Reviewing of the Vernacular Values and Factors of Shushtar New Town

Today, because of the industrialization of cities and the problems related to it, it is necessary to pay attention to vernacular architecture by reviewing past architectures, more than before. In this way, in addition to the recognition of the traditional cities that we know them as successful urban planning samples and those which we always try to gain their teachings, reviewing and analyzing contemporary examples is also very helpful. In this research “Shushtar New Town” has been reviewed because of special focus to the vernacular architecture and recognizing the culture of peoples' lives and its impact on design, so it can be useful in planning and designing future residential complex. Therefore, this study was conducted to answer these questions: What aspects and factors of vernacular architecture are considered in the design of Shushtar New Town? The goal is to presenting an optimal residential architecture pattern that tailored to the local and identity potentials of Shushtar. In this regard the authors have investigated the “Shushtar No” residential town with using descriptive-analytic method, library-applied and case studies. The main goal of Shushtar No is the town's efforts to improve the quality of people life. Although, according to some unforeseen social events, the project of Shushtar No, have had no good result as much as it should be, but it is always considered as one of the most important examples and indicators in new towns. In the urban design of Shushtar New town, special attention has been made to the field of design. In this town, all of the factors have created harmony between the design itself and the field of design. The location of project, design and urban structure, form and shape of buildings and composition of interior spaces of houses, have been coordinated in field of design to create harmony in the appearance of the town. So it emphasizes the social life and conservation of vernacular culture of the region in the direction of social life by employing valuable historical patterns of the old Shushtar city. According to being adjacent to old Shushtar, the architectural design of Shushtar No which means new town, was sought to redefine the ideas and patterns of traditional architecture and its historical and cultural heritage; In such a way that it can be able to plan the modern life patterns to respond the needs of modern life for different groups of people. Due to the existence of the neighborhood culture and social life among the Shushtar’s people and also because of users of the town, a community (factory of plantation) formed in this town; So Kamran Diba emphasized on the approach of creating neighborhood units and social spaces in design. The important architectural points of Shushtar are the expansion of the town in the surface not in the height. This kind of architecture that refers to the vernacular architecture of this region is the result of, Diba's attitude into the neighboring unit architecture. The designing idea of this town is based on the climate and special attention to the region climate and climatic solutions that have derived from traditional Iranian architecture. According to Diba, the design of Shushtar No, follows the original patterns of traditional Iranian architecture, that its forms are derived from the climate constraints, available local technology conditions, the customs and culture of the region. Because of extreme heat of Shushtar No, one of the important factors in designing, creating the cooling and thermal comfort in the buildings for users. So the important factor in designing the buildings of Shushtar New town was to prevent the direct radiation of sun into the buildings and decrease the temperature of the interior space. Finally, according to the studies conducted to this research, it can be concluded that the vernacular design in this town has been found through three factors: cultural, climatic characteristics and attention to the field of design. Each of these factors has applied different strategies to create vernacularism in the residential town. A collection of these three factors has led to the successful design of Shushtar New Town. Unfortunately, after the operation of the Shushtar New town, due to the problems that are mentioned in the article, these factors were changed by residents and became an undesirable and inappropriate form; Thus this town has already been in a very unfair situation.