Ornaments and the Concept of Beauty in Iranian Architecture (Case Study of the Large Timcheh of Qom Bazaar)

Abstract

Creation of beauty in Islamic architecture is based on the principle of ornament and it is conceptually composed of two dimensions of frame and meaning. Its inner meaning is infused with religious thoughts and contemplations rooted in our traditional prototypes. Iran had witnessed beauty on the basis of ornamentation during different governmental periods of Achaemenian period or after Islam until the end of Ghajar Dynasty. Because of modernism and western thoughts, some of Iranian architectures had followed western techniques and images and took guard against traditional architecture, but the only things that survived from this confrontation were ornaments such as parget, brickwork, and tiling. A lot has been said about Bazar and its developments, but there are many studies regarding ornaments of Bazar and its traditional models; in this paper we investigated the large Timcheh of Qom from structural, skeletal, spatial points of view and the role that its current Ornaments play in creating a coherent atmosphere in order to introduce it briefly. In Iranian architectural studies, this Timcheh has been underestimated, while it has beautiful and invaluable Yazdibandi’s[i] and Rasmibandi’s[ii], which demonstrate total concept of the absolute beauty for beholder. In this paper which is analytical and research based, and data collection was through field research, library studies and internet. We try to demonstrate an image of Ghajar architecture which is structurally and ornamentally based on our longtime and traditional models.