The Monthly Scientific Journal of Bagh-e Nazar

The Field of Appresentation in the Ritual Architecture of Ardabil: A Phenomenological– Cultural Analysis of Presence, Memory, and Symbol

https://doi.org/10.22034/bagh.2025.521555.5816
Volume 22, Issue 149
November 2025
Pages 53-72
The Monthly Scientific Journal of Bagh-e Nazar

Document Type : Original Research Article

Authors

Sevil Mehdilou 1
Fariborz Dolatabadi 1
Yaghoobi Masoomeh 2

1 Department of Architecture, Faculty of Art and Architecture, West Tehran Branch, Islamic Azad University, Tehran, Iran

2 Department of Architecture, Faculty of Art and Architecture, Ardabil Branch, Islamic Azad University, Ardabil, Iran

Abstract
Problem statement: In the post-secular sphere, dwelling architecture is no longer merely a vessel for material habitation but emerges as a dynamic field for presence, perceptual suspension, and profound sacred experience. Despite the significance of this transformation, there remains a lack of precise models capable of explaining the interwoven layers of body, memory, symbol, and resonance.
Research objective: Addressing this gap, the present study examines the mechanisms through which meaning arises in ritual dwelling spaces within a lived-cultural context, using a multilayered phenomenological model. The model -grounded in sensory perception, lived memory, symbolic codes, unconscious archetypes, and resonant qualities- demonstrates how these elements can lead to the ritual transformation of dwelling.
Research method: Employing a qualitative-interpretive approach, the study integrates the phenomenology of perception, cultural semiotics, psychoanalysis of unconscious codes, and lived semantics to test the “Field of Appresentation” model in three historical–ritual sites in Ardabil. The analytical process combines sensory description, genealogy of collective memory, reading of spatial symbols, and examination of perceptual atmosphere.
Conclusion: Findings indicate that space, at the intersection of perception and memory, functions not as a passive container but as an active field in which the event of meaning unfolds. Within such a field, the subject is transformed through processes of pause, repetition, and encounter. Reflective bodily movement, generational memory, directional spatial symbols, and the resonance of light, sound, and material converge in an inner experience that evokes a deep, unspoken memory of the primordial covenant -subconsciously and archetypically embedded in the spatial form- thereby transforming dwelling into a sacred act. The Field of Appresentation model thus reveals how activated dwelling can attain ritual, revelatory, and transformative qualities, becoming not merely a medium for formal representation but a site for archetypal experiences of presence, pause, and return, and for the awakening of the subject within the heart of being.

Keywords

Field of Appresentation
Ritual Dwelling
Sacred Resonance
Cultural Memory
Spatial Semiotics
Phenomenology of Architecture
The Holy Qur’an (M. Elahi Ghomshei, Trans.). (2004). Translation by]. Dar al-Kotob al-Islamiyah. 
Allahyari, S. (2023). Phenomenology of the concept of space and place in the ritual-traditional display of taziyeh. Visual Art Studies, 1(1), 109-C115. https://doi.org/10.22111/jart.2023.44777.1029 
Azadarmaki, T. (2019). بنیان‌های فکری جامعۀ ایرانی [Intellectual foundations of the theory of Iranian society]. Elm Publication. [in Persian]
Assmann, J. (2011). Cultural memory and early civilization: Writing, remembrance, and political imagination. Cambridge University Press. https://books.google.com/books/about/Cultural_Memory_and_Early_Civilization.html?id=kxltuUm1KDcC 
Bachelard, G. (1994). The poetics of space. Beacon Press.
Barthes, R. (1977). The death of the author (S. Heath, Trans.). In S. Heath (Ed.), Image-music-text (pp. 145-C148). Fontana Press.
Bergson, H., & Andison, M. L. (2010). The creative mind: An introduction to metaphysics. Courier Corporation. https://books.google.je/books?id=rYCzAQAAQBAJ&printsec=frontcover&source=gbs_atb#v=onepage&q&f=false 
Bion, W. R. (1961). Experiences in groups. Tavistock Publications. https://doi.org/10.4324/9780203359075 
Böhme, G. (2017). Atmospheric architectures: The aesthetics of felt spaces (T. Engels-Schwarzpaul, Ed. & Trans.). Bloomsbury Academic. 
Böhme, G. (2021). Atmosphere. Online Encyclopedia Philosophy of Nature. Retreived from https://journals.ub.uni-heidelberg.de/index.php/oepn/article/view/80607 
Bourdieu, P. (2018). Distinction: A social critique of the judgement of taste. In M. P. Bhandari & H. Shvindina (Eds.), Inequality (pp. 287-C318). Routledge.
Casey, E. S. (2000). Remembering: A phenomenological study. Indiana University Press. https://books.google.de/books/about/Remembering_Second_Edition.html?id=JO5B5k3Uvy8C&redir_esc=y 
Cassirer, E. (1957). The philosophy of symbolic forms: Volume three: The phenomenology of knowledge. Yale University Press. https://books.google.de/books/about/The_Philosophy_of_Symbolic_Forms.html?id=I9k1OF3rK1MC&redir_esc=y 
Clark, A. (2010). Supersizing the mind: Embodiment, action, and cognitive extension. oxford university Press. https://books.google.de/books?id=I-tSEhdEorUC&hl=de&source=gbs_book_other_versions 
Corbin, H. (2000). Mundus imaginalis, or the imaginary and the imaginal. Working with images, 71 -89. https://l1nq.com/OtBYl 
Damasio, A. R. (1999). The feeling of what happens: Body and emotion in the making of consciousness. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. 
Dashti, M. (2024). The effect of architectural space on emotion Comparing two approaches of environmental psychology and phenomenology. (e721815). Architectural and Environmental Research, 2(2), e721815. https://doi.org/10.30470/jaer.2025.2044222.1163 
Dreyfus, H. L., & Wrathall, M. A. (2005). A companion to Heidegger. Wiley-VCH.
Eco, U. (1979). A theory of semiotics. Indiana University Press. https://books.google.de/books/about/A_Theory_of_Semiotics.html?id=BoXO4ItsuaMC&redir_esc=y 
Eliade, M. (1959). The sacred and the profane: The nature of religion (W. R. Trask, Trans.). Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. https://books.google.de/books?id=zBzzv977CLgC&printsec=frontcover&hl=de&source=gbs_ge_summary_r&cad=0#v=onepage&q&f=false
Foucault, M. (1984). Of Other Spaces: Utopias and Heterotopias Diakritics. Johns Hopkins University Press.
Fuchs, T. (2018). Presence in absence. The ambiguous phenomenology of grief. Phenomenology and the Cognitive Sciences, 17(1), 43 -63. https://psycnet.apa.org/doi/10.1007/s11097-017-9506-2 
Gallagher, S. (2006). How the body shapes the mind. Clarendon press. https://books.google.de/books/about/How_the_Body_Shapes_the_Mind.html?id=1FuOy1jPK3UC&redir_esc=y 
Gibson, J. J. (2014). The ecological approach to visual perception: classic edition. Psychology press. https://books.google.de/books/about/The_Ecological_Approach_to_Visual_Percep.html?id=DrhCCWmJpWUC&redir_esc=y 
Graham, R., & Haake, F. (2006). Quantum statistics in optics and solid-state physics (Vol. 66). Springer. https://books.google.de/books/about/Quantum_Statistics_in_Optics_and_Solid_S.html?id=OJp0DgAAQBAJ&redir_esc=y 
Greimas, A. J., Courtés, J., Crist, L., & Patte, D. (1982). Semiotics and language: An analytical dictionary (Vol. 10). Bloomington: Indiana University Press.
Halbwachs, M. (1992). On collective memory University of Chicago Press. Chicago IL. https://books.google.de/books/about/On_Collective_Memory.html?hl=it&id=GPhGukFWC84C&redir_esc=y 
Hasani, M., Soheili, J., & Akbari Nejat, H. (2024). Analysis of inner peace in virtual reality experience based on the phenomenology of embodied perception of space (Case study: Design of a residential complex in Kish Island). Hoviatshahr, 57(1). https://doi.org/10.71793/hoviatshahr.2024.795239
Heidegger, M. (1962). Being and time (J. Macquarrie & E. Robinson, Trans.). Harper & Row.
Heidegger, M. (2001). Poetry language thought. Harper and Row. 
Heisenberg, W. (1959). The Revolution in Modern Science. Allen & Unwin.
Hopper, E. (2003). The social unconscious: Selected papers. Jessica Kingsley Publishers. https://books.google.de/books/about/The_Social_Unconscious.html?hl=ms&id=T9MPBQAAQBAJ&redir_esc=y 
Husserl, E. (1931). Ideas: General introduction to our phenomenology. G. Allen & Unwin. https://books.google.de/books/about/Ideas.html?id=3LXz0lZ2fUQC&redir_esc=y 
Ibn Arabi, M. (2006). The bezels of wisdom. Karnameh.
Ihde, D. (1990). Technology and the lifeworld: From garden to earth (No. 560). Indiana University Press. https://books.google.de/books/about/Technology_and_the_Lifeworld.html?id=qGx-_VpaJKUC&redir_esc=y 
Jafaripour, R., Kaboly, M. H., & Shahcheraghi, A. (2024). The relationship between «Rend-e Nazarbaz» (the perfect man in mysticism) and «Dasein» (the superman of the Western world), in the phenomenology of privacy. Islamic Mysticism Studies Quarterly, 19(76), 187-C209. https://doi.org/10.2234/erfan.2023.703031 
Jung, C. G. (2012). Man and his symbols. Bantam. https://books.google.de/books/about/Man_and_His_Symbols.html?id=PQgrkJgkKDcC&redir_esc=y 
Jung, C. G. (2014). The archetypes and the collective unconscious (R. F. C. Hull, Trans.). Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315725642
Kristeva, J. (2024). Revolution in poetic language. Columbia University Press.
Kristeva, J. (2025). Intimate revolt: The powers and limits of psychoanalysis. Columbia University Press. https://books.google.de/books/about/Intimate_Revolt.html?id=NCY2EQAAQBAJ&redir_esc=y 
Labibzadeh, R. (2022). پدیدارشناسی زبان فضا در باغ ایرانی مبتنی‌بر مراتب وجودی انسان از منظر اسلام؛ نمونه موردی باغ دولت‌آباد یزد [Phenomenology of the language of space in the Iranian garden based on the existential levels of human from the perspective of Islam: The case of Dowlatabad Garden, Yazd]. Green Architecture, 8(33), 1-C14. [in Persian]
Lacan, J. (2006). Ecrits: The first complete edition in English. Norton.
Lacan, J. (2011). The seminar of Jacques Lacan: Book XX: Encore: 1972- 1973. Einaudi.
Lakoff, G., & Johnson, M. (2008). Metaphors we live by. University of Chicago press. 
Lefebvre, H., & Nicholson Smith, D. (1991). The production of space (Vol. 142). Wiley-Blackwell.
Llinás, R. R. (2002). I of the vortex: From neurons to self. MIT press. https://books.google.de/books?id=DSp7MG8oGDIC&redir_esc=y 
Lotman, Y. M. (1990). Universe of the Mind: A Semiotic Theory of Culture. Indiana University Press. https://books.google.de/books/about/Universe_of_the_Mind.html?id=0-xSQHU1YNYC&redir_esc=y 
Lutz, A., & Thompson, E. (2003). Neurophenomenology integrating subjective experience and brain dynamics in the neuroscience of consciousness. Journal of Consciousness Studies, 10(9-j10), 31-k52. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/233699198_Neurophenomenology_Integrating_Subjective_Experience_and_Brain_Dynamics_in_the_Neuroscience_of_Consciousness 
Mahmoodi Nezhad, H., Pour Jaafar, M. R., Bemanian, M. R., Ansari, M., & Taghvaei, A. A. (2009). Phenomenology of the urban environment: Promoting urban spaces to urban places. Journal of Environmental Science and Technology, 10(4, Special Issue 39), 282-297. https://www.sid.ir/paper/361947/en 
Mahoney, A., & Pargament, K. I. (2004). Sacred changes: Spiritual conversion and transformation. Journal of Clinical Psychology, 60(5), 481J-492. https://psycnet.apa.org/doi/10.1002/jclp.20007 
Marjouei, A., Shahedi, B., Piravi Vanak, M., & Ghasemi Sichani, M. (2018). Architecture as extensive mind. Bagh-e Nazar, 15(64), 29-C40. https://doi.org/10.22034/bagh.2018.69478 
Maslow, A. H. (2013). Toward a psychology of being. Simon and Schuster.
Mehdilou, S. (2025). An investigation into the role of public mentality in the formation of housing after the Islamic Revolution in Ardabil [Unpublished doctoral dissertation]. Tehran West Branch, Islamic Azad University.
Mellor, P. A., & Shilling, C. (2014). Sociology of the sacred: Religion, embodiment and social change. SAGE Publications Ltd. https://books.google.de/books/about/Sociology_of_the_Sacred.html?id=mbuICwAAQBAJ&redir_esc=y
Merleau-Ponty, M., Landes, D., Carman, T., & Lefort, C. (2013). Phenomenology of perception. Routledge.
Nari Ghomi, M., & Abbaszadeh, M. J. (2024). Special ritual spaces in the house: A look at the influence of modernism in changing ritual ideas in the architecture of houses. Culture, Identity & Architecture Urban Journal (CIAUJ), 9(1), 245-C264. https://doi.org/10.61186/ciauj.9.1.245 
Nora, P. (1989). Between memory and history: Les lieux de mémoire. Representations, 7k-24. https://doi.org/10.2307/2928520 
Norberg-Schulz, C. (1980). Genius loci: Towards a phenomenology of architecture. Rizzoli International Publications.
Proffitt, D. R. (2006). Embodied perception and the economy of action. Perspectives on Psychological Science, 1(2), 110-122.
Ricoeur, P. (1981). Hermeneutics and the human sciences: Essays on language, action and interpretation. Cambridge University Press. https://books.google.de/books/about/Hermeneutics_and_the_Human_Sciences.html?id=8L1CwJ0U_DsC&redir_esc=y 
Ricoeur, P. (2004). Narrative time. In M. Bal (Ed.), Narrative theory: Political narratology (pp. 327-C347). Routledge.
Sayyad, A., Gharibpour, A., & Delshad Siyahkali, M. (2019). Spaciousness and body awareness: Rereading the concept of space in architectural experience—Case study: Tehran Museum of Contemporary Art. The Monthly Scientific Journal of Bagh-e Nazar, 16(75), 71-C82. https://doi.org/10.22034/bagh.2019.190727.4172
Schutz, A. (1970). On phenomenology and social relations. University of Chicago press.  https://books.google.de/books/about/Alfred_Schutz_on_Phenomenology_and_Socia.html?id=L_E50oryv-cC&redir_esc=y 
Sekhavatdoust, N., & Alborzi, F. (2018). Contemplation on meaning process of historical complex of Qazvin Saad-al-Saltaneh and its present identity reading from the view of phenomenology. Bagh-e Nazar, 15(59), 29-C42. https://doi.org/10.22034/bagh.2018.60565 
Singer, W. (1999). Neuronal synchrony: A versatile code for the definition of relations? Neuron, 24(1), 49-C65. https://doi.org/10.1016/s0896-6273(00)80821-1 
Soltanzadeh, H., & Hasan Pour, M. (2019). The impact of Ta›ziyah ritual on the vernacular architecture of Mazandaran’s Tekiehs Ask tribe of Amol. Islamic Art Studies, 15(34), 258- 295. https://doi.org/10.22034/ias.2019.95999 
Sonesson, G. (1990). The semiotic function and the genesis of pictorial meaning. In Center/Periphery in representations and institutions. Proceedings from the Conference of The International Semiotics Institute, Imatra, Finland, July 16-l21 (pp. 211-j156). Acta Semiotica Fennica. https://www.academia.edu/257845/The_Semiotic_Function_and_the_Genesis_of_Pictorial_Meaning 
Suhrawardi, Sh. (2020). Hekmat Eshragh [The philosophy of illumination] (Y. Yasrebi, Trans.). Bustan-e Ketab. (Original work published 1970)
Thompson, E. (2010). Mind in life: Biology, phenomenology, and the sciences of mind. Harvard University Press.
Thompson, E., Lutz, A., & Cosmelli, D. (2005). Neurophenomenology: An Introduction for Neurophilosophers. In A. Brook & K. Akins (Eds.), Cognition and the brain: The philosophy and neuroscience movement (pp. 40- 97). Cambridge University Press. https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511610608.003
Tschumi, B. (1994). Event Cities (Praxis). MIT Press.
Tschumi, B. (2024). Event-Cities 5: Poetics. MIT Press.
Turner, V., Abrahams, R., & Harris, A. (2017). The ritual process: Structure and anti-structure. Routledge. https://books.google.de/books/about/The_Ritual_Process.html?id=IBRuiOX8VEEC&redir_esc=y 
Tymieniecka, A. T. (1999). The ontopoiesis of life as a new philosophical paradigm. In Life scientific philosophy, phenomenology of life and the sciences of life: Ontopoiesis of life and the human creative condition (pp. 3-h28). Springer Netherlands. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-017-2079-3_1 
Tymieniecka, A. T. (2000). Ontopoiesis of life as the measure for the renewal of education. In A.-T. Tymieniecka (Ed.), Paideia: Philosophy and phenomenology of life inspiring education for our times (pp. 3-C24). Springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-017-2525-5_1
Tymieniecka, A. T. (2012). The elemental passions of the soul: Poetics of the elements in the human condition: Part 3 (Vol. 28). Springer Science & Business Media.
Varela, F. J. (1996). Neurophenomenology: A methodological remedy for the hard problem. Journal of consciousness studies, 3(4), 330h-349. https://www.scirp.org/reference/referencespapers?referenceid=3187480 
Varela, F. J., Thompson, E., & Rosch, E. (1992). Cognitive science and human experience. MIT Press.
Zahavi, D. (2008). Subjectivity and selfhood: Investigating the first-person perspective. MIT press. https://books.google.de/books/about/Subjectivity_and_Selfhood.html?id=kVdst93lQa4C&redir_esc=y 
Žižek, S. (2001). On belief. Psychology Press. https://books.google.de/books/about/On_Belief.html?id=ar4K7Y_kbmwC&redir_esc=y 

Home

Submit Manuscript

Contact Us