Categoraizing the Design and Manufacturing Methods of Doors and Portals in Historical Structures of Rasht from Qajar Period Until Now

Entrances are important parts of buildings; which are made in the forms of door and portal. Nowadays, it seems that the methods of making and decorating of these parts have been changed. On the other hand, with categorizing, reproducing and recognizing of traditional methods in making and design of doors and portals, it’s possible to revitalize the cultural and architectural identity of historic cities. The question that this research is investigated is: how is possible to categorize the doors and portals in an urban ancient structure? The case study of this research is historical structures of Rasht. Rasht is one of the oldest cities in the north of Iran that is progressed in Safavid dynasty. Hitherto, the population of Rasht and its borders have been increased and changed. Nowadays, this city has historical structures where are located in the center of Rasht basically. As regard to the question of this study, the goal of the research is “compilation of the necessary criteria in order to the Categorizing of the doors and portals of a historical structures and its comparing with the historical sturctures of Rasht city”. The present information of this study is collected based on pedestrian survey is done by the author and has been accompanied with taking photography and library studies. At first, a framework is defined to separate the making’s methods of doors and portals and its different forms. This framework suggests the functional, decorative and proportional charecteristics of doors and portals. Functional features include the factors of the building’s function and materials of doors and portals. Decorative traits are composed of the accessories of doors, colors, symbolic motifs, designs and inscriptions of portals. Proportional charecteristic encompasses the frequent dimension and proportion of doors and portals. According to the political, social and technological developments that have been occurred in Iran and specially in Rasht, it is possible to separate the important historical periods in four sections: historical period (Qajar and its predecessor), classical period (1920 to 1960), the transition period (1960 to 1990) and the later period (1990 onwards). Moreover, it could be classified the design’s methods of doors and portals to six types in historical buildings of Rasht: Qajar dynasty and before based on its historical type, years of 1920 to1960 based on the simple and hardworking traditional species, the period of 1960 until 1990 based on integrated and imitative kinds and finally, recent decades based on the modern types. The comparison of these types according to the defined framework shows that due to changes in economic, social and technological customs, the making methods of the traditional doors and portals have gradually declined to week and superficial methods and is converting from a place to a blade during the times. Through the time, the use of glasses and vents in doors have increased. Morever, the inscriptions of portals have nearly outdated and in comparison, in the past times is being more brief, simple and industrialized. Along time, the conceptual and doctrinal richness of the used motifs in doors and portals have decreased and have transformed to vacuous, brief and functional ones. In the recent decades with the prevalence of personal vehicles, the dimensions and proportions of traditional doors have got about two or three times wider, namely in term of width. The final result of this study indicates that through the time, due to gradual economic, social and technological changes, the doors and portals’s manufacturing methods especially have declined to weakness ones and have been changed the building’s threshold from a place to a barrier.