Iranian Traditional Houses Research Articles

Spatial reconfiguration of Iranian traditional houses to explore effective strategies of flexibility using space syntax analysis

Spatial reconfiguration of Iranian traditional houses to explore effective strategies of flexibility using space syntax analysis

The Material Cultures of the Iranian Home: Cultural Reading

This study aims to identify the main components of the material cultures of Iranian homes. Accordingly, based on the grounded theory, content analyses of plans, diagrams, interviews, and field observations are done. An expert sampling as a type of purposive sampling is used for choosing Iranian traditional houses. The results show core concepts of the material cultures of the Iranian home are confidentiality (Hijab), collaboration, purification, contentment, obedience and submission, and humility. In the form of division of paths (porch), defined communications of spaces, use of different door knockers at the entrance, observance of hierarchy, and access from public to private spaces are defined confidentiality. The second important cultural concept of these homes is the obedience and submission that are induced by religious signs and abstract decorations in the interior space. Humility is also emphasized by avoiding showing off and ostentation and aligning the body and facade of houses with the environment. It seems that the material cultures of the Iranian home have the capability to be the architectural patterns of houses, but when are combined with privacy values and feminine principles.

Responding Human Needs in Iranian Traditional Houses in Psychological Approach (Case study: Haghighi House, Isfahan, Iran)

Human being is an egocentric creation, which select and behave based on his/her ego's benefits. The most important motivation for human is satisfying the needs. Psychological Researches have shown that these needs are the same in all people. Houses as physical base of forming family, participate in satisfaction of needs in some aspects. Iranian traditional houses, have been preparing good quality of life for their residents in their life period, and therefore it seems that it is somehow because of facilitating the basis of need satisfaction. In this research, literature of human needs has been collected and categorized, and after that this needs has been surveyed in Haghighi house as a case study in descriptive and Logical analysis method. Haghighi house is a traditional house in Isfahan, Iran, from Qajar Period (early 19th century). Although the examples are from this house, but it has been tried to identify some general aspects of Iranian traditional houses. At the end some strategies for designing contemporary houses toward more satisfaction of human needs has been derived.

Analyzing the Homogenous Nature of Central Courtyard Structure in Formation of Iranian Traditional Houses

In historical cities and especially traditional houses in 17-19 century A.D in Iran, vacuum model (central courtyard) as one of the most fundamental concepts, has always played a key role in organizing Iranian cities at large scale and consequently houses at a micro scale. In the spatial organization of traditional houses, the central courtyard, among other spatial elements, has consistently played the role of a homogenizer and organizer rather than a neutral factor. Generally in the vast range of Iranian central cities including Isfahan, Shiraz and Yazd, courtyard has had a homogeneous and fluid nature, and has acted as a link between different spaces and contributed to the continuity of space in the traditional houses.

Architectural Space Affordance of Iranian Traditional Houses in Response to Levels of Physical and Spiritual Human Needs: (Case studies: Boroujerdiha house in Kashan and Zinatolmolk house in Shiraz)

According to researchers in the field of environmental design, contemporary architecture lacks the comprehensiveness required to create the appropriate affordances to respond to diverse needs of humans. This study selected Iranian traditional houses have relatively been successful in satisfying the needs of users and influencing their behavior. Accordingly, it followed recognition affordances of the architecture of these houses and their impact on the behavior of their users. Then by using analytical-deductive method, these affordances that correspond to the physical, biological and spiritual needs of human that are the most important factor influencing user behavior have been categorized.

Review on the Role of Flexibility in Iranian’s Traditional Housing, Case Study: H. H. Ghafouri`s (Ghazviniha) Building

In Iranian traditional architecture, flexibility as a general concept has always been with the major concerns to from the spatiotemporal aspects of the design. Considering limitations and availability of resources, this area still suffers from lack of brilliant and excellent research to link these positive aspect of traditional systems with those demands and dynamic nature of the modern architectures. Flexibility in general is highly dependent on a variety of factors including socioeconomic and cultural aspect of the society and single families which result in a continuous challenge in its adaptability with the design systems for a long time. In this paper, a review on flexible design of traditional housing is made followed by a descriptive study on one of the famous Iranian traditional houses as a case study, with a focus on the potentials and of such as system to be use in modern societies. Results show the capability of traditional flexibility patterns to be adapted with dynamic requirements of new architectural designs.

Thermal comfort and practicality: separate winter and summer rooms in Iranian traditional houses

Traditional houses in hot dry regions of Iran provide conditions in which the inhabitants could cope with the severe climate. Previous research shows that these vernacular houses work as a complex passive cooling system that modifies the internal climatic conditions. This complex modifying system has various components or sub-systems of which one is the existence of separate seasonal rooms in the house. This study focuses on the use and performance of seasonal rooms. It used a range of different methods including a socio-cultural questionnaire survey, interviews, personal observations and thermal comfort and temperature variation surveys. It shows how these architectural spaces work as climatic elements to provide comfort, and how they are perceived by current users.

The Impact of Iranian House Architecture on Identity and Behavior of Children

From birth, children begin to interact with the surrounding environment including humans and the space in which they live. In fact, in these early stages of life, along with the growth of body and mind, their identity and behavior are shaped and a sense of “I-ness” arises in them. Home is the first space where man face on his arrival to the world. What finds importance in association with the home is not that it is a list of functions or includes several rooms, but it is importance is related to the fact that it is a spatial model controlled by a complex covenant. Such an attitude causes a higher position to be considered for the home in shaping human personality; also, it is believed that exploring and searching the environment (to understand it) plays essential role in the identity formation of children and understanding the world around them. The root of environmental perception goes back to childhood and according to the empirical findings of psychology, it also extends to other periods of human growth. The environment as one of the constituent elements of human perception is affected by the physical and semantic conditions of space architecture and has an effect on human growth. On the other hand, traditional Iranian architects gave particular attention to the man and his needs and provided a good platform for his spiritual and material growth. The present study is aimed at showing that the architecture of Iranian traditional houses influences the identity and behavior of children. The research is an applied study conducted using the descriptive-analytical method. The literature available about children and the influential factors in shaping their identities as well as the impact of the built environment on human life shows that Iranian traditional houses, to an acceptable level, would be able to meet the spiritual needs of the children who grew in such spaces and provide the qualitative features required to give identity to them; and if modern housing possesses these features, it can give identity to today’s children, namely the future parents.

Daylight Design Strategies: A Lesson from Iranian Traditional Houses

Iranian traditional houses had shown an intimate connection with nature, responsive to climate and occupant’s requirement. A great aspect of these houses is its adaption to the special climate (Hot and Arid) of the most parts of the country, while, most of the modern houses nowadays have lost this link. In Iran, courtyard houses is the most prominent house type in Hot- Arid region and physical feature of it reflects natural needs and environment responding. This paper aims to focus on quality of daylighting in these houses, which can sign impact on personal emotional needs of well- being. This study analyzed the application of the building elements and solutions to bring daylight into different parts of these traditional courtyard houses. Twenty selected traditional houses in this region were examined. The analysis includes accessing the quality of space within these houses in term of form, opening and shady elements. This paper has concluded with daylight design strategies ascertain from the analysis of these traditional houses that may be adopted in modern house design in Iran and enhance the quality of their design. DOI: 10.5901/mjss.2013.v4n9p97

An Inquiry into Cultural Continuity and Change in Housing: An Iranian Perspective

The arrival of modernization has had an adverse effect on current Iranian housing architecture; as such, that it is now finds itself in a difficult predicament. Therefore, various national architectural conferences, in addition to individual investigations, have been focused on the renewal of Iranian housing architecture over recent decades. Whilst these examples have not culminated or resulted in defining a clear Iranian trend and style in housing with recognizable characteristics, it would be useful to explore some of the more successful examples in order to obtain an overview of what has been done in Iran in this respect during recent years. Accordingly, the study has focused on identifying the architectural characteristics of Iranian houses, which have been modified and used in the present designs. In this study, through a comparative typological analysis of the different traditional Iranian housing types, their main characteristics have been categorized. The categorization later applied for the analysis of the contemporary houses designs. The results of this investigation have shown that, in contemporary samples, although the idea of Iranian traditional houses has remained; the concept of traditional houses has been altered and changed.

Application of access graphs and home culture: Examining factors relative to climate and privacy in Iranian houses

In the recent past, access graphs have been applied as a space syntax technique to analyze the spatial configuration of buildings in correlation with the social concepts. The aim of this study is to show the deficiencies in the use of the space syntax method in the examining of spatial relation in traditional houses in Iran. Traditional Iranian houses consider climate and privacy as very important factors for generating a sound social relationship between individual house and its occupants. It examined these factors in the cities of Masouleh, Gilan, Yazd and Shiraz using access graphs. In order to understand the two factors namely; cultural and climatic factors affecting the spatial relations in Iranian traditional houses during the varied seasons, the findings in this study are shown in three graphs rather than just the one as in a usual space syntax approach. This study also shows the necessity for the application of two graphs to represent the winter and summer use of interior spaces, and the use of an overall triple graph to demonstrate the entire house based on the use of Iranian home culture with respect to distinguishing the various functions of the rooms. Key words: Spatial configuration, access graph, social relation, privacy, seasonal movement.