Identity in Residential Architecture from the Viewpoint of Semiology (Qajar Period Houses and Contemporary Residential Complexes in Shiraz)

The deficiency of Iranian contemporary housing architecture has made this method of Architecture unable to meet the needs of Iranian families in recent years. Architecture is part of the identity of a society and has concepts and features derived from the community of its time. Therefore, in order to provide a correct solution for the modification of the Iranian contemporary housing architecture and to create its identity, it is necessary to recognize and analyze the signs existing in Iranian architecture throughout history. In this study, the architecture of the traditional Qajar era houses and contemporary residential complexes in Shiraz, with a semiotic approach, were analyzed in two layers of architecture and meta-architecture. The results of semiotics mechanism, questionnaires and interviews showed that the lack of attention to different layers of the signifieds and conformity of the signifier and the signified is the missing link of identity in the contemporary architecture of residential complexes. Also, it seems that the application of Qajar architectural signs to contemporary housing architecture can create identity in modern housing.