The fundamental strategy of Critical Regionalism is to mediate the impact of universal civilization with elements derived indirectly from the peculiarities of a particular place. This study presents some significant patterns and aspects of Iranian Traditional Architecture and examine them through the lens of Kenneth Frampton's Critical Regionalism, to find that whether these attitudes-KF's six points-have been completely considered in Iranian traditional architecture, even though hundreds of years before the presentation of KF's critical essay. It seeks an integration between Frampton's critical points and Iranian ancient built form which including physical features such as climate, topography, light and Iranian cultural characteristics such as traditional urban pattern and architectural prototype. This study also endeavours to demonstrate that Regionalism and sustainability could be inspiration behind this architecture. To put this into practice, first, Frampton's Critical Regionalism is presented in depth. The six points of critical regionalism as he defined it are reviewed and distilled into five categories that are used to guide the analysis of the specifications of Iranian traditional architecture. These specification and patterns are then used as the foundation for specific recommendations for Iranian contemporary architectural.

Iranian traditional architecture has always been a good example of climatic design and represents the techniques which our ancestors have found to improve their living conditions. By paying attention on Iranian traditional architecture we could confirm that its rules suit buildings in best way in sustainability and in correspondence to the local cultural, topographical and climatic conditions which have the least adverse effect on environment. One of the most significant features of traditional Iranian architecture is the special architectural specification in various climates, which makes each region distinct from the others. Investigations of different Iranian regions indicate that in past, different techniques and methods for controlling and making air movement in interior space of the building were common. Harsh climate of these areas in Iran forced people to build their houses with some strategies based on efficient energy consumption. In this paper different solutions of sustainability will be discussed in three different climate regions of Iran: hot-arid region, hot-humid region and humid-rainy regions (Southern Shores of Caspian Sea Region)

Middle Eastern Islamic countries face an environmental problem mainly the result of an insufficient understanding of how inappropriate architectural solutions, or misconceptions, have led to a crisis in the built environment. This paper will attempt to explore this problem through an examination of the nexus between two main issues: first 'inappropriate architectural solutions' that has resulted in the perceived 'crisis in the built environment' and the second issue considers the process of how this environmental crisis evolved. This paper argues that the crisis has been exacerbated in Islamic countries because these two issues, architectural and environmental crisis, have generally been discussed through issues such as identity, culture or globalization separately instead of viewing the nexus between them holistically to explore the transformation process from one issue to the other. The paper aims to explore the mechanics of this transition process, on the theoretical and the practical level, through the predominant religious perspective in this region -Islamic perspective. The first issue, the failure of modern architectural solutions, will be considered through four main categories that are potentially inappropriate architectural solutions. The resulting discussion will lead to an examination of nine factors. The paper will consider how these nine factors are the transforming elements of the current architectural weaknesses or, in other words, how the existing architectural crises has transformed into a built environmental crisis through these nine factors.