An enquiry of spatiality of image of " Father" at Home among the families in Tabriz

Studying real as well as imagery spatiality of family roles and image of them for family members should be put among first steps of any architectural design program that aims to achieve in stabilizing of family pattern of a certain culture. Its importance is more obvious for those cultures which want to save family structure as their basis of existence and growth. A literature review of current socio-spatial studies of home in the first part of the article has shown a kind of ignorance or even opposition towards main family roles (i.e. fatherhood, motherhood, spouse), so such studies are mainly organized around dialectic relationship among two genders and home is considered as central point of the conflict. Feminists’ theoretical positions are clearly dominant here, although it could not be forgotten that leftist basis of social sciences has its overwhelming impact on any study of this kind. So it may be clear that for an Islamic society as Iran such a research gap of family-based study of home is highly required to maintain and improve its preferred social pattern based on family relations. The current research is arranged towards such a goal via quantitative as well as qualitative study of spatiality of father’s presence at home. Because there were no previous study of the subject, at first some usual behaviors of father role in Iranian society (positive or negative ones) were selected and put on examination via a questionnaire designed to measure spatiality of fathers’ image among the youths (the cases were taken from Tabriz for consistency). Target behaviors of the questionnaire fill an spectrum from individual presence of father at home to family actions with his contribution and finally covers his presence in wider collections at home (i.e. parties). These are arranged in four categories: one person actions, two-person interactions, family interactions and family-stranger (guest) interactions. For every category 4 to 11 presence- behavior patterns are identified that their relation with images of father are quantitatively explored. Then the main features emerged from quantitative study were put in more detailed study using four open email interview. The four of respondents selected were asked to describe about those patterns and send some pictures of the place of father in those positions at their home. ‘Family-biased’ and ‘rituality’ are two main labels of fathers’ images emerged from quantitative research. These findings are clearly in opposition with dialectic discussion of current literature of home (male-female ones). ‘Father’ in his individual presence and signs of such presence have been far less memorable than his being in family or guest spaces. This fact is far strengthened in results of qualitative enquiry where ritual as well as custodial roles of father in his spatiality in family are emphasized. His presence at main corners of collective spaces of home and important angles of family gatherings are main elements of spatiality of fathers’ image. Results of this research open some ways towards understanding of father-home relation and can provide some basics for interior design oriented to family behaviors.