This book analyses the use of the past and the production of heritage through architectural design in the developmental context of Iran. It is the first to utilise a trans-disciplinary approach in probing the complex relationship between architecture, development, and heritage. It uses established theoretical concepts including notions of globalism, nostalgia, tradition and authenticity to suggest that transformations in developmental contexts such as Iran must be seen in relation to global political and historical exchanges as well as the specificities of localities. Iran is a pertinent example as it has endured radical cultural and political shifts in the past five decades. Scholars of heritage and architecture will find the cross-disciplinary aspects of the book useful. The premise of the book is that development has been a globalizing project originating in the West. Transposed into other contexts, this project instigates renewed historical consciousness and imaginations of the past. This is particularly evident in architecture where through design processes the past produces forms of architectural heritage.

But this historic consciousness cannot be reduced to political ideology, while politics is always in the background. To show this, the book examines the rise of this consciousness in architecture through chapters focusing on theoretical context, international exchanges made in architectural congresses in the 1970s, housing as the vehicle for everyday heritage and symbolic public architecture to reflect monumental time. The book is written in an accessible language to benefit academic researchers and graduate students in the fields of heritage, architecture, Iranian and Middle Eastern Studies.