An Introduction to the Naturalism in Examples of Contemporary Iranian Architecture

Man during his life on Earth, from Adam till now, has known that nature is a life-giving and mysterious resource, and has always tried to discover all of its dimensions, including the expression of nature in art. Nature has always been one of the most important sources of human inspiration during the history; from the first art works remaining in caves to present. Aristotle, the ancient philosopher, was one of the first people who wrote on nature as a great source of inspiration. Undoubtedly, some of the best pieces of classical music and paintings have been created according to this method. Architects have also used their inspiration of nature in different ways in their architectural design process. Identifying the meaning of naturalism in architecture and the approach to nature in contemporary Iranian architecture works are the most important purposes of this research. In order to realize this purpose, process of inspiration from nature and interaction of architecture and the nature must be analyzed and topics, which can explain ways of inspiration from the nature and naturalism, particularly in contemporary architecture of Iran, must be expressed. The main questions of the research include: "What does naturalism and trend to the nature in architecture mean?" and "How does this interpretation have affected contemporary Iranian architecture works?" In other words, how can describe effective patterns of naturalistic design in contemporary Iranian architect's works? According to the subject, it is tried to choose case studies from prominent works of contemporary Iranian architecture in different time periods up to now which naturalism appears in their descriptions and reviews. These works include: Avicenna's Tomb, Nader Shah's Tomb, Architect's Villa, Jamshidieh Park, Dezful Cultural Center, Solar House, Iran Ambassador's Residence in Seoul, Beheshti's House, Musalla of Tehran, and Negarestan Cultural Center. Innovation of this research in comparison with the same issues is analyzing how to use theoretical principles of subject in contemporary Iranian architecture. In other words, significance of this research is its comparative approach in interaction between theory and practice. In research process descriptive techniques are used and required data are collected using archival methods and field studies. Research process and conclusion is based on analysis of samples, and extraction of architect’s comments. At first, a table with the subject of “Methods inspired by nature” based on theoretical framework of research is made and in the selected samples is examined. After completing the tables, the quantity and quality of considering nature and environment in these buildings are analyzed. Research achievements indicate that the use of natural materials, water, and natural forms has the most influence in quality of trends to the nature in contemporary architecture of Iran. Frequency of 41% and higher for all the studied samples indicates that naturalism has always been on the core attention in contemporary Iranian architects' design process. Dezful Cultural Center, designed by Farhad Ahmadi, is the example of works which has done more effort for considering the nature in its design, as explained in the theoretical principles of the research.