The Typology of Traditional Houses in Talesh City: Case Study of Khalehsara 57 Village

The recognition and categorization of various types of architecture can lead to a better understanding of the environment, its conservation, and the establishment of new design methods. Gilan province is in the north of Iran and in the southern coasts of the Caspian Sea. High humidity and excessive rainfall are the major properties of Gilan province which are the main reasons for the formation of architecture and urbanization in this region. The human settlements on the Caspian sea coasts have special architectural features. Valuable instances of these complexes can be observed in Talesh city, which is 100 kilometres from Gilan province (Rasht), and especially in Khalehsara 57 village, which is 15 Kilometres from the county seat (Talesh city). This paper tries to investigate thearchitectural typology of Khalehsara 57 village. The data were collected by desk studies and field observations; and among the population of 495 residential buildings, 90 traditional houses with valuable architectural properties were analysed. Therefore, the status quo of the village was described first; then, structural elements of the buildings, existing environments in the buildings, and typology of the village were studies. The results of this study showed that the development of the buildings were formed in the village from east to west and then in high altitude based on climatic priorities. Generally, three architecture patterns are found in the texture of Khalehsara 57 village includinghigh-based houses, houses with Telar, and Gholam Gardeshi houses. Seventy three percent of the houses were high-based houses, and they were the most frequent pattern in the texture of Khalehsara 57 village. Twenty four percent of the houses were houses with Telar which were less accepted by the villagers due to high expenses of the execution. Three percent of the houses were Gholam Gardeshi houses which was the last type of the houses with regard to frequency in the typology of the buildings of the Khalehsara 57 village.