Infill Building Design in historical Context

Necessity of design

The historical fabric of Qom city has lost its cohesion and nature. Remnants of the past form thin spots in the texture. The new constructions are entirely useless and inattentive to the context. According to the needs of today, the only points of hope for the valuable architecture continuation are in a state of disintegration and destruction. Therefore, to preserve the historical background and the past cultural identity, it is necessary to design a suitable model in this context by adapting the valuable principles of traditional and indigenous architecture, looking at the needs of contemporary life.

Site Analysis

The selected site is located in the neighborhood of Chehel Akhtaran Mosque, one of the ten neighborhoods of the old city of Qom. The historical monuments of this neighborhood are Tavakoli House and the old bazaar of Qom. Therefore, the position of Tarh is in the sanctuary of a historical monument. Therefore, the location of the project is in the first-degree privacy of a historical monument. Therefore, in the design, the maximum allowable building height is two floors. In the four directions of the site, access routes are divided into two types of cars and pedestrians in terms of width. Except for the path on the north side, the other paths around the site are accessible by vehicle, and the land uses are primarily residential.

Climate

Qom has a hot desert climate with low annual rainfall due to remoteness from the sea and being situated in the vicinity of the subtropical anticyclone aloft. Summer weather is very hot and essentially rainless, whilst in winter weather can vary from warm to – when Siberian air masses are driven south across the Alburz Mountains by blocking over Europe – frigid. An example of the latter situation was in January 2008 when minima fell to −23 °C or −9.4 °F on the 15th, whilst earlier similar situations occurred in January 1964 and to a lesser extent January 1950, January 1972 and December 1972.

Strengths	Weaknesses	Opportunities	Threats
A sense of vitality in down town	Lack of green space	Valuable historical monuments located near the site	Burnout Surrounding Buildings
Attracting tourists in the historical context	Traffic problems in the historical context	The high potential of the site in land use	possibility to change many historic and dilapidated buildings usage
Good connection in the neighborhood with the main communication city route.	Severe pedestrian and equestrian interactions, especially in the historical context	Open and ruined spaces with the ability to develop and change the land use	Increasing the building density of new constructions regardless of the historical context and physical index elements

Concept

سیاووش سیه را به اتش بتاخت              تو گویی که اسپش به اتش بساخت
زهـر سـو زبانه همــی بردمــید                کسی خود و اسپ سیاووش ندیـد

Since the project’s approach is to revive the identity of Iranian architecture and according to the researched context, the idea of the project is from two verses of poetry by Ferdowsi, which expresses the purification of the soul; The purity of the soul is a sign of its purification. The purification of the soul of the story of Siavash’s passing through the fire is a sign that his soul is pure; The soul breaks away from the body and becomes supernatural, and the material body becomes mine. In addition to purifying the fire, its light has a sacred and spiritual character.

Inner and outer space separation, spaces hierarchy, and privacy are three outcomes of the poem and the project’s approach.

Design Process

The design has been done in two areas of Landscape and Building design. Therefore, to create a design appropriate to the traditional texture, the traditional architecture principles, the traditional houses analysis results in Qom, and contemporary requirements are applied as the criteria prepared in the below-mentioned table.

Building Design Criteria	Landscape Design Criteria
Privacy	Pedestrian crosswalks
Structure and Details	Landscaping
Placement of interior spaces in the plan	Providing Parking
Introverted design by employing the central courtyard element	Set Orientation
Selection of materials appropriate to the historical context

Building Design Process

site

7240 m² area with a irregular shape and an NE-SW orientation.

Initial Shape

The rectangular cube is the best geometric shape to achieve optimal lighting and heat and cold load control. It is considered as the raw and primary volume. The repetition of the volume in its complete and simple context has evoked the geometric criterion and the birth of similarities (both of which are reasonable geometric criteria).

Central-Courtyard

Around the yard, various rooms are organized, which are in direct contact with light, water, plants, and fresh and lively air of the yard. The use of rectangular geometry in the courtyard and main rooms in the traditionalist attitude symbolizes perfection and stability.

Add another Central-Courtyard for better spatial layout and accessibility

The site is divided into two parts to provide parking spots. For this purpose, the two courtyards help in dividing and better arrangement the interior spaces together.

Orient to reach the best angle of sunlight

The units’ divisions should be done so that their orientation follows the major orientation. This type of establishment is suitable in terms of solar radiation and other climatic components.

Final Shape based on the graphs Analysis

The final form was obtained by analyzing the spatial and functional graph of traditional Iranian houses, achieving a uniform pattern, and combining it with the spatial graph of the research project according to the importance of spaces and the type of functions.

Design Analysis

The aim was to produce a map of spatial elements and connect them via relationship and then perform a graph analysis of the resulting network

Landscaping

The most influential factor in forming neighborhood areas in the contemporary era is the penetration of the machine in the texture and the need for the routes. In historic architecture, neighborhoods were formed in a quiet environment away from the noise and insecurity caused by the car’s presence. However, in the current situation, the machine has imposed itself on human life. So that the presence of the machine has become one of the necessities of contemporary human life, in this way, public open space is designed around the complex. Neighborhood areas increase the interaction of residents in the complex. The problem in modern life is becoming less and less important among the people living in a neighborhood due to the application of incorrect municipal rules and the type of woven design and imposed architectures.

Structure and Detailing

To take advantage of the role of the vault and dome forms in modulating the internal temperature and reviving these identifying elements in traditional architecture, in this project, the vault has been used to cover the roof of the spaces. Cloister vault is selected according to the necessity of implementation in different square and rectangular openings with different proportions.

In this project, the bearing wall (a typical structure in historical architecture) has not been used due to problems such as occupying a large area, low resistance to earthquakes, and creating limitations in the design. Therefore, using steel structures, the bearing walls problems can be removed from previous structures’ methods, and the vaulted roof system can be combined with new methods due to their various advantages. The vaults applied in this project are erected on the main metal beams. Therefore, instead of transferring the load through the bearing walls, the beams transfer the load to the columns and then to the ground.

Material

Brick has been selected as the primary construction m a long history in the old context of Qom. Also, currently, the primary material used in the area is brick. In addition, brick is the most suitable material for the selected roof system (vault). In the facade, brick has been used due to its symbolic role, thermal resistance, the sunlight reflection, and high resistance to environmental factors.

Parametric Girih Tiles Design Process

Ferrofluid is highly magnetic in the presence of a magnetic field. The liquid creates a unique pattern in the presence of a magnetic field. In this project, an attempt has been made to introduce a modern element by combining the liquid with Girih tiles and stained glass. In other words, to redefine stained glass and shading in the environment. Since ferrofluid is constantly in the magnetic field, it induced a sense of life and flow to the audience and kept the environment away from monotony.

Today, parametric design techniques offer apparent advantages for engineering and manufacturing processes. Naturally, architects are no exception to this rule and always try to use these methods in creating design solutions in their design process. Parametric is a process based on the idea of an algorithm that defines the relationship between design goal and design response. The ideas of designers, architects, and planners experienced design processes very differently from previous design processes. Traditional design processes have always been linear in which a simple linear function examines the description of the relationship between multiple variables in mathematics.
In contrast, there are nonlinear processes that combine ideas from different stages of the design process. Parametric design can be seen in all scales, from architecture to interior and urban design and structural issues. The aim is to study and compare the characteristics and structure of traditional Iranian patterns with parametric design in architecture, which is a combination of modern architecture and original Iranian design.

Tree Of Life

The “tree of life” of the Sasanian Empire in the Taq-e Bostan of Kermanshah, next to the holy spring, has ancient roots in Iranian thought promises fertility and abundance. It transforms its roles with the language of decorations. The role of the “tree of life” has been for abundance and blessings, and after the Sasanian in the name of Islam, it decorated Iranian buildings, especially mosques. The design and role of the tree of life during the Parthian and Sasanian eras can be seen on their fabrics, dishes, and buildings’ plaster.

The tree of life is a fundamental widespread myth or archetype in many of the world’s mythologies, religious and philosophical traditions.
In the Avestan literature and Iranian mythology, there are several sacred vegetal icons related to life, eternality and cure.

The tree of life in this project is taken out of the design and pattern on the wall, and the plant is used on the facade, which is reminiscent of the pattern and drawings of the tree of life.

In this project, I have tried not only to prevent thoughtless and clumsy imitation of the identity of Iranian architecture elements but also to believe that modernizing the elements of traditional Iranian architecture, according to the needs of today, can help revive the Iranian architecture identity and also cause optimization.

Renders

Drawings

References

AKRAMI, G., & ZARE, F. (2013). HOUSING DESIGN IN THE TRADITIONAL URBAN TEXTURE (CASE STUDY: DESIGN IN THE TRADITIONAL TEXTURE OF QOM). MEMARI-VA-SHAHRSAZI (HONAR-HA-YE-ZIBA ), 18(2), 55-68.
PEYVASTEHGAR, Y., & HEIDARI, A., & ESLAMI, M. (2017). RECOGNITION OF THE PIRNYA’S FIVE PRINCIPLES IN THE IRANIAN TRADITIONAL HOME AND ITS ANALYSIS BASED ON ISLAMIC SOURCES. JOURNAL OF STUDIES ON IRANIAN ISLAMIC CITY, 7(27), 51-66.
Hamzenejad M, Dashti M. I ranian traditional houses from the perspective of phenomenologists and moral traditionalists. Naqshejahan. 2016; 6
Torkzaban, S., Mohammad Moradi, A. Architectural Design Criteria In Historical Fabrics. , 2012; 1(1): 53-66.
POURZARGAR, M. (2016). REGENERATION AND RESTORATION OF OLD TEXTURE WITH A PERSPECTIVE TO PROTECT THE IDENTITY OF HOUSING, CASE STUDY –JOYBAREH LOCALITY IN ISFAHAN. BAGH-E NAZAR, 12(37), 41-52.
Kasmaei, Morteza (2005). Climate & Architecture. khak publication.