Abstract

The purpose of our study is to find effective physical and social factors in forming of urban collective memories, and for depth of the discussion, we choose Tehran (Iran) city as our case study. Results of this research shows that above factors have been divided into two categories: “possibility of events formation and social interactions” and “possibility of register and transfer of urban history and memories”. Each of this groups have been divided into two other parts “social and political structure” and “physical and spatial structure”. Minor effective factors in the possibility of events formation and social interactions that related to the social and political structures of city, include social and environmental security, ethnic diversity, social classes, carnivals and ceremonies, thus the minor effective factors which related to the spatial and physical structure of city include the existence kinds of public and general spaces in the city scale and it’s neighborhoods. Also the minor effective factors in possibility of register and transfer of urban history and memories are related to designing methods that connected to public and social structure of city, include registration and continuity (sustainability) of habitation and sense of belonging to the place (sense of place or genius loci) ,and minor effective factors related to the spatial and physical structures of city include preservation of historic buildings and city neighborhoods, construction of city monuments and preservation of names and signs. Results of this research can be more effective in the exaltation of city identity in the form of collective memory when we want to design. This article is a survey about the formation and assessment factors in urban collective memory, and their effects on architectural design.