Safavid architecture

Safavid Isfahan (1501–1736) has long been celebrated for its monumental mosques, palaces, and gardens, yet scholarship has often privileged domes, façades, and ornament while neglecting the interstitial spaces that mediate between them. This study addresses that gap by examining the formative role of thresholds, corridors, galleries, gardens, and terraces in structuring experience and constructing architectural identity. A qualitative methodology was adopted, combining a systematic literature review, semi-structured interviews with eight leading scholars of Iranian and Islamic architecture, and detailed case analyses of the Imam Mosque, ʿAlī Qāpū Palace, and the Chahār-Bāgh School. Thematic coding of expert testimonies, triangulated with architectural evidence, revealed six interdependent domains of interstitial design: geometric order, spatial hierarchy, environmental intelligence, socio-cultural practice, sensory–spiritual orchestration, and political–aesthetic representation. The findings demonstrate that in Safavid architecture, interstitial spaces were not residual connectors but polyvalent instruments that simultaneously organized movement, moderated climate, encoded hierarchy, and materialized cosmological and ideological meanings. These results reframe Safavid design as a grammar of thresholds in which form, function, and symbolism are fused. Beyond historical insight, the study underscores the continuing relevance of interstitial design as a model for integrating climate, community, and cosmology in contemporary architectural practice.