The concept of identity is one of the most complex issues in the humanities such that its roots can be tracedon the philosophy, psychology and sociology. The application of this concept in the field of architecture wasexpanded after World War II, in the 50's and after t
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The concept of identity is one of the most complex issues in the humanities such that its roots can be tracedon the philosophy, psychology and sociology. The application of this concept in the field of architecture wasexpanded after World War II, in the 50's and after the outbreak of the criticism of modern architecture. Despiteextensive discussions that have taken place, this concept is still a matter of concern, especially in developingcountries. Vernacular architecture in these countries is a symbol of cultural identity in contrast with the pressuresof globalization and Invasion of Western Civilization. The main question of this study is the recognition of theconcept and effective principles of identity in architecture that is done through the analysis of the viewpointsof theorists.The views of theorists with the concept of identity and architecture can be seen in two total forms. The first oneis a process that architecture is considered as a symbol of self or society and in the second form, building’sidentity is known as the features or meanings of built environment. Anyway, the identity of built environmenthas deep relation with human identity and is considered as a pa rt of an individual's personality.Definition of architecture as identity, associated with concepts such as personalization, territory or senseof belonging. In contrast, analyzing the Identity in a building is a challenging issue that theorists have useddifferent terms to describe it. They have used from different terms like character of space, sense of place,meaning of built environment or physical features. A number of theories have considered identity as a part ofmeaning or sense of place, while some others have defined meaning or sense of place as a part of identity.Although these terms have different meaning, but all of them have mentioned some special features of builtenvironment that make meaning, cause uniqueness and distinguish a place from the other environment.Therefore, in this study the concept of meaning has used as the identity of built environment and the distinctionsbetween definitions are explained as the levels of meaning. Accordingly, four levels of meaning have defined,including basic meaning and form, functional meaning, symbolic and reference meaning, emotional andsentimental meaning. Perception of identity and meaning occurs by common significance and the level ofmeaning is related to the level of connection between the human and built environment and is defined in theprocess of interaction between these two elements.The interactive process is defined in a communication model between architect, built environment and user.Base on this model and theorist’s viewpoints, some principles have defined like oneness, continuity, innovation
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