فصلنامه مسکن و محیط روستا
پیاپی 161 (بهار 1397)

The quality of human-environment relationship is one of the most important issues in reconstruction after disasters. This quality, however, is often neglected because of prioritizing other reconstruction problems, especially physical reconstruction. Relocating affected rural communities following earthquakes for reducing vulnerability often affect the sense of place and subsequently affects social resilience. The main reason is ignoring the existing rural structures in relocation programs and paying attention to physical dimensions only. There is no consensus on the concept of ‘sense of place’ after relocation and reconstruction However, and because of the importance of maintaining and building social resilience in reconstruction programs, in this paper the role of relocating and sense of place in Dahouiyeh rural community after the 1383 Zarand earthquake and its impact on social resilience is studied. Using an exploratory lens, the paper adopts a causal-comparative approach and a mixed method. The data was collected through field observation, semi-structured interviews with reconstruction officials, local informants and village administration. Furthermore, we used questionnaires to compare the level of resiliency and sense of place in two different communities currently living in one town; one with a forced relocation from Dahouiyeh and the initial community living in the town. Sampling strategy was stratified random and the number of samples from each community was calculated according to their population. Based on the Cochran formula, 47 samples were selected for the research; 20 from relocated villagers and 27 from the initial residents of the town. According to the findings, in spite of passing 12 years after the earthquake, a desire to return to the home village and a reduction of the life expectancy in relocated villagers indicates a loss of sense of place. This problem has been caused by issues such as the disappearance of group norms and public place; flaw in people networks; separation from valuable environmental elements to which community were attached, ignoring the potential role of natural landscapes and inappropriateness of the built and housing condition in relation to the climatic and social condition and activities of rural households. In comparison with villagers, who along with the continuous flow of life, had free choice in selecting and creating their social and physical surrounding, a reduction in the level of social resilience was revealed in forced relocated community. It seems that the problem of losing a sense of place in relocated villagers can be overcome through joint efforts of the initial community, who has a higher level of social resilience and sense of place, and through activities such as community ceremonies, strengthening community relationships and integrated social participation and creating public place, along with improving the rural natural landscape.

Disasters are different in terms of type, time and scope but they often create similar problems which indicates the importance of their scientific analysis and documentation for informing future reconstruction planning. One of the weaknesses of disaster studies in Iran is a lack of documentation of past reconstruction experiences. Many of these reconstruction projects are still alive, developed by their residents throughout several decades. However relevant documentation describing the processes of reconstruction and factors affecting the durability of their outcomes have rarely done, reviewed and criticized.
The city of Lar in Fars province was devastated by an earthquake in 1339. The rescue and rehabilitation phases terminated within fifteen days. This phased followed by a reconstruction program, which involved the relocation of the city to a safer area. Now after passing more than five decades this city consists of two active areas: the new town - relocated city - and the old town.
This article firstly seeks to document and analyze the Lar reconstruction after more than five decades; secondly, tries to provide unique features of this process and reasons for the durability of the outcome; and ultimately, tries to offer the lessons of this reconstruction to inform future plans.
In order to achieve these goals, we conducted document review and fieldwork. Firstly, we analyzed existing documents, such as reports related to the earthquake and descriptions of the reconstruction processes in related books, national archives papers; reviewed newspapers published for a period of three years from the time of the accident until the end of reconstruction; conducted in-depth interviews with those involved in the reconstruction and the survivors who were present at the time of the earthquake; and documented the reconstruction process. Secondly, we evaluated this reconstruction based on sustainable reconstruction measures, defined through a review of literature and reconstruction experiences in Iran and the world. Finally, lessons learnt from this reconstruction were extracted.
The findings of this study show that in this reconstruction, from the beginning the relocated city was planned to include residential areas, infrastructure, facilities and public buildings, and the budget for this relocation plan was allocated from the beginning. Following the city's geological studies, a safe place away from the faults was selected for the construction and earthquake-proof structures were used in building houses and public buildings of the city. Authorities began the reconstruction of the city with commitment and hard work. A commission composed of local dignitaries and clergymen oversaw all aspects of the reconstruction process, such as budgeting. Challenges that the program faced, including land ownership claims and religious issues were settled locally in the shortest time possible, avoiding interruption in the process. Facilitating commuting between the old and new city led to the economic rehabilitation of this market town and reinforced the sense of belonging of the people to the new city. The built houses were allocated to people for free or were sold to them. A committee of local dignitaries and reconstruction authorities decided about the allocation of houses by investigating the social and economical situations of residents.

Iran has experienced numerous disasters, such as earthquakes, floods and landslides, due to its geographical. Risk reduction interventions in rural settlements has always been considered for avoiding such losses. Sometimes authorities and officials integrate measures such as relocating hazard–prone villages into post-disaster reconstruction efforts in order to decrease future disaster-related losses. The design of new villages and the resettlement of the villagers, without identifying and considering those components that can affect the quality of the settlement and the needs and satisfaction of villagers, can cause a loss of the sense of belonging and identity, dispersion of tribes, destruction of the village physical integrity, and disruption of social and economic networks. In some cases it resulted in inhabitants abandoning the new built units and their migration to cities and or other villages. Interventions in rural settlements in the form of developmental plans often have a pure focus on the built environment. Grid layouts along with houses built by new and modern materials and ignoring the local knowledge of villagers, have presented an unfamiliar environment for villages. The shape and built environment patterns of rural settlements in each region follow certain rules, shaped by environmental, social, economic, cultural and political factors.
This study aims to explain the impact of landscape, as a component of rural settlements, in reconstruction of rural settlements. We test a hypothesis which examines the relationship between the landscape component in the reconstruction and villagers’ satisfaction of the new village. The present study is descriptive, analytical and uses a survey method for gathering data. For the survey, 135 samples were selected through using the simple random sampling method. In this study, issues of belonging to the old village, ignoring the climatic considerations in design, the undesirable quality of new village’s sight and landscape, the condition of roads and subdivision of parcels, as well as the condition of neighborhoods in the design of the new village have been investigated as reasons for rejecting the design of the new settlement by villagers. In the case of Nayband village, we examined three aspects of the environmental, social and semantic physical landscape as forming layers of rural landscape. The results of this study indicate that the inclusion of the landscape component in improving the spatial quality of the new rural settlements is influential and considering this component is directly related to the reception of the new settlement by villagers. From the villager's point of view, the sense of belonging to the old village, ignoring the climatic considerations and the undesirable quality of the sight and landscape in the new settlement, have been mentioned as the most important reasons for their rejection of the newly built settlement.

House is a place where the first experience of space happens. Some experiences such as territory and territoriality are related to the definition of public-private boundaries of housing environments. These definitions are clearly observable in the housing in desert cities of Iran. In these cities, territory is one of the indicators of housing quality, in the sense that its organization can lead to human comfort and attend to aspects such as identity, motivation and security in housing environments. In this study the concept of territory has been examined as one of the factors that influence the quality of relationship between people and environment. There are several categorization of territory. In this article, three categories of territory, namely individual, family and group, have been selected for analysis. Reviewing literature shows two types of factors affect territory. These factors relate to the behavior of residents and physical aspects of buildings. According to these factors the concept of physical territories is affected by physical factors of building and the concept of behavioral territories is affected by the behavior of residents. This research tries to determine the concept of territories by juxtaposing both physical and behavioral territories. Therefore, the main question is: what are the range and concept of territories in three housing periods of desert cities? And how we can determine the range of territories in these three housing periods? Our secondary questions are: what have been changed in these territories? And what are the results of the juxtaposition of physical and behavioral territories for designers and planers of contemporary houses? The desert city of Aqda is selected as a case study for this research, given that the cultural and demographic structure of this city is very similar to some other desert cities in the region. Furthermore, three housing periods in Aqda are clearly observable and comparable with other similar desert cities in the region. These periods are related to before Pahlavi dynasty, the first and second Pahlavi and post Islamic Revolution and they contain the old, middle and new pattern of housing. This research is qualitative and a questionnaire is used for interviewing the residents. According to the research’s theoretical framework, the physical features of houses as well as the perception and behavior of residents have been analyzed. Then the physical and behavioral territories were specified. By juxtaposing behavioral and physical territories, a real range of territories has been specified. The result of research specified the range of territories and their changes in these three periods. The results about each territory shows that people of desert cities use body language and verbal tools, more than physical boundaries, for providing a private territory for individuals and families. These people still prefer seasonal and multi –functional uses of the house spaces. The private territory of the group is not much affected by physical boundaries. It is more organized according to the intimacy between users, weather conditions and security of spaces. In general, this study shows residents try to maintain current behavior in space, despite physical changes. So the behavior of residents is one of the most important determinants of the range of territories. However, it should be noted that behavioral and physical territories are somewhat different in every Iranian sub-cultures. Therefore, using the proposed model in different social and cultural contexts can lead to different functional responses.

Due to their extensive links with the natural and historical context, rural settlements acquire many historical, cultural, natural, architectural values and hence are considered as a part of national capital. The image and physical structure of the ‘village’ has been adversely affected by the influx of technology, culture and images of the ‘city’ and a loss of cultural and indigenous values among the inhabitants of these settlements. However, a part of these settlements has endure partly due to the strength and architectural values embedded in their built environment.
As a result, the physical development plans require a vision that takes into consideration the historical value of rural settlements. Housing Foundation of Islamic Revolution has been involved in identifying rural settlements with historical and cultural values and implementing improvement projects for them. In this process, the participation of villagers can facilitate the implementation and ensure the success of the project. Adopting a network analysis approach, this study analyzes the participation of rural people in improvement projects in settlements with historical and cultural values. The aim of this study is to evaluate the participation of villagers in the development of valuable historical fabric of Shahkooh Sofla as one of the target villages for tourism.
The network analysis approach is adopted because of the importance and role of social relations and conflicts. Data was obtained through document review, field visits, questionnaire and interviews with local people. Using the snowball method, 43 people were selected for this study, who were involved in, and exerted influence on, the village affairs. At the next step, a questionnaire was prepared asking respondents the question of "which of the following people have tried to facilitate the project and cooperate with you? In the last step, data was analyzed using UCINET software.
Density index determines the ratio of existing links to the ones that are supposed to exist. This index in terms of confidence among the villagers was 0.6124 or 61.24% and in terms of participation was 0.1977 or 19.77%. This shows that more than 60 percent of villagers have confidence in each other, while their participation is very low and more people act based on their personal decision and not group decisions. The reciprocity index shows the ratio of reciprocal links to the ones that are supposed to exist. This index in terms of confidence among the villagers was 0.5868 or 58.68% and in terms of participation was 0.5727 or 57.27%. The transitivity index in terms of confidence among the villagers was 76.79% and in terms of participation was 53.03%.
The results indicate an appropriate level of trust between villagers and at the same time very low level of cooperation and participation among them. The highest level of trust and cooperation was emerged within social groups. A greater public participation, cooperation and assistance is a necessary prerequisite for the implementation of the project. Many of the villagers are certainly willing to participate in the various stages of the project, but they assert that officials are not inclined to involve people and that most of the measures incorporated in the project has been already planned without public participation. Given that the planning and implementation of the development project lack any provision for the participation of local people, it cannot lead to sustainable development. Adopting network approach seems necessary in these projects.

Loggia, locally known as Refagh, is one of the most important semi-open spaces with remarkably diverse types in rural housing of Mazandaran province in Iran. Given that the lifestyle is enmeshed with the nature and because of the special characteristics of the environment of this region, semi-open spaces generally, and loggia particularly, play various functional, aesthetical, climatic, cultural, and social roles within vernacular houses. In new modern houses this space is rarely built or does not convey the same role as in vernacular architecture. It has not been updated according to the new lifestyle of villagers. One type of refagh which locates in front of the house is predominant in the region, being observed in all vernacular rural houses within all different sub-regions of Mazandaran. This space has the most distinctive role in providing thermal comfort and convenience in hot seasons. This paper concentrates on this space in order to introduce its various characteristics, types, roles, and its rate of acceptability by villagers as users. This paper seeks to answer the question of why residents of rural houses in Mazandaran do not include this beneficial space in the layout of their newly built houses. In order to do so, four villages have been selected for this study. A sample of 44 houses – both from vernacular and modern architecture - was purposefully selected in these villages. Local residents as users of these houses have been interviewed. All sample houses have been observed, photographed, measured, mapped, and documented. In addition, structured interviews were conducted with the residents in order to find out their lifestyles, ways of using refagh, and the rate of their interest about this space. The results show that despite some concerns, most interviewees whether living in vernacular or new house are interested in including refagh in the layout of their houses. The positive and strong aspects of refagh according to villagers’ view is grouped based on its economic, social, and cultural role. In addition, the architectural value of refaagh based on villagers’ perception is grouped in aesthetic, function, efficiency, and thermal comfort categories. Uneconomical, inefficient, and uncomfortable were the most prominent negative aspects of this space mentioned by villagers. In addition, incompatibility of vernacular pattern of refagh with the new lifestyle of villagers has intensified the process of elimination of this space from the layout of new rural houses. Further research is needed to investigate these negative aspects and making it updated according to the new lifestyle of villagers. Through resolving villagers’ concerns about this space, it can return to the layout of new housing of the region and play a role in preserving local identity, making houses beautiful and less dependent on mechanical cooling. This paper reveals some of the gaps in our knowledge about the vernacular housing of Mazandaran and refagh. It emphasises on the necessity of doing more field and lab research on this space.

The oldest form of human shelters are hand-dug underground spaces. These shelters are older than the first built shelters. Ground as the first place and as a building material for shelters has played a significant role in shaping architecture. One of the uses of the ground in vernacular architecture is going to underground. In Naein, buildings that have been created underground are called “Bin”. Bins have various types, meaning that each Bin has different components, volume and size according its usage. There are valuable samples of Bins in different historical periods, such as spaces with residential use, water mills, mosques and textile workshops. Despite the diversity and specific characteristics of these structures, no complete research has been conducted on them.
Today the reasons that have led to the creation of Bin architecture in Naien cannot guarantee their maintenance. Because of their incompatibility with modern lifestyles, Bins are at risk of destruction. Our field data collection showed that in the city of Naien, Bafran and Mohammadieh areas various Bins have remained, while others have been destroyed completely. This issue shows the importance of the documentation about them. Additionally, this paper can be considered as a template for future studies aimed at documenting hand dug architectural spaces. Using a mixed method research, this paper seeks to identify the effective factors in the variety of Bins and developing a typology of them. Some of the plans of Bins are developed through the author’s field survey and are presented for the first time. The results showed that the hand dug monuments of Naien, based of natural features of the underground geological structure, their layout and the method of opening the underground space, can be classified into two types; underground Bins and dug Bins in clay wall. Mosalla mosque, residential structures under Rostam castle, GorAbad water mill, Molla Nor water mill and gown weaving workshops are categorized in “dug Bins in clay wall” group. In Naien this hand-dug architecture has been used in places where because of the differences in geological context, high walls are built so that horizontal access through the wall is possible. So a set of places has dug with different depth on the clay wall. Examples of the second category, “underground Bins” groups, include Rigareh water mill, Mehrijan water mill, AliAbad mosque and underground bed-chamber of Naien central mosque. In this group the flat surface of the ground did not prevent the creation of hand-dug architecture. The primary access to this hand-dug underground Bins is through wells, which at the same time provide ventilation and light for these spaces.

The nomadic architecture and life style have many latent aspects, influenced by the ways of living of nomads, their culture and society. Nomadic life involves annual and temporal movement, where a group of people, along with their livestock, move from winter tents to summer pastures and return again in the cold season to their winter camp. This movement presents some sort of harmony with the natural environment, partly influenced by environmental forces. On this basis, we can assume that the nomadic life is a livelihood and, hence, a cultural issue. In this regard, the concept of territory as one of the key concepts in human and environmental studies has a special place in the formation of the spatial system of nomadic architecture. More than being a physical concept, territory is a mental concept that effects both the physical structure of the environment, the behavior patterns of the inhabitants and the meanings that inhabitants assign to their environment. However, it seems that little attention has been paid to examining this concept in nomadic architecture. Therefore, the present pper studies the life style of nomadic people and the spatial organization associated with this type of living and examines the concept of territory in three realms of physical, behavioral, and semantic in ILL Sadat-Mahmudi of Boyerahmad Semli tribes as a case study. For this purpose we conducted a fieldwork in the places of living of these tribes, mapped their settlements, and used interviews and observation for collecting data. The findings of the research conceptualized territory in three realms of physical, functional and semantic in nomadic architecture, from both the objective and the subjective points.
The physical patterns and living spaces of the nomadic people can be categorized into primary (private), secondary (semi-public) and public areas. The primary realm is the interior of black space of Chador (tent) where people live. The secondary realm refers to the open space in front of the tent, located between the tent and livestock’s spaces. In this space, preparing food and dairy products, washing and livestock storage take place. The public realm also refers to the open space between the tents, which is formed between several black tents. In each of these territories, different activities can be observed, including eating, resting, welcoming guests and the like in the private sphere; livestock related activities, food preparation, washing and the like in the secondary domain; and finally, social activities, including pillboxes, ritual ceremonies and the like in the public domain. Ultimately, each of these territories and their associated behaviors and activities, leads to the formation of different meanings for inhabitants, which are related to the characteristics of tribal life. Among these meanings, one can refer to warfare, hospitality, freedom, self-affirmation, and so on. Furthermore, there is a two-way relationship between spatial characteristics, behavior patterns and meanings in nomadic settlements. This means that the physical characteristics of space in the lives of nomads facilitates the formation of certain behaviors and limits others in particular territories. These meanings are formed through the harmony between the physical characteristics of the environment and behavioral patterns that take place in them. These meanings also shape the ways in which activities take place in a particular space and how the space is organized in nomadic housing.

Kandovan historical village, located in the vicinity of Osku town, is one of the most important attractive Geoheritage sites in East Azerbaijan province in Iran, thanks to the hewn-cut houses from Sahand Mountain. The rocky architecture of Kandovan, from a geological point of view, is on the surfaces of a thick Ignimbrite layer, which, due to natural weathering and erosion along the main joints and discontinuities of Kandovan valley, have created conical forms and structures. From a conservation point of view, these deterioration factors have resulted in poor living conditions, abandonment and seasonal residence in these rocky houses. Compared to the other Igneous rocks, Tuff (ignimbrite) is a light rock with a high ratio of porosity and proper workability. Therefore, it has been used in the construction of many stone heritage buildings in different countries. This kind of stone, therefore, requires permanent care and maintenance. Over the past half century, in response to the decay and damage of these monumental stone houses, villagers used Portland cement (as an accessible and useful material in construction industry) for repair and maintenance of their rocky houses. Given the differences in terms of porosity, thermal and humidity expansion coefficient between Kandovan volcanic tuffs and cement and also due to other characteristics of cement like continuous generation of destructive salts, it became one of the destructive forces of the Kandovan heritage site.
`The aim of this study is to develop a vernacular mortar to replace sand-cement mortar in order to sustain conservation in Rock-hewn Architecture of Kandovan historical village. For this purpose, the study was carried out with field and laboratory investigations; the fieldwork was conducted from the perspective of pathology and identifying the causes of damage. Different modes of water were identified as the main deterioration factors. In order to protect the surface and using mortars in the outer surfaces exposed to erosion and also filling the cracks and structural joints, 24 type of mortar were prepared. Mortar type specimens were made by mixing (fine-grained sand, wood ash, Pozzolanic and soil), binder (hydrated lime) and water. All of the samples prepared were in the cubical forms.
In order to determine the most resistant mortar type, three accelerated aging tests, including salt crystallization attack with sodium sulphate anhydrous (Na2SO4) as well as wetting and drying and freezing and thawing cycle tests were performed. The results show that Pozzolanic lime mortar (PLM), prepared by mixing crushed Kandovan tuff, wood ash, and lime paste as a binder, exhibits high resistant against the aging process. In the next step, characterization and comparative study between Kandovan tuffs and PLM was carried out via X-ray powder diffraction and the relevant physical–mechanical properties of that were determined by measuring the capillary water absorption, water absorption on atmospheric pressure, P wave ultrasonic velocity, void index dry density, total porosity content, compressive strength and slake durability. The results demonstrated that Kandovan tuff stone has poor durability and high sensitivity to predisposing factors to deterioration, such as wetting and drying and freezing-thawing cycles. Furthermore, our results show that the mechanical properties and resistance of PLM are as twice as and its density is half of that in Kandovan tuffs. Therefore it can be used for conservation and repair and replace cement in Kandovan village.