Meaning in Housing, Rereading of the Narrative of Yesterday's Housing for Today's Life

Housing is the immediate related environment with man’s life. A space that both influences and its being influenced. This space is related to the complex concept of family as the major social institution and as integral part of Iranian-Islamic house. The link between home, family and life can create a memorable and immortal sense for its residence. In today’s society, due to social complexities and the penetration of modern thought in deep and traditional concepts of life a kind of rupture and discontinuity between the structure of the house and its meaning has emerged. The aim of this article is to examine the concept of settlement in the architecture of Iranian traditional housing and its comparison with the concept of modern life. This is followed by the pathology of the developed concepts of today’s modern life and a presentation of some suggestion of the concept of traditional settlement. Islamic housing in addition to responding to material needs has the responsibility for spiritual peace and a context for responding to human spiritual needs such as meditation, praying and peacefulness. However, some negative attitudes and destructive forces have effected today’s residency. This in turn has led to the decline of values and concepts of residency. In this article some of these factors and negative consequences are recognized and analyzed. These factors include understanding the authenticity and identity of housing, lack of mental relaxation and loss of dignity and security. The shaping of the economic outlook instead of looking at the property’s value. All in all, by contemplating on the way of living and in regard to Islamic settlement mechanism similarly a reconsideration in house planning and designing becomes desirable this can be achieved by requiring the designers to act in compliance with the principles of Islamic architecture and urban planning and reforming the architectural education. We can provide the grounds for renewing the Islamic settlement concepts in today’s housing.