IDENTITY DISINTERRED: THE USES AND ABUSES OF A PAST IN ARCHITECTURAL REPRESENTATION OF A PRESENT

Since 1920s and the beginning of intensive modernising reforms in Iran, Modern architecture could become the representative of the new socio-political status and
ultimately, national identity. However, from this time, urban and architectural developments took a peculiar path. While Modern architecture was employed to house the means of such drastic changes, a historicist style was introduced and supported by the government and the reformist elite, under the banner of ‘National Architecture’. This symbolic trend has profoundly influenced the approach toward the architectural representation of collective identities until today. In such representations, the value of responding to the present was never fully acknowledged. This research focuses on the development of the historicist understanding of collective identity in architecture of Iran. It looks at this architectural approach as the consequence of much broader socio-political conditions and nationalist movements that led to the change of monarchy in 1925 and ultimately the revolution of 1979.

Niloofar started architectural studies in 2003 in Iran where she particularly became interested in history of the discipline. In 2009 she received her Master’s degree in Histories and Theories of Architecture from Architectural Association. She then enrolled again at the AA for the PhD course in 2011. As well as her research, Publications and event organizations, she works on architectural projects in Iran.