Preferential Strategies in Designing Historical Textures’ Infill Buildings from the Perspective of the Architecture, Urban Engineering, Restoration and Repair Experts

The historical core of the cities are recognized as the cultural and social heritage of every society but the depreciation and destruction resulting from the passage of time and the gradual elimination and/or change of performance in some of the buildings in the historical context posit the need for intra-contextual development and designing of the infill buildings. If carried out in an unbalanced manner, without paying attention to the backgrounds and in a hasty pace, these developments would lead to inconsistency and disorder in the old texture. Steven Semes, a university professor and architecture and designer of the various conservational and building projects in the US, introduces four prominent solutions for the designer upon confrontation with the historical backgrounds. They are literal replication of the context, invention within style, abstract reference and intentional opposition to the background. The present study aimed at the investigation of the preferential strategy of the urban engineering and restoration experts for designing infill buildings in historical context based on the four solutions posited by Semes. The recognition of the experts’ preferential perspectives and comparison of them with the citizens’ perspectives and discovery of the similarities and differences between the perspectives of these two groups can guide the experts in the designing of the future infills. Use has been made herein of survey research method that is implemented in two stages. Moreover, the information has been collected based on two methods, namely documentary research and field observation (questionnaire). The study population of the present study was comprised of 120 experts from the three abovementioned fields of study. The obtained results were indicative of the idea that the architects chose intentional opposition to the context and the urban engineers and restoration specialists selected the literal replication of the context as their preferential strategy for the designing of the infill buildings in the historical context. Furthermore, the most important feature of the designing, as viewed by the architectural experts, was the creation of innovation and complexity in the context; urban engineering and restoration specialists found pleasantness in context as the most significant designing property.