ABSTRACT
The city of Kashan is one of the oldest human settlements. The city is based on interactions between human-cultural systems with the surrounding environment. The context of the Kashan heritage has always relied on its interaction with the environment to sustain its existence. Kashan illustrates a life cycle based on holistic principles formed by place, people and attachments.
This chapter discusses place attachment in terms of the cognitive-emotional bond that forms between individuals and their settings; otherwise known as cultural ecosystems. These ecosystems establish a conceptual and practical framework for investigating sense of place, drawing upon transdisciplinary research to assess cultural value, and change, with an emphasis on place as a material phenomenon due to the prevailing ideas of immaterial or intangible cultural ecosystem.
Throughout this chapter, discussions based on Scannell and Gifford’s (2010) three-dimensional model of place attachment, and Shamai’s (1991) sense of place scale, will illustrate how and why Kashan heritage is a unique ecosystem.