Journal of Researches in Islamic Architecture

Concerning the theoretical origins of the bathroom formation in Islamic civilization, from antique natural sciences (medicine) viewpoint, there are trivial researches. Although most of the Medieval Islamic medical texts dealt with the various aspects of human - environment interaction for health, the instructions of these texts in assessing the theoretical tenets of architectural creation have not been studied from the interdisciplinary links of natural sciences and architecture history perspective. The trace of architecture and medicine connection can be found in the medical texts of ancient Greece and Ten books on architecture. Vitruvius viewed the knowledge about different climates and healthy/unhealthy places quite essential for architects and believed that without these sorts of knowledge the adequacy of a residence was not provided. Following the predecessors, Medieval Islamic physicians supposed medicine as a science for the elements and temperaments of a human and considered its objective as health maintenance while being healthy and recovering while being patient. Bathing and bathrooms are interdisciplinary fields linking architecture and medicine; hence most of the antique physicians devoted some part of their works to the role of them. Since long time ago, beside the ceremonial, social, and hygienic functions, bathing has had direct impact on health protection (body/spirit) and the treatment of some illnesses. Although for the predecessors bathing originally pertains to the excretion of waste matters from body, additionally most physicians have focused on its advantages and disadvantages of health and the cure of diseases as well as some features of bathroom architecture. From all these instructions we perceive that besides cleanliness, refreshment, body recovery and some pain relieving functioning of bathing and bathroom architecture, in fact, they are reminiscences of natural and gradual return of moderation into body and self, based on natural philosophical theories towards human-cosmos affinity.

In this article I try to delineate the theoretical origins of bathroom’s formation in Islamic civilization by taking the Medieval Islamic medical texts into consideration. The major question is: what is the scientific origins and principles of the formation of bathrooms? This article approach is historical interpretation of Medieval Islamic Medical texts about the role of bathing and bathrooms in preventing and paving the way for the human physical-spiritual moderation. The theoretical framework on which this study has been formed is the scrutiny of architecture general pattern and painting in bathrooms based on the instructions of the two fields of Physical Medicine (al-Tibb al-Jesmani) and Spiritual Medicine (al-Tibb al-Ruhani). Since according to ancient Medicine the human health relies on the moderation of human strengths and temperaments through the coordination and adaptation of body and mind with the nature, hence this article claims that the structure of different sections in bathrooms of Islamic civilization is in harmony with human body (temperaments) and the themes of the paintings in these bathrooms are in accord with human selves. The findings of this study indicate that the formation of Medieval Islamic bathrooms has been based on the instructions of natural sciences, due to the interactions amongst physicians with artists and architects of senior rank in their castes. In fact, the creators of paintings and bathrooms founded the professional tenets and concepts of their crafts by imbibing the instructions of natural sciences sages and translating them into their profession jargon. Based on the medical knowledge, the most significant theoretical origin of Islamic artists and architects in the formation of bathrooms is justifiable due to the structural resemblance of a human and cosmos. In other words, bathrooms are in accord with body elements and types of self, in essence with cosmos. These resemblances include the correspondence of bathroom sections and human four temperaments as well as the correspondence of bathroom paintings and human triple self. The basic objective of these resemblances, structural and thematic, in bathrooms has been the creation of an environment in accord with human nature for keeping the temperament moderation and durable health.

A house is built for humans to shelter from unfavorable natural conditions. It also has the function of providing human comfort and health, and in each geographical region, this pattern is built with special care and form. The factors affecting the current housing design have reduced human needs in terms of quantitative and economic aspects and several biological factors. Even though one of the basic conditions of desirable housing is to provide comfort and a healthy environment for humans, it seems that today architects have assigned this task to doctors. This is even though in the traditional system, with a holistic approach to problems, architects used medical and religious recommendations to build housing and observance of this issue with the knowledge of environmental and human factors affecting the health of the body and consequently the health of the human soul and spirit was considered as one of the principles of their designs. Considering the various health crises and the lack of environmental and housing health studies, it is a priority to review those experienced patterns. The main issue of the research is to find healthy housing design patterns in an ideal status and to improve the status quo in hot and dry climates. The main goal is to discover the medical roots of the form and health-oriented patterns in the house form so that after feasibility, the continuation of these patterns in the housing form can be investigated. This research is qualitative research with analytical and logical reasoning strategies. The indicators are adjusted using the traditional medicine approach. Comparative and interpretative studies of medicine and architecture have been done concerning recent research and referring to researchers of medicine and architecture to verify the validity of the indicators. The design patterns have been designed based on sample research, including the investigation of a range of traditional and contemporary houses in Kashan and the selection of their health-oriented aspects. The climate zone of hot and dry climate has been chosen due to covering a large part of the country and the need to adjust this climate to provide human health due to the increasing trend of the earth's temperature. The city of Kashan has been selected as a case study; Because traditional and almost pristine houses remain. Therefore, it is possible to analyze the health-oriented features in two ranges of traditional and contemporary houses, and this helps to provide better models. The results of the research show the health patterns of the housing sector in the three scales of the city, architecture, and space design. The health patterns of the housing sector on an urban scale with two variables show the patterns of residential block orientation and the structure of closed and open space for the ideal status including seven patterns and the modification of the existing situation including nine patterns. On the architectural scale, the zoning of housing spaces includes eight ideal and corrective patterns based on the environmental factors of health preservation - air, sleep and wakefulness, emotional and physical movement, and stillness. The design of the house spaces for two ideal and reforming the status quo has been done in line with the patterns presented for the urban and architectural scale. These spaces include an open space pattern for the yard and roof, a roofed space pattern for the porch and terrace, and a closed space pattern for the living room, bedroom, kitchen, bathroom, water tank, and stairs.