Journal of Researches in Islamic Architecture

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Background: House in Islam, is considered as a center for teaching probity and creating a society without corruption and sin. Quran defines the best settlement for a human being the one, which is consistent with his needs and provides context for his growth and excellence. However, the mentioned factors are forgotten in contemporary housing and the Islamic theme is almost removed from the Iranian houses. So today we are witnessing houses far from the traditional Iranian pattern, which was combined with the rich Iranian-Islamic culture. In order to eliminate the gap between traditional and contemporary pattern, it is necessary to retrieve the values and principles considered in traditional architecture.

Researchers in this area, introduce features such as "unity, security, identity, coexistence with nature, moderation and social justice, beauty, hierarchy, preference spirituality, perfectionism, modesty, humility, purity, centrality, equality, privacy and comfort for Islamic house.

Purpose: Recent research in a different approach was after the principles, mentioned in Quran about the desired space arrangement in Islamic house, and by examining a sample of Iranian-Islamic house spatial arrangement, tryed to discover the latent geometry of Iranian-Islamic house spatial structure.

The purpose of the current study at the first step was to achieve the indicators affecting the desired spatial arrangement in Islamic perspective by grounded theory, and then evaluating the priorities of these indicators in Iranian- Islamic house spatial structure.

Methods: the methodology of the research was divided in to two main sections; the grounded theory and the case study method.

 In the first section, in order to investigate the pattern of desired spatial arrangement, the related verses extracted from Quran. Then, for apprehending the intention of each verse, the key points extracted from three different Quran interpretations; Al-Mizan interpretation, Noor interpretation, and Nemuneh interpretation. These key points then changed to codes (open coding). At the next stage, the codes with similar concepts gathered in groups called concepts. Psychological effects, social effects, residence interpretations, building orientation, visual contact of spaces, permeability control and different aspects of safety such as personal, bio-climatic and psychological, were some of the concepts extracted at this step. Then in axial coding, the concepts similar in content, created categories. Hence, the categories including the importance of Islamic residence, the importance of desired residence, importance of security, zoning, control and permeability, and the aims of the Islamic house, were some of the created categories. Finally the theory devise by selective coding. Selective coding was used after having found the core variable, which was the “characteristics of the Islamic residence” that was thought to be the core and explained the main concern. When the core variable was chosen, the data were selectively coded with the core guiding the coding not bothering about concepts with little importance to the core and its sub cores. Hence, the categories related to each other, and made four main sub cores; causal factors that include factors defining the cause of the investigation; underlying factors that defines the background of the investigation; preventive effects including factors that prevent achieving the main core; and strategies, which defines the solutions for achieving the goal. So, with the use of the grounded theory, the model of desired spatial arrangement extracted from Quran. Thus, the three key features of the desired arrangement and their application strategies defined: A) bioclimatic comfort and safety. B) Zoning. C) Monitoring and Control.

The second part of the research was devoted to the case study and assessed the extent to which the strategies were applied to Rasoulian house. At this stage, according to the extracted model, application of strategies for preparing bio-climatic comfort (appropriate orientation and spatial settlement of the building), appropriate zoning (visual hierarchy and connectivity of spaces and zones) and monitoring and control (space prmeability and permeability control of spaces and zone) evaluated in the case study in three scales: microscale, macro scale, and middle scale. The macro scale evaluated the extent to which the climatic factors were applied to the building. Zoning and monitoring factors evaluated with space syntax method and its two related software programs; “a-Graph” software, used for justification graph and permeability indicators analysis including mean depth (MD), relative integration and Control, and “Depth map” software, used for visibility graph and visual indicators analysis including visual connectivity and visual control. The mentioned indicators were analyzed both in micro and middle scales. Finally the evaluated indicators were scored according to their responsibility to the Islamic house aims mentioned in extracted model.

Results: According to the results, the example of Islamic-Iranian accommodation was in full compliance with environmental factors. The hierarchy of access and visibility control of access to the space results in more security from theft, psychological security, personal and family privacy, and provides a hierarchically well segregated complex. Besides, the great integration of private and semi-private arenas shows the importance of familiarity in Iranian- Islamic house structure. However, the high integration of public arena (the entrance) with the complex, which means easy access from entrance to the other spaces of complex, was inappropriate for security from theft, as well as individual and family privacy.

Also visibility of the private spaces from the half-private arena, damages the personal privacy. Moreover, the same permeability of semi-public and semi-private sectors from entrance, which means the separation according to permeability was not performed well and may undermine the privacy of the family.  Evaluation of the permeability of entrance space resulted in the priority of privacy to safety in placement of spaces.

Also the linear settlement of some interior spaces with opening on both interior and exterior facades, between interior and exterior yard, shows the importance of bioclimatic comfort in space arrangement. So the features according to their priority in spatial organization of Rasoulian house were as below:

According to the results, the most important issue was the adaptation to climatic factors and creating climate comfort by taking advantage of natural conditions and connection with nature. So, establishing bioclimatic comfort and security was prior to two other defined characteristics. That is while security of invade or theft was less important than the other aspects of security in the spatial structure of this Iranian- Islamic house example.

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The knowledge of urban planning relies on the precise understanding of the relationship between the human and the environment seeking to improve the quality of human life and built environment. Thus, this knowledge requires a theoretical foundation through which a better understanding of urban issues can be developed, and a suitable solution can be proposed. Therefore, production and explanations of theories using accurate and suitable methods are imperative and increase the richness of the urban planning knowledge. Meanwhile, the lack of appropriate theorizing methods in urban planning, the experts not believing in them, the existence of inconsistent theories built on quantitative methods with no regard for the social and environmental relations, and negligence of users towards the understanding and interpretation of the space highlights the importance of using the ground-based methodology to develop urban theories.
Nowadays, how the old urban fabrics are to be dealt with has become one of the significant challenges of urban planning since the environment quality, and ecological balance have declined in these environments. Thus,a proper intervention aimed at improving the quality of urban life and gaining the satisfaction of its residents and users has become an inevitable necessity. Renovations projects are carried out in worn-out urban fabrics aiming to increase the quality of the urban environment; however, these projects have not achieved much success realizing their goals, have brought about new challenges for these fabrics, and have led to the dissatisfaction of a wide range of users and residents.
The central urban fabric of Mashhad is one of the old regions of the town, which is dealing with the phenomena of being worn out due to the continuous residence. Serious renovations started in this fabric in the 1990s and have continued since. The present study seeks to discover how an urban recreation framework based on a critical study of the implemented renovation process emphasizes grounded research methodology. Thus, the study seeks to answer how the grounded methodology can be used to achieve a recreation framework tailored to the central region of the religious city of Mashhad. To understand the process of renovation in this fabric, one must question the approach of people and various groups towards the renovation of Mashhad central region. Grounded research seeks the three goals of exploration, description, and understanding the subject.
The most important issue discussed recreation and renovation strategies is their risk of failure. Given that recreation policies engage various stakeholders, dispute and incompatibility between them over their interests are among the challenges these strategies have always faced, resulting in their failure and ineffectiveness. Thus, the institutional approach emphasizes the interaction between local stakeholders and upstream levels and demands the participation of organizations and groups to reduce the risk of plans’ failure. The lukewarm acceptance of some people towards the marginal and worn-out urban fabric renovation projects confirms this claim.
Understanding the recreation framework in the central region of Mashhad is complex and challenging due to the holy shrine of Imam Reza (AS), the presence of pilgrims, residents, businesses, and the renovation procedures, which make any pre-conceived model or specific hypothesis of the influential variable over-simplistic. This is why this subject had better be studied in its specific context and ground-based on the opinions of stakeholders and methodological data collection.
Grounded theory is a research strategy proposed by two American sociologists, Glaser and Strauss, which defines how the data that has been collected methodically throughout a social study is to be used. The application of this method to predict, describe, and explain has attracted the attention of scholars since its emergence. This method has an inductive approach to the development of theory and extracts theories from the heart of research through establishing an ongoing persistent relationship between data collection and analysis. The data must reflect the meanings and perceptions of people engaged in the modeled phenomena, and the results must be presented as an interconnected set of concepts rather than a simple list of several themes.
Thus, the stakeholders’ cognitive assessment of the intervention in urban fabrics impacts their level of participation and the plans’ level of realization. The grounded theory can discover people’s mentalities regarding these plans through making connections with them, determining the positive and negative features of each project based on their perception, and thus improving the feasibility of the plans through eliminating the weaknesses and highlighting the strengths.
The process starts with collecting data and coding them openly.The data are then classified into separate categories and are revaluated to reveal the internal connections between them, summarized into more comprehensive categories at higher levels through several analytical stages, and will make up the main category, i.e., the grounded theory- in the end. The detailed steps of the process include data collection, presenting the research questions, sampling, analysis, and evaluation of the processes and results, which will be elaborated on in the following. Results of the study indicated that the grounded theory helps understand the various and deeper layers impacting physical, social, etc. changes and various techniques must be sued for the development of theory. It was also revealed that urban management must pay attention to the mental, objective, and functional spaces in the six aspects of economic, management, socio-cultural, functional, ecological, and physical should it intend to intervene in the urban fabric of Islamic cities.

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An Islamic city is a city that is the result of the objectivity of Islamic principles and values in order to provide the basis and conditions for the realization of the Islamic lifestyle. In this connection, the most important Islamic principle and value that should be realized in the social yard of Muslims is the principle of justice.
The main goal of the current research is to try to produce native and Islamic science in the field of urban management and planning, and in particular, to achieve a scientific theory from the sources of Islam regarding social and spatial justice as one of the pillars of the Islamic city or the ideal city of Islam; To finally be a step, however small, in the path of achieving the Islamic-Iranian model of progress.
In this article, the author has tried to approach a religious theory in the field of spatial justice by using the qualitative research and grounded theory method focusing by benefiting from the available Islamic sources and in line with compiling the theoretical foundations of the Islamic city. The result of the present research shows the achievement of a model that, while providing a precise definition of social and spatial justice and explaining the dimensions of this concept, provides a good explanation of the injustice situation and the process of realizing social and spatial justice.