Journal of Researches in Islamic Architecture

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To explain the strategic plan to achieve a new Islamic civilization in its various fields and dimensions, a general and scientific structure must be exploited which in accordance with facts of existence from the universe and of human being.

This research believes that this general structure along with its entire steps, resources and the foundations of every single one of those steps has been discussed in depth and is infallible based on doctrines of the divine religion of Islam. Yet still, the structure can be achieved, explained and proven from a scientific, rational and divine dimension and can be further explained and analyzed because it entails facts of the universe (signs of existence) and human being (potential and actual talents, will, authority, works and course of descent and rise of human race) can be explained and analyzed.

The research method is based on areas and degrees of wisdom (logical reasoning) and quotations (words of God and traditions of the Imams - May peace be upon them) and it is descriptive, exploratory and interpretational.

The most significant accomplishment of the research is the explanation of the general structure of human processes, steps and its associated Islamic resources and in particular its bases and principles (strategic-conceptual) and solutions (applicability-practicality) in all steps from the perspective of the Islamic culture. Meanwhile, in each step misguided and incomplete contemporary western practices (modernization and ultra-modernism) are assessed and reviewed. The overall achievements of the research are applicable for all teaching, research and administrative topics and are particularly reliable for exploitation in the fields of art, architecture and urbanism.

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In Islamic thought, imagination has a special importance and place in artistic creation. The nature of imagination has created such opportunity to realize this fact the each spiritual affair to be imagined should occur partially and tangibly in imagination. In fact, the imagination is the interface between meaning and material and its images, on one hand, are similar to the matter and on the other hand, are separated from the body and spirit. With regards to such nature and capability of this power, using the imagination in the creation of valuable art and architecture is highly effective. The artist, like all other human beings, enjoys all aspects of perception, but uses his imaginative perception in artistic creation more than others. The artist expresses his mental concept, within the words or images or changes them into the sound, or makes it with brick and stone. In all of these creations, what the sacred artist creates in his mind is free of sense and the physical world. Even, when he recreates the nature in his works, it is not the same as nature, but his imagination and creativity power are reflected in his work. What is formed in the artist’s mind is partial with an image and hence is in the imaginative perception area. For this reason, what is created by artist is fully dependent on his imaginative power.   
Like other arts, meaning in Islamic architecture is a fundamental and necessary concept which visualizes an imagination of the meaning world in a matter world by physical and non-physical factors. But, despite the critical role of meaning, current studies have not discussed such issue. In fact, the architect perceives the real world, but in his creation, he does not only imitate, but tries to manifest that fact. Hence, he starts recognition from the matter, but the more he progress, he makes his recognition deeper, separates from the mater and achieves the concepts and rationales. This process occurs in imagination world which is separated from the real world and the wisdom world perception is attained.
The present study aims at explaining the imagination position as the interface for manifestation of meanings in architecture design and its role in architecture design process. In this research, the background related to the imagination in Islamic thought in areas of imagination world and its steps, imaginative perception and sacred art and creation are investigated. By descriptive – analytic method focusing on the rational inference and reasoning, this study deals with the data and collected materials.
To start the design from meaning area, it is necessary to take areas of meaning into account. Meaning area in architecture is the same as the mental concepts of designers which is related to the culture, innate feelings and values of designer. Therefore, starting the design from the architectural qualities like life and presence in space paves the way to achieve the ideas with meaning substance. Trend of meaning manifestation in architectural works (architectural space and form) is made with the help of imagination. Accordingly, each concept or meaning should initially takes and imaginative aspect to become evident in the real and tangible world. Meaning comes from the designer’s entity and the imaginative images of meaning are manifested in architectural space and form. Enjoying the meaning movement is design process is: paying attention and achieving the concepts and meanings (meaning), transforming these meanings into the intellectual images and ideas creation (imagination), recreation of these images in tan bilge world while conforming with both the imagination world and limitations of tangible world (architecture work). Movement of the meaning of the tangible is understood by artist and movement of the tangible to meaning by the audience. For this reason, artist and audience, communicate through affecting each other.
 

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Today, the increasing realities that have occupied architects in other fields related to architecture, have caused the designer's attention to deviate from the theoretical thinking that was considered at the beginning of the design process. Architectural software has expanded the visual dimensions of the human mind and created the conditions for the designer's thinking to be limited to imaginative forms. Although innovation can be considered the main feature of products obtained from software that go beyond the drawings and in order to create cyberspace, but the product of all of them can not be considered creative works. Because creativity manifests itself with a concept called meaning and theoretical thinking, with designers focusing on the use of computer facilities, although facilitating and accelerating the visualization and visualization of ideas; But this early embodiment is also a threat to the idea and meaning of the truth underlying the work. Therefore, recognizing the process of cognition and creation in architecture is a necessity that must have evolved from idea to form in order to always be able to reveal the damage that has been done to the systemic structure of architectural design today. From the moment an architect decides to create a work until his design is ready for the execution stages, at the heart of his movement is the creative production of an idea and its transformation into a concept and ultimately an architectural product, and in this regard as " The whole problem-solving "is raised. In other words, the architect is on the path of identifying the problem until finding a solution. The main problem in architectural design is the "idea" that all creative processes try to achieve this concept, and on the other hand, interaction in the design problem and its solution shows that analyzing the problem and recognizing its various dimensions is the designer's mental ability and thought. Strengthens the basis for the solution, the "concept". An architectural work results from the understanding and creation formed by the creator as the agent as a result of their worldview. As the architect's paradigm, this worldview plays an essential role in directing the ultimate cause, namely idea; formal cause, namely concept; and material cause, namely the architectural work. The important thing, however, is the hierarchy of the senses and the way an idea transforms into a form in the paradigm of the architect. This study seeks to extract the semantic identity of the idea and concept (theme) from western, Islamic, and philosophical paradigms in order to clarify the process of understanding and creating architectural works through the "four causes" and contrast creation of architecture works in the local (Islamic) and non-local (western) paradigms. The goal is to introduce the direction that the concept takes through the transformation of an idea into an architectural work.

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