Investigating the position of contemporary mosques in the urbanscape based on the semiotics approach

Urbanscape, as the first field that the observer encounters in the city, is one of the most influential factors in urban design. One of the symbolic elements in the urbanscape is the presence of mosques in Islamic cities. The physical effect of these spaces in some periods of history was to the extent of giving identity to the urbanscape and giving meaning to the environment, and it made it readable and oriented. But the changes created in the architectural structure and contemporary urban planning have given another shape and image to the place of today's mosques. In this research, which has been carried out using a descriptive-analytical method, the authors analyze the position of traditional and contemporary mosques in the urbanscape of contemporary cities with the aim of improving the visual and semantic quality of urbancapes and relying on semiotics and attention to the design of mosques is emphasized in urban legibility. The statistical population of the research consists of 78 architecture and urban planning students of Zanjan Islamic Azad University in 2021-2022. The statistical sample, which was 65 people according to Cochran's formula, was randomly selected from the statistical population. In the descriptive part, the information was collected in a library and documentary manner about the selected contemporary mosques in Tehran, and the statistical data was done by completing a researcher-made questionnaire, which was prepared with an emphasis on the semiotics approach about modern urban signs and mosques. The mosques studied in the research are: Tehran University Mosque and Tarbiat Modares University (traditionalist), Al-Ghadir Mosque and Zarabkhaneh Mosque (historical), Al-Javad Mosque and Shahrak-e- Gharb (Modernist) and Imam Reza and Amir-alMominin mosques (transcendent).The evaluations are based on the semiotics approach in the form of three dimensions "physical", "functional" and "semantic" with 16 criteria, through t-test statistical tests and multivariate regression. The criteria investigated in the research are: color of materials, type of materials, form and shape of the building, size and scale of the building, visibility of the building, combination of the building with the adjacent texture (physical dimension), intensity of use, type of use and time of use, age group of users, User group (functional dimension) and collective memories, behavioral location, sense of place, spatial identity (semantic dimension). Surveys show that, from the point of view of the statistical community, the degree of realizability of contemporary mosques as a sign in the current situation is at a medium or even low level; So that the "physical" dimension with an average of 3.19 has more realizability compared to other dimensions (functional dimension, 2.98 and semantic dimension 2.74). Among the criteria, the criteria of "shape and form of building" with an average of 3.524 and the criterion of "place identity" with an average of 2.014 have the highest and lowest levels of realizability, respectively. The results of this research show that in the process of modernization of cities, mosques are of secondary importance as elements of identity and by losing their relationship with the structure of the city and neighborhoods, their function is also changing.