In the past, the dwelling, as a living unit, also encompassed the spaces of work and income generation for its inhabitants, providing the conditions to meet all their primary needs. On the other hand, the skills of every society in meeting needs were shaped based on the potentials of the geographical setting of that society's habitat; consequently, the strategy that a society inhabiting a mountainous setting adopted for survival was fundamentally different from that of a society whose habitat was desert or forest. With the passage of time, the advance of industry, and the emergence of new economy-centered paradigms, living activities were gradually divided among different spatial cells instead of being concentrated in a single core unit. If in the distant past every residential unit or neighborhood housed its own architect, builder, and caretaker in the person of its inhabitant, in the contemporary era the architect, as a specialist within the framework of providing professional services, makes decisions about how other members of society will inhabit the units he or she has designed. With the expansion of international and intercontinental communications, sometimes the architect makes decisions about the living conditions of people whose habitat is geographically thousands of kilometers away. For example, an architect in London may make decisions for a village in China without ever having set foot in that region. In the old, pre-modern model, the inhabitant-designer, possessing a serious knowledge of the setting of their design, was themselves a part of that setting and had learned the knowledge of building shelter from their forebears. Under such circumstances, the first concern of the inhabitant-architect was to make the setting habitable through alignment and consonance with it, by means of transforming and exploring
the materials and construction techniques of the land in which their desired living unit was situated. One can say that human societies in the pre-modern era emerged out of a kind of territorial wisdom and knowledge grounded in the geography of the place of settlement, by way of a collective intelligence and behavior, in a bottom-up process. For this reason, the characteristics and behavior of structures built for habitation were in a way dependent on the capacities, limitations, and possibilities of their setting in physical, cultural, and other aspects. With such a background, this essay addresses the manner of physical formation of living structures in relation to their setting, under the updated paradigms of the architect's receptivity to the geography of the design's site.
The Triangle of Structure Living structures must be designed in such a way that they exhibit a behavior responsive to their setting. In other words, the design methodology must be such that it guides the designer in the selection of appropriate materials and/or methods of controlling and employing materials (technique) to arrive at a structure whose behavior is proportionate to and derived from its setting. In general, every structure obtains its existence and physical character from the resultant and superposition of three factors: materials, technique, and geometry. The control and interaction between these factors and their intimate connection with the setting will have a direct effect on the quality of the structure in terms of stability and interaction with its surroundings and its users.
Image 1- The triangle of structure, consisting of materials, technique, and geometry.
1- Materials Throughout history, the creation of structure through making the land habitable has been made possible through precise knowledge of and mastery over the materials available in the geographical setting of the design. Today, we witness a kind of chaos in the import and export of materials from one region of the globe to another. Consequently, with the increase and ease of access to non-indigenous materials of a particular geographical region, these materials are also used by the architects of that region in erecting living structures. Whether using indigenous or non-indigenous materials, understanding the character of materials is the most important factor in initiating the creative process, because knowledge of the capacities and possibilities of materials leads to the extraction of information for employing and/or creating a method unique to those materials in creating and erecting a structure.
2- Technique For survival in different geographical arenas, humans have needed to create and employ different methods for making land habitable and useful through displacement—one of the most common strategies. Transformation of the setting is accomplished through different techniques, each specific to a particular geography and applicable to the specific materials of that setting: displacing soil on slopes to make sloped surfaces cultivable, as in rice paddies; excavating and displacing soil and digging wells to reach water, or displacing stones in a mountainous setting to create a settlement, as in Kandovan; cutting tree branches and reshaping the forest to build cabins. These examples involve skills and techniques influenced by geography that, through transforming the setting, tame it and make it habitable. The discovery and design of the method of creating skill and technique itself plays a very important role in the creative process of structure, inasmuch as many architectural structures, both past and present, have been formed with a focus on the creation of construction skills and techniques, and in parallel, the creation of construction tools also holds special importance.
3- Geometry The definition of structure is a totality composed of parts that embody the character and behavior of the whole, and which moreover, in a bottom-up approach, possess a set of laws and mutual relationships whose ultimate aim is growth and development. These laws and relationships are established and formed in such a way that, in the face of changes and actions from the setting, they lead to the interaction and alignment of the entire structure with its setting. Every structure, in order to survive in its setting, will be subjected to laws and forces from the setting upon its physical body. In other words, physical laws are like inputs and templates that, when applied to the material, cause the geometric orientations of the structure to serve the needs and approach of the functional and behavioral program of the structure. This alignment will be achieved only when the behavioral laws and actions affecting the body and geometry of the structure are derived from the geographical environment in which the structure will operate and behave—because the geometric and physical laws of a house in Yazd, as part of the overall geometric structure of the city, will only exhibit optimal and interactive behavior and a life aligned with its setting (the desert geography) within its own geography, and this geometric structure can in no way live and survive in a different geography.
The Creative Process The creative process of structure, according to the needs, possibilities, and capacities of the setting, can begin from any of the three vertices of the triangle. Sometimes, depending on conditions, the priority lies with materials—as in desert regions where, due to the limitation and mono-material (earth) nature of the geography, the main concern is the creation and discovery of techniques in employing and controlling the material. Similarly, at times the creative process may begin from another vertex of the triangle, such as technique, where, owing to the setting's limitations and possibilities or the possession of a specific tool, the development, extension, and expansion of a specific technique for controlling the structure's behavior in response to the setting's behaviors and actions is pursued. In any case, what drives the creative process forward is the intimate connection among these three vertices of the triangle, which ensures the survival of the entire structure in its setting.
A Woodpecker Will Die in the Desert Interestingly, in different regions, the strategy, skill, and physical anatomy of living creatures (both human and non-human) are oriented toward their capacity to control materials for creating their communities, nests, and habitats, and in this respect are aligned and in step with their geographical environment. The importance of this is such that displacing living creatures within geography endangers their survival, because the character and behavior of their living structure is entirely dependent on the materials of the environment and the specific technique of these creatures, which is changeable only with a change in technique. Meanwhile, the tools and resources of the inhabitants of a specific geographical environment—whether human or other living creatures—are entirely derived from their environment and possess the capability of being applied only to the materials of that specific setting. May I Cut a Piece of Sand? The vocabulary related to materials and the technique applicable to them is entirely dependent on the materials found in the geographical environment. This vocabulary in turn influences the understanding and orientation of the design process and even the creation of construction tools. A tool such as a knife has no place in the creative process of structure in the desert, because there is no material to cut and sever, and fundamentally cutting and severing are not part of the character of earth and sand, whereas this tool is suited to the geography of the forest, where the predominant material can only be employed for creating structure through cutting, severing, and tying.
How Rough the Water Has Become! Experience and touching the surrounding environment is one of the most important factors in understanding. The intuitive discovery of materials and the study of the technique applicable to them has always been the first, simplest, and at the same time most effective method of connecting with and discovering geography throughout history. In the film Slumdog Millionaire, the best method of acquiring information about the surrounding world occurs through presence, experience, and touching the world around us. Therefore, in this creative process, just as in the process of eating food with the hands in the Indian style, the creator needs to establish direct, physical contact with the materials so that, through extracting information from the material, they can discover its character and behavior and find the appropriate technique for controlling it toward achieving a specific structure. What is meant by material information are the parameters whose resultant distinguishes the character of one material from another. Through possessing this information, one can examine the behavior and actions of a material in different physical environments. The difference between earth and wood lies in these behavioral data, which ultimately lead to the creation and employment of different techniques such as molding, bending, piercing, and so on. On the other hand, the behavior of these two materials in two physical environments such as water and dry land will be completely different.
In some physical environments, structures (whether the body of a living creature or human-made) need alignment and behavioral consonance with the setting more than resistance and opposition for their survival. For example, dynamic fields such as water, wind, and so on are physical environments in which the energy parameters and actions of the setting are constantly changing. Therefore, a structure in these environments is viable and livable only if it can respond to and behave in consonance with these changes. In other words, the structure must be able to update its behavior relative to the changing information of the setting (Images 4-2). The employment and analysis of material and technique information for the development and control of the final structure is itself part of the design process, and progress in this area over time has led to progress in the design process and ultimately in living structures. Today, these analyses can be conducted with the help of sensors and electronic instruments for obtaining more precise information from the setting, with greater capability and speed. It should be borne in mind that the entry of computers into the arena of creation does not mean the elimination of contact with the physical environment; rather, they enhance the capability of touching the environment and analyzing its information for creating a structure that is more responsive to its setting (Images 4-3).
Image 4-1- A scene from the film Slumdog Millionaire.
Image 4-2- The structure of the human body, for survival on water, requires the act of swimming—a structural behavior aligned with the dynamic environment of water. The physical structure of the fish's body, due to its material, form, and efficient behavior, possesses a higher capability compared to the human body for alignment with and response to the dynamic setting of water, and one can say it exhibits a more homogeneous behavior with this physical environment. Now the question is: can one learn to swim without the physical experience of water and understanding its forces? Designing the behavior of the body's structure for survival in the physical environment of water (or swimming) requires touching that environment and engaging in trial and error to extract and then analyze the information of that environment. Image 4-3- One of the best examples of analyzing information for the stability of geometric structure and the structure's behavior in response to weight is Gaudi's inverted hanging diagram for building the Sagrada Familia. Today, the digital analysis process has led to the creation of software for analyzing structural stability in a suspended state.
Good, Bad, Ugly—Function with a White Cane This critical triangle is a critique of analyzing and evaluating structures based on visual criteria, superficial labels, or visual aesthetic standards. Golden proportions, visual divisions, and the like, if they serve solely the eye and the project's graphics, are not appropriate criteria for critiquing, evaluating, and creating structure. Rather, the behavioral criteria of each structure within its own setting—that is, the techniques that make a geography habitable or, in other words, organize geography for better human habitation in a specific setting—are of higher importance. The structure of Isfahan differs from that of Masuleh, and this difference is fundamentally not visual but rather two different approaches, strategies, and responses to two different settings. The influence of the different characters and capacities of the two settings is legible and readable in all the components and elements of the structure, including proportions, and ultimately leads to two different types of geography-dependent spatial organization for the purpose of habitation. These two different types of organization are easily readable and comprehensible even with eyes closed, through the body and behavior.
The Wooden City and the Earthen City Every material, in a way, has a specific spatial organization capability dependent on its own limitations and capacities. If we accept that the geometries extractable from any material are limited to the character and capacities of that material, and that geometry—or in other words, divisions and connections—is one of the important tools in the spatial organization of architecture, then one can say that the spatial organization of every structure has a direct dependence on the material and the technique of employing that material. The spatial organization of mud-brick structures is completely different from that of wooden structures, and consequently one of the instances of difference between desert and forest cities is the different geometry resulting from the use of different types of materials—a difference that itself originates from the different geographical environments. The techniques applicable to and the geometries and structures ultimately obtained from earth are completely different from those of wood, and this difference between the two materials, at the macro scale, has left its mark on the morphology, geometry, and ultimately the organization and manner of behavior in two cities in two different geographies. One can conclude that different structures, by virtue of their different possibilities and capacities—including technique and material—produce geometries that have different capabilities and behaviors in spatial organization and in the manner of making geography habitable (Image 6).
Image 5- Good, Bad, Ugly—Function with a White Cane.
Image 6-2- Spatial organization of an earthen settlement.
Image 6-1- Spatial organization of a wooden settlement.
Shelter for the Shelterless The design class project at the Contemporary Architects Association, titled "Shelter for the Shelterless," is an advanced example of using this creative framework, focusing on solving the housing problem for earthquake-stricken villages in northwestern Iran. In the initial diagnosis, after examining the conditions and events following the disaster in several specific villages on site, we found that the services provided to earthquake victims for shelter, in three different time periods after the earthquake, include the following stages, each with different behaviors, organizations, and impacts: tents for two to three months after the earthquake; container units (Conex) for two years after the earthquake; and organizational houses as permanent housing. Each of the above stages has different effects on the way of life of that community. A villager, after the initial devastation, must change the manner and functional and qualitative organization of their home at least twice before achieving stability in terms of shelter. In reality, the provision of housing—or in other words, the repair of housing—is an inefficient system in terms of cost and time, with a top-down process in which the affected individuals have minimal involvement in the formation and characterization of their dwelling. For this reason, new permanent housing, typically after completion and construction, is abandoned in favor of the residents' preference to continue living in their ruined homes, turning into deserted buildings and settlements. Considering these points, the design class was oriented toward creating a structure that could, while responding to all three stages—tent, container, and permanent housing—in terms of cost and speed, also allow maximum user involvement in its formation and creation.
Thus, the created structures needed to have the capability of being modified by residents for repair and adaptation to changing needs over time (from the time of the earthquake to the time of calm). A human (user) layer was added to all residential structures so that top-down decision-making in the creative process would be eliminated, and the creative process, by becoming a bottom-up process, would create a structure with self-formation capability. The project's concept is a structural framework consisting of arms made of lightweight materials such as fiberglass or aluminum, which, with the help of a hinge connection, have the capability of being folded. These elements, which are pre-fabricated and mass-producible, can, through being placed together and repeated, create a structural framework for a small village that will be shaped by the villagers based on each family's population, needs, and relationship with their neighbors. The main issue that distinguishes the three stages of tent-container-house is the different structural capability of these three stages. Therefore, in this design, the created structure remains constant over time, and only its covering changes over time, adapting to the changing needs and improving conditions and living situation of the residents. The covering of this structure can initially be fabric and blankets, and ultimately, with the passage of time, transform into masonry materials or indigenous materials of the region. The created structure is a framework that will have the capability of spatial organization at various scales from house to city. In other words, the variable covering of these structures, using indigenous materials, provides the capability of ever-greater alignment of the village with the geography and the changes of the setting over time.
Image 7-2- Shelter for the Shelterless.
Image 7-1- Shelter for the Shelterless.
Isfahan Dream City The Isfahan Dream City project is one of the projects in which the aforementioned creative method had a significant influence on its formation. This project was submitted for a competition to design the facade of the commercial center building in the Isfahan Dream City recreational complex. The existing concrete skeleton, situated adjacent to three important functions, created different characters on three fronts of the complex. Initially, facade design was set aside by the designers as a misguided strategy, because starting the project with the premise of facade design for a commercial complex—which is essentially an introverted project—would create a boundary and sever the connection between the project's interior and exterior, and was altogether not an appropriate strategy for addressing the project's internal issues. On the other hand, due to the project's adjacency to an amusement park, the engagement of the commercial complex with its setting became the main objective of the design, as this relationship could generate mutual added value. The existing skeleton imposed, in a way, a predetermined geometric structure upon the design process—or perhaps, in other words, guided the design process toward treating and restoring the existing structure to life—and on this basis, a new programmatic organization based on the behavior and character of the existing structure was needed. In this structure, technique and geometry are among its principal characteristics, and for the growth
of the structure and the alteration of its behavior, research and investigation into the obligatory geometric properties was needed. The main design idea for this complex focuses on the existing structure and harnesses its potentials to respond to the needs and functional program of the new complex. Therefore, the design began with attention to the basic cell of the existing structure (a 6-by-6 module), and the existing structure was transformed into a set of box modules that grew based on the functional program and the needs of the complex. Ultimately, the resulting structure possesses the same character as the existing structure, which merely, through the control, growth, and direction of its organization in its encounter with the setting, exhibits different behavior. The fractal growth and multiplication of box modules organizes the interior and exterior space and creates terraces and horizontal surfaces that, on one hand, connect the plaza to the roof of the complex and, on the other hand, create an intermingling of the complex's interior and exterior. The blending of inside and outside enables better movement of people and the activation of all commercial surfaces in the complex. The exterior plaza, containing the entertainment section, functions as an interstitial space that includes a collection of cafes, restaurants, galleries, and open and closed spaces and terraces, making life on the facade (or a habitable facade) possible.