The Etiology of Social Demands on Removal of Architectural Heritages from National Heritage ListThe Case Study: Demands of Owners of Architectural Heritages in Tehran during Last Decade

Conservation is an inevitable step to conserve historical heritage. Historical and cultural heritage, including architectural heritage, needs conservation based on their characteristics and values. After registering the architectural heritage in the national heritage register, the recorded heritage is legally governed by the Cultural Heritage, Handicrafts and Tourism Organization and is subjected to the rules and regulations for conservation of national monuments. The process of architectural heritage conservation, in addition to being related to technical and physical issues, also requires attention to various aspects beyond the physical object, such as social aspects in the conservation of architectural heritage. In the field of architectural heritage conservation, the role of people and their relation with these properties is more significant than other types of cultural heritage; it is because of the concept of architecture. As a matter of the fact, some factors can result in multiple consequences: social participations can cause dynamics of conservation process, however, on the other hand, they can make some problems like social conflicts and dispute besides preventing the progress of conservation process. The interaction and equilibrium between cultural and historic dimensions of past methods of living and contemporary needs and demands of the present requires elimination or control of misunderstanding and social conflicts, based upon conservative approach. In this regard, according to available evidence, Tehran has witnessed numerous threats related to the national architectural heritage due to the removal of monuments from the national heritage register by private owners. The hypothesis of the current study is the existence of weakness in the cognitive aspects of valuable historic cultural monuments in terms of importance of architectural heritage conservation. It also mentions the incoherence between “the rules and policies of architectural heritage conservation” and “needs and demands of heritage buildings' owners. This paper is considering the cognition of the causes of owners’ demands of removing their architectural heritage from the national heritage register in the form of a case study in Tehran. The historic urban fabric of Tehran is considered as one of the most problematic urban areas regarding conservation issues of cultural heritage, and therefore is chosen as a case study in this research. The question of this research is ‘what are the causes of social demands in the cancellation of architectural heritage registration operations from the national heritage register in Tehran?”. The aim of this research is to improve the quality of the conservation process based on reducing or solving related problems in the social sphere. The findings of the studies carried out in this paper indicate that various causes are effective in the above-mentioned social demands, most of which include: the weakness of the owners' cognition and awareness of why and how to conserve the architectural heritage, weakness in paying attention to owner’s needs and demands from the authorities in charge of conservation, non-comprehensive and incomplete laws related to the subject and lack of incentive policies for the owners.