Housing Examination from the Viewpoint of Semiology (Qajar Period Houses and Contemporary Residential Complexes in Shiraz)

Concerns about the creation of a desirable quality in the architectural space have always taken into consideration by architects and researchers in this field. And their attention has been attracted to theoretical and philosophical of language theory. However semiology has been not considered as a tool for identify analysing and evaluating designing homes. House is the place where people feel the most belonging and spend there most of their time, so knowing its deep concepts can lead to creation of an ideal environment. Most of requirements that are expected for home are based on the needs human in different periods. This research, by considering the two historical periods of Qajar and contemporary in Shiraz-Iran, supposes the house as a texture composed of different layers, that by examining the semiology approaches it makes it possible to examine the effects of these layers on house architecture and to obtain different meanings of elements and spaces of homes. Therefore, according to studies on semiotics, the concept of semiology has described, the data and theories related to this topic were first collected and then defined in an architectural system to create a conceptual model of semiology for reading each architectural work. Then the houses of the Qajar period and contemporary residential complexes have been analysed based on above model. The research method is a combined one of qualitative - quantitative type. The results of the study concluded through library and documentary research, and investing questionnaire and analysing interviews, shows how the elements of architecture that affected by architectural and meta-architectural layer in these two historical periods influence the meanings understood by users.