Old Dezful city as an ingeniously-developed unique architectural entity based on the locally-made brickworks for a flourishing municipal culture

Brick and brickworks of various shapes, sizes and dimensions had constituted as an important design feature for construction of residential and commercial places in the ancient municipalities such as the Dezful City. One of the distinctive characteristics of this type of ceramic material is its heat convection properties. Clay-based-brick blocks consist of unique qualities that help maintain the internal cool ambient within the building confines during hot period and keeping them warm during cold seasons. This had been the criteria for selecting brick as the principal construction material to complement the mortar for enhancing the strength and durability of old structures particularly those elegantly-designed architectural monuments. The aim of this paper is to investigate the physical and aesthetic characteristics of the clay-based bricks incorporated in public and private architectural structures in the ancient Dezful municipality. The methodology involves using secondary data complemented by interviews and fieldworks. These were then interpreted within a qualitative analytical framework for data interpretation. Results show that brick makers had to follow systematic procedures for surveying the soil properties to identify the most appropriate clay type for brick-making. They had merely sought those categories that consisted of fine-grains needed to improve the brick quality. It was also found that brick manufacturers had to have a sound knowledge of the optimum mud-mixture quality for attaining optimum moulding and shaping of raw clay into right dimensions of brick blocks for subsequent processing. That necessitated a sound knowledge of the techniques involved in ‘de-moisturising’ the compressed block mass before proceeding to baking. The latter involved a delicate process of furnace management to regulate the temperature in a range of about 200-300 0C. It also involved an accurate time scheduling for drying, pre-baking and final baking of the raw materials with a minimum of damage to the kiln’s structure and the product itself. The raw mud-blocks had to get through ‘dehumidifying process’ by setting the temperature in the kiln in such a manner to ensure high quality products. Results show the high malleability (leniency, softness) and versatility (tatbeeqpaziri) of clay-burned bricks for a wide-ranging design features and environmental conditions. It was found that the Dezful-made bricks had provided sufficient structural strength, sound aesthetic and environmental-friendly qualities for a whole variety of the locally-executed architectural projects. Research shows the brick blocks’ compatibility in complementing the mortar mixture for a speedy construction of a wide-ranging water-mill projects that later became effective locomotives for economic prosperity of the Dez riparian (situated along the coastal lines of the river). Brick blocks proved to be a very effective ‘sound-proofing’ and ‘dump-resisting’ medium for architects to justify their incorporation in buildings. Brick architecture also proved to be a distinct ‘environmental-friendly’ concept for generating a desirable micro-climate for surrounding vegetation cover. Brickworks had also had a widespread application in water-mill construction along the River Dez, as well as constituting as the major material components of the ancient city bridge, which until recently was the only ancient monument of the kind still being operational. Architects had constructed this exquisitely-style, integrated, consolidated and rigidly-built bridge with the locally-made brick blocks complemented by a unique mortar mixture that had reportedly included metal chips to produce a solid structure. That had meant to reinforce the solidity and robustness of the bridge’s sub-structures to withstand shear stresses and kinetic energy associated with turbulent hydraulic flow of floods. Its architectural features provided the strength to serve as a firmly stable and reliable passage route on one hand and functioning as a rigid diversion weir on the other. The Dezfuli architects had supposedly modelled this integrated structure with the intention of acting as a re-regulating dam to channelize the flow for downstream command areas. Brick-making and brick-working practices seem to have become institutionalised as the part and parcel of the Dezful city’s architectural practice and culture. It seems to have been instrumental in rapidly-developing and spectacularly flourishing a unique colony of highly- compacted residential and commercial centres of civil and municipal excellence (taaalieh-madanee). The end products were later renowned for their unprecedented aesthetic quality, artistic novelty, architectural sophistication, exquisitely features, tasteful picturesque, charmingly old-fashion style, physical strength and durability.

کلیدواژه ها:

Dezful city ، brickworks ، municipal culture