An Analysis of Manifestation of First Pahlavi’s Discourses in the Architecture of Public Buildings in Tabriz Using Michel Foucault’s Theory

In different historical eras, architecture has illustrated some concepts based on their times through the space and content conveying political, cultural, and historical implications to the audience. According to Michel Foucault’s theory, in pursuit of the political goals of government, the whole structure of society is transformed under the shadow of dominant discourses and integrated to achieve the political power of the rulers. The architecture has also been affected. Various political orientations appeared in architecture during the First Pahlavi era when Iran transited from tradition to modernity. It is essential to examine how architecture follows these changes and how to responses it by understanding the modern government in Iran. This study aims to investigate architecture as an apparatus for the government system and examine the effect of rationality and governmental techniques of First Pahlavi on Foucault’s state anatomy. This is a qualitative study with a discourse approach and content analysis, and its findings are derived from library sources and field observations. In this research, the Pahlavi government was investigated based on Foucault’s Theory, and then the manifestation of the First Pahlavi era's discourses was examined. The mentioned discourses included traditionalism, archaism, militarism, and modernism or modernity in the architecture of educational, administrative, and service uses in Tabriz remained from the first Pahlavi era. According to the results of this study, the discourses that appeared in the Pahlavi era have been a part of the regime's ideology to achieve its goals, such as dominance over the society, authoritarianism, identity, national integrity, and modernity. These discourses have appeared in the architecture inspired by the dictator neoclassic architecture, imitating the West, advent of new uses for modernization of work system, modern spatial organization, the façades inspired by the ancient architecture, placement of public building around the square emphasizing centralism and objectivism.