Concepts in Architectural Patterns of Rural Housing (Case Study: the Villages of Razavi Khorasan)

Concepts are the context of human thinking and acting and involve all aspects of his life. Like all man-constructions, architecture depends to the conceptual system of his mind. According to some researches in architecture, patterns can be defined as a basis for showing this system in the regulation of physical elements. Attention to this can be considered an answer to some of the questions that address the causes of poor quality of contemporary rural housing. This area of architecture as a rich heritage of past patterns is a concern of many researchers. With an overview of the concepts and aspects of patterns, this article tries to peruse the importance of concepts system as a foundation to build the pattern and the link between architecture and culture. In this context, through a review of theories about patterns and their situation and relationship to the concepts, some of the traditional houses of villages of Razavi Khorasan are studied. Because of the diversity of climate, culture and architectural typology, Razavi Khorasan is a suitable area for the present research. Studies of the rural house typology of this area was performed in two stages,the results of which can be usable for Researchers to achieve a better understanding of the architecture of in this context. What can be achieved on the basis of the preliminary studies is that architectural patterns are formed based on a system of concepts that define the various architectural elements such as windows and rooms. These concepts are shaped in such a way that shows their characteristics, situation and layout in pattern and building. In this aspect any concept can be investigated at the scale of its own characteristics and the scale of its Influence and effect on the present system. These concepts are present in patterns on the one hand and on the other hand, are part of the cultural characteristics. So the concepts of patterns are the first link between culture and architecture. Due to characteristics of culture and its limitation on time and space, architectural concepts are available for analysis only in their time and location and in a proportional manner of society changes. Investigating Concepts within the framework of the study indicates the architectural concepts are fluid categories. They are highly dependent on both time and space. On the other hand, the relation between the concept and their system is a two-way communication with collateral impact. Due to the importance of time and place in the formation of concepts and patterns and the relationship between elements, architectural patterns will be able to adapt with the condition of time and place of the society if the architects are able to adapt and create a new conceptual system in architecture. To achieve this objective it is necessary to consider some points that will be present in the results in this paper after a review of relevant features.