THE SENSUOUS HOST: PRACTICES OF ENSURING GUESTS FEEL ‘AT HOME’ IN TRADITIONAL IRANIAN HOUSES

Melika M. Tehrani; Michelle Duffy

THE SENSUOUS HOST: PRACTICES OF ENSURING GUESTS FEEL ‘AT HOME’ IN TRADITIONAL IRANIAN HOUSES

Melika M. Tehrani, Michelle Duffy

Abstract

This article explores the ways in which home is understood, felt and experienced through our sensual experiences, more specifically the ways in which a guest is made to feel at home through the cultural and social practices of a traditional Iranian household. Our particular focus is the traditional residential architecture of Iranian homes built prior to the Pahlavi era (i.e. 1925-1979). These traditional houses were designed, maintained and inhabited in a way that sought to maintain a pleasurable relationship between the home and its inhabitants, that is, a relationship that fed and nourished all five senses. We draw on a phenomenological approach as a means to recreate this historic period so as to explore the significance of the body and its sensual encounters with place, providing a detailed examination of home- making and notions of hospitality and how architecture, culture, senses and hospitality are brought together.

Keywords

Culture, Domestic interiors, Experiential, Home-making, Hospitality, Iranian architecture, Senses, Traditional houses.

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