Investigating the factors affecting the plan layout of single-yard houses in Isfahan (Case study: Houses built before 1300 AH)

Factors influencing the arrangement and design of architectural spaces in historic houses, including residential buildings, while many researchers believe that: Climatic conditions such as light have played a fundamental role in the placement of spaces by masters of traditional architecture. This research seeks to answer the question: What are the factors affecting used in the layout of Isfahan's historic houses in the plan? Extensive studies have been conducted in the field of historic houses in Iran, but the affecting the arrangement of spaces have been ignored in these studies. However, the factors influencing the arrangement of spaces, including the shape of the earth, longitudinal and transverse axes located on the ground and climatic features, have been neglected in these studies. For the first time, this research seeks to identify the physical factors in the placement of spaces around the courtyards of historic houses in Isfahan. The tools used include: data collection by documentary, library and field study. The present research is fundamental in terms of purpose and the research method is qualitative and the data analysis method is descriptive-analytical. To achieve this, first a field survey of historic houses has been done, then the formal classification of the main spaces has been extracted and by comparing the shape characteristics and the placement of the spaces based on daylight, the shape of the earth and the stretch of the yard in different directions, type the performance of the space and the creativity of the masters of traditional architecture have been analyzed. The results of the studies confirm that several factors affecting such as the shape of the ground, the longitudinal direction of the yard axis and climatic factors such as the amount of light have been effective in locating and arranging the main spaces in the plan, respectively. Also, by changing the direction of the courtyard from north-south to east-west, the arrangement of spaces in the plan has changed.