Windbreak; A climatic element or a social character ?!

Engineer Seyed Mohammad Beheshti is one of the well-known theorists and architects of architecture who, in addition to attending various government responsibilities in the field of cultural and artistic heritage of Iran, has always conducted many researches and theories in the field of architecture and urban planning of this region. He has published that he has known and explored Iranian architecture from the ground up, and is trying to teach it to the country’s architectural community technically and spatially. He also has extensive activities in different dimensions of Iranian architecture in the form of houses and He has had outstanding performances in Iranian architecture and urban planning. This comprehensive mastery of Seyed Mohammad Beheshti in Iranian architecture and art led us to ask him to open and describe the windbreak issue in its personality and functional range. .

Below you can read our interview with him.

• Mr. Beheshti, we are trying to examine the evolution and what is a windbreak in this interview, so as a first question, please describe the climate of Tehran in general.

Tehran plain One of its features is that several climates are located in it, we have desert climatic conditions in the south of Tehran, foothill conditions above Tehran and conditions that were located in the plain in the middle of Tehran.This means that if you stand at the top of Milad Tower, you can watch a significant part of the climatic diversity in Iran. You see a lot in the plain of Tehran, well this is because of the climate, because of the natural coordinates that exist in the plain of Tehran, the plain of Tehran is a plain that is composed of vegetation layers over thousands of years of seven valleys Is located in the north of Tehran, floods that have occurred over several hundred years, have created this alluvial plain, the more you go to the north of Tehran, these alluviums become coarser grains, for example in area one of Tehran in the land of larger parts There is a rock, in the middle of which you will see hills from Lavizan hills to Chitgarke, which is sand and has been created as a result of these sediments.In other words, it can be said that these hills are not folds of the earth, but sediments that were formed as a result of the same floods that flowed after the last glacial period and caused by wind, rain and the like, (which, of course, The more you go to the south of Tehran, the finer the sediment and the better the soil there, which is why you see the oldest biological artifacts in the southern plain, such as the eyes of Ali Shahr-e Rey. The works that we have in the south of Tehran are related to seven to eight thousand years of life. The more we go to the north of Tehran, the less this history decreases. This means that the history of residence is shorter, the plain of Tehran has an exceptional property and it is exceptional because today you see that about fourteen million people live in the plain of Tehran and almost nowhere else inYou do not have Iran that can meet the needs of this number of people in terms of water, soil and air.

But the Tehran you are talking about is a Tehran that starts from the Tahmasebi fence and has continued to this day. This Tehran, which has a long history, is usually appointed until the time of Reza Shah, but in the plain Tehran You had three main habitats, Tehran, Shemiranat, which was the summer of Tehran, and another, which can be said to be the winter of Tehran. That is, in the cold seasons, the people of Tehran used to go there (Tehran plain), life is originally located in the city of Tehran, now the natural coordinates of the central part of Tehran, which is the point of Tahmasebi fence, have special climatic conditions, one One of its most important features is having a wind current from southwest to northeast, and another wind flow that blows from north to south and moves in the valleys, which between the two currents; The wind is blowing well.

All our cities had their own favorable and unfavorable winds, usually bad winds that came from dry and desert areas and carried dust with them. One of the things that happened in all our cities was to manage these unfavorable winds, for example, in the city of Shiraz, there is a wind flow that blows right in the direction of the dry river from Qasr al-Dasht, that in the path of Qasr al-Dasht, the river They were created to cool the wind.

Or in Isfahan, on the Zayandehrud river, you have a wind current, on the way from which you can see the forests of Najroud, which again moistens and cools the wind flow, and in some places, such as Shiraz, This wind was fragrant with the spring of oranges and flowers and… in addition to moisturizing and cooling.

As a result, in many cities you see that they managed the wind on a large scale as I said, but on a micro scale, they managed the wind by orienting the houses (where the porch was located) and all sorts of arrangements trying to manage the wind. If the wind is disturbing, control it and if it agrees, let it flow inside the house, which in this regard we can see that even the unfavorable wind in many cities with the phenomenon of windbreak like a rebellious horse tame They would take it and ride it.

• What do you think are the architectural features of the climate of Tehran?

Tehran has different situations and according to those situations it is naturally affected, that is, they knew and observed the size of the environmental conditions, by observing it, they created a situation that can be lived, so we can see that without us from oil and We were able to use a lot of energy to provide living conditions. But what kind of considerations did they create in Tehran, for example, we have an underground, and this is if we do not have an underground in Isfahan and in Qazvin and Yazd, like Tehran, there is an underground Well, the question arises why it was basically created underground ?! One of those reasons is the difference that it could make underground in winter and summer, meaning that in winter your house was warm and in summer it was kept cool because it was isolated from the sun.

Another reason why undergrounds were created is that those cities that were based on agriculture, the threat of drought was always one of the issues, so agricultural products were kept underground.

• One of the ways to manage wind and climate has been windbreaks and underground and ؛; According to our research, there are a lot of windbreaks in Tehran, and considering the multiple climates that we have in Tehran, it seems that the windbreak element was widely used in Tehran, contrary to what is usually thought, in your opinion, the formation And what has been the obsolescence of windbreaks over time, and what process has it gone through, especially regarding Tehran windbreaks?

You see, now on a national scale, if we look, we do not have windbreaks before the Timurid period, and this architectural element mainly occurs in desert cities, for example, the houses in Yazd, for some reason we have very old houses there, According to the studies that have been done from the Seljuk period, we can trace the houses in Yazd until today, and as a result of these changes and transformations that have taken place in different periods, it can be seen that it is quite obvious that In the Seljuk period, there was an annoying wind that came from the desert and carried dust with it, so today it can be seen that the buildings built in the Seljuk period have a shelter against this wind. The wind was a nuisance to life, meaning that the buildings had small courtyards in order, and then high walls, so that the guard building was closed to the wind, in the patriarchal period we see that fewLittle by little, they face this wind again and want to control this wind; The front of the building, which was placed on the wind, gradually rose in height and as a result, a porch was created there. This wind entered the porch and gradually wrapped it inside the house. A room was built behind this porch and behind this room a A garden is usually located, that is, they realize that this wind is not naturally warm and this heat is for the sun’s rays, so that they bring the wind in the shade and turn it into a blind place, where they create a pleasant living conditions; And this rotation caused the dust to decrease as well; We see in the Timurid period, they begin to control the wind more, as the first example of windbreaks in Yazd is related to the Timurid period, which took this wind in the direction of the wind and channeled it there, and where they wanted, this wind They distributed and distributed inside the building; In the Safavid period, we see windbreaksIt is self-identifying, that is, we have many buildings whose windbreaks identify the building like the entrances of houses; Buildings that wanted to be prominent, created higher and more luxurious windbreaks, for example, in Yazd, you have the windbreak of Dolatabad Garden mansion, which is one of the highest windbreaks that exists, and with the passage of time and increasing experience In this area, you can see the types and uses of wind with this element, for example, in water reservoirs, windbreaks are built in which the wind current does not cause the water to rot and stay cool, or in some houses you see several windbreaks. It is created to benefit the wind current from all the depths of the houses and to make the most of this wind current that starts blowing in the shade and creates the favorable living conditions there.

Tehran, because the history of the city in the sense of its seriousness is evident mainly from the time of its capital, it seems that since Tehran became the capital and the people of other cities came here, they brought that experience with them, that is, the Yazidis have their own experiences. Brought to Tehran, which you can see the signs in many buildings, for example, in addition to decorations and… technologies used in other parts of Iran, had also reached Tehran, given that Tehran has several wind directions and in Different seasons, some of these winds are stronger winds and some are weaker, you can see that usually in Tehran, windbreaks were made in many ways to control the wind from several angles and take advantage of it.In Tehran, we also have places that receive wind from only one direction, such as Ardakan windbreaks; That’s why windbreaks were built in the right direction, in any case, windbreaks are a phenomenon that helps us to control the wind first and tame and completely tame it so that it is completely under our command, for example, you know windbreaks In the summer and summer, they were open, and in the winter, they were closed from the beginning of the canal with a hole that was built in, that is, a technology that was controlled so that the wind would not disturb the winter; Therefore, the windbreak in Tehran is a phenomenon that seems to have been witnessed since the time of our capital. Naturally, in some houses you can find that they have a distinction, that is, the presence of this element is not common in all houses, because if generality We should have seen the face of Tehran like Ardakan, where all the houses have windbreaks, if you have to look for windbreaks hereFind, so as a distinguishing element of the building, the owner had to have a temper to build a windbreak, as you can not see many other phenomena in public houses, we had houses in which There was a bathroom, but that house was one of the bathhouses, or we had houses that had luxurious ponds, which did not exist in all the houses, these are in fact phenomena that according to the owner’s ability. They were happening.

• Considering that the modernization period took place in Tehran (in the Qajar period) at the same time as the obsolescence of the windbreak in Iran, do you know the obsolescence of the windbreak in Tehran for this reason, and if not, do you think the causes of obsolescence? What is the windshield in general, considering its functional and character properties?

As technology enters the field, they feel they can access the wind much more easily, these elements create a kind of deprivation when it comes, which is not just about the windmill, for example, in the 1940s when all houses had electricity and They find tap water, you still see in the field of heating the house environment. The tradition that existed in the house was that we created a center in the cold season, we lived around that center in the cold season and not all the house was warm and only where a chair We were heating, now later there will be a heater and we can heat a room, and there was only one heat source, electricity would allow us to heat the whole room and the house, the same goes for cooling You see, when there was no electricity, we lived in our houses, summer and winter, that is, the houses that had a central courtyard, the northern part of the house was for one season and the southern part was for the house.Another season, for example, we lived in the southern part of the house in winter because the sun shines less on it, if we lived in the northern part of the house in summer, the sunshine increased in that part of the house and in that season, that is, with this Arrangements and relocations We tried to create that more pleasant living environment for ourselves, if when these technologies came there was no need for them anymore, which eventually no longer needed windbreaks and pool houses and و and the subject is basically outdated .

• Regarding the fact that you said that the windshield was used in places that were relatively more deprived of the owner, can the use of those places be divided and classified physically and functionally?

Of course, the construction of windbreaks took place more in houses, if windbreaks were built in public buildings at the same time, this was rarely seen, because you do not live in public buildings because you live in one place and you are faced with a large population and a large space; And so the windshield, which was designed for a relatively small area, could not cool all that space, but at home because it is a small population, we could see it in a room or in a pool house, assuming a family could live in it. , Is mainly a windbreak as a technology that helps us, such as water reservoirs, and if you see a windbreak in areas that are very common, when you look there, even if a mosque has a windbreak, you can not see the windbreak as an indicator, but You can see it completely in houses, for example, in mosques, it is in a certain place, such as where the Imam of the congregation is located, that is, the whole mosque cannot be covered with a windbreak.It cooled down and got the necessary air conditioning with it.

An example is Golestan Palace, where not all buildings have a windbreak, but it has a windbreak mansion that the palace residents took refuge in in the summer, but it can be said that the most significant windbreak in Tehran, the windbreak of the windbreak mansion, is the Golestan complex.

• In other words, in Tehran, you see the most significant windbreak in Golestan Palace.

Compared to other windbreaks found and the deprivation of the owners of those palaces, yes.

• According to your orders, my proof is that most of the windbreaks in Tehran, due to the decorations and elements used in them, have played a specific role for the houses rather than the climatic role, and perhaps the functional role of the windshield is more as an auxiliary function. The account has arrived, is this correct?

No. In the architectural tradition, we never mark with one arrow. We have to mark all signs with one arrow, that is, we use both function and expression to express individuality, which is why wind deflectors have a technological mechanism in terms of technology. It gave us a cool atmosphere, but it still had the talent to be decorated, to rise, to be seen from afar, and to play the role of a gateway, like the role of clothing for the body.

• So in general, do you know Badgir as a prominent character in Tehran or not? That is, did they know old Tehran, like many of our desert cities, in terms of urban landscape with its windmills?

See, we have to see where we compare, if we compare with Yazd and Bandar Lengeh and cities like Kim, no, in Tehran, windbreaks are not a very general and general issue, if there must be windbreaks, because without windbreaks, living there It will be very difficult and impossible, if in Tehran you could live without a windbreak, of course, the role of the windbreak as an auxiliary element still existed.

• So windbreaker can not be considered as a sign (icon) for old Tehran?

Not in terms of functionality, but in terms of identifying why, we have one of the most significant windbreaks in Iran, which is the windbreak of Golestan Palace.

• Are there any documents to say where and when the first presence of windbreaks in Tehran started?

In my opinion, we can start with the windbreak mansion, which is for the conquest period of the Shah. It was natural that you should find this element first in the Shah’s palace, then in the family of the rich and the elderly, and then in the general public; For example, Dolat neighborhood and Darvazeh Dolat, which is an open neighborhood, are also among the areas of Tehran that had the most windbreaks.

• As you can see, the windbreak, in addition to its cooling role, was also used as a ventilation. How did they manage this ventilation role in the face of unfavorable winds and dust that was possible from different fronts of Tehran? Blow in different seasons, be controlled and have no adverse effects?

The property of a windbreak is that due to the circulation it creates in the environment, that dust actually settles, this wind carries two things with it, one is that dust may accompany it and the other is that where it is hot It is because of the sun you feel the wind is hot, if in fact this wind is not hot and it is warmed by the sun.In some parts of Iran, the wind is moistened in the way it is defined, such as Bam, Bam because the ground is wet, you can see that the windbreak was built in gardens instead of on the building, from under the building to the windbreak a canal The canal was located next to the field and the water they had given to the ground, which created surface evaporation when the water came in contact with the wind, and as a result, the wind cooled where it was more than 50 degrees Celsius and pushed it inwards. Led the building; Now it was not so intense in Tehran, as long as they brought the wind into the shadows and created a circulation to get this dust out of the wind, that was enough.

• How do you see the role of windbreaks in the past in terms of urban landscape?

You have to see what is seen from inside the building and from the outside, things that are inside the exterior like the entrance and things that rise like the windshield, they use these to talk to the outside and tell the outside who we are, in fact everyone With what he had the opportunity to express to the outside world, he wanted to say who I am. … That these are reflected in the windshield, ie the inside of the house with the outside actually speaks to the windshield, the same role that the entrance gateway, the windshield finds, of course, perhaps not strongly the entrance, but creates an opportunity for this conversation with the outside.

• How do you see the use of windbreaks in today’s society and do you basically know how to use them?

Windbreaks today are a memory of a time in city life, they may not play a functional role today, but their historical implications still exist, let alone that we could use windbreak technology today, as in places of The world, like the United States, used wind technology in arid regions, updated it and used it. It is interesting that in the region of Morocco, in the seventh and eighth centuries, a Yazidi group went there, and today you can see the faces of several cities in this country. Is Iranian, who also used this technology to bring better living conditions.

These windbreaks are part of the city’s identity and are not just nostalgic

• Thank you for your time

+ This interview was conducted by Sajjad Asgari and Navid Ganji.