21 August. Prof. Bagher Ayatolahzadeh Shirazi (Iran) was born in Najaf, and was trained in architecture in Tehran.

In the 1960s, he attended one of the first Architectural Conservation courses organized jointly by ICCROM and the Faculty of Architecture, Universitá 'La Sapienza', Rome, and prepared his thesis under Prof. De Angelis d'Ossat on the bazaar of Isfahan. He also attended a conservation training programme at the University of York.

For several years in the 1970s, Shirazi was responsible for the conservation management of the historic city of Isfahan, and he received the Aga Khan Award for Architecture for this work.

In the early 1980s, he moved to Tehran as director of national conservation services. Here he was involved in the reorganization of the state conservation services, becoming the Vice President of the newly-founded Cultural Heritage Organization of Iran.

After retirement, he continued to work as a teacher at the University of Tehran where he was much loved. He contributing also to courses organized in collaboration with ICCROM in the 1990s.

He was an active member of ICOMOS as well as organizer of the yearly conferences on the history of architecture in Bam and author of several publications. In 2005, he initiated the study group for the preparation of an Iranian charter on the conservation of the architectural heritage. He received many national awards and recognitions.

He died of heart attack while reading a paper in a conference organized in his honour in Tehran.

updated on: 17 February, 2009