The Comparative Study of Privacy in Designing Qajar Dynasty Isfahan`s Houses and Malaysia`s Traditional Houses

Abstract

Privacy is taken from cultural and religious values and belief which are among the rules of the traditional residential architecture which have been shown in different ways in traditional architecture in different ways. Lots of valuable characteristics of the traditional Iranian houses prove the fact that Iranian people kept privacy; nowadays with the penetration of western architectural culture and after Qajar dynasty, a reflection of that style is rarely seen in contemporary residential architecture. This survey is to analyze privacy layering in Iranian architectural houses and as a religious value by the use of the mentioned method (observation, interview, and studying the maps) in the traditional sample of Malaysia as the comparative sample and then compared with the other Malaysian samples. By taking the nature of the objective of the research into considerations, the research method is comparative case study based on qualitative approach. Results of this survey have shown that privacy in different layers were designed for keeping people`s independence, and providing the mental and psychological peace of the family member which is completely consistent with Islamic sources; there are some similarities and difference between the Malaysian sample and two samples of the early and late of Qajar period. The conclusion of this study shows the existence of extrovert privacy pattern in Malaysian houses and also existence of introvert privacy pattern in Qajar houses and different spatial categorizations; the privacy keeping principle and approaches in contemporary architecture is applicable.
Keywords: Privacy, Hierarchy, Being introvert, Isfahan`s Qajar Houses, Traditional Malaysian house.