Aims:
The Persian garden is a spatial system in which movement, sequence, orientation, thresholds, and pauses are organized through built form, landscape, and circulation. Previous studies have examined spatial organization, visual perception, and phenomenological dimensions, but turning and pausing have received limited attention.The study aims to identify relationships among movement, turning, field-of-view changes, and potential pauses in Persian gardens and formulate a phenomenological framework for their sequential organization. It focuses on changes in direction, field of view, thresholds, intermediate spaces, and identifiable spatial elements. Rather than claiming direct knowledge of users’ lived experiences, phenomenological implications are interpreted through spatial configurations traceable in documentary sources. {42}
Materials & Methods:
The research adopts a qualitative, descriptive–analytical approach with an interpretive–hermeneutic phenomenological framework. Its basis consists of documentary materials; field observation, behavioral recording, and interviews were not conducted. Analysis draws on architectural plans, spatial diagrams, photographs, documentary materials, and scholarly literature concerning Fin Garden, Shazdeh Garden, Dowlatabad Garden, and Narenjestan-e Qavam.
Cases were purposively selected for variation in movement organization, hierarchy, level changes, thresholds, visual axes, and transitions. The unit of analysis was a “spatial situation within a movement sequence,” examining movement, turning, field-of-view change, potential pause, spatial element, and perceptual implication. {43}Analysis proceeded by identifying movement axes, directional changes, thresholds, intermediate spaces, visual openings, and potential pause points; examining movement and path organization, turning, spatial pause, and gradual spatial revelation; and conducting cross-case comparison. Recurring patterns were then translated into analytical and context-dependent implications for contemporary pedestrian routes. Findings are interpreted as spatial potential rather than claims about users’ perceptions or lived experiences.
Findings:
The analysis revealed a recurring sequence linking movement, turning, field-of-view change, potential pause, and renewed spatial revelation. Despite differences, movement and spatial reorientation emerged as common organizational characteristics.In Fin Garden, axes, water channels, pools, vegetation, and intersections structure movement; directional changes alter orientation and the visual field, while pools and shaded areas provide potential pause points.In Shazdeh Garden, longitudinal and stepped organization and gradual level changes structure movement; terraces and platforms alter position and visual orientation and provide potential pause locations.In Dowlatabad Garden, ordered axes, thresholds, open and semi-open spaces, and central architectural components organize movement and establish differentiated spatial conditions.In Narenjestan-e Qavam, the entrance sequence, courtyard, veranda, and interior spaces form a spatial hierarchy; transitions generate directional changes, while verandas provide potential pauses.
Across the cases, recurring patterns were synthesized as path continuity and hierarchy, turning and directional change, change in the field of view, potential pause, gradual spatial revelation, and relationships with identifiable spatial elements. These formed the analytical sequence “movement–turning–change in the field of view–pause–renewed revelation.” {44}The sequence is interpretive, not a causal model of users’ experiences.
Conclusion:
Turning and pausing can be analytically understood as interconnected components of the spatial sequence of Persian gardens rather than isolated physical events. Turning is associated with changes in direction, orientation, and the field of view, while potential pauses are associated with nodes, thresholds, intermediate spaces, and movement-regulating elements.The contribution is a spatially traceable phenomenological framework for interpreting movement and spatial reorientation without direct evidence of lived experience. Subject to contemporary functional, social, environmental, safety, accessibility, and mobility conditions, relationships among directional changes, framed views, intermediate spaces, potential pause points, and gradual spatial revelation may inform contemporary pedestrian pathways. These are context-dependent propositions, not empirically validated behavioral outcomes or direct reproductions of Persian gardens.Future research should test the sequence through field observation, behavioral mapping, interviews, and other user-based methods to determine whether identified relationships correspond to movement, attention, perception, and experience. {45}