Icherisheher's Future Lies In Preserving Heritage And Urban Vibrancy - Rufat Mahmud On“Dialogue With Tofig Abbasov” (PHOTO/VIDEO)

(MENAFN- Trend News Agency) BAKU, Azerbaijan, September 17. A new edition of the video project“Dialogue with Tofig Abbasov” has been released on the Baku Network analytical platform.

The program's guest was Rufat Mahmud, chairman of the board of the“Icherisheher” State Historical and Architectural Reserve.

According to Mahmud, people's perception of the neighborhood varies depending on their occupation. An architect sees it as a collection of monuments that must remain untouched. A resident wants to expand their kitchen and find a place to park their car. A tourist views Icherisheher as a backdrop for vivid experiences, while an entrepreneur looks for business opportunities.“We must take the interests of all parties into account,” emphasized the reserve's chairman, noting that Florence and Venice have largely ceased to be vibrant cities due to commercialization, while the populations of Kraków and Dubrovnik have declined significantly. He cited the artisans' market in the Multan and Bukhara caravanserais, which previously housed restaurants, as one of the year's most successful projects.

For R. Mahmud himself, Icherisheher is a personal story: he spent his childhood and youth here, and his neighbors and classmates lived here.“I still know these people; I visit them in their homes,” he admitted.

In addition, Mahmud focused on the museum strategy. In partnership with a private company, the Museum of Illusions has opened in the neighborhood, becoming one of Icherisheher's main attractions. An even larger-scale project will be the“Baku 1919” museum, scheduled to open this coming Saturday. Visitors will put on VR headsets and find themselves in the city as it was at the beginning of the last century - a model that, according to Mahmud, has been recreated using old photographs and archival data, with the immersive experience enhanced by artificial intelligence. “There is a vivid depiction of what life was like in Icheri Sheher, what life was like in the city,” the chairman said, describing the project.

The reserve, R. Mahmud noted, is also developing digital services: a real estate cadastre has been created, a resident census has been conducted, a mobile app for tourists has been launched, and a service center for locals has been established. In the future, smart cameras and sensors will be installed to monitor the condition of the monuments.

R. Mahmud noted that the Maiden Tower and the Palace of the Shirvanshahs have been restored, and a number of mosques have been renovated. Last year, restoration began on the Gasymbek Hamam (also spelled Gasim Bey Bath), known during the Soviet era as the“Green Pharmacy.” R. Mahmud criticized the quality of Soviet-era restorations, during which sections of the walls were filled in with ordinary bricks:“Today, the location, size, and shape of every stone are precisely documented.” Of the 980 meters of fortress walls, he said, nearly half have already been restored.

Mahmud added that the nature reserve applies a similar logic to Karabakh: despite the revanchist sentiments of its neighbors, the reconstruction of cities destroyed by the war continues, and foreign diplomats regularly visit to see it for themselves. According to him, hosting the 13th session of the World Urban Forum (WUF13) in Baku demonstrated to the world the pace of reconstruction in the liberated territories.

The chairman of the reserve sees the future of Icherisheher in the creative industries. Icherisheher, R. Mahmud concluded, is“the place where artists want to be, where they want to create, to be together, and to share their experiences.”

Here is the full video recording of the program for our readers:

MENAFN17092026000187011040ID1111677559