Influence of Material-Related Considerations on the Durability of Pre-1300 Hijri Buildings in the Central Iranian Plateau

As the architectural buildings are among the national investments, their beneficial life should be as long as possible. It seems that ignoring the short life of contemporary buildings is one of the factors that has led to the emergence of complex problems in the economic and environmental fields, the early destruction of contemporary buildings and the massive production of construction debris. Since the arrival of the modern era in Iran, the long working life of the buildings and its necessity has been forgotten, despite the fact that architecture durability has always been at the center of attention in the traditional Iranian society; there are buildings in Iran's historical neighborhoods with the useful life of several hundred years. In this regard, the purpose of this research is to identify the role of materials in the survival of traditional architecture. From the perspective of the research methodology, the research method of this study is qualitative and is a type of grounded theory research, based on the induction procedure and data analysis. By systematically gathering data using library resources, field studies, interviews with traditional architects and applying an inductive analysis, some knowledge about the long useful life of traditional architecture is obtained. According to these studies, considerations related to materials can be considered as one of the factors affecting the durability of traditional Iranian architecture. Knowing how to use the materials, applying domestic materials suitable to the climate, boosting material resistance, matching closely related materials, reducing the material vulnerability against environmental issues, knowledge of material type and finally, choosing materials according to the building functionality are important matters taken into consideration in traditional domestic architecture. Traditional architects had made durable long lasting buildings relying on the collective wisdom and taking into account these considerations and patterns, in general. The patterns that have evolved over the course of history, relying on collective wisdom and have resulted in a durable architecture for Iran.