The Role of Garden and Courtyard in Organizing the Space of Aristocratic Houses in Tehran during Qajar’s Era

Abstract

Constructing houses in the form of garden-house became popular among Statesmen and the privileged class in Naseri period. Iranian traditional houses which used to be formed around a central courtyard, now were organized around a garden. So the transition from houses with courtyard to garden-houses created a new order of relationships between spaces, resulted in redefining spaces and their forms. The framework structure of the spaces along with their life culture have been investigated in the present research paper since without considering the inhabitants' behavioral and cultural characteristics the framework patterns shaping the space cannot lead to identifying architectural features. So, the qualitative research method was used to study four aristocratic houses in Tehran within an analytical-interpretative approach. The results indicate a change in space organization. There are sustainability concepts in designing spaces in a house which are attained differently in the garden and sometimes redefined because of the changing needs. At the end, the roles of garden and yard are compared with each other in creating diversity and spatial regularity, defining the privacy and territory, perspective, access, entrance and function.