نشریه فرهنگ معماری و شهرسازی اسلامی
سال دوم شماره 2 (پیاپی 3، پاییز و زمستان 1395)

Modern holism is an approach which tries to cover weaknesses of atomism in mechanically describing the world. Modern and pre-modern holisms are generally conceived to be similar. This paper mainly seeks to find if there is any similarity between architecture based on modern and pre-modern holism and, if yes, to what extent should we seek their similarities and differences. The hypothesis is that even though there are similarities between modern and pre-modern holisms, they are not totally homogenous, and as a result, the architecture arising from these theoretical frameworks is different. Studying the two theoretical frameworks is based on themes and parameters extracted by using thematic analysis, logical thinking, and Delphi methods. The comparison has been carried out in three layers of metaphysical bases, relation of theory and praxis and practice itself. These three layers are theoretical, practical, and intermediate ones which are investigated in a modern and pre-modern case of holistic frameworks. In the practical layer Humoral theory and its results in architecture (as a sample of pre-modern holism) is compared to Salingaros’ theory (along with its roots in modern physics) considering internal relation of architectural components, relation of architecture to environment, and to human being. The results show that modern holism is a new synthesis of modern atomism rather than being homogenous to pre-modern holism. Humoral theory as an example of pre-modern holism suggests similar solutions for cases not similar in modern viewpoints. It could be suggested that humoral theory has properties of to-be-discovered “theory of everything” in modern physics. Humoral theory, looks for equilibrium and converting human being into a universe, but modern physics, along with other modern disciplines, tries to understand the phenomena and provide predictions in order to gain control over them. Humoral theory, furthermore, generates a vocabulary understood by public and scientists of diverse disciplines, but modern physics is based on mathematics and usually far away from everyday experiences. In modern framework of sciences, disciplines are connected posteriori and by the means of inter-disciplines. General homogeneity of humoral theory along with the norm of equilibrium which is woven within it, makes it suitable to be used in architecture and thus making an architectural theory out of it which, more than positive propositions, needs normative ones. On the other hand, since in modern physics, there is a lack of normative propositions, Salingaros adds intermediate norms to use physics in an architectural theory. These intermediate propositions are not derived from modern physics, but Salingaros theory is largely affected by them to an extent which the relation of his theory with modern physics gets vague. Ultimately, the only similarity that Salingaros manages to keep between modern physics and his theory is the presence of timeless and placeless dictums. These guide Salingaros to denying the importance of culture and period on beauty. But in humoral theory, time and place themselves have humoral properties and architectural advises are recommended considering them and other parameters, including human being, environment, and material

With respect to today's international standing of the religious city of Mashhad in the Islamic world, we need to highlight the shrine, according to surrounding context in order to manifest its organization. Lack of attention to the restoration and reorganization of the city texture may reduce tourism, population displacement, economic recession and, above all, the loss of cultural identity and its religious role. While increasing visual quality and sense of urban areas can be an important factor in attracting religious tourists and pilgrims from all over the world to the holy city of Mashhad, maintaining aspects of identity and memory of the local residents and visitors is of prime importance. It seems that change over time can lead to changes in the surrounding and conceptual and visual aspects of the landscape around the shrine of Imam Reza (AS). It seems that the main cause of changes in various aspects is an attempt to reduce the distance from the shrine and its spiritual atmosphere. In fact, we try to answer the questions about the dimensions of perception that have changed over time.This article focuses on the aspects of meaning in terms of texture perception about the shrine of Imam Reza (AS) in which, during the passage of time, the perception of meaning in parts of cognition, emotion, and interpretation and valuation assessment have been changed. To prove this hypothesis, this study examines the changes in the streets leading to the shrine. The study uses social documentary and survey research methods. 105 people are randomly selected and a questionnaire including open and closed questions have been distributed among them. SPSS and Excel Data analysis softwares are used to analyze the data. First, The Pearson correlation test showed a significant relationship between the dependent and independent variables. The correlation between the dependent variable to the independent variables with Sig. <0.05 is a meaningful relationship. The regression coefficient between independent and dependent variables were extracted and evaluated. The results show that texture around the holy shrine (The most prominent texture in Mashhad) has lost his physical capacity to perceive the meaning of place as a shrine. More than 80% of the respondents of this study believe that the texture around the shrine needs to be changed. The highest regression coefficient = -0.493 and -0.255 show that corresponds thinks that the visual axis of the shrine should be maintained at the present time. So it can be concluded that the mostly changed perception over time is in the cognitive dimension (index of temples in the surrounding texture). Due to the low capacity of the current context surrounding the shrine, cognitive, interpretation, emotion and value perceptions reflect a lack of attention to perceptual dimensions of meaning in architecture.

Due to its special respect to human being and his living environment, the Herat School has used plethora of architectural elements. Architecture in the Herat School is an element, spread in the space of miniature, in order to arrange the structure and create an appropriate position for the characters of miniature. What is revealed in the present study is the development of architectural elements and their influence on the structure of the artworks which have been investigated using an expression-analytic method. The effect of architectural elements have never been constant throughout the history; starting with a bare facade of a building and improving gradually to an evolutionary state in miniatures of the  School which has been converted to an alive and dynamic space, affecting the entire structure of the composition, as included in this study. The experimental elements of the current study have been selected from the artworks of early and late eras of Timurid miniatures. A particular perspective by the help of the architectural elements along with a frequently changing point of view and simultaneous illustration of several spaces of a building are the main characteristics of Timurid miniatures. Buildings demonstrated in Timurid miniatures include a vast spectrum from religious buildings such as mosques to civil ones like martial constructions and bathhouses, which have been deliberately selected to have the elements of the architectural factors, highlighted in two various time and chronological viewpoints; before the  School and after it.To consider the elements of the Herat School in comparison with the previous approaches is a proper way to realize the importance of the appropriate position for the characters of the miniature. There are some significant aspects in Herat School which have turned it into a more practical school. The factors can be summarized as having special abundance, having proper vision to architectural aspects, having the special details of the architecture, increasing the vision domination, and setting proper frames. Comparing different structures before and after the Herat School reveals that Timurid miniature has drawn special attention over some specific aspects.
The significant religious factors which can be considered in the architectural structures of the mosques are the specific domes and the fantastic miniature of the walls and floors. On the other hand, the spectrum of the non- religious structures could even be probed from miniature viewpoint. In non-religious structures, inspired by external factors, the design of the characters as well as the floor artworks have had a great impact on the colors which had been chosen to have the pattern of these structures and to highlight the dominant role of the architecture in the artworks of the non-religious structures. Consequently, minaturing has had a special position in the artworks of the structures which could be scrutinized after and before the Herat School.

In its conceptual meaning, Social Interaction, as a mean of connecting individuals in a society, is defined differently in the realm of Sociology. In this respect, the effective status of social interactions in the formation of proper social relations is shown in Architecture. The benefits of this status include cooperation to achieve active-public profit and its results, the development of participation, trust and cohesion in the society, and the improvement of relations between people and groups. Social interaction in western notion is bound to public places in the society, the reason why public places such as streets, recreation centers, and other urban architectures are paid a lot of attention. The definition of social interaction in western architecture is in line with an urban public place which has resulted in different attitudes in the formation and architecture of such places, compared to Islamic thought.The principles of designing social interaction places in architecture apply to issues like the formation of the place, the values which complement the lives of people in Islamic cities and the special functional-behavioral codes that assess the degree of success in consensus around Islamic thought. The understanding of values and concepts derived from Islamic thought in order to achieve a basic understanding which, in the end, leads to action is among the principles of social interaction place in Islamic thought. First the values are introduced to and accepted by the society. Then, these values are assessed on the basis of religious codes that are spread in communities, and, finally, converted into behaviour on the part of the people.  Western thought focuses on social interaction in a larger layer of the society that is social spaces and, to achieve this, tries to attract people to such spaces. A proper social interaction in this doctrine is the result of the congregation of people in public urban spaces.Islam introduces the family as the first and most important basis for the formation of social interaction, where this interaction starts from individual members of the family and gradually spreads towards the society. Notions such as Axiology, Ethology, family events, special spaces for the elderly, the adjacency of the main space with semi-private spaces, guest issues, and other principles of social interaction spaces are evident in Islamic society. In a hierarchically complementing fashion, these principles stabilize the process of interaction in Islamic society through special social procedures. The architectural place of a Muslim architect attempts to reach Islamic values in social interactions and solid relationships of the people in the society. Islamic city shelters its members by a constructive and pleasant concept called social interactions.

Islamic Greh (Knot) is known as one of the significant geometric patterns in Islamic art and architecture. Because of the complexity of drawing, Greh is considered a prominent and complicated technique and an unknown subject in both artists and orientalist’s points of view. Grehs have been used as decoration in Islamic cultures for over a thousand years, yet have not still lost their attractiveness. Aside from its beauty, many historians and architects are interested in finding the mathematical and geometrical aspects of Greh. Regardless of some old books and documents which introduce the methods of drawing of Greh, many contemporary western researchers have attempted to reinvent their own new methods for drawing Greh. These new methods lead to establish a novel comprehensive insight to understand, draw and use Greh, presenting different results in comparison to traditional methods. The main concern of this paper is to enlighten the differences between traditional and modern methods, based on their applications. These differences could be distinguished well by looking at examples such as those Grehs that are embedded on a curved surface.In this paper, we provide a comparison between traditional and contemporary methods for drawing Grehs. This comparison reveals that the main feature of traditional method is drawing Grehs according to the geometry of the surface on which they are embedded. This notion is called Chand-Zaminegi in Persian that could be explained by introducing Dast-Gardan Grehs which are impossible to be drawn via modern methods. Unlike common Grehs –which are drawn based on an interactive basic unit- Dast-Gardan is constructed according to the form and shape of the surface, so the measurement and shape of the surface alter the process of its design. Dast-Gardan patterns have been used to materialize the geometric order on a complicated surface like a curved-surface. If Greh is designed and produced by considering Chand-Zaminegi approach, it could be the extension of the traditional method.This paper consists of six main sections. The first section is an introduction and the second one presents a comprehensive definition of Greh based on documents, books and also lessons taught by some Iranian professional artisans who inherited their profession from their ancestors. The third section introduces the various traditional methods for drawing Greh. This section also describes a sample which shows step-by-step procedures for generating a typical Greh by traditional approaches.  The fourth Section studies modern drawing methods and categorizes all contemporary efforts in seven types. The fifth section is allocated to explain the distinction between traditional and modern methods. For these purposes, some traditional terms like Chand-Zaminegi and Dast-Gardan patterns are introduced. The paper provides a conclusion in section six by explaining the results and suggesting some opportunities for future work

Privacy is one of the basic principles of Islamic architecture. Islamic texts like Quran and Hadiths indicate that privacy is an important subject in the house which provides peace for the family. The houses that are built in Islamic era represent this principle, but unfortunately, this important architectural principle is nowadays ignored in houses. Therefore, reviewing the privacy principle in the traditional houses can help the architects recognize and apply it in houses. The entrance hierarchy, which is based on several factors such as religious, cultural, social, etc., is one of the elements to create the privacy in houses. It seems that this hierarchy in Bushehr’s houses is due to other factors that have not been investigated before. This article tries to discuss these points: the meaning of privacy hierarchy, reviewing the privacy hierarchy in the entrance of Bushehr historical houses, and its relation with the homeowner’s job. So in this article, the theory of hierarchy of privacy in Islam has been used by library resources, articles and internet sites and the traditional houses of Bushehr are studied by using interviews with experts, direct observation, and the documents that have remained from these houses. The results show that the occupation of Muslim home owners of Bushehr has influenced the entrance hierarchy in buildings. So the houses of important governmental people had the highest hierarchy privacy due to their relations with important people. Doctors and businessmen’s homes had a relatively high level of privacy due to their relations with customers and ordinary people. The homes of people with office jobs and normal social level had the lowest hierarchy privacy among the homes that were surveyed. Thus it can be said that, based on a Muslim owner’s job, the amount of privacy hierarchy had been different which are classified into three different types. The first type; the entrance was located at the corner of the house plan as of the businessmen and doctors’ houses. Due to a high number of visiting people, the entrance was designed with high privacy level and no direct visibility into the house. In some cases, for men’s trade affairs, there was a room whose entrance was located in the first vestibule of the house.The second type; the entrance of these houses was located on one side of the house plan. It opened to the courtyard with less hierarchy than the previous type. It just contained a corridor because few unfamiliar people visited these houses which belonged to the governmental office workers. The third type; these houses had two separate entrances and belonged to important people (such as consuls, mayors, sheriffs, etc.). The house and office of these people were combined in one complex. Because important governmental people visited these houses, two entrances were created to separate the private and public sections of the house.