The Role of Designers’ Lived Experience in Representation of Architectural Archetypes A Case Study of Iranian-born Foreign-Educated Architects’ Designs

Document Type : Research Article

Authors

1 Department of Architecture, Central Tehran Branch, Islamic Azad University, Tehran, Iran.

2 Department of Architecture, Central Tehran Branch, Islamic Azad University, Tehran, Iran

Abstract

Problem statement: Today, despite the expansion of interdisciplinary topics in cognitive sciences, psychology, and architecture, there are no definite, clear ideas about the role of designers’ conscious and unconscious in the process of creating a work of art. On the other hand, the absence of a way to create common meanings has resulted in a deep gap between the thought space and the perceived space. Fundamental and continuous changes in design research and its connection with architecture and education have led to the rupture of designers’ direct experience of fixed spatial patterns and has resulted in the loss of formation of natural development, life, and transformation of architectural archetypes used to represent primitive conceptions and models.
Research objective: While introducing the features of spatial units of Iranian architecture that have continued in the works of current Iranian designers, the present study explains the effect of designers’ direct and lived experience on the representation of archetypes in works of architecture.
Research method: With a qualitative approach, the works of Iranian architects educated abroad were collected and analyzed using Strauss and Corbin’s grounded theory. Then archetypes of Persian garden, central courtyard, porch, and Chahartaqi were classified according to physical and semantic space criteria. The classification included open, axial, and selective codes. Among the four selected archetypes, the items about which the studied architects had direct and lived experience in their space were identified and compared with the classification results.
Conclusion: The designers’ lived experience was found to play a significant role in representing architectural archetypes. There was a greater tendency to simulate the central courtyard archetype wherein Iranians had lived experience. The continuity of meaningful elements of the porch and theemergence of some systems and themes of the Persian garden were evident in rare cases.

Keywords


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