Fatemeh Fallahi - Assistant Professor, Department of Architecture, Sowmesara branch, Islamic Azad university, Sowmesara, Iran

Modernism, as a human`s achievements, has been the source of various changes in the design, planning, and also, in the spatial structure. Throughout these changes, civic square, as the most significant structural representative of cities, are one of the changes originating from modernism. Squares, as urban structure, are the arena for people formed by physical elements and variety of function such as religious, commercial, cultural and etc. For reviewing the main aspects of morphological change in the municipality square of Rasht, this paper attempts to analyze the underlying factors in traditional and modern era and how it influenced the conditions of civic life in this square.Municipality Square as a focal point in Rasht is the only historical square and the most important artery of an access to all parts of city and one of the most significant civic square in Iran, and also, has been recognized as a representative of this city. The finding showed that this square with the appearance of modernism in Iran, modern elements which fulfill the modernist needs, were built above a hill in Pahlavi I era, wherever was a graveyard close to structural elements of a traditional square belonged to Qajar era.In this study, the changes and development of structural elements has been examined from tradition to modernism. It is concluded that the continued growth of modernism lead to changes, not only in the structure on the modern civic square, but also, in the essence of the square. The main data and information employed in this paper come from different case studies and author`s experience over the past decade. Using a descriptive method, collected data and information have been analyzed to sum up the characteristics of spatial structure of this square over the past centuries.

Municipality Square, Rasht, Tradition, Modernism, Elements, Analyze