Identifying and Prioritizing Effective Indicators in the Rehabilitation of Historical Baths with Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP) Method (Case Study: Safavid Baths of Isfahan)

Iranian architecture is a valuable heritage from previous generations that must be passed on to the future. Restoration is one of the most important methods of protecting historical monuments, which itself requires multidimensional interventions. Due to many reasons, historical baths are one of the most vulnerable types of architecture, which are gradually abandoned and destroyed due to lifestyle changes. Therefore, preserving historical baths through their revival is an undeniable necessity. The main purpose of the research is to identify and prioritize the effective criteria for the revival of Isfahan Safavid period baths and seek to find an answer to these questions: what are the effective indicators for the revival of Isfahan Safavid period baths? And what is the order of prioritizing indicators (to intervene in the Safavid baths of Isfahan)?

The research method is hybrid; The qualitative part of the research deals with the collection of main indicators and sub-indices from theoretical bases, review of research literature, and field studies. In the quantitative part, the indicators and sub-indices have been evaluated by the Delphi method and through restoration specialists, and prioritized by the method of Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP) and pairwise comparison. In field studies, out of more than 50 historical bathhouses in Isfahan province, based on the focus of the research on the Safavid period and with the judgment of the researchers, in a non-random and non-probabilistic manner, 9 bathhouses were selected as samples.

The results of the research show that in the restoration of Safavid period baths in Isfahan, fourteen main indicators and 45 related sub-indices should be categorized into three technical-physical, socio-cultural, and economic areas, which are logically and conceptually related to each other, each independently.