Grasping the Thoughts and Mentalities Involved in Shaping the Details and Ornaments of the Facades of Qajar Houses: Case Study of Sorkheie House Façade

During the design process of a building facade, differ ent individuals including client, architect, builder and even – indirectly – general public will either con sciously or unconsciously impose parts of their atti tudes, thoughts, beliefs and desires. In studies on the facades of historic buildings, understanding such thoughts and attitudes can lead the researcher to an analysis that transcends mere formal or stylistic inves tigations, and through studying the processes and fac tors affecting their designing and construction, provides a more comprehensive understanding of these facades, the quality of their formation and their relation to the context in which they have been built. Therefore, presuming the thoughts, wishes, attitudes and beliefs as a collection of conscious and uncon scious mental concepts in humans’ minds,  in this re search the terms “thoughts” and “mentalities” have been considered respectively as conscious and uncon scious mental concepts; and then attempts have been made to grasp the thoughts and mentalities of indi viduals or groups engaged in the formation of a his toric house façade, through a case study relying on interpretive-historical research methodology. Thus, a Qajar structure named as Sorkheie House, located in the Sorkhab district of Tabriz and commissioned by Mehdikhan-e Asef-ol-saltaneh, was selected, trying to understand the thoughts and mentalities involved in the formation of a façade of the house which faces toward the outer courtyard. To this end, a brief over view on the two concepts o thoughts and mentalities was followed by examining the mentioned façade of the Sorkheie House and historical documents relating to the people involved in the design and construction processes of the house. Since of the people involved in the construction of the house, only the name of the owner (Asef-ol-saltaneh) is cited in the existing docu ments, at the first step, some historic texts from the Qajar period somehow pertaining to Asef-ol-Saltaneh or his political position were examined using content analysis method. Then at the second step, the façade of the house was read using iconological approach, relying on the information attained from previous step. According to this approach (which involved a methodology for reading the historic works of art and architecture in order to understand their hidden meanings), the details and ornaments of the facade were examined through iconographical analysis and iconological interpretation so as to pin down the thoughts and mentalities that had affected its design and construction. Finally, information attained from both steps were analyzed and discussed. Results of the research indicates that thoughts and mentalities of the people contributing to the designing process of a façade and its details are affected by their historical, economical and socio-cultural status. Moreover, the architect, builder or client, who are involved directly in the designing process, were influenced by general thoughts and mentalities of the society. The results also show that within the mentalities of the people involved in the designing of the facades of the Qajar houses, these facades represented an arena for the emergence of their implicit thoughts, desires and wishes, which was realized through applying patterns, ornaments, and details denoting such thoughts and wishes.