The future of Caravanserais along the Silk Road

This paper presents a proposal for the reuse of the caravanserais that are situated on the trait of Iranian Plateau along the Silk Road. Iran is a country with a rich cultural and material heritage. In this context the caravanserais that dot the ancient routes are architectures, perhaps minor, but rich in meaning. Moreover Iran today is a country that it's opening itself to the rest of the world and it's opening its borders to tourism; which is both an opportunity and a risk. Damages caused by a badly managed tourism are well known and increasingly evident. Starting from this premise, the thesis is that the reuse of these manufactures, which geometrically map the territory of the Iranian plateau, if conceived as elements of a system that can integrate pre-existing historical architecture, landscape, agriculture, roads and water infrastructures (qanat) can be an incisive action to enhance cultural and economic development of the area. The reuse of caravanserais can thus represents the key element for the definition of a renewed "landscape of exchange and knowledge" and the starting point for a sustainable tourism development. The work, that is intended to present, has affronted this topic on a double point of view: that of research and that one of design.