Regenerating the “Creative Place”: A New Approach in Promoting Contemporary Heritage of Islamic-Iranian City (Case Study: Naqsh-E-Jahan Square of Isfahan)

AbStRACt Regenerating the historic cities and adapting them with the circumstances and developments of contemporary life is one of the essential strategies for improving the social, economic and cultural situations in historic cities. The changes of socio-cultural conditions have necessitated more attention to high potential urban contexts such as historic hubs for improving the mentioned conditions. This research aims at studying a recent phenomenon in cities based on social, cultural and economic innovations called “creative place ”.The objective of the theory of “creative place ” is developing strategies for achieving a new model of sustainable development that is consistent with the spirit of time in response to the following question: “How can we achieve the concept of creative place as a new model of sustainable development based on culture and identity in regenerating the historical centers of a modern Islamic-Iranian city? ”.According to the approach of “sense of place ” and using interaction between the three areas discussed in the creative place, i.e., Art & Culture, Knowledge-based organizations, and Community projects, this subject is analyzed using content analysis method and reviewing the literatures. Then the environmental components in renewing the historical hubs of Iranian-Islamic contemporary city is detected using the approach of “creative place ”.In the final step, the environmental factors of Naqsh-e-Jahan Square of Isfahan are recognized and analyzed in orde