An Assessment of the Evolution of Structural Forms of Iranian Schools: Seljukid Era into Ghajar Period (From the Fifth to the Fourteenth Century AH)

Educational spaces in Iran took the formal identity of "schools" after "Nezamieh" education centers were introduced by Nezam-olmolk during the Seljukid period. Some structural elements such as cells, porches and courtyards, etc. were included in school buildings and a new kind of structural pattern emerged within them. However, enhancements of architectural techniques in the following historical periods as well as cultural, social and political facts and conditions did lead to some types of changes within the physical structure of school building elements in Iran. The present paper assumes that physical structure of Iranian school buildings has experienced a line of evolution and enhancement from Seljukid era into Ghajar period. The present paper is aimed to explore the characteristics of architectural structure within Iranian Schools at each historical period as well as the trend of changes in those structures. The present paper uses a descriptive, analytical and case study methodology to collect and analyze the data. The data were first collected using library sources and through field studies in some cases. The data were initially presented using a descriptive method and then they were evaluated through an analytical and adaptive method. Study results show that school buildings in each historical period have evolved with certain physical structures while various changes have been applied in order to guarantee that residence place, education space and religious elements of the building are provided more desirably. As some reference, the cells were initially consisted of a single space and were in immediate contact with courtyards. Then they evolved into a multi-partition space which included small size porches and larders. Also porches were initially used as educational spaces and in some cases functioned as religious spaces. However, as the time passed, the porches transformed into wider and lighter spaces as they were needed to facilitate the education through larger rooms for more students. Meanwhile, the porches which were essentially places for worship, were replaced by vaults and naves as worship places within the school buildings. So the significance of worship spaces goes to such a height in Ghajar period that school buildings transformed into a mosque-school identity. As the schools were expanded, the process of admission and entrance to the schools was changed in some ways. In general, the results of the study proved the hypotheses stating that physical structures of school buildings have evolved from Seljukid period into Ghajar period in sense of characteristics of main building elements and the space configuration and patterns.