International Journal of

Following development and qualitative and quantitative changes in communities, that have made substantial changes in historic environments, the authenticity concept has attracted attention in order to strike a balance between conservation and development approaches. The concept of authenticity as the transmitter of values and significance of cultural heritage, is regarded as a key criterion in the process of conservation and thus, the need for clarification of its factors has been emphasized in the international documents. This paper aims to refine the prioritization of authenticity factors in the plans and measures of the revitalization project of Atique Square in Isfahan, Iran. To achieve this, firstly the conventions and the international documents related to authenticity are reviewed using qualitative research methods and content analysis strategy consequently the effective factors in measuring authenticity have been selected in three main categories : ‘historical-evidential values’, ‘artistic values and creativity’, and ‘socio-cultural values’. After that, prioritizing these factors in the Atique Square revitalization, is analyzed by quantitative research method and correlation strategy. The findings indicate that the ‘historic- evidential values’, ‘socio-cultural values’ of the context and ‘artistic values and creativity’, in descending order, have the highest to the lowest contribution in explaining the concept of authenticity in the measures taken for the project of the Atique Square revitalization.

Over the last few decades, some newly developed areas in the city of Isfahan have had serious problems in providing such urban design qualities as legibility, and this has led to various problems for the citizens like difficulty in way-finding, orientation or addressing. In order to solve this problem and enrich the legibility of newly developed areas, planners and designers should utilize appropriate principles extracted from the inhabitants' cognition and expectations. This paper attempts to understand how people form their cognitive maps in urban areas and find their way within urban places. Hence, it tries to identify and evaluate different kinds of urban elements (the most important elements which provides legibility) by using casual-comparative methods on the basis of such factors as the reason of being distinctive, the type, context, function, adjacency, heritage value and type of the adjacent route that residents of Isfahan have used in shaping their cognitive maps. The findings of this research showed that the most important characteristics which affect the distinctiveness of urban landmarks in the citizens cognitive maps include: having distinctive form in their surrounding environment; being located along the urban main streets or near the junctions; being established in a central area or having heritage value; having such urban functions or land uses as tourism, commercial, leisure, religious or transportation.