The Elucidation of Terraced Housing in Iranian Vernacular Architecture through Fractal Models: In Case of Masouleh and Abyaneh Settlements

The Latin term “Vernaculus” which means ‘native’ generates the terminology of vernacular architecture. It represents the architecture of people that defining the built environment. Accordingly, this terminology makes reference to the sense of place attachments to the designated context by the inhabitants, wherein they are rooted in the specific origin points that refer to their distinct race and homeland. This research is based on identifying the vernacular architecture of Iran; specifically by focusing on steepy land context so-called terraced housing. Aimed to drive fruitful design principles qualified to be applicable to contemporary architecture, are investigated. It should be noticed that Iranian terraced housing precedence have been remained literally unique in accordance with their local entity and heterogeneity among their topography; in comparison with various form of terraced housing all around the world. The identification of these settlements was evaluated according to the topography, climate, urban pattern and spatial organization of Iranian terraced settlements. As an outcome, the analysis of case studies and data processing will enable decision makers, planners, architects and designers to become more aware of the existing architectural ritual. The contemporary housing design problems can be solved by employing an appropriate method of design and building construction with reference to the present vernacular housing stock. In the second half of Twentieth Century, many different methods were used in order to study formation and development of traditional settlements. One of these is fractal geometry that is based on mathematical algorithm. Fractal geometry is particularly focusing on organic patterns, which have been developed and diversified in vernacular architecture. There are many useful thoughts that can be learnt from the organic patterns and from searching for the randomness and self-similarity of a vernacular settlement. This study is going to investigate some critical points of the application of boxcounting method to the evaluation of fractal dimension of some chosen vernacular settlements. The relationships amongst the topography, elevation and urban pattern are analyzed in two selected Iranian terraced settlements; Masouleh and Abyaneh. The investigation will be accomplished through fractal analysis of two different villages in different geography of Iran. By referring to the fractal dimension calculated with box-counting method, different type of information will be collected about mentioned vernacular settlements. The new housing pattern will be proposed according to the cellular automata theory. Keywords: Terraced house type, Vernacular architecture, Fractal Dimension, BoxCounting Method, Iran