Collective Memory as a Measure to Evaluate the Infill Architecture Innovations in Historic Contexts (Case Study: Historic Context of Imamzadeh Yahya in Tehran)

Historic contexts remind us of an era when cities were built based on the needs, goals, and preferences of their inhabitants. In other words, the mental world of both the builders and the inhabitants was closely interrelated. But by ignoring citizens' memories and interests and their mental needs, today's interventions with rapid developments within historic contexts have led to amnesia and the destruction of cities' identities. Hence, architecture as a major part of the urban fabric experiences disruption not only within the urban context but also through the collective memory of the inhabitants of the texture. Since identity is an important criterion of endogenous developments, in addition to clarifying the importance of collective memory in infill architecture design approach in historic contexts in the conducted analyses, this paper has sought to answer this question “Given the different approaches in terms of their innovation in infill architecture, how can one explain the architectural approach in infill spaces by referring to collective memory?” The research methodology is case study. By collecting data through library and digital resources, this paper concentrates on the process of architectural approach in historic contexts as well as identification of historic contexts. Then, through an interview with the older inhabitants of Imamzadeh Yahya neighborhood, their shared memories were identified. Then, the result was distributed as a questionnaire among the Imamzadeh Yahya locals. By analyzing the results through Spss software, the collective memory was identified within the historic context and the criteria for infill design were extracted. According to the results, the architecture in historic contexts depends on the land use, the proximity to valuable units, shared intangible events, etc. that can all be extracted from collective memory of texture. The obtained indices can be invoked in architectural design within historic contexts to enhance their physical identity.