A variety of activities are carried out in a house. This range includes the most private behaviors of members to their collective and social activities. The organization of these activities should be such that while facilitating them in different parts of the house, their incompatible interference is also prevented. This concept, known as functional compatibility, is directly related to the issue of functional efficiency. Based on this, the analysis of this relationship is the basis of the current research. Also, investigating the evolution of these concepts in the course of architectural structural changes that have occurred due to the passage of time is another goal of this research. Based on this, by selecting 18 examples of Qajar period houses in Tabriz city, an attempt has been made to investigate this issue. The reason for choosing Tabriz as the geographical area of the research is its strategic position in the exchange with the Western world, and the reason for choosing the Qajar period as the temporal area of the research was the beginning of modern trends in Iranian architecture in this period. The basic theory in this research is the theory of space syntax, and the tools used for analysis are Depthmap software and Syntax plugin in Grasshopper software. After reviewing the literature, effective indicators on the issue of functional compatibility in houses were extracted and suitable syntactic tools were introduced to analyze each one in the form of a theoretical research framework. Then, by analyzing each sample in the relevant software environment, data related to each index was extracted and analyzed. The results of the research showed that the most important change that occurred in the configuration system of houses in Tabriz during the Qajar period is the transformation of the central courtyard pattern in the early and middle of the Qajar to the Kushki pattern at the end of this period. Also, with the change in the configuration system of houses from an introverted model to an extroverted model at the end of the Qajar period, the issue of functional compatibility has changed in relation to some indicators and has not seen much change in relation to others. This issue can also be mentioned in connection with the functional efficiency of these houses. Based on this, it can be concluded that functional efficiency is a relative concept that depending on different conditions, different criteria affect its promotion or decline.
Based on this, the research questions can be presented as follows:
- How is the issue of functional compatibility in different house patterns in the city of Tabriz during the Qajar period?
- What effects did the changes in the spatial configuration system of different house patterns during the Qajar period in this city have on the functional compatibility of their different spaces?
- What effect did these changes have on the functional efficiency of these houses?
In this article at first the developments in the houses of Tabriz are evaluated, and the factors affecting these changes are also introduced. Then the definition of functional efficiency and related indicators in a residential use is discussed. Finally, in the theoretical framework section of the research, the relationship between the desired indicators of the research in explaining the functional efficiency of the houses and the tools introduced to measure these indicators in the body of the houses are explained according to the characteristics and abilities of each of them.
As mentioned earlier, this article aims to evaluate the link between architectural concepts related to functional compatibility and their impact on the functional efficiency of spaces in a house. Since the nature of both issues is related to the discussion of space arrangement and how to configure different spaces in a house, therefore, the most suitable method for their analysis is to use the technique of space syntax. This technique consists of various tools that can be used to analyze different spatial patterns and relationships between their components. In this technique, various tools are used to analyze the spatial configurations, among which the most important are the two software "Depthmap" and "Synthetic Plugin in the Grasshopper software". Depthmap software is used to analyze visual and physical access in the plans, and Grasshopper software is used to extract explanatory diagrams related to the plans and also to analyze the mathematical relationships between their different spaces. The indicators presented in the theoretical framework of the research after the analysis are presented in the form of quantitative data, and from the qualitative analysis of these data, it is possible to understand their relationship with the issue of functional compatibility and functional efficiency. Therefore, in this research, both quantitative and qualitative methods were used to analyze the data. Also, the collection of information has been done by field, documentary and library methods. The independent variable in this research is functional efficiency, the dependent variable is the spatial layout pattern, and the mediating variable is the issue of functional compatibility in the building.
