Historic Preservation

The structures such as windmills, which are remained from past to add to the knowledge and understandings of the today and future generations, are the indicators of creativity of our ancestors and ancient people. Windmills, dating back to 2800 years ago, are among the oldest examples of using the power of nature by human beings. In Netherland and other European countries, some windmills which are similar to Iranian windmills have been found. Some believe that the art of windmill building has been transferred from Iran to the European countries during the Crusade. Because of blowing a type of wind called 120-day wind in Iran, people of Sistan Province made several attempts to exploit the power of this wind. As a result, they invented the Windmills, which are considered as one of the most important inventions of human, to both control and take advantage of the wind power. The earliest windmills had vertical sails and dated back to the seventh century AD. They had six to twelve sails which were covered by cloth or the leaves of date tree. The main function of these mills were milling or drenching the grains.The present study is of descriptive-analytical type. Data gathering was done in library and fieldwork method. To this end, the Lutak, Neshtifan, and Nehbandan mills, located in Sistan Province, were studied. Following the study of the mill history of Sistan Province and southeast of Iran, the quotations from foreign tourists as well as the stand and the function of the mills in Iran’s architecture were investigated. It is noteworthy that the functional elements of the mills are designed according to the aerodynamics rules. This fact suggests that the builders of these mills were cognizant of the capacity and behavior of the wind to satisfy the daily needs of people. It also is a proof for the updated technology of people of that era and the reason for the continuity and uniqueness of these mills throughout the centuries. We can conclude that the mills are the indicators of our antecedents’ good command of how to construct such useful structures. Recognizing such unique patterns can guide us to build comfortable environment to live and to dwell in harmony with the existing organized arrangement of nature. Thus, the current study is conducted by getting help from the tourists’ reminiscences, the scientific books which are left from that era, and the native people of the lands.

The conservation of towns is a growing field in Malaysia. In the context of cultural heritage, the exceptional conservation practice in this country has enabled Malacca and Georgetown to be chosen as two of UNESCO’s world heritage town. The conservation of towns emerges from the awareness that cultural heritage possesses eminent uniqueness which must be conserved in order to safeguard it from extinction. In the context of Malaysia, the traditional shop lots are the remaining cultural heritage from the past, for the present and future. The variety of shapes and architectures of the shop lots makes them unique and should be preserved for the future generation. Therefore, the efforts to conserve a city or town usually concern the conservation of traditional shop lots. Nevertheless, the conservation efforts usually put more emphasis on facade that an equally unique element is overlooked. The element is the walkways of the shop lots. This article aims to discuss the need and significance of traditional shop lot walkways as one of the elements in the conservation of towns. The need for shop lot walkways has an apparent motive in term of a town’s image or in the epistemology perspective of the town conservation field itself.

Scientific, historical, and interpretive methods to conduct the study. We intend to answer the questions below: How can the time of Vitruvius be interpreted? How did Vitruvius conceptualize architecture? What did Vitruvius emphasize most on in his study? Are there any surviving buildings from the time of Vitruvius, and if there are, how exactly do they fit the explanations of Vitruvius? What can we offer our peers as results of this study? Did he, in fact, ever live and is there really a book called De Architectura? It is argued that neither such a book nor the author existed in the first century before the birth of Jesus. This study’s hypothesis is that neither the man nor the book De Architectura existed. We intend to criticize the sources and attempt to reveal the truth on the subject.

The idea of passing the bosphorus under the sea with a tubular structure is evaluated for the period in question. The evidence of the pocess of driling ground between Üsküdar and the side across is analysed in detail as a proof indicating that this Project was thought to be realized. Main questions of the research is as follows. What is the current situation of these projects. Why was there a need for a tubular passage way? Who were the contactors? What are the Project alternatives? What was the details of design proposals? Why were these cancelled? What kind of a perspective do these projects supply for today and tomorrow? The initial hypothesis before the study is that these projects were a part of governmental renewal program, these were developed as a solution for the problems of the city and cancelled due to war or financial reasons, method is genetic and pragmatic historical research. Up to now, the subject has not been explained in such detail with the agreement text analysed and sources used.

Paying attention to light is considered as one of the most prominent features of Iranian traditional architecture, which influenced most of its structural and conceptual patterns. The construction of light-openings in the buildings such as masjids, bazaars, madrasas, and caravanserais, as the Iranian outstanding monuments, proves the point. The Iranian master-mimars’ strategies to create the light-openings in the domes has been taken into consideration through this study. To this end, the light-openings’ exact location, according to the domes’ structural properties have been taken into analysis. Next, based on the foursome classification of the domes, the research theoretical framework has been determined, and through applying the case-study and the combined research methods, the case-studies have been studied meticulously. According to the achieved results, the light-openings of the Iranian brick domes have been located at four distinguished areas, including: 1- the dome’s top, 2- the dome’s curve, 3- the dome’s shekargah and 4- the dome’s drum. Moreover, because of the structural limitations of each type of dome, the constructional techniques have played the pivotal role at locating the light-openings in the domes.

Architecture reflects the spirit of time and through the study of its various characteristics in different historical periods, the age dominant social policies are detectable. The concentration on such a correlation has got the more significance in the recent years, especially in evolving or developing countries like Iran. This essay, through the analysis of Iran condition during the five post Revolution governments and through the extraction of the statesmen’s various mottos is to identify the fundamental political orientations in different presidencies. Then, through the analysis of fifty architectural works as the case-study in each presidency (four hundred and fifty cases in total), referring to the texts that expressed the architects’ comments about their own works, is to determine the architects’ professional approaches in each period. The adaptive comparison of the architects’ approaches and the political orientations in each presidency through the Comparative Analysis can determine the kind and quality of the interaction between architecture and politics or city and social evolutions in each presidency. According to the accomplished studies, a kind of meaningful correlation between the political mottos of different governments and the architects’ professional orientations is definable; but the research most significant achievement suggests the emergence of a new generation of the Iranian contemporary architects in the Justice Government who, indifferent to the current policies, peruse their own determined principles and ideals, the principles like democracy, tolerance or discourse which correspond to the Reform Government orientations.

The purpose of this paper is to share the findings on the typical problems facing the heritage or old buildings in term of the problem of building leakage scenario in Malaysia. From the problem finding, the paper tabulate a list of potential solutions best practiced by the local waterproofing implementer. It is important for the reader to take advantage on the information of the extensive list of the real case studies pertaining to the building leakage syndrome typically happened for heritage structure in this hot and humid tropical climate. The good thing about this paper is that all the case studies are derived from the real selected projects done by the associated building maintenance contractor for the last 20 years. By identifying the possible factors that cause the leakage, one can take early steps to prevent the same defects form repeating thus saves a lot of money. From the finding analysis, this paper also giving the formulation ideas that can be use for creating a framework to prevent or minimize the building leakage syndrome from happening again. As the old buildings or the buildings that old enough to be considered worth to keep are becoming more valuable to either the central Government or the local council; the analysis from this paper may give some meaningful tabulation on how to maintain these heritage buildings from leakage especially from the roof seepage thus make the property much more valuable to the owner and may give profit to the locality as well.