A Comparative Study of Traditional Iranian Schools Flexibility from the Seljukid Era to Qajar Era

Problem statement:

 Flexibility is one of the significant concepts in traditional Iranian architecture and Its role is highlited especially in educational spaces due to crutial need of people. Today, however, the role of flexibility in new schools has diminished. Meanwhile, the architecture of traditional Iranian schools has valuable indicators in term of flexibility that can be considered in the design of new schools.

The present study aimed to study the flexibility of traditional Iranian schools and to investigate the mode of changes in the flexibility of these schools from the Seljuk to Qajar historical era and also to identify the factors affecting the flexibility of traditional schools to use these factors in designing flexible educational spaces.

This study is applied in terms of purpose and descriptive-analytical in terms of method. For this purpose, first, data related to the field of flexibility extracted from library resources. Then, after content analysis, the theoretical framework identified and the manifestation of flexibility in case studies investigated by a field study and deductive reasoning methods.

This study shows that in addition to the fact that traditional schools have been flexible in all of these periods; Their flexibility has also changed along with their physical evolution and the addition of physical elements of the vault and nave. In general, in most of the physical elements of the studied schools, the farther we go from the Seljuk period and get closer to Qajar period, the component of functional diversity decreases the spatial diversity, adaptability and changeability become more prominent. Therefore, the flexibility of schools during this period has been a growing trend.