Journal of Researches in Islamic Architecture

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The process of aesthetic experience and models designed in relation to this process are amongst the important discussions in the field of teaching aesthetic experience. Many models are designed on the basis of philosophical theories and observing audience behavior and they are founded in the path of intellectual and theoretical enhancement of the audience. Meanwhile, although Islamic philosophers have not clearly addressed the perception of aesthetics and aesthetic experience, however, among their discussions and theoretical perceptions, fundamentals of aesthetics perception can be found. Mulla Sadra is among those philosophers that somewhat discusses this matter in his belief system. The fundamental question is that: According to Mulla Sadra’s intellectual principles and ideology such as levels of perception, substantial motion, mental mode of existence, love and beauty, and the identity of the knower and the known, can we reach an explanation for a model that is in line with aesthetics experience? The purpose of this study is to investigate the process of aesthetics experience and understanding a work of art in the viewpoint of experts in this arena and also to achieve an aesthetics experience model that is derived from Mulla Sadra’s ideology. For this matter, at first, using the inferential analysis method, this study analyzes the different components of aesthetics models and by benefiting from Mulla Sadra’s principles, the aesthetics experience process and its elements such as emotional perception, attention and knowledge, repetitive observance, remembrance and contemplation, imagination and recreation, and identity, are deducted and are compared with other models. In some cases such as repetitive observance, remembrance and contemplation, the model has similar aspects with other models, however, in some cases such as imagination and recreation it has differences.

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A review of the history of architectural conservation implies that ontological attitude of scholars and theorists in the field of historic places› conservation is one of the most important principles of conservation theories. Those features of historic places which are considered as more significant at the moment of recognition are often turned into an issue for conservation. However, there is not a clear understanding of such an issue, especially its theoretical basics, in Iran›s today community.
Accordingly, this paper explores the ontology of historic places by relying on Transcendental Wisdom ascribed to Sadr al-Moto›alehin Shirazi and based on the doctorine of «Principality of the Existence» which offers an explication of the existence of material beings. In this line, the mentioned relations between «material and form», «form and meaning» and «extrinsic and intrinsic aspects of things» in the system of Transcendental Wisdom and also the theory of Substantial Motion and its explanation apropos the fluid existence of material beings and finally transcendentalism›s conceptualization of the relation between «existent» and «being» in the world›s system are the main views taken from such a philosophy. In all, since this study is in line with Sadraei›s philosophy it enjoys analytical-philosophical nature and employs logical reasoning and analogical methodology.
Respectively, the historic place is scrutinized from three aspects. The first aspect refers to such a place «as a single measurable totality» whereas the other two aspects regard it «as a changeable totality» and «as an element within the contextual measures».
With respect to the first aspect, the existence of the historic place is considered as a measurable element enjoying several levels of emergence. These levels constitute the triple aspects of meaning, form (and its extrinsic determinations) and material. Also, corresponding to each aspect, the historic place gains some measures. Consequently, regarding the measures of any historic place, we can talk about the measures referring to meaning, form (intrinsic and extrinsic measures) and material.
Moreover, among these levels, each level is more significant than the lower levels representing the existence of the historic place. In other words, the existence of the historic place is manifested in its intrinsic form and meaning more than anything else and the material as well as the extrinsic determinations of the form are simply the manifestations or, in a word, the context for the emergence of the historic place›s existence. However, a historic place is finally a single entity which has existential integrity and the aforementioned levels are not separate from each other in reality.
Then, the temporality and mixing of the historic place›s existence with change is considered. In this respect, relying on the theory of Substantial Motion, the historic place is regarded as a «changeable totality» and evolving issue mingled with time. In this respect, the historic place is a fluid entity, not an object, which is a permanent becoming; it is a gradually-occurring matter and is like an entity scattered in time whose past and future constitute different parts of a single entity. Thus, in reality, we cannot talk about persistence and consistency in the existence of the historic place and just the issue of continuity in its existence can be raised. This continuity is possible due to the becoming on the orbit of measures referring to its particular existence. But the question that other than the measures of the historic place in the mentioned triple aspects what other measures referring to its particular existence can be found paves the way for paying attention to another aspect of its existence.
In this aspect, the historic place is considered not as a single totality but as a part of its surrounding world which can be the world in the broadest scope. It is argued that simply recognizing the elements within the existence of the historic place cannot provide full knowledge of it and it is necessary to consider its inevitable relation to the environment or more general context. Accordingly, the historic place as an entity becomes the manifestation of «being» and its validity depends on such a manifestation. In this aspect, the historic place becomes the manifestation (relatively speaking) of the names and attributes of the being and the regularities originated from it and, consequently, it is located under the existential systems of the world and its manifestations in the natural as well as the cultural world. These systems or orders have some manifestations in the nature such as a number of laws referring to qualitative and quantitative aspects of the place (meaning, form and material). In this respect, the cultural measures and orders receive their validity via corresponding to existential systems and thus they can be used as a criterion for the existence of the historic place.
In general, from the perspective of this study, the historic place is first and foremost an «integrated totality and objective measurable entity which changes permanently» while its particular measures (in the triple levels of meaning, form and material) are located under the existential systems manifested in the natural as well as cultural rules. It should also be considered that the validity of the historic place›s existence depends on its capacity to manifest the existential systems. Thus, the constant and necessary matter in it is the very orders or existential measures manifested in it which can be called «the aspect of being» or «Allah›s aspect» in a word.
 

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Islam has perfectly organized all notions involved in human excellence through its material and spiritual guidance; settlement and housing are no exception. Therefore, real Islamic housing can be of concern to architecture researchers in Islamic Republic of Iran. On the other hand, the severe shortage of residential units, low quality of construction, short life span of buildings and low financial ability of home buyers are other challenges facing architects in Iran. According to the experts, industrial construction is an appropriate solution for these challenges. In this paper, the uncertainty and dissatisfaction with industrialized construction are discussed in terms of identity issues such as Islamic housing. Since the Iranian society theoretically seeks Islamic architecture for its houses and on the other hand, construction necessitates the application of industrialized building methods, the relationship between these two realms must be investigated and their facts should be analyzed to achieve a reasonable approach to the problem. Hence the research questions are about how these architectural realms interact with each other and which requirements of industrialization divert the residential architecture from its Islamic aspects. These questions seem novel because they have not been addressed in any research. It appears that many industrialization parameters are not opposed to Islamic features of residential architecture, but totally coincident with them. In this study, the data is collected through library research and some indexes are derived by reasoning and represented in corresponding tables to be surveyed by the experts of both realms. It is an applied research based on a descriptive-analytical methodology. The data collection is accomplished through field research using interviews and questionnaires. The data is analyzed using an inferential analysis which has the most coordination with the descriptive-analytical methodology. The analysis is performed through a parametric paired samples t-test using an AHP model. Statistical data is analyzed in Excel, the information obtained in the discussion and conclusion section is conceptually analyzed and the final results are presented. The results of research show that the set of industrialization components agrees with jurisprudential and physical principles of Islamic housing by 63%, which indicates an acceptable consistency. The set is compatible with semantic principles of Islamic housing by 17%, which indicates a contradiction between industrialization and semantic principles of Islamic housing. Thus it can be concluded that the relationship between industrialization and Islamic housing is a consistent and positive relation with contradictions just in ​​“design constraints”. Therefore, industrialized construction can be an optimal solution to the current and future problems of housing in Iran, after elimination of its slight contradictions.