Because of the warm weather of the central area of Iran and the need for cooling in the many seasons of the year which have had temperature more than body temperature, it was required that the height of coatings for constructing buildings was higher; but in Azerbaijan area, because of the temperature and low temperature environments, the height of coating is much shorter and less than height of coating in the centre area of Iran. This point is observed in public and commercial areas such as historical market beside residential and religious areas. In these areas, especially in the north and North West of the country [Azerbaijan] cold and sleet are important determinant factors in the shape of the buildings (Ghobadian, 1994). Of course, there are some exceptions, sometimes, in these cases and some applications based on developers wanted are contrary with this public phenomenon so, in the buildings that developer wants have been index of space toward other buildings, heights are higher than usual, but this point cannot be generalized. The height of vault
orders also depends on the business and economy importance of each order, so that in the important orders such as Gheisarieh and or the parts in which commodity price is sold, the height of the vault order is more than other parts (Department of Housing and Urban Development, 2009) or in the Kabood mosque and Tajeddin Alishah mosque of the Tabriz, Marand mosque, Orromieh and so on because the developers want has been based on the index of the design the climate factors have not been considered, but in the most of the neighbourhood mosque, the height of the arches are lower than city and state mosques.
Table 1: The differences in the Rons of different parts of Iran
City map General direction features Shaping the overall
direction
Building orientation is based on the jersey and adjusted according to the skylight and the
prevailing winds
Iranian center buildings are created in this direction for the optimal use of natural energy
Esfahani Ron
Kerman (orientation west-east)
Orientation west-east
Buildings are created based on the climate issues, avoid sharp gust of wind and solar radiation
control
Kermani or Shirazi Ron
Ron: the orientation of the house or any building in the traditional and native architecture of Iran which is measured based on the exposure of rectangle into a hexagonal
North
North
North
5.3.2.3 Construction
Constructional features of different parts of Iran are summarised in Table 2. Central parts of Iran, because of climate, have resistant woods against natural hazards such as weather and insects; then in construction of buildings use of arch and dome is usual and in requiring cases for constructing buildings in the past woods from other countries for architectural have been used. Because there is a shortage of wood Iran, the bed cover shape always has had problems. In the time of Hakhamaneshian, the rich empire of Iran, they also provided the resistant wood such as wood of the cedar tree from Lebanon and other far places with high expenses for covering their palaces. The reason which made impossible the use of wood for covering in some places was termite. In the most of the Iran’s land termite are prone (Pirnia, 1994). This factors leads to using arch and dome covers in the centre part of Iran has become a tradition, but the situation in the other parts of Iran such as Azerbaijan and north of Iran is different. In these areas, wood is a suitable material for covering building surfaces and almost except buildings such as some mosques, bathrooms and main pass Bazars, using of the bed cover has been common. On the other hand, using arch and dome in these buildings needs special situation which they have and humidity of the bathroom and fear of fire in public buildings limit the use of bed cover; but the use of this cover in
residential buildings of the city and village through using wood in the form of flat or steep has happened by woodworking trusses, but in all the residential buildings of the city and village in the centre areas of Iran using arch and dome has been considered by developers.
Table 2: Summary of constructional features of different parts of Iran
Architectural Features Cities Climate
Features
Suitable climate and existing areas with the ability of breeding wood has caused in cities like Maragheh, Bonab and Ajabshir an especial form of mosques named wooden mosques Shabestani been formed which have flat covering of wood with decorations and wooden structure. An example of using wood for covering in this form can be seen in the Aali Ghapoo and Kheshte Behesht palaces which have been pattern taken from the wooden mosques that have built in the early Safavieh in these areas. The method of building wooden cover has been taken to the Isfahan, the capacity of Iran in those days, 100 years later and helped to the construction of the magnificent palaces like Ali Ghapoo, Chehel Sotoon, and Hasht Behesht (Kheyri, 2006).