A Space Syntax Analysis of Vernacular Dwelling Configuration (Case Study: Boshrooyeh City)

This study deals with the analytic induction of spatial configuration in Boshrooyeh verbacular houses at South Khorasan during Safavid, Qajar, and Pahlavi dynasties and after the Islamic revolution. The historical urban fabric of Boshrooyeh is among the least affected urban settings in Southern Khorasan Province that still maintained some structures from Timurid dynasty up to the end of the Pahlavi. It possesses a distinctive heritage of traditional architecture in hot-arid regions with several historical buildings and monuments yet stand still.
In this study through several analytical surveys, a space syntax approach is used in the architectural scale for investigating and understanding the spatial configuration of vernacular dwelling spaces. The analysis seeks configuration compatibility and spatial organization of the houses and their transformations resulted from the lifestyle and behavioral system of the inhabitants within different historical periods. Several scholars and researchers have stressed out the mutual impact of culture and housing particularly to be evident in the behavioral setting of vernacular built environment which is also taken as an important basis for this study.
This study is a case study research and is based on combined research methods including both descriptive analytical methods and, logical reasoning. Thus, several field observations, library researches, interviews, questionnaires and simulation by space syntax (Ucl Depth Map) and comparative analogy have been conducted. Following the space syntax analysis, it is found that the spatial configuration of houses have been more or less coherently continued until the beginning of Pahlavi period that faced with dramatic changes. Spatial Typology and organization was also found to be deeply tied with lifestyle and emergent needs.
Based on the findings, it can be inferred that patterns and practices for organizing the form and space, which were used, by indigenous designers and master builders were relatively similar to each other during the noted historical periods. The main creative designerly intervention in such continuous building tradition was manifested in response to changes in lifestyle and the emergence of new needs via incremental modifications to spatial settings.
Nonetheless, spatial configuration of houses drastically changed by the end of the Pahlavi period and the durability and continuity of such spatial configurations that were existed up to that time diminished. This in turn affected native inhabitants and their behavioral system. Projecting this research into other aspects of the built environment, may provide grounds for contemporary housing design in harmony with new requirements that are based on cultural values and environmental patterns of the place.