Shaping Soil into Domes: Vernacular Architecture in South Khorasan

Earth as a building material has been used for millennia in Iran, finding particular expression in mud-brick domes, a dominant feature of the central Iranian houses (Wulff 1966). The treatment of vernacular architecture is the subject of few studies, and even fewer works deal in particular with construction processes (Bromberger 1988). Architectural research has been predominantly of descriptive nature and analyses space, structural elements, geometry, and decorations (Beazley and Harverson 1982; Hejazi and Saradj 2015; Rainer 1977). Thus, the literature mostly conveys a static image of buildings, and in particular of houses, neglecting all human processes developing around them (Suess 2014). Anthropological approaches have started to gain more influence over the architectural discourse, which has often been limited by specialistic outlooks on technology, history or archaeology (Pradines 2018; Maudlin and Vellinga 2014). Any domestic space, to exist, needs to be conceived, built, inhabited, and maintained, as well as abandoned. Human activity is crucial to have a more comprehensive understanding of what keeps buildings alive, or also, mark their negligence. As pointed out by Marchand (2001) it is also a very important responsibility of researchers to integrate the makers, the craftsmen - and more broadly people's life - when talking about architecture. Focussing the attention exclusively on material objects limits an overarching understanding of cultural heritage.
The study analyses the domestic architecture of Esfahk, a village in South Khorasan province, where the researcher has been living to carry out participant observation fieldwork. Building on the work of architects and anthropologists alike (Marchand 2009; Marchand 2001; Ingold 2013), this research concentrates on the relationship between architecture, people's life, craftsmen and builders. In this paper, it will be illustrated how domestic spaces unfold, from being carved into the barren earth of the desert, to later become large houses covered with vaults and domes made only of mud-bricks, through the use of skilful construction methods. It will be shown how the Tabas earthquake of 1978 imposed a drastic shift on the villagers of Esfahk - who had to move to a new settlement - and how later, younger villagers have decided to re-appropriate the old houses, and how masons have consequently recovered their mud-brick related building crafts. The aim of this paper is to present architecture from the point of view of the dwellers, builders, and those who employ their hands to shape earth into houses.