Architecture as a Mediator for Human Perfection: A Search for the Nature of the Relationship between Humans and Architecture Based on Mohammad Hossein Tabatabai’s Philosophy

Background and objectives: Influenced by the prevailing understanding of architecture, we take the relationship between humans and architecture for granted, but this understanding has also obscured some aspects of this relationship. In this research, we have studied the relationship between humans and architecture based on the philosophy of Seyed Mohammad Hossein Tabatabai. The main question of this research is: ‘What is the relationship between humans and architecture if we look at the world from Tabatabai’s philosophical point of view’. Until now, previous researches have never considered architecture or the relationship between humans and architecture from this point of view and based on these theoretical foundations. The only relevant example is this author’s doctoral dissertation entitled Architectural History as Knowledge, in which Tabatabai’s theoretical apparatus was used to clarify the relationship between architecture and history and to understand what architectural history is.Methods: The research is non-quantitative with its main method and strategy being rational reasoning, based on Tabatabai’s method and philosophical research methodologies. Nevertheless, the thematic analysis method is also used for exploring the theoretical foundations of the research and extracting main concepts from the mentioned philosophical sources and explaining them. We have first clarified the main terms of the discussion, that is, the meaning of ‘human’ and ‘architecture as a human practice’. Then we have introduced a part of Tabatabai’s theoretical system which includes his philosophical worldview and the relationship between humans and their practices. We have then tried to explain the concept of architecture in terms of Tabatabai’s way of looking at the world. Finally, we have described the relationship between humans and architecture from the perspective of Tabatabai philosophy.Results and conclusion: The research shows that in Tabatabai’s worldview, firstly, architecture is among human crafts, one of the possible movements (Harkat) in the world, and secondly, whenever humans engage in architecture, whilst manipulating the world’s materiality, they also change themselves; at the same time establish something in the material world, they also build their own souls and accumulate knowledge, and in this way attain perfection.