Applying Contextualism in Designing Furniture, during the Process of Revitalizing the Historical Sites

Abstract

Revitalization is of crucial importance in revivifying historical sites and heritages. In most cases, it is associated with the reconstruction and restoration of a historical site and only considers its physical aspect, while the aspects concerning its value are not taken into consideration. However, historical sites require elements, such as environmental furniture, as a factor connecting unique historical heritages and audiences. This study, which is a systematic effort towards considering the design of environmental furniture in the process of revitalization, is applied research with a descriptive approach that evaluates the furniture existing in Persepolis based on library studies and field observations and emphasizes heeding the importance of design in terms of functions, esthetics, and semiotics in historical sites. Therefore, by explaining the patterns in the contextualism approach, an effort has been made to present solutions for designing, so that the designed furniture and equipment help understand the message of the design context. According to the results, in the process of designing the furniture for historical sites, esthetic and semiotics must be heeded in addition to functions. Therefore, the visual and functional expectations of the audience (tourists) are met during their presence, and the achieved harmony allows for a better understanding of the site’s identity.