The Impact of the Architecture of Government Buildings on the Identity of the City of Tabriz (The first Pahlavi period)

After modernity found its way to Iran in the first Pahlavi period, the society suffered from duality between past and tradition on the one hand, and modernity and modernization on the other. The government was seeking to change the current situation and develop western modernity concepts. One of the manifestations of these transformations was the change of cities’ structure and the formation of a new identity in the cities of Iran, especially historical and important cities. Therefore, this study is trying to investigate the impact of the architecture of governmental and public buildings on transferring the new concepts in the identity of the city of Tabriz. In this article, first the concepts of tradition and modernity as well as its effect on the architecture of this period is being reviewed and then the impact of western architecture and ideology of the government is being investigated. The theoretical foundations of the study depend on the fact that social and historical phenomena affect architecture. The city of Tabriz has been chosen as a case study since it is an important and influential city in different periods of Iran’s history, and some of the buildings of this city belonging to the first Pahlavi period have been investigated. This is a qualitative study which uses descriptive-analytic method, and data collection tools are documentary and field-based. The result of the study shows that in the first Pahlavi period, despite modernization attempts in the city of Tabriz and the formation of buildings indicating a change of viewpoint from tradition to modernity, maintaining the context and historical values was also taken into consideration. The construction of important public and governmental buildings as well as the formation of valuable frames have had an important effect on the identity building of Tabriz in this period.