Recognizing Psychological Effects of Natural Elements on Iranian Vernacular Houses (Case Study: Vernacular Houses in Yazd)

Subject Areas : architecture

Nafise Afshari Basir ¹ , Farah Habib ^{2 *} , Seyed Majid Mofidi Shemirani ³

1 - Ph.D Candidate, Department of Art and Architecture, Sience and Research Branch, Islamic Azad University, Tehran, Iran.
2 - Ph.D, Professor, Department of Art and Architecture, Sience and Research Branch, Islamic Azad University, Tehran, Iran.
3 - Ph.D, Assistant Professor, Department of Art and Architecture, Science and Technology University, Tehran, Iran.

Received: 2016-01-24 Accepted : 2016-10-10 Published : 2025-09-23

Keywords: Elements of Nature, Environmental Psychology, Vernacular Houses, Psychological Needs of Human, Yazd Vernacular Houses,

Abstract :

Given more than seven thousand years of urbanization and highly diverse topographic and geographical conditions, Iran
is one of treasures through the world's architectural history. Climatic diversity, on one hand, and long history of living,
on the other hand, has led to noteworthy and valuable achievement in architecture and urbanization within this country.
But these elements are less utilized in today's architecture. In today’s world, excessive population growth of cities and the
development of cities without rules as well as industrialization regardless of people’s health and welfare in residential spaces make human societies face a crisis. While in recent years, appreciation of nature and its proximity to residential areas have been concerned in most of countries and a great attention has been paid to association between human-made space and its natural context. Attention to natural elements, particularly the nature formed within courtyards next to houses, can improve quality of life and make houses a better space for human growth and sublimity. Indeed, urban life, technological advances and excessive economical demands have extremely made people apart from the nature and formed their mind within an iterative mechanized order. However, human is a part of nature and his close relationship to the nature provides him survival and longevity. In Iranian houses, a space indicating relationship between human and nature is a courtyard. Central courtyards within vernacular houses in Yazd provided the inhabitants with terrific living conditions and enhanced their living quality by utilizing natural elements such as water, wind, light, and plants. Actually vernacular architecture represents a strong relationship between human and nature by smoothing the nature and using natural elements. In historical houses of Yazd, the house was not separated from nature and there should be some natural representation inside spatial configuration of the house. In vernacular houses, nature was always presented in terms of three appearances: primary, secondary and abstract form and the sky, soil, water, wind and different living figures such as domestic plants and pets all were available in terms of primary nature and they interacted with each other. But today, due to providing more houses regardless of their quality, not only natural elements are ignored in human life; but also in many cases, buildings do not have the essential features of living. This study seeks to answer the question what could be the effect of nature on human perception, visual pleasure, comfort and human mental relaxation? This paper aims to investigate impacts of natural elements on vernacular houses in Yazd. A descriptive, analytic methodology along with a case study )vernacular houses in Yazd( were employed and data were collected through library and field research. The questionnaire analysis was performed with SPSS. Natural elements directly affect physical, sensual, and spiritual dimensions of human existence. Among all natural elements, water had the greatest influence on human sensual dimension; and also green space and vegetation had the most significant impact on human physical dimension )cooling and humidifying the air(. Furthermore, the light had the highest effect on human sensual dimension

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