Journal of Researches in Islamic Architecture

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Social interaction is one of the main human necessities, but regarding to today’s modern world it is simply in the path of naught and the social sustainability is an issue that is being introduced at the international level to strengthen these interactions. Now the question is that to what extent the international theories about social sustainability are responsive to this inherent need in Islamic Iran? Were the Iranian residential neighborhoods in the past sustainable, socially? How? To what extent social sustainability solutions (those are prescribed in the world) are compatible with the theorical foundation of Islam? In order to these questions with reference to Islamic ethics in the Qur'an and the Hadith, first principles for social sustainability in residential neighborhoods are codified in 8: social esteem, tolerance (forgiveness), Neighboring and hospitality, pudency (modesty) and zeal, Humility and lack of apparent pride, Respect and Solidarity. Then some manifestations of these features in traditional Iranian residential neighborhoods are noted. After surveying international social sustainability norms that are raised today the global social sustainability principles will be validated based on 8 mentioned principles to be a guide for architects and urban planners who are trying to achieve social sustainability, especially in residential neighborhoods in a way consistent with Islamic principles. This article is collected by using the comparative method: global social sustainability theories have been validated by underlying the Islamic ethics (in terms of social sustainability). The results of this study show that although the international theories about social sustainability have a lot in common with Islam in the field of social development issues such as community participation, accountability, social security and etc. But in the field of divine rights of individuals they have nothing to say and it is neglected. So international norms are incomplete for meeting the needs of residential neighborhoods of Iran (who have had pretty good experiences in the past), and even in some cases are in conflict with Islamic principles. In this article the commonalities and contradictions will be examined.

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Islamic ethics as the controlling system of behaviors has defined the rights of an individual and society and Fiqh (jurisprudence) explains behavioral patterns in accordance with Shari›a (law). Given that each space is shaped according to behavioral pattern of its residents, the mechanism of interpretation and implementation of Islamic Shari›a is reflected in architecture and urban planning process of traditional cities and their environment is actually considered as an interaction between these sciences and planning and implementation process. Islamic ethics as one of the infrastructures of the Iranian Islamic civilization has played a strategic role. Purifying the conscience, providing mental and physical health, and removing human faults are the functions of ethics; however, social life is managed by law. Justice, according to many philosophers, and is regarded as the main basis of law. That is, the legislator must follow the rules of justice. Numerous violations in Iranian urbanism and agriculture along with changing the gardens and farms into residential, commercial, etc. usage result from the wrong infrastructure which has been developed by the decisions of High Council of Urbanism and Architecture and Artcile5 Commission. To improve general culture and to respect the laws and regulations associated with urbanism and architecture, first of all this framework and its forming factors which have legalized the purchase and sale of violations must be amended.
 

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Islamic Architecture is a main course in undergraduate Architectural program of Iran which is essentially a historical as well as theoretical one that makes its applicability so rare in design studios while Islamization has been a main goal of recent architectural policies of Iran. It has been a main concern of scholars in the field of architectural education and in this article some proposed approaches to make theoretical and historical data about architecture applicable for design studio are reviewed.
Two main routes are taken for such an application: 1. Architectural institutional approaches are those plans that try to explore structuralistic components of historical building. For example defining their formal order, spatial arrangement and or analyzing its language of motifs in such a way that could not easily accused to copying from old building; these approaches do not widely enter into cultural debates or religion-based issues unless rare subjects as anti-illustrational view in Islam or bold symbols such as Ka’beh . 2. Ex- Architectural institutional approaches are those that concentrate on the human life of the historical buildings. Behavioral researches and vernacular researches are common studies of this kind. These approaches are somehow based on the hypothesis of continuity of at least a few human characteristics during the history. These approaches suffer from theoretical support as well as social acceptability even between scholars of architecture or humanities.
After a review of role of historical precedents in design studies, various approaches taken towards applicability of the course of Islamic architecture (along with some other historical courses in architectural education program of Iranian schools) for design activities in two recent decades are studied. They are formulized within three main branches: 1. Conceptual continuity: scholars of this vision try to find or construct a context for continuing traditional patterns in current time. For such an application their strategy is to emphasize on symbols instead of architectural pure forms so that they could bond it to social long-life norms. Another strategy of them is to identify timeless combinations of form and idea or architectural concept. Courtyard is one of these concepts which is seen as crystallization of spiritual presence at the heat of the building. Although this approach has not yet been successfully used for the course of Islamic architecture it is routinely used for the other course (theoretical basics of architecture). A main barrier for its applicability for design studio is the lack of aspects that could be continued.
2. principal-based approach refers to those ways that believe in existence of some “abstract” humane basics that are fixed throughout time and space. Although its continuity varies through scholar views. Some as Pirnia define five or seven parameters that are specified to Iran not all Islamic regions. But some others proposed global principals for Islamic architecture. Nader Ardalan or Khalil Pirani are two of such scholars. While these principals have not yet empirically approved at least from users point of view it is a main conflict for their educational apply in design studio. From instructor point of view, they have secondary problem of claims of students. Because an abstract principal could be widely interpreted in such a way that any architectural form would be claimed to be based on such principals. 3. Empiricism refers to comparing physical and practical aspects of buildings detached from their historical context. Climatic characters as well as spatial orders are usual themes of this approach. But it is questionable that if mapping or sketching from buildings are useful ways for understanding life of a building to apply its understandings into new designs. Some schools of architecture encourage their students to use formal patterns of historical buildings for free form inspiration. In this way cultural heritage is considered as a consuming source a low-rated thing. Moral problems of this approach for cultural basics of the society should be taken into account.
The main problem with these approaches as anti-historicism or anti-Islamisism. Here the problem of Islam is taken into account as the main subject of the debate. So a new proposal is offered that can be called as “Islamic Critical View” that criticizes works of architecture from the view of its compatibility with Islamic norms. Main feature of this proposed approach is that it takes stability of moral and values of Islamic Tradition of Holy Prophet and Imam’s as its criteria for evaluating historical changes in architectural form. These changes then are put in critical debate in class sessions without any pre-assumption to consider whether they can be supposed as Islamic solutions or not.  So any historical building is an object that has valuable aspects but not made sacred for its history. Since the measure of criticism is put within Islam itself it is less morally harmful for valued heritage. Here high cultural bases are saved and minor cultural themes are weighed against it.

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This research is a Qur'anic review that examines the effects of ethics on architecture from the Holy Qur'an’s point of view with the goal of introducing logical theoretical principals of ethical architecture. In order to reach the research goal, this research conducts the Induction, deduction and reverse extraction of research’s resulted theoretical concepts based on Aristotle's formal logic. The main question of this article is how theoretical principles of ethical architecture can be extracted from the Holy Qur'an on the grounds of Aristotelian logic? Given the priority of avoiding unethical issues over the acquisition of ethical virtues in the religion of Islam and the architectural position as an arbitrary act of human being that influences the inner attributes of the individual and the surrounding society, unethical issues can be considered as the most important factors in the formation of ethical principles for architecture. The unethical issues mentioned in the Holy Quran determine these principles from the point of view of the Muslim scripture and provides backbone of understanding the principles of ethical architecture. This research studies documents and resources based on a logical reasoning and Interpretative analytical approach. Research findings are validated using semi-structured interview techniques and indicate that experts validate the completeness and adequacy of the resulted theoretical principles and the logical process of this research. Research results include seven theoretical principles for ethical architecture; 1) Architecture should be a remembrance of God. 2) Architecture should be a tool of respect for its consumers and lack self- glorification over them. 3) Architecture should be goal-oriented towards the needs of future generation. 4) Architecture should eliminate social gaps and be a symbol of equality and modesty. 5) Architecture should create balance between human needs, pleasures and desires. 6) Architecture should answer human demands on the grounds of an economical and naturalistic approach. 7) Architecture should include structural strength with the acknowledgment of human lifetime limitations. The result of this research presents a coherent logical extraction of ethical architecture from the Holy Quran, which can be considered in the fields of theory and practice by academics and architects.

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