Reconsidering the Role of Urban Arsans in Enhancing Place Identity and Social Sustainability in Iranian Urban Spaces

Abstract

This article aims to reconsider urban arsans as an indigenous model for enhancing place identity and social sustainability in contemporary Iranian urban spaces. In the tradition of the Iranian city, the arsan was not merely an arrangement of physical and functional elements; rather, it constituted a socio-spatial system in which spatial organization, collective activities, historical memory, and cultural meanings operated through a dynamic interrelationship. The present study adopts a review-analytical approach and employs a conceptual synthesis of the literature related to urban arsans, place identity, place attachment, public space, and social sustainability. The findings indicate that urban arsans contribute to the formation and consolidation of place identity by strengthening spatial legibility, historical continuity, semantic density, and the reproduction of collective memory. Moreover, characteristics such as social centrality, functional diversity, pedestrian orientation, human scale, opportunities for presence, and interaction capacity provide the conditions necessary for strengthening social cohesion and sustaining collective life within these spaces. Accordingly, the value of the arsan for the contemporary city lies not in the formal replication of historical patterns, but in the critical reinterpretation of its social, spatial, and cultural logic in accordance with present-day conditions. From this perspective, the urban arsan may be regarded as a theoretical and practical framework for rethinking the design and regeneration of public spaces, neighborhood centers, and contemporary communal hubs.