Proceedings of the Regional Engineering Postgraduate Conference 2009

20-21 October 2009

Influences of Cultural Factors on Design of Islamic Housing of Iran

Mohsen Asadi, Mazlan bin Mohd Tahir, Vahid Ahmadi, Hero Farkisch, Honey Arjmandi,
Mohamad Mahdi Shabani , M. Monshizadeh
Department of Architecture, faculty of Engineering and Built Environment,
Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia
ar_asadi46@yahoo.ie, designaar@gmail.com

ABSTRACT

Architectural culture is a localizing force that should bridge the gap which the historical conscience
opened between the past and the present by creating new communities which are faithful to the traditional
architecture in creating an urban environment which encourages the inspiration of the inherited cultural
heritage. The paper will try to represent the influence of Islamic culture, and how to achieve the cultural &
housing architectural continuities, between the past, present and the future; by identifying the role of the
architect and actors who are able to create Islamic architecture that will be the heritage of tomorrow. The
main aim in this research is to response this question which is current house prepare Islamic family needs?
Yes or no. The paper will demonstrate the Future Housing project, which has received for Housing and
Consumers’ participation, interesting, and welfare became more to their living environment, in addition, they
see in culture, social, and family problems less in the country, also, tradition and faith of Islamic culture will
not be forgotten among young people.

Key words: Iranian traditional architecture, Islamic culture, Housing

1 INTRODUCTION

It seems that architectural (in residential environment) and urbanization problems occurred when a
special group of people such as architects become in charge of planning buildings. Since then, cities
appearances and contents have been chaos day after day this phenomenon is quite common among the third
world countries. Such problems are more observable in facades and residential units than other buildings,
because experts’ works in the field are mostly controlled by their own beliefs instead of those of the resident.
Hence necessary, consider to all of their favorites such as faith, culture, and another factors same as
economic and policy and etc. in any case, such a method cannot be a proper way of housing people.
Though going bake to the time when urban spaces including residential units were built without any
written laws and were only based on ancestral teachings and relied on cultural –religious beliefs is not
possible, at least with the ever-increasing participation of the consumers, and more consider to influence of
factors to design of Islamic housing, as a result, they will cause welfare and consent of people. In addition,
even they can restraint of society problems and cultural problems.
The main goal of this paper bringing back the dwellers participation, interesting, and welfare became
more to their living environment, in addition, they would see less problems in culture, social, and family in
the country, also, tradition and faith of Islamic won’t be forgotten between young people.

2 ISLAMIC CULTURE

Culture means 'cultivation' and, generally nowadays, when this word is used alone, it means 'the
cultivation of the human mind.' Islamic culture differs from other cultures in that it can never be the aim and
object of the cultivated individual, since its aim is not the cultivation of the individual or group of
individuals, but of the entire human race.

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 Importance, almost amounting to worship, ascribed to works of art and literature (which one may call
the incidental phenomena of culture) in the West; as if they were the justification, and their production the
highest aim, of human life. Not that Muslims despise or ever should despise, literary, artistic and scientific
achievements, but that they regard them in the light of blessings by the way, either as aids to the end or
refreshment for the wayfarer. They do not idolize the aid and the refreshment.
Islam foresees, and works for, a radiant future for the human race. And although every Muslim holds
his own life cheap in the service of Allah, which is the service of humanity, he would never dream of
sacrificing a human life, however seemingly insignificant, to the work of human hands. The adoration (it
amounts to that) of works of art is due to disbelief in Allah's guidance and His purpose of mankind.
A considerable school of thought in the West seems to think that they are incompatible, yet Islam has
proved that they are perfectly compatible. In the early and successful centuries of Islam, an intense faith in
God was combined with free thought upon every earthly subject, for Islam held nothing upon earth so sacred
as to be immune from criticism. There was only One Supernatural, only One Incomprehensible, Whose
Unity, having been once accepted, admitted of no further discussion. He was One for all Beneficent and
Merciful towards all alike, and He had bestowed on man the gift of reason, which is extolled by Muslim
writers as the highest gift, to be used quite freely the name of Allah, that is to say, with the purpose of
pursuing what is good and eschewing what is evil, for which the Sacred Law affords guidance and
safeguards.

3 DWELLING IN ISLAMIC ARCHITECTURE

One of the first needs of human is shelter. Nowadays House fulfils this need of human.
‘Sakan’ is the Arabic denotation of the word ‘house’. Dar and bayt are also common terms for
residence. The shari¯‘ah scholar Yusuf Al-Qaradawi defines the house as, ‘the place in which an individual
protects himself from the climatic elements and in which he finds freedom from the restrictions and
pressures of society. It is a place of rest for the body and relaxation for the mind’. This definition or function
of the house is based on many Qur’anic verses, such as, ‘It is Allah who made your habitations homes of rest
and quiet’ (Qur’an, Su. 16:80). Islam also regards the house as a place of expressing and strengthening
family relationships. This indeed explains why the Prophet says that the house is the best place in the world.
The Prophet considers owning a house as a contribution to, or a sign of, happiness. He says, ‘for happiness, a
good wife, a good thing to ride [means of transport] and a good house’.53 for protection, resting, expressing
family Relationships and thus happiness, Islam not only encourages house ownership, but also considers it a
right and duty for every Muslim family. In regard to the architectural design, neither the Qur’an nor sunnah
provided detailed codes of house design and construction. This is in no way ignorance on the part of Islam in
regard to dwelling design. On the contrary, it is recognition of the fact that cultural customs change from
Time to time and from one place to another. Therefore, Islam permits all house-related customs and design
concepts as long as they do not conflict with shari¯‘ah. On the other hand, both the Qur’an and sunnah have
provided a systematic review of the sources which should produce a set of principles that guide the
architectural design of housing. This review is the reality of Islam which comes as a way of life. It sets up the
principles that rule how the Muslim should live his life and determine his relationship with the social and
physical environments. As Islam requires, the house is to be built in accordance with and to serve these
principles and therefore designers should treat these principles as guidelines of their dwelling design. In
other words, the design of the Muslim house should be the product of the Islamic beliefs and values of the
inhabitants. The following are the most important principles which are driven from shari¯‘ah sources and
determine the design of the Muslim house.

3.1 The Ka’ba: The First Islamic House

According to pre-modern Islamic sources, Mecca was the omphalos of the earth, and the Ka_ba was
God’s first house of worship. Being, so to speak, the first divine-sponsored architectural project, the Ka_ba is
a key element in the interplay of cosmology and architecture. With the help of angels, Adam is said to have
been the builder of the primordial house (al-bayt al-_at iq). During the deluge, however, the Ka_ba was
raised to heaven, and it was Abraham who later rediscovered the site and re erected the sacred house under
God’s order and guidance. The Quran says: “And when we prepared for Abraham the place of the house.

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 Traditional narratives elaborate on this, explaining that after the disappearance of the Ka_ba during
the deluge, God ordered Abraham to re establish the house of God. Not knowing where he should do so,
Abraham asked: “O Lord, but where?” God replied: “We shall show you.” God sent him a speaking “cloud”
(al-sakina) that directed him to the sacred spot. Taking on the form of the house, the sakina said: “O
Abraham, your Lord orders you to design according to the measure of this cloud”; in another source: “O
Abraham, take from the land according to my measure, with no increase or decrease. Ibn Arabi reports:
“Build according to the measure of my shadow.
Abraham traced precisely the form of the cloud, and with the assistance of his son Ishmael rebuilt the
house as he was instructed. The Quran Confirms: “And when Abraham and Ishmael were raising the
foundations of the house (Abraham prayed): our Lord, accept this from us, you are the Hearer, the Knower”
In Sufi terms, the Ka_ba’s cube-like form is a crystallization of the cube of man. It is an
embodiment of the human as well as cosmic spatial structure and a visible manifestation of the three-
dimensional cross. Its four arkan correspond to the human nature, its six faces to the human figure, and its
three dimensions of length, breadth, and depth to the human body. The form of the Ka_ba is also seen to
correspond to the twenty-eight mansions of the moon and consequently, to the twenty-eight letters of the
Arabic alphabet. Ibn _Arabi says that the height of the Ka_ba is twenty-eight cubits, twenty-seven cubits to
the roof level, and one cubit for the parapet. Every cubit corresponds to a designation of divine order (amr
ilahi). These designations, he says, are analogous “to the stations of the heart, traversed by the planets of
faith in order to manifest events that occur within the soul, and this corresponds to the mansions of the moon,
[traversed] by the mobile planets in order to produce events that occur in the natural world.

Figure 1 The cube of the Ka’ba, crystallizing the spatiality of the human presence.

Figure 2 A plan of the Ka’ba showing the hijir (eighteenth-century Ottoman source cited in King,
1993, and the form of the celestial archetype, al-durah.

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 The Prophet’s house-mosque was in the shape of a square measuring one hundred or seventy cubits a
side. It consisted of two parts: a simple walled courtyard and a simple shelter built with a flat roof held up by
palm trunks used as pillars. This was first built along the northern side that faces Jerusalem, and a few
months later with the divine injunction to change the qibla it was dismantled and reerected along the
southern side, which faces Mecca. This shelter formed the prayer hall and opened onto the courtyard, which
formed an extension to the covered area and an integral part of the mosque as a whole. The open courtyard
was the predominant part of the mosque and was provided with three doors, one on each of the eastern,
western, and northern sides of the square. In its Tabaqat, Ibn Sa_d describes the doors as being one at the
rear, one the door of al- Rahma (compassion) that is also known as the door of _Atika, and the third was the
door through which the Prophet used to enter.136 Whether these three doors together with the sheltered hall,
often depicted in opposite positions, were meant to mark the four directions of space is not clear. Yet, it is
clear that many subsequent mosques, including the early great Umayyad mosque of Damascus that was first
to reproduce the Prophet’s model at a monumental scale, reveal similar planning and spatial characteristics.

4 IRANIAN TRADITIONAL ARCHITECTURE

Iranian traditional architecture has a great architecture. People’s needs were completely mixed with
the place they were living in. The past architecture is fortunately still alive and has a tangible relationship
with daily life. it is an example of excellence and authenticity on one hand since all the artists confirmed its
value and perfection as a complete art, and, on the other hand the architecture is saturated with meaning and
is an integral part of it. Iranian Islamic architecture during all its eras attempted to bring about a milieu,
which is suitable for humans and respects his beliefs and personal ambitions and, his thoughts and high
spiritedness. An Iranian Islamic architectural artist seeks to produce an art, which is beyond the earthly world
and instills eternal spirit, which is compatible to the human soul.
Iranian Islamic architecture, therefore, does not belong merely to the past. Its pleasing style is
desirable for today and the goals that it sets out have not been lost. Likewise it can be said that l-Hafez and
Mevlana, two of the greatest and most prolific Iranian poets, do not belong entirely to the past because they
talk of the essence and identity of humanity, as it should be and not as it is now.Here we can mention some
of the Iranian traditional architecture’s principles.

Figure 3 A Sample of Iranian Traditional Plan

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 4.1 Principles of Iranian Traditional Architecture

The six codes in Persian architecture deal with the concepts of quality and performance in the building.
They concern building quality from two aspects. One addresses quality of concept and idea, and the latter
points out the issues related to construction, technology, and socio-economical aspects management.

1. To be in Accordance with people needs (Mardomvary)

This issue concerns user needs and functionality issues in a building. It means that all needs of a user
in a building regardless their social class should be responded. Therefore the first mission in a design deals
with fulfilments of human basic needs through reasonable functions.

2. Self-Efficiency (Khod-Basandegy)
Use of vernacular materials (Boom-Avard in Persian) is always one of the concerns in Persian
architecture. As an example they used to use excavated foundation soil in order to make bricks. There are
many examples like this which are placed in today architectural concepts in sustainable building design
(SBD). Vernacular material selection, compatibility, Embodied energy, application of passive energy and
design environmental strategies in waste and technology management concerning the impacts in the
environment are concepts pointed out in SBD.

Figure 4 A View of Yazd City in Iran

3. Module Unit (Peymoon)

The basic unit of measurement in building is called Peymoon. This unit (module) is a base for other
measurements. This means that other parts of building are measured based on this module and the
dimensions are a proportion of this unit. The measurement unit in Iran was called Gaz (103 cm). All
elements used to be built based on this unit and its proportions in the building system. This system of
measurement supported stakeholders to apply geometry and its advantages for better perception of forces
behaviour in building structure.

4. ward-Looking (Daroon-Garaei)
Each community has a great respect for their culture, habits, and traditions. Persians culture has a
respect for family and its privacy. Based on this fact they had two types of spaces in their designs. The
activities pertained to the family and their privacy should locate in separate spaces from public activities.
Therefore the functional zoning was arranged in a way to fulfil this objective. This code in their design
shows that how sensitive privacy as one the most importance of Islamic thoughts in built environments has to
be solved in architecture. Islam recognises the right of every individual to be free from undue encroachment
on the privacy of his or her life. Therefore, the privacy of the house is significantly stated in many places in
the Qur’an. For instance, says, ‘O ye who believe! enter not houses other than your own, until ye have asked
permission and saluted those in them’ and, ‘if ye find no one in the house, enter not until permission is given
to you: if ye are asked to go back, go back: that makes for greater purity for yourselves, and Allah knows
well all that ye do’ (Qur’an).privacy is solved in this principle by dividing the indoor and outdoor of the
house.

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 Figure 5 Typical traditional courtyard house of Yazd. The inward-looking spatial arrangement
provided residents with visual and acoustical privacy as well as climatic
and social advantage.

5. Avoiding Un-necessities (Parhiz Az Bihoudegy)

This code in this section attempts to address all practical efforts made to achieve the highest
performance for user regarding issues such as waste control, cost, and avoiding construction loads (making
the structure as light as possible through removing some parts of dead loads). Today the equal terms for such
concepts could be gaining more from the less, efficiency, performance, dematerialisation, different levels of
economics and technology management.

6. Structural Rigidity (Niaresh)

This code embraces the necessities required in building statistics and dynamics and includes all
endeavors carried out in construction in accordance with the existing level of knowledge and technology.
These principles show that how architecture was responsive to people’s needs, culture and their beliefs.
Iranian traditional architecture is one of the greatest samples of architecture which is designed for human.
After Islam affects people of Iran, architecture was affected by their beliefs, they needed more privacy
and they needed a specific place to worship. The new responsible for neighbors was also the new need for
Muslim people so Iranian traditional architecture after a while could solve the problems easily so we say that
one of the principles was to be accordance to the people.

5 DECREASING THE ISLAMIC FACTORS IN TODAY’S IRANIAN ARCHTECTURE

Consider to all of influence factors to design of housing and People’s participation in designing and
creating residential environments, which was quite common in the past traditions, due to the prevalent
economic and social of today’s societies is considered almost impossible.
Therefore, what is currently exercised in our country as a “common architectural system” is still a
continuation of modern thoughts and application of a technical mastery in a way that seems no attempt to
correct it is being made. Thus, it is of great significance to pay a close attention to the works of architects
such as alexander, Ibrahim Mostafa Eldemery, Mohammad karim Pirnia, etc. For they provide us with a
collection of professional experiences that can be referred to experiences of creating works which were
accompanied by people’s presence and participation in making their environments .
However, obviously due to the change of conditions in Iran like population growth, immigration,
increase of distance (for meeting needs ), removing of communication, people trying even more for paying
their life and education expenses, their ways of living, individual needs and improvement of technology
make clinging to the past domestic strategies impossible. Hence frame-social structures with the same
constriction methods and implementing strategies cannot be responsive. In other words, looking at the future
is not referential look at the past i.e. a reference to past ways of living, traditional forms of building and
natural construction materials. In fact, the main expectance and request is improving the present conditions

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 through more participation of the consumers and more Consider to all of influence factors to design of
housing (culture, religion…). According to Dr. Ibrahim Mostafa Eldemery Architectural culture is a
localizing force that should bridge the gap which the historical conscience opened between the past and the
present by creating new communities which are faithful to the Iranian traditional architecture in creating an
urban environment which encourages the inspiration of the inherited cultural heritage.

6 CONCLUSION

The paper will try to represent the threats to local cultures, and how to achieve the cultural
architectural continuities, between the past, present and the future; by identifying the role of the architect and
actors who are able to create architecture that will be the heritage of tomorrow.
Culture is a pervasive aspect that makes applications of engineering technologies adopts unique
contextual value within specific communities. However, due to lack of identifiable frameworks for
applications in developing societies, the available technology often fails to achieve the intended results.
Knowledge, information and culture are increasingly becoming borderless as new computer and
communication technologies are transforming the way people work, travel, communicate, and consume,
hence the need for an identifiable, distinct perspective is long overdue.
Introducing the Islamic thoughts in today’s Iranian architecture is the most important issue which is
considered in this paper. Having a flash back to the Iranian traditional architecture and the Islamic thoughts
is the current issue. Dwellers participation, interesting, and welfare became more to their living environment,
in addition, they see in culture, social, and family problems less in the country, also, tradition and faith of
Islamic won’t forget between young people.

REFERENCES

Aga khan, 2003. Architecture and Identity. concept media ptc ltd, Singapore.

Akkach,S. 2005. Cosmology and Architecture in Premodern Islam. State University of New York
Press.

Christopher , A. 1985. The production of houses. Oxford university. New York.

Eldemery, I,M. Islamic Architecture :Cultural Heritage and Future Challenges. Academic
researcher-housing & building research centre.

Ghassemi, K,H. Searching for Meaning in Persian Islamic Architecture. N.D.

Mortada , H. 2003. Traditional of Islamic principles in built environment. RoutledgeCurzon London

and new York press.

Simon,M,O. 2007. Space and Islamic urban life. Routledge Curzon London and new York press.
Pickthall, M . 1972.Islamic Culture .N.D.

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