Journal of Researches in Islamic Architecture

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Nowadays Islamic countries more than ever concentrate on identity to revive their dignity at the age of globalization. Countries of west of Asia especially Persian Gulf countries enjoy a prosperous architectural era because of oil well revenues. Saudi Arabia from among them selected purposely to analyses to understand interaction of localization and globalization in contemporary architecture of developing countries. Saudi Arabia as the birthplace of Islam with the growing economy in recent years, is a good context for massive constructions, which result in identity crisis in contemporary architecture. Economic growth during last 40 years in these countries has affected various aspects of their lives. Undoubtedly architecture and urbanism as one of the main substrates were affected by these developments. Limitation of construction technology and engineers’ abilities in these countries made the Arabs to assign the designing and construction phase of their huge projects to European and American architects and engineers with completely different background and cultural beliefs from Muslims’. Although some researches have focused on identity crisis in modern architecture, very few researches have noted the interaction and conflict between the Islamic identity and contemporary architecture. The main objective of this research is to identify and analyze the native and Islamic identity in contemporary architecture of Saudi Arabia. The main research questions are: 1- What are the main current trends in contemporary architecture of Saudi Arabia? And how they have noted the concept of identity in their works? What is the relationship between theory (what the architects have in their minds or the goal they are following to reach an ideal design) and practice (what is observed in final result or understood by people) in contemporary architecture of Saudi Arabia? According to the theoretical framework, current buildings in Saudi Arabia are analyzed based on five general parameters and factors: 1-Main idea forming the design (concept), 2-The Construction Technology, 3- The material in the unit, 4- The shape and form of the unit, 5- the relationship with the surrounding environment. This article analyzed the buildings of the past two decades impartially in terms of the referred parameters. This research consists of two main parts. In the first part the architect’s opinion about his/her design was discussed. In the second part researchers analyzed the mentioned works according to the theoretical framework. The comparative analysis of the architect's comments about his work and researchers’ inferences can determine the distance between theory and practice of contemporary architecture in Saudi Arabia, then the architect’s success in achieving his/her objectives will be determined. This comparison will indicate whether the architects have succeeded in conveying their ideas to people or not. To meet scheduled objectives, fifty artworks were selected randomly from among the buildings designed in the past two decades, and were analyzed according to the main parameters. Then the quantitative data were transferred to SPSS22 software to determine the correlation between these two groups. Studies conducted indicate that a considerable proportion of contemporary architecture in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia are design by foreign architects who are not familiar enough with Islam as the official religion of the country. We can see some puzzlement in contemporary architecture due to the diversity of forms and concepts. The architects’ description about their own works indicated that the main trends of contemporary architecture are in the use of postmodern forms, conceptualism, prevalent structures and modern materials. The findings indicate what architects statements and opinions expressed in the form of Islamic revival, is leading to imitate the famous forms of ancient architecture in practice. In fact, imitation of ancient forms and reconstruction of them by modern technologies means the expression of Islamic and native identity in contemporary architecture to most of the foreign architects. This leads to a contradiction between the theory and practice in contemporary works, although the construction quality of the analyzed samples is remarkable. To solve these problems it is essential to assign projects to vernacular architects and engineers where possible. Native architects with Islamic culture and beliefs will be more capable than foreign ones in expression and manifestation of Islamic identity in their works. On the other hand foreign architects should change their strategies in dealing with problems. Avoiding imitation of old patterns, getting more information about theories, Islamic culture, main needs and aspirations of Muslims are some of these strategies helping the architects to deal with the referred problems. These challenges make some serious threats and challenged contemporary architecture of developing countries. The results of the paper show that new architectural technologies and revivalist trends are the most important players in contemporary architecture of developing countries such as Saudi Arabia and other Persian Gulf countries because of their richness in cultural heritage, spiritual findings and local identity.

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The process of aesthetic experience and models designed in relation to this process are amongst the important discussions in the field of teaching aesthetic experience. Many models are designed on the basis of philosophical theories and observing audience behavior and they are founded in the path of intellectual and theoretical enhancement of the audience. Meanwhile, although Islamic philosophers have not clearly addressed the perception of aesthetics and aesthetic experience, however, among their discussions and theoretical perceptions, fundamentals of aesthetics perception can be found. Mulla Sadra is among those philosophers that somewhat discusses this matter in his belief system. The fundamental question is that: According to Mulla Sadra’s intellectual principles and ideology such as levels of perception, substantial motion, mental mode of existence, love and beauty, and the identity of the knower and the known, can we reach an explanation for a model that is in line with aesthetics experience? The purpose of this study is to investigate the process of aesthetics experience and understanding a work of art in the viewpoint of experts in this arena and also to achieve an aesthetics experience model that is derived from Mulla Sadra’s ideology. For this matter, at first, using the inferential analysis method, this study analyzes the different components of aesthetics models and by benefiting from Mulla Sadra’s principles, the aesthetics experience process and its elements such as emotional perception, attention and knowledge, repetitive observance, remembrance and contemplation, imagination and recreation, and identity, are deducted and are compared with other models. In some cases such as repetitive observance, remembrance and contemplation, the model has similar aspects with other models, however, in some cases such as imagination and recreation it has differences.

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Nowadays Islamic countries more than ever concentrate on identity to revive their dignity at the age of globalization. Countries of west of Asia especially Persian Gulf countries enjoy a prosperous architectural era because of oil well revenues. Saudi Arabia from among them selected purposely to analyses to understand interaction of localization and globalization in contemporary architecture of developing countries. Saudi Arabia as the birthplace of Islam with the growing economy in recent years, is a good context for massive constructions, which result in identity crisis in contemporary architecture. Economic growth during last 40 years in these countries has affected various aspects of their lives. Undoubtedly architecture and urbanism as one of the main substrates were affected by these developments. Limitation of construction technology and engineers’ abilities in these countries made the Arabs to assign the designing and construction phase of their huge projects to European and American architects and engineers with completely different background and cultural beliefs from Muslims’. Although some researches have focused on identity crisis in modern architecture, very few researches have noted the interaction and conflict between the Islamic identity and contemporary architecture. The main objective of this research is to identify and analyze the native and Islamic identity in contemporary architecture of Saudi Arabia. The main research questions are: 1- What are the main current trends in contemporary architecture of Saudi Arabia? And how they have noted the concept of identity in their works? What is the relationship between theory (what the architects have in their minds or the goal they are following to reach an ideal design) and practice (what is observed in final result or understood by people) in contemporary architecture of Saudi Arabia? According to the theoretical framework, current buildings in Saudi Arabia are analyzed based on five general parameters and factors: 1-Main idea forming the design (concept), 2-The Construction Technology, 3- The material in the unit, 4- The shape and form of the unit, 5- the relationship with the surrounding environment. This article analyzed the buildings of the past two decades impartially in terms of the referred parameters. This research consists of two main parts. In the first part the architect’s opinion about his/her design was discussed. In the second part researchers analyzed the mentioned works according to the theoretical framework. The comparative analysis of the architect's comments about his work and researchers’ inferences can determine the distance between theory and practice of contemporary architecture in Saudi Arabia, then the architect’s success in achieving his/her objectives will be determined. This comparison will indicate whether the architects have succeeded in conveying their ideas to people or not. To meet scheduled objectives, fifty artworks were selected randomly from among the buildings designed in the past two decades, and were analyzed according to the main parameters. Then the quantitative data were transferred to SPSS22 software to determine the correlation between these two groups. Studies conducted indicate that a considerable proportion of contemporary architecture in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia are design by foreign architects who are not familiar enough with Islam as the official religion of the country. We can see some puzzlement in contemporary architecture due to the diversity of forms and concepts. The architects’ description about their own works indicated that the main trends of contemporary architecture are in the use of postmodern forms, conceptualism, prevalent structures and modern materials. The findings indicate what architects statements and opinions expressed in the form of Islamic revival, is leading to imitate the famous forms of ancient architecture in practice. In fact, imitation of ancient forms and reconstruction of them by modern technologies means the expression of Islamic and native identity in contemporary architecture to most of the foreign architects. This leads to a contradiction between the theory and practice in contemporary works, although the construction quality of the analyzed samples is remarkable. To solve these problems it is essential to assign projects to vernacular architects and engineers where possible. Native architects with Islamic culture and beliefs will be more capable than foreign ones in expression and manifestation of Islamic identity in their works. On the other hand foreign architects should change their strategies in dealing with problems. Avoiding imitation of old patterns, getting more information about theories, Islamic culture, main needs and aspirations of Muslims are some of these strategies helping the architects to deal with the referred problems. These challenges make some serious threats and challenged contemporary architecture of developing countries. The results of the paper show that new architectural technologies and revivalist trends are the most important players in contemporary architecture of developing countries such as Saudi Arabia and other Persian Gulf countries because of their richness in cultural heritage, spiritual findings and local identity.

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Looking at the structure of the cities, especially older parts of the city, it is seen that most of the urban public parts and elements are constructed not with any reliance on state resources and credits, but based on the consecration systems and public investments. Added to the sublime religious, social and economic values latent in the consecration culture, its impact in creating identity and sense of attachment to urban places is also notable. It seems that the effect of creating identities that the consecrated places create in the social-physical frame of the cities, can today be stressed upon as a proper response to the shortcomings of the citizens' social relations and lack of the sense of belonging to the city. The main aim of this study is to recognize the role of consecrated elements in the social-physical identification in urban neighborhoods on the one hand and to determine the effects of this valuable culture in reinforcing social interactions and improving the sense of belonging to the physical spaces of the cities, on the other hand. The research method of this study includes two stages: the first was implemented with a descriptive-analytic method and was based on library sources that provide the theoretical framework of the study and the second stage that was incorporated with the survey method, using questionnaires, which were distributed among the residents of district 12 neighborhoods of Tehran. The results indicate that the consecrated places, because of their unique characteristics in the city's social-physical frame, have effectively caused the firmness of identity and consistency in urban life in these neighborhoods.

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Identity has become one of the most fundamental and important issues in people’s various areas of life in today's society, especially in countries like Iran has in the contemporary era. It seems that people who live in the modern society have multiple identities that should be recognized well. Identity of a place is one of the aspects understood as a way of communication between people and places through culture, history, collective memory, the type and nature of technology, performances, signs, forms and symbols of the city and visual and physical features. In this study, one of the categories of place identity, identity in the neighborhoods of Iran’s cities, was investigated. Existence of neighborhoods in the structure of historical cities in Iran, as a key element of the body of the city, balanced social life in cities. Neighborhoods as places of human life not only could affect the environment, but also improved the quality of social life. Hence, the aim of this study is to recognize the social variables affecting the identity of the neighborhoods of Islamic-Iranian’s cities. In this study both qualitative and quantitative methods were used. To do so, at first the concept of identity was identified through the studies of documents of experts’ ideas and social variables affecting identity were extracted. Then, the variables identified by questionnaires and random sampling among 100 residents of the neighborhood of Shanbedi in Bushehr were evaluated and reviewed. The results of the evaluation and analysis of factor analysis and Pearson correlation, which was used as a statistical method in this research, indicated that there is a strong, significant and meaningful relationship between the variables of sense of belonging, peace and image of identity and each of the factors with different effectiveness affects the idea of neighborhoods and peace had the strongest correlation with identity. Furthermore, the criterion of security is a variable which had a moderate and significant correlation with identity.

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Urban identity is one of the major challenges of new towns, the lack of which leads to a lack of solidarity and social participation of citizens to achieve urban development plans. Ignorance of subcultures and geographical location and climatic characteristics and diminishing attention to the dimensions of urban identity and urban social life based on original values ​​and indigenous identity, especially in the process of preparing development plans and the resulting inconsistency and uniformity in new towns, not only appearance. It has created an unfavorable and unfamiliar environment for the residents, but it has affected all aspects of social, economic and environmental life in urban communities. On the other hand, urban spaces in these cities do not evoke an identity for their residents due to the incompatibility of its functions with human needs and the lack of human needs according to the demands, desires and preferences different from other cities. This leads to discontinuation or basically no formation of the roots of the connection and connection of residents with the environment and as a result with each other, as well as the occurrence of adverse effects such as insecurity, irresponsibility, boredom and indifference. Hence, new towns that are not very old and whose inhabitants are generally born elsewhere and have different cultures from each other, to create dynamism and vitality and to avoid becoming a dormitory city, dry and barren. The spirit and context for social solidarity and the production of memories in a collective environment must be able to draw their own distinct identities. Therefore, recognizing the identity factors of new towns, the extent to which these cities have relevant factors and strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats facing each of these areas can have a significant impact on preventing the identity crisis in new towns. The present study was carried out in order to achieve the above goals and with an analytical-explanatory approach. In this regard, 70 indicators for measuring and evaluating urban identity in the new town of Hashtgerd were extracted by extensive analysis of global and domestic studies and special local conditions of the new town of Hashtgerd. And has been documented. The data collected through a questionnaire with a sample size of 516 people and distributed by cluster sampling in 12 districts of the city, using factor analysis to determine the final factors explaining the identity of the new town of Hashtgerd And the ranking of the studied areas has been analyzed based on their desirability in relation to urban identity factors. The results show that 12 factors in total explain about 60% of the identity of the new town of Hashtgerd. The most important of these factors is the factor of "memory and feeling of dependence on place" with an explanation of about 8%. Also, 4-5 districts of Mehr housing areas and 1-4 districts with historical backgrounds in the city have the worst and best status of identity desirability among the districts of Hashtgerd new town, respectively. Finally, the strengths and weaknesses and opportunities and threats of identification in the new town of Hashtgerd have been analyzed and summarized through strategic environmental analysis. Research findings show that physical qualities are only one dimension of the experience of place and the importance of social communication that takes place in places should not be neglected. So that attachment to the place can be considered based on the participation of people in the place, the level of employment in social networks and cultural interactions. As the establishment of social interactions in urban spaces, it is possible for the individual to make sense of it. Thus, attachment to the place develops with the growth of positive interaction of people and their social adaptation in the place, and how the person is present in the place with others is a strong factor in the person's decision to stay in it. In this regard, people may even be looking for places where people with similar characteristics in terms of class, ethnicity, religion, economic group, lifestyle, education, income, how to raise children and the same race. But while homogeneity encourages meetings and increased interaction with physical and social places and thus promotes attachment to that place, heterogeneous social places are also an opportunity for people to experience togetherness and rich and free social interactions. On the other hand, the research findings show that in the study of urban identity, knowing the place is not enough, and this is an emotional state that arises from important events in one's life and the context of creating and developing the process of identification with a particular place. Also, people develop their attachment to the place based on their expectations, which are based on their previous experiences of similar places and their cognitive process, on which their satisfaction with the place depends. Satisfaction in place also depends on this knowledge and factors such as facilities, place fit with performance and context, stability, visual characteristics, management, economic value of the place, residents' perception of similar units and the social context of the place. The presence of people in the process of creating a place also makes them feel better about that place. This leads to attachment to the place, development of social connections, preservation of historical roots, feeling of peace and security in the place.

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Neighborhood identity means having a tendency and belonging to the neighborhood community.
Continuation of urban life is the reason for the neighborhood`s importance in the social and psychological development of urban dwellers. Therefore, the neighborhood is the physical crystallization of the community, and its borders are the crystallization of the sanctuaries. The comparison shows that the past neighborhoods had a well-structured structure and strengthened the neighborhood identity, but the new neighborhoods first define the neighborhood`s structure with towers and apartments that have populated the population from all over Iran. The purpose of this study is to identify the criteria affecting the identity of neighborhoods according to current conditions and a comparative comparison between the old and new neighborhoods of Narmak and Hakimiyeh based on these criteria in order to promote Islamic identity.

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