Reading a Home: An Application of Rapoport s Viewpoint in Iranian Architecture Studies

In this paper, a house is assumedas an expression of culture. It has been tried to study a Qajar1 house in Tabriz, in terms of its ties with cultural context.Methods and viewpoints of Amos Rapoport have been used in order to identify and peruse the circumstance of this relationship. The main reason for using Rapoport s viewpoints to understand Salmasi House, as a case study, in addition to contribute to cognition of this house and its relations, is presenting a method to understand many Iranian architecture samples. To explain the ties between built environment and culture, Rapoport has proposed several definitions and approaches according to environment-behavior studies. To study the house, Rapoport s has used a three-step approach, including, dismantling, analyzing, and synthesizing. At first, according to these approaches, two concepts of culture and built environment have been dismantled to variables and components. Then relationship among the variables and relationship among the components have been analyzed. At the final step, the variables have been reassembled and synthesized. Their interrelationships and their ties have been established, in order to understand the essential linkage between house form and its cultural context. The required data has been collected from three sources, direct interview with former inhabitants of Salmasi house to acquainting life and quality of behavior in house. Preliminary studies to acquainting the context of case studies, study the form of the house. The results indicate the adjustment of the form of Salmasi House with wishes, needs and totally cultural characteristics of its inhabitants.

Keywords:

Amos Rapoport , Environment-behavior studies , Qajar houses , Tabriz , Iranian Culture