Reflection of Feminine Archetypes in Iranian Historical Architecture through the lens of Jung;The Code of Femininity in the Mandala Schemas of Iranian Historical Architecture

Belief in the feminine essence of existence and the primacy of the divine worship of feminine god has been accepted in most civilizations. According to Jung's viewpoints, this belief, which is an effective factor in artistic creativity, is institutionalized in the collective subconscious of humanity in the form of feminine archetypes (anima and mother), and is emerged as feminine codes in various artworks. Architecture is mixed with creativity and is a symbol of values and beliefs that sometimes emerge in a coded form and, according to Jung, it cannot be free from collective subconscious influence. An analysis of this impact can lead to a more comprehensive understanding of the legacy of the architecture and its contributing factors.

This paper focuses on finding the feminine archetypes codes in historical architecture of Iran and to follow these codes, it is necessary to examine all scales of architecture from schema to decorations. This article focuses on schemas and will, therefore, only consider geometric codes and aims to answer to these questions that how can the impact of the collective subconscious on Iranian historical architecture be explained and how are the feminine archetypes reflected in these works?

This paper is based on descriptive- analytic method. Data have been collected based on documentary and library studies.

The results of this study show that Iranian historical architecture represent feminine archetypes in different levels from schema to decorations. Mandala is a geometrical symbol that is related to feminine archetypes and is emerged in schemas, plans and decorative patterns in historical architecture of Iran.