Urban conservation, without diving into its deep historical and theoretical aspects, could be distinguished and categorized in three consecutive eras or versions. These three versions are identified and known as Reconstruction, Renewal and Regeneration. Each of these three has safeguarded and transmitted an amalgam of city’s form and content, which could be considered as the “city’s tale”. It seems that the tale varies from time to time and give us a variety of perceptions upon the city. In fact, it’s somehow the exigency of a city and its people who shape the tale and prepare some kind of container and façade for the ever-changing content. Marching through eras can show different stages of evolution for a city. Although this evolution could be considered as a permanent change, but an accumulation of change and evolution brings the city into a metamorphosis point; a point at which one can ask himself whether it is the same city he knew by his previous civic experiences. Examining evolutions and changes that a city has experienced, demonstrates a series of urban metamorphoses and the continuous presence of urban conservation. Throughout this evolution, we may recognise a variety of events and approaches, which in fact is nothing but the “era tuned” versions of the “tale” and accommodated conservation. Conservation has been present throughout the time and space. Despite of all struggles and challenges, which have made a treasure of contrasting and sometimes divergent ideas in the field of Conservation, it has been nothing but a perpetual attempt to maintain an up-to-date city and to give it all the possible opportunities to be an image of contemporary, modern and new. By reviewing the history of urban metamorphosis, it may seem abruptly cut by the sections due to the transition between those turning points. This perspective induces a sense of rupture, stagnation or divergent versatility that could make some confusion regarding the philosophy of progress or active intervention. Once giving a clear vision about the conception of Time and by merging the both two circular and linear perceptions, deducing the spiral concept, another reality is revealed. Passing from an era to another does not vanish the impacts of former steps or lessons taught by the History. The accumulation of ideas, experiences, try-and-errors, victories and defeats, has made the conservation enriched and flourished. The mentioned versions of Conservation are all accomplished methods for making the city, contemporary! The toolbox of Conservation consists all of these versions, even nowadays applicable according to the context and era, lived by each city. As a matter of fact, city’s “tale” is perennial, it changes colour and configuration, but it remains eternal. This notion of perenniality penetrates into the fundamentals of urban conservation as a whole. Here in this paper, certain notions and basic concepts are discussed in an oriented way to explain how these two apparently antonym approaches could make the same.
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