Kashan Shenasi

Kashan Shenasi

Typology of Traditional Houses in the Historical Districts of Kashan (A Case Study of the Farshchi House in Panjeh-Shah Neighborhood)

Document Type : Original Article

Authors
1 Master of Architecture, Faculty of Architecture and Art, University of Kashan, Kashan, Iran.
2 Assistant Professor, Department of Architecture, Faculty of Architecture and Art, University of Kashan, Kashan, Iran.(Corresponding Author)
3 Bachelor of Architecture, Faculty of Architecture, Islamic Azad University of Kashan, Kashan, Iran
Abstract
In the architecture of central Iran, the house consists of various components, one of the most important of which is the courtyard. The courtyard is situated beyond the entrance according to a defined spatial hierarchy and plays an important role in the spatial organization of the building. Most houses located in the historic city of Kashan have one, two, or several central courtyards which, according to existing studies, were formed with appropriate compositions in harmony with environmental and climatic conditions in order to achieve comfortable living conditions, and they play a particular role in organizing the spaces surrounding them. This study introduces the historical Farshchi House in the old Panj-e Shah neighborhood, which was surveyed for the first time, and, in order to identify its physical characteristics, examines and compares its architectural structure with that of three other types of historical houses in Kashan. Using a descriptive-historical method, aerial photographs, field surveys of the existing conditions, and information obtained from knowledgeable individuals and the owners of the Farshchi House were examined in an effort to reconstruct and draw the original plan of the house during the Qajar period and compare its spatial organization with that of contemporary houses from the same period. The findings indicated that there were differences between the arrangement of building masses around the courtyard and the placement of the pool in this house and those of the other houses examined. In this way, a particular form of design, which appears in the shape of a cane, can be identified for the surrounding space, while the pool has been positioned among the courtyard garden beds closer to the southern side of the building. Consequently, in terms of the composition and organization of its spaces, this house can be considered one of the distinctive houses of Kashan.
Keywords

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