Iranian courtyard housing: the role of social and cultural patterns to reach the spatial formation in the light of an accentuated privacy

Abstract

In Iranian culture, the family’s position and privacy are the most important factor in designing traditional courtyard houses. This type of Iranian house is a high point of introverted structures which is based on traditional and religious beliefs. Introversion, spatial flexibility, spatial hierarchy, legibility, family privacy and environment play special roles in the architecture of the Iranian courtyard housing. This paper seeks to understand the role of social and cultural patterns in space configuration in traditional courtyard houses in Iran: How do religious beliefs and lifestyles influence the Iranian courtyard housing concept? What beliefs are principles for the creation of each space? How does the spatial hierarchy contribute to privacy generation? And, in other words, how do people translate their sociocultural ideas into architectural spaces and forms? In this paper, we consider some physical and spatial characteristics shared by traditional courtyard houses in Iran. The factors that referred in this study consist of plan distribution and spatial function. Moreover, the architectural values in terms of sociocultural patterns in traditional courtyard housing design are explicitly highlighted in this paper.