Journal of Researches in Islamic Architecture

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Vernacular community centers in Hamadan city are known Chaman spaces. These spaces as local spaces not only standing for centuries and have not lost their significance but also gradually have achieved to valuable historical role and are invaluable in different perspectives. Chaman spaces are valuable in Specifications of cultural, religious, economic, urban development, traffic and climatically design. At first the necessity and importance of studying these spaces and useful results obtained from studying referred. One of the most important issues that show off face this spaces is special architecture of Chaman spaces. Every city which modern human life in, every day has a new aspect. As far as if after a few years away, come back to his native city, encounter with an unfamiliar face of the city. So cannot easily relationship this new mask with diary previous. Although, in some parts of the Hamadan historic city, dynamic community centers found that these urban living spaces designed in the base of human needs and behaviors. In Chaman space Physical comfort are supplied by the life-giving earth elements (water and plant), needs of Livelihood are provided with commercial applications and spiritual needs responded by religious and cultural spaces. These are important characteristics of community centers in Hamadan which in terms of common are known «Chaman». These spaces are part of the social and cultural identity of Hamadan. Chaman spaces and buildings around it is still a special place located at the nodes of the city and qualified values are a sign of a city.
In Islamic culture, various aspects of the structure of vernacular community centers in Hamadan city is coordinated with Islam laws. How are vernacular community centers in Hamadan commitment to the ten principles of Islamic jurisprudence is the most research question: Reason as a tool of jurisprudence, fixing the principles, ramify details of general principles, Relativity in jurisprudence, Integrity all the rules, paying attention to all aspects of the human, according to priorities and expediencies, Harmony with the laws ruling, Full freedom in some areas, Five task orders, Secondary and governmental laws. The hypothesis of this research is: Vernacular community centers in Hamadan are outstanding example of Practical adherence to Islamic rules in Islamic architecture and urbanism of Iran. The aim of this research is Introducing the leading mode of examples manifestation of the principles of Islamic Iranian architecture and urbanism in local scale. So this research follows the proven correlation vernacular community centers in Hamadan as an example of Iran›s Islamic architectural with practice of Islamic laws. The system of this research is Historical interpretation and the strategy is correlation between vernacular community centers in Hamadan city and Islamic jurisprudence rules. The human base on Islam Have a fixed nature, so sustainability of these community centers in a long times shows harmony between communities with human necessities. Because of that answering to all human needs was paid attention. Response to the human physical dimension, the sense of sight with greenery, sense of hearing with sound of water and hearing the call to prayer, the sense of smell with the smell of flowers and the sense of touch to feel the breeze and air moisture and sense of taste with eating berries from the trees in these spaces respond. Response to the human Spiritual dimension also consider and provide with relaxation, social interaction, vitality and dynamism for the whole family.
Finally, generally pattern and the structure used in the vernacular community centers in Hamadan will be presented. This pattern will provide solutions in designing the community centers with the Iranian Islamic model. Referral forms of pattern Chaman spaces will be efficient in maintenance and repair and revival of existing Islamic community center. The most important principles used in the vernacular community centers of Hamadan city that have been derived from Islamic jurisprudence practical rules are: Gathering the essential needs of neighborhood residents, answering the environmental, cultural and economic needs of neighborhood residents, Priority to pedestrians on the roadway in the campus of community center, Respecting for the rights of neighbors with the building houses in the same heighten in the community and the lack of dominating on houses in the community, Responding to all aspects of human existence, Observing the hierarchy. Discover the pattern used in the body of lawn space can also be very efficient in providing design solutions for neighborhood open spaces.
 

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Statement of Problem: To improve the identity of residential architecture, it is required to enhance the semantic dimensions in the design. To do this, the principles of traditional residential architecture in hot-dry climates, as one of the richest physical-spatial models for Iranian houses, must be applied. On the other hand, one of the best strategies for giving meaning to works is to use signs by examining users' mental image. However, nowadays, semantic concepts such as users' perception or mental image are less considered or ignored in the residential architecture due to factors such as economy or superficiality in design. This is due to the ignorance of the user-environment relationship at the educational and executive levels of design. Therefore, there is a need for finding a practical approach to semantics by extracting the signs existing in traditional houses. To meet this need, the present study seeks to answer the question "What is the role of signs in the semantic aspects of traditional Persian houses in hot-dry climate?" Since the use of successful traditional architectural models is another way for enhancing the identity of residential architecture, it seems necessary to find and use them in contemporary housing in accordance with the current situation. The research background mainly focuses on finding physical patterns or semantic principles in Iranian houses from non-semiotic perspectives, so obviously, there is a need for research on the extraction of patterns using semiotics to match the design with the users' reading.
Research aim: The design performed "only to satisfy the building function", cannot meet such affairs as identity. So, it must meet the perceptual needs to manifest identity in architecture, and this will be possibly achieved if the design is performed through a semantic process. To this end, the present research seeks to find out how the categories of signs match with the components affecting mental image in traditional houses in the hot-dry climate. Since the present study looks for the effect of signs on meaning in traditional housing design, "sign" is an independent variable, and "meaning in housing design" is a dependent variable. Accordingly, the research hypothesis is as follows: "Using the categories of signs has played a role in the meaning of traditional residential architecture in the hot-dry climate". The present study aims to extract the principles of semantics from the semiotic perspective to use in contemporary residential architecture to pay more attention to the identity and semantic dimensions of today's living environments.
Research Method: the present research is a qualitative study in which applied examples of traditional residential architecture in the hot-dry climate are studied using "document mining" and "qualitative content analysis". In the "data analysis" section, the matching of the components affecting the mental image with the categories of signs is evaluated by examining the examples of traditional Persian houses in the hot-dry climate. Accordingly, the relationships between the categories of signs, including "index", "symbol", and "icon", and the "spatial", "human" and "temporal" components affecting mental image are analyzed. It should be noted that the case studies are selected based on two criteria: 1. having spatial and physical richness, and 2. having a design in which one can observe the matching of the categories of signs with the components affecting perception. The authors attempt to select those cases having the features observed in most of the traditional Persian houses in the hot-arid climate. In the selected samples of traditional Persian houses in the hot-dry climate, any analyzable relationship between the categories of signs and factors affecting mental image is analyzed. It should be noted that it was attempted to select those components common to most traditional houses in the hot-dry climate.
 
Conclusion: The results indicate that in traditional houses in the hot-dry climate, "icon", "index", and "symbol" have been used as a means to express meanings by being matched with human, environmental and temporal components affecting users' mental image in accordance with their cultural context. Moreover, the results show the matching of the environmental components with the categories of "icon", "index" and "symbol". The temporal components affecting the users' reading show their highest degree of matching with the category of "icon". The "icon" and "symbol" categories also have the highest degree of matching with the human components affecting the users' reading. Therefore, one of the effective strategies for providing a semantic-oriented residential design is to use the components of "function", "body", "scale", "historical background", "individual experience", "social event", "physiological and psychological factors", "individual and social behaviors" of users and also attention to "components affecting the sense of belonging to place and community" in the form of different categories of signs in the design. Therefore, using different categories of signs, which match with the factors affecting the users' mental image, considering the temporal, spatial and human context of the design can be a way to consider meaning and identity in today's housing designs.

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