Domestic Architecture
Domestic Architecture
Bayana is exceptional in the rare survival of 15th century dwellings, abandoned but still standing in the Fort after the 1505 earthquake. They provide insights into structure and methods of construction as well as a typology, from single-room dwellings to courtyard plan houses and those with an open-fronted hall (īwān) and flanking chambers, featuring standardized, apparently mass-produced, stone elements which could include Qur’anic inscriptions. The division of space from public to private is discussed, and the role of private gardens providing seclusion. The survey enables identification of secular and religious structures, and shows the similarity between the plot layout of the ruined domestic dwellings in Tughluqābād, as well as of the later surviving mansions of Chanderi, and their antecedents in the planning of palaces and houses in Central Iran. The continuation of the house form in Sufi khānaqāhs, distinguishing them from orthodox religious structures is highlighted, and comparisons made with the 17th century merchants’ houses in the Armenian quarter of Isfahan.
Keywords: Earthquake, Dwellings, typology, Gardens, Mass-production, Tughluqābād, Chanderi, Central Iran, Sufi khānaqāhs, Isfahan
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