Impact of Religious Commandments on Residential Architecture of Zoroastrians, Case Study: Dasturān District in Yazd City

ABSTRACT Scholars that have focused on cities as the subject of their research, account the worldview and religion as the most significant factors in formation of urban spaces and architectural compositions. This is indeed why historical cities are known to reflect beliefs and cultures of their constructors. The influence of Islam on Iranian ancient cities is studied considerably, though research on the influence of commandments of the Zoroastrian religion on their architectural spaces is at its infancy. Therefore, this research investigates the impact of religious commandments on Zoroastrian's residential architecture, based on the data obtained from fieldwork in the Dasturān district of the City of Yazd (Iran). To this end, besides identifying influential Zoroastrian commandments, the extent of, and the circumstances surrounding formation of such architectural spaces has been evaluated. In the conformity of theoretical findings of the research against the field data, it has been revealed that the Zoroastrian commandments have significantly influenced the formation of spaces of historical houses in Yazd (Dasturān district); particularly that practice of commandments “respect of sanctity of the four elements or Chahar-Akhshij (earth, water, air, fire)” and “faith in cosmos order (Aṣ̌a/Rta)” have been emphasized in Zoroastrian residential architecture.