The Emergence of Architectural History As a Discipline in Iran: A Twenty-Year Narrative of the Iranian Architectural Studies Program (2005–2025)

Over the past two decades, architectural historiography in Iran has undergone a significant disciplinary transformation. This article examines the effect of the Iranian architectural studies (IAS) MA program establishment at Shahid Beheshti University (est. 2005) in this process. It reconstructs the historical context of architectural education in Iran since the mid-twentieth century, when architectural history occupied a marginal position, and then examines the establishment of the IAS program as a turning point in this trajectory through an analysis of its curriculum, pedagogical strategies, and scholarly output. The article argues that the program has institutionalized architectural historiography, cultivated new generations of scholars and educators, and encouraged greater attention within Iranian schools of architecture to the social, cultural, and contextual dimensions of architecture, bringing them closer to comprehensive schools of the built environment.