Reflection of the Identity of Modernism in Decoding the Pahlavi II Residential Building Facades through Semiotic Approach

Every identity crisis in every country is based on important and flowing factors, some of which are general but some are unique to the characteristics of the country. By examining each element, we can derive to a cohesive theme through which we can understand and evaluate the historic factors of that era on its construction. Based on such approach, we can better examine today’s construction and find a better way to modernize construction to reflect the current era. Iran's contemporary architecture has faced many challenges. Some of these challenges have come about due to the contemporary historical period and the dominance of the modernity discourse. Others, have been formed in a special way due to social, political and cultural requirements in Iran. From the interaction of internal and cultural developments, Iranian identity and the impressions of modernity, a special type of architecture appeared in Iran, known as “contemporary Iranian architecture”. To a large extent, its identity dimensions through the lens of semiotics approach, have been neglected by researchers. Hence the idea of this research is based on a postmodern perspective which has analyzed the architectural identity of the Pahlavi era through the semiotics approach. Semiotics analysis on the Iranian Architecture will be done on to the most noticeable elements of the facades of selected buildings from the second Pahlavi period. This was the era of internationalism and the era of the prevalence of traditionalist trends in Iran. Some of the most prominent residential buildings of this period, mostly based in 6th district of Tehran, have been thoroughly analyzed. The research method, is qualitative and inferential, additionally MAXQDA software has been used for the coding purposes. Finally, after examining the facade from a physical and non-physical perspective using the semiotic method based on Kate Nesbitt's theory, the present study was able to present a method and model for evaluating the facade and also identify four main patterns for the facades of this historical period, mentioning their characteristics.