design has not succeeded in attention to urban reminders and has failed in using numerous capacities, available in this historic place. Except a few cases, this intervention not only has no attention to forgotten place-memories and urban reminders, but it also has weakened and destroyed the existing reminders.
Even new urban reminders which are erected in this design have not bonded properly with place history and memories. Current research emphasizes the importance of place collective memories and reminding these memories. A pattern for analyzing different types of urban reminders (through analytical map) is introduced.