The Manifestations of Architectural Flexibility in Rural Houses; Case Study: Tazareh Village in Damghan, Iran

Document Type : Original Article

Authors

1 Instructor of Architecture, Faculty of Architectural Engineering and Urbanism, Shahrood University of Technology, Shahrood, Iran (Corresponding Author).

2 Instructor of Architecture, Faculty of Architectural Engineering and Urbanism, Shahrood University of Technology, Shahrood, Iran.

10.22034/aaud.2021.258778.2360

Abstract

The "flexibility" concept has been long considered in Iranian rural houses. However, nowadays, changes in socio-economic structure have led to extensive evolutions in the architectural pattern of rural housing, and less attention has been paid to the "flexibility" concept. Moreover, the architecture of old rural housing includes several valuable characteristics and standards related to flexibility. Thus, the present study aims to examine the manifestations of architectural flexibility in rural housing. This study is applied, descriptive, and analytical research. First, the main manifestations of flexibility (diversity, adaptability, changeability) are identified using a library study. Next, the identified manifestations are investigated and compared in six characteristic housing plans in Tazareh village throughout the field studies. This study suggests that in Tazareh village, all the residential housing plans are flexible and there is a manifestation of flexibility in all the micro-spaces of these plans, with higher architectural flexibility in the plans with higher numbers of courtyards, floors, porches, and entrances. Moreover, the results indicate that the most effective factors making the rural housing architecture flexible are the elements such as several courtyards next to the building mass or several masses next to the courtyard, various entrances, and floors (two-storey houses) that allow for the division of the building between more than one household or various uses. Therefore, the “changeability” component of flexibility is the main design factor in rural housing.

Keywords

References

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History

  • Receive Date: 26 November 2020
  • Revise Date: 28 April 2021
  • Accept Date: 15 May 2021

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