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Reprinted from:
Architecture & Urbanism magazine,
No. 78/79
Autumn/Winter 2005
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Research
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Light in
Traditional and Islamic Architecture of Iran
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Architecture
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The study analyses the
elements of traditional and Islamic Architecture,
drawing general principles from the current pluralism
of view made possible by advances in design and
construction. It is a study of some of the major
components of Iranian architecture with the focus to
natural light as a source of emergence of space
qualities. A form of organization, which is very
complex due to several inherent problems of conceptual
residual spaces, elaborating an entity of unified
morphology.
In view of light, as a major space component, the
overall composition, with adjacent servant spaces,
find a particular form of organization, which is
centralized and where hierarchies define the general
pattern. The order of structure, in which light comes
as a containing discovering geometry, commands subsidiary
openings, which imposes a disciplined regularity of
spaces whilst offering greater complex layers of
perception.
Architectural configurations exist by the illumination
of enclosing surfaces. Skylight and prophetical lights
produce a particular lighting, which comes as an
integral part of the volumetric space itself. These
openings have also, always, a direct relationship to
the structure, the walls and the volumes.
The light descended by means of a vertical receptor, a
link is then re-established with the whole, which
finds its final symbolic significance through
different perspectives and angles of incidence.
In Iranian architecture, the light metaphor engenders
metaphysical connotations, where the Devine is always
omnipresent. Light is always a virtue of the sky,
of heaven, of truth, of realization, even if
brightness is sometimes hidden by shade or
darkness. Light and shade are maintained for
space perception, while never be in real conflict of
meanings.
Continuity, passage, the heavenly sphere, stars,
centrality, unity are notions and elements of a
concept of Islamic architecture, where the environment
always remains the impact of the Creator's trace.
Light, through the succession of sequences, bring in
life the symbolism of the supra-natural and the living
social connotations of man's passage through earth.
In traditional architecture, the juxtaposition of
elements are always aimed towards ambiences, where
light changes petrified materials to living enhanced
conceptual and intellectual entities. Therefore,
nothing remains futile.
Light-space is more than an imaginary space, it comes
as a life meaning, a receptacle of human soul and
man's activities, illuminating senses to the universal
existential principles. A relationship is established
with a dependence of man towards heaven, where
surfaces, walls and roofs become the symbolic
embracing envelop for a world-view made of spiritual
values of being. There is always a balance between the
inversion of light with the general overall spatial
geometry of order, spirit and wisdom.
In Iranian architecture, the study of light, in
accordance with volumes and structure, has always been
considered as an essential part of the different
stages of the building and its realization. Giving the
sensation of an unity, which remains at the center of
some conceived world's spirituality.
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Research:
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