Historic Baths as Third Place (Case Study: Shiraz Vakil Bath)

The study is based on descriptive analysis and based on documentary-field method, which has investigated the status and value of Iranian baths in the formation of social interactions as cozy third places. The results have shown that Iranian historical baths as historical monuments have played a very important role in shaping social interaction, preserving Iranian culture and civilization. These baths with architectural, plaster, mythical and religious paintings are located alongside other monuments in populated areas such as mosque, bazaar and governmental citadel (the main features of Iranian-Islamic urbanism). Historical baths are public spaces of tangible cultural heritage, with the idea of aesthetic concepts of painting, the fine arts of baths, and their particularly cozy social interaction discourse dominating their intangible cultural heritage.