Shape grammar,culture,and generation of vernacular houses (a practice on the villages adjacent to rice fields of Mazandaran,in the north of Iran)

Introduction

Domestication of rice production in Mazandaran, a province located in the north of Iran encouraged local nomads living within the mountain area to becoming settlers in the two southern parts of the region: in the forest areas and in the adjacent flat plain area (Koulaeeyan, 2006). Rice production has formed a specific agrarian culture and settlement in this region. The principles of this culture and lifestyle have influenced the form of vernacular houses, configuration, the structure of the villages, and shaped a specific vernacular architecture, which still has useful lessons including ‘aesthetical’, ‘climatic’, or ‘technological’ lessons (Fathy, 1986; Oliver, 1997; Rapoport, 1980; Rehwal Jahanbegloo, 2010; Weber and Yannas, 2014).

The first application of shape grammars was used to analyse principles of existing architectural styles particularly vernacular architecture during the first two decades of its creation. Studies have been undertaken for vernacular architecture including: Ice-ray: a note on the generation of Chinese lattice designs by Stiny (1977) and the Islamic gireh, Korean pattern (Lee et al., 2013), which provides rules in detail scale. Similarly but in large scale, the Taiwanese traditional house (Chiou and Krishnamorti, 1996) presented set up rules based on actual traditional method of construction process which inspired this research for rule set up. Herbert et al. (1994) carried out a cultural study on Ndebele homesteads. It was to understand the language of traditional African hut of particular tribe according to their polygamy culture. The result was identification of rules necessary in master plan and all houses design. It seems that polygamy was the only cultural factor important for the authors in this study for definition of set of rules and their evaluation. The studies on Quine Ann houses (Flemming, 1987), Japanese tearoom plans (Knight, 1981), Greek vase motifs, bungalows of Buffalo (Downing and Flemming, 1981), mainly concentrated on understanding the spatial relations towards identification of applied rules while cultural and climatic factors influenced on design and construction were not the priority of these studies. From the proximal geography to the location of this research, the studies on and the language of Turkish houses (Cagdas, 1996) and traditional Damascene Houses (Eilouti and Al shaar, 2010), similar to the above mentioned studies introduced compositional language of these traditional houses mainly based on visual and geometrical analysis without appropriate consideration to socio-cultural issues. Unlikely, the study on Pol houses of Ahmadabad (Lmabe and Dongre, 2019) has successfully undertaken the shape grammar as an efficient tool for creation of harmonious environment through generation of new designs based on the grammar of existing Pol RHs of Ahmadabad in India. This study employed shape grammar through socio-cultural interpretation of the context in order to address the issue of contemporary demands and needs, which is the main approach of this paper. The second application of shape grammar relates to the possible use of shape grammars to enable designers to create new alternatives with embedded design criteria (Stiny and Gips, 1972). In this regard, researches such as the Palladian grammars carried out by Stiny and Mitchell (1978), and most notably the research on Frank Lloyd Wright’s prairie houses (Koning and Eizenberg, 1981) have contributed new alternative designs based on application of the identified rules, a model supportive for this research. In this regard, Knight and Stiny (2015) recently began to show how the shape grammar perspective can be advanced in new directions for making rather than in intellectual design activity, which have been improved by Stiny (2006) himself. Consequently, the methodology developed by Shape Grammars is supportive for analysis of existing vernacular houses of this region and can be employed for creating new vernacular houses, which still has not been undertaken.

Climatic study coupled with cultural study is critical in the study of a vernacular architecture and for this region because the existing lifestyle of population of this study is still traditional. Cultural and climatic studies provide criteria useful in understanding the reason of applied rules that embodied a particular vernacular architecture. In terms of culture, Rapoport (2006a, 2006b) suggests convincing methodology by reduction of cultural study into identification of characteristics of ‘systems of activities’, through a behavioural research which this research has been carried out accordingly. Achievements from cultural study in addition to climatic rules that local population themselves applied deliver influential factors supporting evaluation of identified rules towards setting up appropriate compositional rules, that when applied, can generate sustainable and culturally suitable vernacular houses, which in this research has been examined for creation of four plans in regard to four different types of vernacular houses.

Methodology

This research is founded on case study research. Accordingly, four villages totally have been selected between 1159 villages located within the forest area and in the forest border adjacent to flat plain area of two major cities’ counties ¹ called Sari and Babol. The first rice cultivation and domestication dating back 100 B.C. started from these counties (Koulaeeyan, 2006). They contain the most villages and the most populated rural areas (Statistical Centre of Iran, 2015). These villages have been selected, based on predefined criteria including: containing 200–2000 population that this size is able to make a good neighbourhood (Alexander, 1977; Moughtin and Shirley, 2005); being at least 15 kilometres far from the major city of the county; existing of traditional lifestyle, houses, and materials, containing rice fields. Accordingly, the selected villages are much historically old, they are with less change in their rural characteristics, and the principles of traditional lifestyle and traditional space configuration of villages and houses are still dominantly exist. These criteria support obtaining sufficient information about compositional implications within traditional architecture. There was no literature or investigation on vernacular houses of the region so that 44 houses within these villages from different identified styles have been selected as samples for investigation, which 32 of them are vernacular houses investigated for the purpose of this paper. Through field trip and for the first time, these were measured, mapped by CAD software, and visually recorded and have been analysed within the framework that shape grammars provide (Stiny and Gips, 1972).

Because there is no single way to conduct case study research and there is no full methodology for conduction of cultural study, so that a combination of methods is advised (Creswell, 2007; Sommer and Sommer, 2001). In this regard, three different questionnaires have been set up to obtain information about the population, their opinion demands, and needs related to living spaces, which are presented through the supplementary document of this paper. For 38 of 44 samples, the first questionnaire has been employed aiming to collect general information about the houses and their occupants in order to assess the validity of results of the rest of questionnaires. This questionnaire also was the main guideline for conduction of the structured interviews. 71.1% respondents were male while 28.9% were female respondents. Around 86% of the respondents were married while just one respondent was single (2.6%) and four of them (10.5%) were widowed. Fifteen of respondents were over 75 years old (36.8%) and 11 (28.9%) were 55–74 years old while just 6 and 7 of them were 35–54 or younger, respectively, which are less than the amount of respondents over 75 years old indicating that the young population is low, and villages are old demographically. Thirty respondents (around 79%) were permanently living within the village while 28 were originally from related village and just 2 of them were not originally from that village. A few respondents (eight people) move to the village temporarily during weekends or summer, while only one of them is not originally from that village. The concentration of the second questionnaire was to establish the main opinions, demands, and values of local residents as users about the house organisation, space configuration towards obtaining necessary criteria for evaluation of compositional rules based upon user’s preferences. The result revealed that local population still prefer main features and principles of vernacular houses to exist in their new modern house such as pitched roof, front porch, and space organisation, which confirms employing vernacular grammatical rules in creation of new houses. This questionnaire has been employed during focus group structured interviews, and structured one-on-one interviews, conducted through conversation with respondents. The response to each main question is rated on a five-point opinion scale: Strongly agree, agree, neither, disagree, strongly disagree, and do not know. Forty-eight people have been asked to answer this questionnaire. The data obtained from above two questionnaires have been transported into SPSS software, which the outcome has been used as the source for evaluation of identified rules in order to understand which rules are still favourable and which are not functional and desirable any more. Third questionnaire has been designed based on the methodology proposed by Rapoport and inspired by a method employed by Canter and Tagg (1980) created for the purpose of identification of activities and their probable occurrence settings. This questionnaire is actually a matrix-like table containing rows accommodating name of different spaces of a house and columns allocating activities. Just over 18 years old, members of the family have been interviewed through ‘focus group interviews’. The group has been asked to discuss and indicate which activities they participate in according to different times of the day and year and what do they do within each space and in which particular part of that space. The result of these interviews facilitated understanding of which ‘systems of activities’, all family members perform. Understanding systems of activities is beneficial to explore the way of using different spaces and local dominant lifestyle, which any new design should be pursued accordingly. Results of analysis of all of these questionnaires and interviews revealed cultural and social criteria useful to evaluate compositional rules, which are presented within the text towards setting up suitable rules for current lifestyle of the residents.

Typology of vernacular houses

The focus of this paper is just on identification of rules to design the vernacular house building. In this regard, layouts of 32 studied vernacular houses have been presented in Table 1. In order to identify applied vernacular rules, this research conducted the typology of existing vernacular houses. Four types, mainly representing different vernacular houses have been identified. This typology has been emerged based on the criteria and actual typology, which local resident themselves recognise and have been introduced through interview with master masons and carpenters. This typology is according to the whole shape of external boundary of enclosed spaces of the house. Accessories such as baths, toilets, and kitchens are not considered within this typology as well as semi-enclosed spaces, which the main kind locates in front of the house. These types are called by residents themselves as ‘row house’ (RH), which is linear in enclosed shape; ‘saddle house’ (SH), which its enclosed space is U shape; ‘half-saddle house or Vaziri house’ (HSH), which is L form in shape of enclosed spaces; and ‘composite houses’, which is a combination of at least two other types. Variations of these types are based on the number of rooms and number of storeys.

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Table 1.

Figures showing all of the investigated vernacular houses.

Compositional rules to design rural dwellings

A parametric shape grammar for vernacular houses is developed based on actual design and construction process containing of 10 stages according to professional masters’ opinions and villagers’ views. Identification of grammatical rules is illustrated based on four vernacular types of dwellings. Rules have not been introduced for each type of house individually; they are constantly redefined and so are able to relate to all four types. The HSH type could be produced from the RH type, SH type could be derived from evolution of HSH type, and the composite type is an evolved version of all or combination of them (Figure 1). All of these types have considerable common characteristics so that-many rules are common within them, this being the case; they have been set up through one common package. Seventy-seven compositional rules for creation of vernacular houses in 2D and 3D have been identified. The rules conveying the characteristics of ‘systems of settings’ are evaluated in order to achieve their efficiency for locals’ lifestyle according to the cultural, social, and climatic criteria. In order to present a sample showing the validity of identified rules, a sample derivation of one storey RH type with two rooms and a store, this can represent similar process for derivation of other types. This process is a hierarchical process from definition of a base point doing by master builder.

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Figure 1.

Schematic representation of four different types of vernacular houses.

Defining initial shape

The master builder starts with a point indicated by label DH that marks the key point, a location that the master determines within the predefined construction area as the base point for house construction (Figure 2). After the definition of the base point has been confirmed according to the size of the house, number of rooms, the entrance and desired type of the house, the owners sacrifice a sheep, cow, or poultry to celebrate the construction of a new house with workers including family members, friends, and relatives involved in construction of the house.

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Figure 2.

Rules for definition of base point and proper shape, size, and orientation of the living room.

Generation of living room and definition of the orientation of the house

After making decision on layout and style of the house during a consultation between the master and owner, the master first computes the dimensions for the living room, which is the main room of the house. Rule 1 specifies three measurements: height, h; width, w; and depth, d (Figure 2). The width is usually 1.3–2 times longer than the depth. Measures depend on the family population and needs, and the construction technology, particularly the size of timbers and logs for house ceiling implementation. By application of rule 3, living room is generated (Figure 2). This room is used for sitting, eating, entertaining gusts, making and drinking tea, and sleeping at night, which make this room the focal space of the house. For implementation of this room on the ground, the master needs to define the best orientation for the house. As a whole, south is the best direction and east is the next best. North direction is defined according to rule 2. Definition of the exact best orientation also depends on an understanding of proper and improper directions of wind, which is essential because of the high humidity of the region. It is defined according to rule 4 for wind directions, which are from the sea (in north) during the day and from the mountain area (in south) during the night. Rule 5 defines the inappropriate wind direction, which blows from the north-west (Figure 2).

According to the north and wind directions, the north zone and south zone ² directions are defined applied by rule 6. The best orientation of the houses within the region with attention to climatic conditions is towards south zone, which is possible by application of rule 7 (Figure 2). This rule defines the orientation of the living room, the orientation of which dictates the orientation of the rest of the house. The next best orientation is towards east and is applied by rule 8 (Figure 2). Labels showing climate notation are erased after definition of best direction for main room’s direction by application of rule 6 and addition of other rooms by application of rules 9–11. As a result, the front of the house labelled (f) and back of the house labelled (b) are determined. Usually, the house and the living room do not extend towards front and backsides to keep being one room in deep. It should be noted that within this report the use of the symbol () on each side means that the development of the building can take place on that side, and the meaning of other symbols is explained in Figure 2. The outcome of application rules up to rule 8 is creation of living room shown in Figure 3.

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Figure 3.

The result of application of rules towards designing the proper living room.

Extending the building generating different types of houses

Once the living room has been designed, the master extends the building mostly laterally on one or both sides. The master applies rule 9 and adds a room with the same principles as the living room on the lateral side of it with the same orientation and elongation direction. This kind of juxtaposition leads to RH (Figure 4). Rule 9 can be applied many times, more rooms can be added until meeting owner’s expectations. The thickness of the wall in between rooms depends on the construction technology. By application of rule 10, a square room with sides the same size as the depth of the living room is extended from the living room and is used as store called ‘darim-khene’, which is labelled as S and can be applied whether before or after rule 9 (Figure 4). Each room, which has the same principles as the living room could also have a darim-khene by application of rule 10 again. Application of rules 9 and 10 make the RH, which can be further extended laterally. This type provides the best identical opportunity for all rooms taking advantage of sunshine and wind. If one room is added perpendicularly to one lateral side of the RH (one room can be as RH type, too) or living room as a result of the application of rule 11, HSH is created, which stops house development on this side and changes the label. Moreover, when it is applied to both sides following rule 11 being applied twice on a RH type, or once on a HSH type, SH is generated, which stops development of the house towards both lateral sides, this is labelled as rule 12 (Figure 4). The process of application of rules up to rule 12 towards creation of desired RHs is shown in Figure 5.

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Figure 4.

Rule for extending the building generating RH.

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Figure 5.

Application of rules for extending the building and generating RH.

Allocation of guest entertaining room and kitchen

One method for allocation of guest entertaining room and kitchen is to change the label of rooms. After extension of new rooms or store to the lateral side of the living room, the label of these rooms whether can remain unchanged being used as multipurpose room or can change according to initial intention for its addition to the house – occupied for guest entertainment or kitchen. This takes place through application of rules 13 and 14 within vernacular houses, which usually have no access from the living room (Figure 6). As another type, the kitchen is later annexed to the backside of some houses, accessed from the living room as a peripheral space by application of rule 15 (Figure 6). Addition of this kitchen stops any other extensions to the house from this section. Sometimes, the bath, labelled as B, is allocated within this room in result of application of rule 16 (Figure 6). The store created in result of rule 10 application dominantly with square shape is an appropriate location for allocation of the kitchen and can even be incorporated with living room by taking the in between common wall off by application of rule 17 creating an open plan kitchen. This is labelled as OK, which is increasingly becoming popular. Likely, locals like to unify guest entertainment area and the living room in the same way as open plan kitchens by application of rule 18. This is in order to make a bigger space to do different activities more conveniently and according to the requirements of new lifestyle. Residents can put bigger fabric on the floor thus entertaining more guests, family members can sit together at the same time, and watching TV. A significant number of villagers agree with and consider it as an essential pattern according to the result of third questionnaire (Figure 6). Rooms within vernacular house have flexible roles, functions, similar characteristics, and principles, which make them able to accommodate various types of role and function. This is possible just by changing the label of the rooms following the application of rules 19–22 on each room (Figure 6), which the result of their application of the RH type is shown in Figure 7.

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Figure 6.

Rule for definition of guest and kitchen room within all vernacular types of houses.

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Figure 7.

The process of application of selected rules for creation of guest and kitchen room within RH (the first shape is the production of rule 10).

Exterior wall definition and exterior boundary of closed spaces

After designing the layout of the house, the exterior walls need to be extended. The master offsets the interior boundary line toward outside applying rule 23 (Figure 8). The result of its application on desired RH type of this paper is presented in Figure 9. The size of offset depends on the thickness of wall; the thickness itself depends on the material of house construction. After definition of exterior wall, all different vernacular types of houses are defined and any addition of closed space development stops (Figure 10). Three main vernacular types of houses and their variations combined with each other generate ‘Composite type’ as called within this research, which has no name within the folklore of the region. The variation of this type is generated based on mirror action, in which the axis of mirror is the axis of common wall or mostly a corridor made after this action (Figure 11).

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Figure 8.

Rule for definition of exterior wall.

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Figure 9.

Result of application of rule 23 on desired RH of this paper.

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Figure 10.

Exterior wall definition of different types of house by application of rule 23.

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Figure 11.

Rules to generate variations of composite type from combination of other vernacular types of houses. (a) Combination of two RHs, (b) combination of RH type and one room, (c) combination of two HSH type, (d) combination of HSH type and one room, and (e) combination of RH type and HSH: bracket means one rule applies on those two shapes at the same time.

The corridor, which is usually a semi-enclosed setting, performs as entrance into the front porch and connects the front porch to the other porches and balconies of the house. This corridor can be transformed to be enclosed setting climatically suitable and practical by application of rules 46, 47, and 48, which actually can be introduced as new rules. This new closed space is used for different purposes such as a room, store, an entrance to the house connecting the front porch to the living area, as service space including the bath and toilet, or allowing a staircase to reach the first storey (Figure 12).

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Figure 12.

Rule for changing the characteristic and function of corridor within compositional rule to be adapted for new lifestyle. (a) Addition of corridor, (b) addition of store, and (c) addition of stair case.

Rules for definition of front porch and other types of semi-enclosed space

Initially and before any addition of semi-enclosed spaces, the exterior boundary of closed spaces should be defined. All interior line of walls and exterior walls need to be erased according to rule 49 (Figure 13). The result of the application of this rule produces exterior boundary of four types of houses (Figure 14).

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Figure 13.

Rule to design exterior boundary of the house.

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Figure 14.

Definition of four types of vernacular houses as a result of rule 49 application.

After the boundary is defined, the front and other porches are added. This semi-enclosed space is one of the most important spaces of the vernacular houses within the region. The longer the porch with more columns, the higher social status; this particularly indicates the financial status of the owner. Front porch is the main porch, which is usually oriented towards south zone direction obtaining sunshine and wind of this direction; this intensifies the relationship with the natural environment. All rooms are accessed from this space and occupants can enjoy socialising with neighbours and other villagers. This columned setting is one beauty aspect of the vernacular houses. This space has a seasonal function and is used as the living room during warm seasons, which has been advocated by 95.80% of respondents to the questionnaire 3. The size of this space is usually around 70–250 centimetres. It is added by application of rules 50–55 for RH, HSH, and SH (Figure 15). The master carpenter can extend another type of balcony by application of rule 58 on every type of house and towards each direction. This is a type of balcony located only on the second floor in front of a window, and with the same width of the window, 70–120 centimetres deep, that is always made from wood. It is projected over the street, garden, or yards thus offering the opportunity to enjoy nice views, having better relationship with street, and neighbours (Figure 15). After definition of the location of the semi-enclosed space, the master carpenter articulates the number and location of wooden columns, which have a structural role in house construction and main role in shaping the facade of the house. In this respect, he allocates one column for every corner of that semi-enclosed space applying rules 59, 60, and 61 on linear form with three, two, and one open side, respectively, and applies rule 62 on L form porch. After application of columns at the corners of semi-enclosed spaces, location of other columns is arranged with 70–1.50 centimetres distance from each other as a result of the application of rule 63 (Figure 16). The process for front porch creation is presented in Figure 17.

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Figure 15.

Rules for definition of front porch and balcony within three main vernacular house types. (a) Front porch for RH, (b) porch for SH, (c) front porch for HSH, and (d) balcony creation.

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Figure 16.

Rules to define wooden columns at semi-enclosed space. (a) Linear three open sides, (b) linear two open sides, (c) linear one open side, and (d) L shape, and (e) addition of columns in between.

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Figure 17.

The product and process of application of related rules after definition of wall thickness for RH towards definition of front porch.

Fenestration and access

According to rule 64, the door access into all rooms is defined from the front porch and located at the corner of the room (Figure 18). Doors of adjacent rooms, particularly the living room and guest entertaining spaces or storerooms, are usually located close to each other. It is practical and encourages quick access between rooms; this is climatically efficient in winter and increases house security, which is achieved in result of rules 65 and 66 applications. The small storeroom located attached to the living room is the only space which is usually accessed from the living room (rule 67). According to rule 61, it is currently applied on common wall between the living room and guest entertaining area or kitchen especially within RH type vernacular houses to define a new door connecting these rooms. Therefore, within new housing, after application of rule 64 for entering into the living room, rule 67 is more admitted by residents, which is practically, climatically, and socially much efficient, convenient, and secure than rules 59 and 60. In the villages of the forest area, each room needs to have at least two windows on two opposite walls aiming to provide cross-ventilation. Nevertheless, within the forest area, just one window is oriented towards the south enjoying sunshine with no need for cross-ventilation. At first, within rooms elongated along the length of the house, such as the living room, the front window opened to the front porch is defined at other corner of the wall where the entrance door is located by application of rule 68. The location of this window is sometimes symmetrical with the door in respect to the central axis of the room, which divides the room into upper and lower settings. The upper setting of the living room belongs to the males group while the lower setting, closer to the door, belongs to the females group. After this stage, and purely in the forest border area, another window located at the backside wall is essential; its location is defined in upper setting of the living area by application of rule 69. For the lateral rooms of HSH and SH types, windows are situated types, windows are situated as a result of rules 70 and 71. Houses usually do not have any windows on lateral walls except south oriented houses, which desire to enjoy views and benefit from sunshine towards east direction; this is possible by application of rules 72 and 73 adding one or two windows, respectively. It should be noted that all types of houses do not have any windows located at the west oriented wall because of climatic harmful conditions including harmful sunshine and pluvial wind of this direction. The window located on the front wall of the living room also provides the opportunity for the males sitting over upper setting of the living room and controlling both inside and outside of the house. Accordingly, the height of window from the room’s floor is supportive, the size of these windows especially, the front located is a size within 30–55 centimetres articulated as a result of rule 74. Sometimes these windows start exactly from the floor level, which is called door-window. This style of window, which is prevalent in the forest border area, provides better views towards outside, conducts better cross-ventilation from the top area of the room to the floor level where human activities take place and residents sleep. Door-window can be generated by application of rule 75 (Figure 18).

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Figure 18.

Rules to define fenestrations.

The attic is an important space within vernacular houses, which is employed as a storeroom for food and a place to keep and dry the rice yield. Therefore, keeping this space safe and secure from thieves is important alongside the feasibility of daily access to this area. In this respect, access to the attic is possible from the living area (rule 76) and if the house has store room, it just operates from this space using a wooden ladder as a result of application of rule 77. Some houses within the forest border area are two storeys, which are accessed by a wooden ladder approximately 40 centimetres wide and is located outside of the house within the front porch or outside of it applied by rules 78 and 79. Front porches located on the ground floor and first floor are connected by this ladder (Figure 19). Currently, residents are not interested in this style of having access to the first floor. They prefer to have access to the second floor from the internal space of the house, especially from the living room (applied by rules 78 and 79). Instead, rules 76 and 77 are suitable and efficient for new housing. In this regard, instead of the ladder, an appropriate satire case for new lifestyle is better to be applied. As the house, which is designed in this paper is supposed not to be two storey high so that rules 78 and 79 are not the case for this one storey house, which is shown in Figure 20. After definition of columns, the stairs providing access from the courtyard to the front porch are designed and constructed by application of rule 76 (Figure 21). At the end, the house building design and construction is terminated by application of rule 77 by changing the label ST to H (Figure 22). After completely finishing the house construction and moving into the house, the owner arranges a party inviting relatives and best friends. Invited guests usually present the owner with a precious gift in return. It is necessary to mention that in order to completely design the new house, extra rules are required. Those rules are generally related to designing details such as decorative or ornamental components of a house including detail design of doors, windows, parapets, and capital of columns, which in this study have not been considered. Likely, rules to design outbuildings, spaces, and components that have recently or newly been added to the original bulk and plan of the house have not been considered in this paper.

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Figure 19.

The product and process of application of related rules after definition of wall thickness for RH towards definition of front porch and fenestration.

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Figure 20.

Rule for definition access from courtyard to the front porch.

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Figure 21.

Rule for termination of house bulk design and construction.

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Figure 22.

Created one storey different types of vernacular house by application of related rules identified within this study, which is supposed to be culturally admitted and climatically compatible with regional conditions of the region of this study.

Discussion

Four plans related to four different introduced types of vernacular houses have been created (Figure 22). These newly designed houses have been inspired by climatic and sustainable rules that were employed within vernacular houses. Accordingly, these climatically take advantage of orientating towards the south adsorbing appropriate sunshine (zone). Conduction of cross-ventilation is feasible by having two windows, including one in the south and one in the north within main settings such as living room being used most of the time, and setting up a front porch. In addition, houses are elongated east–west, which climatically allows obtaining more sunshine and enjoying from winds in order to provide thermal comfort.

Culturally, spatial organisation and house space configuration is set up according to the characteristics of settings and principles of their relationships in regards to the achievement of the identified compositional rules mainly derived from vernacular houses, which support systems of activities that villagers do within their systems of settings or have a desire to do. Accordingly, the living room is the heart of the house connecting all rooms where most occupants’ activities such as sitting, eating, and drinking together; entertaining guests; and watching TV take place. This room has the same proportion as vernacular living rooms but is larger. Because of new demands, and new furniture, sitting styles changed from sitting on the floor to sitting on the sofa, and locals need for large spaces to entertain guests. The kitchen is a new important setting for local population, which can be open plan with a living room or independent but connected to this room by a door. The size and proportion of the kitchen is proposed to be suitable for new defined function accommodating new kitchen appliances such as a fridge, oven, washing machine, sink, cabinet for food and dish storage, and supporting different activities such as cooking, eating, drinking, and sitting together. By the help of being open plan with living room, it can take advantage of cross-ventilation. The front porch is another most important setting within vernacular houses, which shapes the configuration of new houses and climatically has an important role in achieving thermal comfort. It is located in the front of the proposed houses and performs as the entrance connecting the inside of the house to the outside, and the front yard. According to the achievements from the questionnaires related to new preferences of local populations, the size of the deep is wider than vernacular style in order to make this space more functional for new lifestyle. Additional rooms can be set up within the house configuration serving as a private room belonging to members of the family; their size and proportion are the same as vernacular samples but in some cases is accessed from the living room.

Conclusion

This study for the first time has set out to propose a process for designing vernacular houses based on cultural traditions and sustainability of the villages located besides the rice fields of Mazandaran in the north of Iran still with traditional lifestyle. In this regard, followed by case study research and typology study, a set of rules employed for house design and construction has been identified and analysed according to the achievements of cultural and climatic studies. This has led to identification of appropriate compositional rules, which can create houses that are sustainable and climatically efficient. To test this set of rules, it has been applied to generate plan of four different types of vernacular houses of the villages within the region of this study. The process of generation started from locating living room as the main space of vernacular houses and proceeded by adding the other spaces to the plan composition. The successful examination can prove efficiency of identified rules in production of other three vernacular types. These identified rules (1) clarify the underlying commonalities of the structure and appearance, (2) supply the conventions and criteria necessary to determine an instance of the style, and (3) provide the compositional machinery needed to design new buildings that are instances of style (Stiny and Mitchell, 1978). It has been experienced in this research that by employing Shape Grammars makes it possible to represent and understand the composition of designs and creation of new alternatives based on existing samples.

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