Passive Defense in Formation of Urban Form The Case of Aqda, Iran

Faculty of Architecture and Urban Planning, Shahid Beheshti University Passive defense includes all measures other than armed means employed for defending a building, site or town. Aqda is a town strategically located on the way to prominent cities in Yazd Province including the capital city Yazd, Ardakan and Meybod. It boasts a long history dating back to the Parthian Period and earlier and was inhabited by Zoroastrians until many years after the Islamic rule. Due to its strategic position, several design techniques have been employed to defend it in cases of piratical raid and military attack. These include the choice of a strategic location; a controlled hierarchy of access routes including change of level, narrow and/or closed alleys and dead-ends; as well as the defensive design of houses which not only protected the house per se, but also provided opportunities for attacking the assaulters.