Journal of Researches in Islamic Architecture

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One of the symbols and symptoms that identify Islamic civilization is the Islamic Urbanization as a place for dwelling and activity. Urban areas and structures by manifestation of custom values should identify society’s civilization. And help them to achieve their purposes and ambitions. an Iranian Muslim architect ‘s belief has always been a priority for all of his works And to create his works all functional rules are under consideration of his belief principles. One of these belief principles is subjectivism and privacy life. As from the long past we see tendency to covering in Iranian civilization and tradition and one of the beliefs of Iranian is importance of privacy and indoor life. Subjectivism meaning is related to man placement in Islamic thought. Islam has always wanted mankind to recognize its essence and its identity as a god created. Because in this case man can recognize it’s high values and it’s prominent place in this world. That’s why the Quran introduces human mind as a special cognition resource and express that who has known its god, has known itself. So Islam wants people to pay attention to their indoor and behave without any trace of Self-glorification also prevent people including man and woman of showing themselves by a pretense. As we mentioned, most of the time Iranian’s believes and cultures influence on their architecture. So we see manifestation of subjectivism in Iran traditional architecture elegantly that it has impressed significantly on space organization and also on planning different functions on sites. Subjectivism as a feature that presents in buildings such as houses, mosques, schools and public bathrooms, generates from philosophy - social principles of this country. For example in these houses we have indoor and outdoor yards. Indoor yards separate private life from the public one. This organization has been possible by arraying rooms around the yard and also separating men living space from women living space. With respect to these principles we can see private, semiprivate, public and semipublic realms. We can infer that in Iranian architectural culture essence and man indoor has the actual value and the outer shell is protecting this reality.

In this article our research method is Qualitative. And By studying Islamic texts and documents related to the study conducted by the Iranian market and urban spaces, we are going to express individual and social points of subjectivism. And it’s manifestation in Iranian bazaars. So in the first step we study Islamic texts and investigate documents related to this topic and specify the research principles and processes. Then we try to analysis the factors that lead Iran traditional bazaars to subjectivism and study how these factors effect on bazaar’s functions. The Hypothesis proposed is that, the influence of subjectivism is not merely on our architecture, but also it influences on people behavior patterns in urban spaces.

Bazaar is one of these urban spaces that means place to buy and sell goods. In fact bazaar is a place to exchange and it has been organized by a human activity. So bazar has a both economic and cultural and social aspect that has formed cultural interactions between citizens from the past. These interactions and behaviors are different in every culture. Finally we will approach to factors, effecting the Iranian bazaar’s introversion in both the humanity and social aspects. Factors such as privacy and the need for solitude and privacy for those in the bazaar so that unlike the function of western street as a place for staying together and looking at people and being looked at by people, our urban streets in Iran often have been places for seeing people and not having desire to be looked at by others. This is a kind of privacy that is a personal right for everyone. Prohibition of causeless attendance in public areas in Islamic texts view is one of the reason that our sidewalks have become a place to move currently and cause to minimize the time spent in these spaces. People do not spend in this space for a long time and that’s why they feel that they don’t have any ownership in this place and they are not belonged to urban spaces. On the other, they feel comfortable at their homes and do their necessary activity related to outdoor and hope to come back at home, where they have it as a private realm. As we said, our sidewalks have become a place to move currently and not a place to stop, to eat or speak for a long time. The low width of the bazaars and lack of space to sit in them confirm this. As in the days of holding, that there were crowds in sidewalks, people moved difficultly. Years ago especially at night’s people rarely were passing in urban streets, it shows those nights and days passes effects urban designs. In Islam spending time with family members at nights is more desirable than spending nights out with others. That’s why Iranian bazaars have been  more active in days in compare with nights and also were  a place for exchanging activities more than leisure and exhibitive. Stability and strength of the family has an important place in the Islamic value. and also the value which Islam serves for family and its people and introduce it as a place for relaxation and comfort, make our home a holy place that should have a private realm for its members.. This caused many religious orders in Islam texts. So we see that the kindness and leisure activities would be with family members more than people who we know out in the society. These activities done by family members, Strengthens the foundation of the family comes. Overall, Beyond the effect of introversion and it’s manifestation in architecture and structure, it effects on people presence in urban spaces such as bazaars. We infer that introversion or in a more accurate concept, human indoor or essence has deep sense in compare with its architectural meaning. Islam special respect and emphasis on internal states, is one of the reason to paying attention to humility and preventing from Self-glorification, Behaviors that influence on our urban streets. That we study about them in this article.

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In our country, research on architectural design process, is based on two main theoretical approaches; one is the system of Islamic theosophy, and the other is recent empirical studies on design methodology. The main problem here, is to find out the relationship between these two viewpoints, to attend the domain›s pathology, like misunderstanding and oversight of the position and order of theories, rootlessness of empirical theories, ambiguity of theosophical implications on design methodology, extremism and wastage in holism / serialism sides, and finally choosing one and putting aside the other. So the debate is on knowledge unity rejecting polysemy.   
The macro goal of this research is to find design process, conform to epistemology rules of theosophy, and the micro goal is to draft a comprehensive, existential, meaning rolled, and transcend schemata of design process, as a conceptual model. The practical goal is to comprehend the nature of design process, in order to nurture it. The importance of this inquiry is to avoid latitudinal contest of theories, and therefore wisdom unity and conformity of knowledge stages, in a comprehensive structure of knowledge as a result. The questions of this inquiry are:
o    On a descriptive objective: what is the designerly knowledge and how can we draw a schema of its process?
o    On a causative objective: how is the conformity of designerly cognition and its roots in the epistemological map?
o    On an alteration objective: possibility of a syntactic viewpoint and longitudinal conformity of epistemological theories, instead of latitudinal selection between them
o    The inquiry has no interpretive-historical objective
The research method is under the «transcendental Realism Paradigm» framework, which is programmed and followed by a retroductive strategy. In the research process an allegoric model is derived from transcendent theosophy of Molla-Sadra (as the cognition mechanism) and then this model›s mechanism, is checked with the empirical theories of design process (as eyewitness) to see the conformability.
In the first chapter, literature and precedents of the subject are presented. The epistemological paradigms are divided to categories of pantheism and humanism. The pantheist sector contains Masha, Eshragh, and Motealieh dispositions, and the humanist sector contains Sophist, Skepticism, Realism, Positivism, Relativism, Pluralism, Existentialism, Phenomenology, and Hermeneutics. Next the history of design studies and its methodology generations, are classified into three groups: the early analysis-synthesis generation, the concept-test generation, and the late hermeneutic generation. Then the research precedents are listed as different approaches of subject inquiry, followed by design process researches within Molla-sadra theosophy framework. Critiquing the precedents on theosophical cognition and comprehension and oversight of theories, a new strategy of inquiry is conducted. Retroductive inference, conformity as methodology of Molla-sadra, a two sided viewpoint to philosophical and empirical theories, and comprehensive modeling, are mentioned as new specifications of the research.  
Chapter two belongs to research design and contains realism paradigm, retroduction strategy, and the process of inquiry. Describing the Islamic Realism and Molla-sadra›s special contributions to it (that is mystic approach to knowledge besides the philosophical-logical one), conformity method as the truth finding theory of Molla-sadra is explained. According to this idea, every difference between theories does not mean controversy and the judgment of true and false, because the two sides might be two levels of a truth in our knowledge that may conform. Then the inquiry paradigm, Transcend Realism of Bhaskar which critiqued positivism and critical rationalism (induction and deduction), is introduced. This epistemology considers our knowledge in tree domains of feeling, imagination and intellect. The intellectual domain contains mechanisms and constructs, which underlie a phenomenon seen in nature. These mechanisms are conjectured as descriptive models that are rules and patterns, witnessed by empirical studies. The research strategy of such paradigm is called Retroduction, which uses allegoric models as hypothesis of a mechanism, being tested and proved by eyewitnesses.  
The next chapter (3) is on theoretical framework of hypothesis (model). Transcend theosophical system of Molla-sadra, is chosen to be the fundamental and generative mechanism of epistemology. The philosophical hermeneutic of Gadamer is also considered to be the epistemological background of empirical design studies, because of the comprehensive viewpoint. These two theories are conformable on the essence of creativity, two sided viewpoint, unity of knowledge, and transcend thinking. This is continued by modeling hypothesis as an allegoric descriptive model, which is a core-crust schema on design process.
Chapter four informs the data collection from references, and the discussion. The resource in cognition mechanism is epistemological system of transcend theosophy of Molla-sadra, while the resources on empirical design studies are: Donald Schon›s reflective practice, Nigel Cross›s desinerly ways of knowing, and Bryan Lawson›s designers thinking skills. This part discusses conformability of Molla-Sadra theosophy and empirical theories of design study, in ten theorems on epistemology ontology (kinds of wisdom) and epistemology itself (cognition process). Theorems are consisted of: 1-implicit & explicit knowledge 2-imagination/presentation/verification 3-the whole & the part 4-schema & detail 5-design process and cognitive levels 6-cognition levels, growth & expertise 7-consciousness & unconsciousness 8-reflective thinking/practicing 9-framing/solution-led/co-evolution 10-constructive/generative reasoning.
The last chapter concludes and draws inferences of the discussion. It is concluded that the cognition mechanism in transcendent theosophy of Molla-Sadra which was constructed and presented as a core-crust descriptive and allegoric model, has an adoptive methodological conformity, with the empirical theories of design study in holistic aspects. Empirical design epistemology also, could be deducted depth wise from Molla-Sadra theosophy. Therefore, existential theosophies and hermeneutic interpretation of design studies, are not adversary theories to choose between.
 

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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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In this study emptiness is considered as a transcendental and effective concept that appears in the form and content of things. What is seen as internally present in an entity is existent in the first instance because of the external presence of its opposite. The entity and its opposite are intertwined through the principle of inverse correspondence, a higher level of accord that emerges from the disposition of asymmetrical qualities. this symmetrical, yet reversed, reciprocity is the logic of ‘‘is and yet is not’’ and that of ‘‘simultaneity, and biconditionality, of opposites without their higher synthesis.
Emptiness is often understood as nonexistence, a void that is symptomatic of a predominant fixation on objects. In contrast emptiness is neither nothing nor the suffocating void of limitless expansion in which things are at best desolately scattered. Rather, it is the ultimate foundation of reality that transcends ideas of ‘‘being’’ and ‘‘non-being.’’ Subsequently, what is operating in emptiness is a double negation: the negation of being, which leads to nonbeing, and the negation of nonbeing.  Existential Identity depends on the dialectical relationship of that thing with its opposites. The identity of a being is determined not by what is believed to be existent within itself but by its dialectical relationship with the opposite, like the moment in which one finds one’s self to be the being of warmth in reference to coldness enveloping and penetrating the body.
Ignoring Emptiness and empty space caused intensifying the focus of designers and architects on the full space and this has increased the contemporary architecture crisis. this study aims to take advantage of the values of the vernacular architecture of Iran and its continuity. It relies on the theory of empty space and the opposite pairs, as the first pillar of creating empty space. Answers to this question: what is the role of empty space in the vernacular Yazd houses in semantic dimension?
 This study aimed to clarify the role of this concept in the vernacular architecture of Iran by understanding the meaning of emptiness. and evaluating selected houses as a case study. This research has been done in qualitative research and data is collected by observation and study of written documents.
The emergence of empty concept coincides with two elements or opposite qualities in such a way that the two opposites are interconnected without diminishing one another. Based on theoretical findings, the expression of the empty concept is conditional on the existence of three pillars: The first: the contradiction, the second: interaction, the third: balance and unity.
Based on the theoretical findings, expression of emptiness concept has three main pillars. Firstly: the contradiction (Coexistence of two opposing elements), secondly: the interaction of two opposites, thirdly: balance and unity. Since the emptiness operates as the foundational principle in traditional genres of architecture in Asia suchas Iran, the process of integrating the three pillars extracted from theoretical foundations were evaluated and analyzed in five vernacular houses of Yazd. In the phenomenological study of five houses in Yazd as a case study houses were investigated in three aspects: shape - body, functional, semantic. This article focuses on semantic aspect.
The findings depict that the emptiness as a transcendental concept is the result of the process of opposite elements and their interactions and the development of the unity of opposites. According this study, the philosophy of emptiness has manifested in the form of the dialectic of opposites. this study has brought one’s attention to the arrangement of contrasting qualities in the yazd houses such as the crossing and peresence inside and outside.
The architect of an Iranian traditional house positions things of spiritual character in such a way that they create a coordinated balance between forces. In this fashion, the house ‘‘brings into special focus the underlying relatedness of things, the mutuality which exists in spite of differences between outside and inside, great and small, and observer and observed.
Vernacular architects had understood the necessity of companionship of opposing pairs and their dialectical as an essential element of empty concept. They have considered interactive opposite qualities such as darkness and light, outside and inside, male and female, silence and talk, simplicity and complexity, uniformityand variety. The results of the research show that empty space plays a major role in the vernacular architecture of Iran. The empty spaces are more focused and authentic and solid spaces take their identity and credit from empty and void spaces.
 

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Complexity and conflict are some of the strategies to increase visual diversity, which is less considered today in the context of extensive construction and adherence to the universal, inclusive model. This issue has led to long-term boredom in contemporary homes. However, the factors of contradiction and complexity are seen in the visual diversity of traditional architecture. In this way, the set of opposites as a strategy for creating some visual difference is one of the essential items that can reduce architectural space's uniformity. In this regard, since the utilization of the contrasting phenomena has some different consequences in architecture space organization (from positive to destructive impact) so, it must be evaluated in a valuable physical environment where this concept of conflict is well traceable. One of the most useful settings can be considered to be a case study for assessing the utilization of the opposite phenomena, is the traditional architecture in Iran. This architecture is full of exemplars that can be useful for learning architectural design. In this research, because of the undeniable quality of traditional houses in Yazd, these houses selected as research case studies. What follows in this discussion is a qualitative assessment of the traditional homes for finding the kind of the opposite phenomena and the process application to use them. In this study, the research method is based on grounded theory, and the field information was collected in two sections: open interviews and observations. The results of this research show that Structural and visual elements of the traditional houses in Yazd consist of the positive association of conflicting elements that you can experience in different situations. The results of this study indicated that the physical and spatial structure of traditional houses in Yazd had provided conditions where one can experience a positive association of opposites in different situations. In this process, it was found that the types of opposites that can be classified into four types of sensory, perceptual, visual, and symbolic contrasts increase the best understanding of the phenomenon, respectively, balance the totality of space, increase diversity and increase the semantic load of space.

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