----------------------------------- ---------------------------------------------------
year 6, Issue 1 (Semi-Annual 2021)                   CIAUJ 2021, 6(1): 195-209 | Back to browse issues page


XML Persian Abstract Print


Download citation:
BibTeX | RIS | EndNote | Medlars | ProCite | Reference Manager | RefWorks
Send citation to:

Nari Ghomi M. Theory Making for Architecture Based on Behavioral Content of Essential Islamic Holy Texts. CIAUJ 2021; 6 (1) :195-209
URL: http://ciauj-tabriziau.ir/article-1-271-en.html
University of Technical and Professional Training, Faculty of Qom, Qom, Iran , msnarighomi@ut.ac.ir
Abstract:   (1744 Views)
What is Islamic Architectural Design? It is a question which may be answered upon built patterns of past but what about future? That is what this article is about. Here it is argued that Islamicness in architecture could be based on Islamic lifestyle which in turn is based on Islamic moral and functional tradition. Here it is claimed that if right social and individual behaviors from original Islamic texts are systematically considered, there would be a clear new approach for architecture to be called as Islamic. So first some potential of those Islamic contents are introduced that are usable to construct such a theory of making built environment including vast descriptions about some basic elements of the city (home, mosque, street andbazar), topological norms about closeness, territories and so on, and the most important of all, behavioral patterns of human which are vastly articulated in Islamic texts. Besides, there are some metric characteristics of space as well as configurational ones that are helpful for theory making. Next step has been a survey of positivists’ social and behavioral theories of built environment to evaluate their compatibility for applying to making Islamic behavioral theory of built environment. For this purpose two critical examples of those theories are selected: “Space Syntax” of Bill Hillier and others as an objective socio-behavioral theoty and Irwing Altman’s theory of social behavior as subjective example. The comparative study among them with Islamic texts here results in some critical inconsistency in their presuppositions about human-environment relations with those of Islam. While “Space Syntax” is sharply founded on configurational determinism of social relations, Islam sees it an effective force its social consequences are not considered obligatory though. Simultaneously some concepts in Altman” socio-environmental theory such as privacy, intimacy, territoriality and crowding have different features in Islamic behavior and some of them may not be taken as important factors for this system of environmental behavior. It is concluded that such theories of human-environment relation are based on a vertical process of theory making which aims to provide a naturalistic vision of human world made up of analyzing of behavioral phenomenon. It is while Islamic interpretation of environment-behavior is systematically organized to analyze phenomenon on the basis of a supreme view of human world. So any theoretical effort to interpret EB phenomenon will be a “lateral debate” which means an internal organization of the phenomenon under light of Islamic world view but not making an Islamic world view. These arguments are abstracted via conceptual models. Then an independent approach towards theory making in this field upon Islamic behavioral content is introduced based on “lateral debate”. At first, two basic kind of EB content in Islamic text are considered: religious ethical duties for special places and environmental situations and spatiality of behavioral patterns of orthodox Islam. Via some critical examples it is shown that such contents have strong potential to be used for a systematic interpretation of EB. To realize this interpretation, a key concept is developed in this article which can be called as “Duty Situation”. It is considered as important as its counterpart in current EB studies i.e. “Behavioral Setting” and has some common features with it as spatiality and a given set of behavioral content. But its difference lies in its two characteristics which stems from its foundation upon Islamic duty-oriented ethics: the first one is that its behavioral content is a normative one that refers to what Islam wants from the situation so existing behavioral patterns of people in this respect it only makes a ground for those essential behavior that should be evaluated on the base of its consistency with it. The second point is independency of the two: spatial situation and behavioral content in terms of cause-effect relationship; later one results from idealistic view of Islam towards the social environment whose natural or existing circumstances are not idealized but considered as a ground that should leads towards ideals. Through establishment of concept of “Duty Situation”, author’s final proposed model of Islamic EB relationship emerges.
Full-Text [PDF 2229 kb]   (740 Downloads)    
Type of Study: Original Article | Subject: Conceptualization of theorizing in Islamic architecture and urban ism
Received: 2021/04/24 | Accepted: 2021/08/12 | ePublished: 2021/09/21

References
1. Ahmadi, A.A.; Zaer Darabi, A. & Karimi, Y. 1986. The training psychology, for using in instructors' preparation courses. Tehran: Ministory of Education & Training. [in Persian]
2. Aiati, A. 1995. The translation of Holy Quran. Tehran: Soroush. [in Persian]
3. Altman, I. 2003. The environment and social behavior: privacy, personal speace, territory croeding. Translated by Ali Namazian. Tehran: Shahiab Beheshti Univ. Press. [in Persian]
4. Bahreini, S. H. 1996. Analyzing urban spaces due to users' behavioral patterns and some codes for urban design. Tehran: Univ. of Tehran Press. [in Persian]
5. Cassirer, E.1981. An essay on man. Translated by B. Naderzad. Tehran: Institute of Cultural Study and Research. [in Persian]
6. Ebn babeveih, M. A. 1988. Man la Yahzoroh el-Faghih. Translated by A. A. Ghaffari. Tehran: Sadoogh Publishing Co. [in Arabic]
7. Groat, L. N. & Wang D. 2005. Architectural research methods. Translated by A. Einifar. Tehran: Univ. of Tehran Press. [in Persian]
8. Harries, K. 1997. The Ethical Function of Architecture. USA: MIT Press.
9. Hillier, B. 2007. Space is the Machine. Space Syntax.
10. Koleini Razi, M. Y. 1986. AlKafi. Tehran: Dar al-Kotob al-Eslamieh. [in Arabic]
11. Lang, J.T. 2002. Creating architectural theory: the role of the behavioral sciences in environmental design.‬ Translated by A. Einifar. Tehran: Univ. of Tehran Press. [in Persian]
12. Lawson, B. 2001. The language of space. Britain: Architectural Press.
13. Le Corbusier.1931. Towards a New Architecture. Translated by: Fredrick Etchells. London: J. Rodker.
14. Liedman, S.E. 2008. In shadow of the future: the history of the intellect of the modernity.translated by S. Moghaddam. Tehran: Akhtaran Press. [in Persian]
15. Mortada, H. 2008. Traditional Islamic principles of built environment. Translated by A. Meshkini & K. Habibi. Tehran: Studying and Research Center of Urbanism and Architecture. [in Persian]
16. Nari Ghomi, M. 2010. Introversion: A conceptual study about the introversion in Islamic City. Honar-Ha-Ye-Ziba: Memary Va Shahrsazi, 2(43), 69-81. [in Persian]
17. Noghrekar, A. 2008. An introduction to Islamic identity in architecture. Tehran: the Ministery of Housing and Urbanism, Payam Sima Press. [in Persian]
18. Pakzad, J. 2007. An intellectual history of urbanism: from Ideal to reality. Tehran: New Towns Developing Co. [in Persian]
19. Rapoport, A. 2005. The meaning of the built environment: a non-verbal Communication Approach. Translated by F. Habib. Tehran: Urban Process and Programming Co. press. [in Persian]

Send email to the article author


Rights and permissions
Creative Commons License This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.

© 2024 CC BY-NC 4.0 | Culture of Islamic Architecture and Urbanism Journal

Designed & Developed by : Yektaweb