Privacy and Secrecy: Understanding the Differences and Similarities of these Two Concepts in Architecture and Urban Development

Human and his relation with his surrounding environment and other humans has always been the preoccupations of designers. However، as the knowledge of environmental and behavioral sciences، it does not have a history more than some decades. Up to the present day، various theories and discussions have been put forth on the important and effective components on human and his communication with the society. “Privacy” and “Secrecy” are considered two basic concepts in this area. Recently، in many researches conducted، it is observed that in translating from English into Persian، the term” Mahramiyat” is used as an equivalence for privacy and used beside the word “Khalvat”، whereas in the eastern culture، in particular، Islamic –Iranian culture، these two concepts have specific differences at the same time that they might overlap in some areas. Secrecy، despite being ignored has a deep root in Iranian culture، character and architecture. Being concerned about the act of considering these two concepts as the same concept and gradual diminish of the concept of secrecy in the Iranian contemporary architecture، made us elaborate the concept of each of these words. Clarifying the borders، and their similarities، we will be able to alert the Iranian designers and architects not to confuse these two words together and forget ‘secrecy’ simply. For this purpose، first، through library study، we will study these words morphologically and then reviewing the literature of the subject، the historical texts and reviewing the existing theories and views، we will cultivate these two concepts closely. Afterwards، through a comparative study، we will review the similarities and differences of these two concepts in some of the architectural examples. Finally، showing the inherent and basic differences of these two concepts in meaning and application، we will show to the Iranian activists in the area of architecture and urban development that the feature which is more colorfully seen in today’s Iranian architecture is the concept of privacy and not that of the secrecy. Using the strange concept of privacy and the lack of paying attention to the principles of Islamic-Iranian architecture is going to alter and demolish one of the original feature of our architecture، i. e secrecy.